sick xs650 Garage Company Customs

6 inch stretch xs

Larry- It’s a 80 XS650. We picked this bike up from a guy local in stock form. It had been sitting in his garage for 10 years. To start off the build the frame got hard-tailed with a 6 inch stretch in the rear and an additional 3 degrees of rake in the neck. We use as many of the stock components as we could to save the customer some dough.

The brakes, wheels and front-end were all re-used. The tank is a Salinas Boys piece from Cole Foster and the fender is from Pat at Led Sled Customs. As for the rest of the bike we pretty much did everything else in house aside from the lace paint, that was done by Goolsby Customs.

Ted- One of the 650s I picked up a while back had been sitting for over 10 years. It was covered in bird shit and looked real rough. After I got her home, I threw a new battery and new regulator rectifier, adjusted the carbs and it roared to life. Were you able to get it started fairly easy before you ripped it apart?

Larry- We didn’t even try. The bike was missing the ignition box as well as some other crucial parts. So we started the tear-down immediately.

Ted- How does it handle with the 3 degrees of rake and 6 inch of stretch?

Larry- It handles great!! We didn’t want the bike to look to small. That’s usually the only complaint we get about the XS’ is that people feel like a monkey f***** a football if you don’t stretch em out a little.

Ted- Salinas Boys tank is a cool piece. What is the Fuel capacity?

Larry- Yeah, we have used this tank on a couple of the bikes. The normal mounting position is low set on the frame but we semi frisco mounted this one just to change the look. As far as fuel, it’ll hold around 2.5 gallons.

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Ted- What do you like most about using the XS 650 as a platform to build on? Are you having a hard time finding XS650’s to chop up in Alabama?

Larry- Well they’re actually still pretty easy to get here. I have got a honey hole that has a ton of em. The only drawback is there all turds. They’ve been sitting outside for a long time and you’ve gotta go completely through them. The best things about the XS is they are easy to find, parts are readily available and they run so damn good when they’re done. Not to mention they favor the British stuff a little.

Ted- Anything else that we might not notice about the ride? Anything else you’d like to add?

Larry- Well we get a lot of folks asking if the knobby tires roar and the answer is no. They ride as good as street tires. I wanna say thanks to Pamco Pete for the killer ignitions and for all his help. Oh yeah, wanna let everyone know that we’ve started making some parts such as a really nice weld-on hard-tail for the XS with options for stretch and drop. As well as some killer handlebars that are available in stainless/mild steel, 1′ & 7/8.