Serious amount of rake

I thought I’d share some pictures of an unfinished project bike I recently obtained in a trade. I had purchased a Buell on Ebay and had it shipped to me. I could tell before it even came off the trailer it was not even close to what was represented in the ad. The bike was a mess. I was getting ready to start buying a bunch of parts to get the Buell back in shape when I checked Craigslist to see if anything I needed was available locally. As fate would have it the guy who I got the XS from had his bike listed for sale and it happened to be on the top of the column the moment I looked.

I called the number listed in the ad on a whim and went to see the bike that night. I’d pretty much talked myself out of getting the XS until I saw the bike. The XS looked to me like a cross between a chopper and something you see on the salt at Bonneville. Even though my Buell was ugly it did run and that interested the guy who owned the XS. A trade was made and the XS is with me and awaiting some finishing touches.

The bike is based on a ’72 XS,(Yes,it does have the compression release!). The guy I got if from said the bike was put together by Dutch Trash Choppers in Portland OR. I’ve found some contact info for the builder, but have been unable to contact him to confirm this.

The highlights of the build are a custom single down tube hardtail frame with a serious amount of rake, drilled HD Fatboy wheels with Avon Speedmaster tires, a tail section that appears to be made out of a couple halves of a fuel tank, a headlight that started life as a desk lamp, and a cool center stand that has skateboard wheels so you can roll the bike around when its on the stand.

The big things to finish are the hand & foot controls, plumbing the brakes, wiring, and waking the motor up from it’s long slumber. I’m torn between doing a full wiring harness or keeping it simple. I like keeping both my hands on the bars so I’d at least need turn signals.

I think I’m going to reuse the stock risers and add some narrowed drag bars instead of the clip-on’s. There is some nice work on the bike along with some funky stuff. The fuel shut-off valve on the R side of the tank is a water valve from a toilet!

My current plan is to get the bike up and running in the state it’s in and then fix some of the little thing I don’t like later. I haven’t measured the rake/trail on this thing yet but am hoping,(Praying!), that the bike is at least road worthy w/o too many bad habits.

I’m looking forward to riding the bike but am dreading a verdict that it handles like a nightmare and that I’ve ended up with a cool garage sculpture.