I had a comment asking where I’d put the battery, and it occurred to me that I didn’t really post any pics of how I rearranged and compressed the electrical system. So here’s a tour…
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Like Motorhead tells us: “You know the chase is better than the catch.” And maybe that’s what it came down to for me, because as I was wrapping up all this work on the bike and taking it out for shakedown runs, I found myself thinking that I wanted to sell it. read more »
I have been making some headway on the XS 650 lately and I’m happy to say that I rode it today and it’s a blast. The list of mods includes fabricating a rear fender and mounts, relocating the battery, regulator, rectifier and solenoid, a headlight swap and lowering, lowered forks, lowered rear, solo seat, chopper wiring, painting the tank and fender, high flow exhaust, single points conversion, high output coil, high flow air filters and a general shaving of all extraneous parts. My friend says it looks like a bike Steve McQueen would ride. That is probably the highest compliment I could have been paid for all this hard work.
Life, like football, is a game of inches. So it goes with my project bike. Progress creeps along as I try to get an hour in here or there once or twice a week after the baby has gone to bed. This weekend I made a first down conversion.
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I am an irrational kind of guy. I surf on my hunches and see where they take me. Sometimes that’s something cool, sometimes it’s disastrous, but it’s always an adventure. So, late last summer, when the voices in my head announced their latest plan I naturally agreed: “You’re right! I do need a motorcycle!”
I have seen some pretty cool builds 
based on the XS 650 so I started trolling Craig’s List to find a project bike. I figured I could scrounge up about $500 to start the project. These bikes have become pretty popular again, so $500 wasn’t much of a budget, especially for something that wasn’t a total pile of junk. Long story short (and corner me in a bar if you’d like to hear the long story) I came home with The Basket Case. The bike was in pieces, but the guy had freshened up the motor. After one look at it in all its shiny silver glory I handed over my cash.
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