Mark’s 1975 Yamaha XS650

The base motorcycle (1975 XS 650) was originally owned by my brother in the 70’s and 80’s.

Unfortunately he passed away 23 years ago while in the process of rebuilding it.  It was all but forgotten until about 3 years after he passed until a co-worker of his contacted me and informed me that the motorcycle was in his employer’s storage yard and was going to the scrap yard so my friend Dale H and I picked it up and hauled it to his ranch.  He grew up chasing cows on dirt bikes and has a room in one of his barns with every motorcycle he ever had. (somewhere around 15 to 18 bikes).

 It stayed there for a long time and in 2001 I suffered a severe meningococcal infection, nearly died and had severe damage to my legs and all of my toes amputated.

In 2003 he took the clean tank, carbs, tins and whatever else he needed from my brother’s motorcycle and revived a 1976 XS650 he owned and gave it to me.
I rode that bike for 5 years until it started to smoke real bad and my friend offered to help me get my brother’s bike back on the road.

We spent a few weekends in his dirt floor shop with noting but a grinder, a cutoff wheel and a very old stick welder that required frequent unplugging to keep it going.

We decided to strip it to reduce the weight for me and go with basically a bobber style.  We scrounged parts from his collection of motorcycles.  I tied many different tanks, especially an aluminum dirt bike tank I really wanted to use, but none of them fit the frame or the style.

The last weekend he came into the shop with the original tank from his 1976 sportster and the fit was perfect, so he gave it to me.

The original headlight was way too large and didn’t look good at all so we went to the bike collection and settled on a headlight assembly off an old Honda 500 dirt bike.

I had a 1980 Special 650 I was given as a donor bike.  The poor thing looked like someone attacked it with a baseball bat.  I decided to use the front end as it had larger fork tubes, was in better shape and had the aluminum wheel.
I was working part time as a secretary for a sandblaster and inspired by a picture I saw I had him sandblast the frame and side covers and clear coated them. The rest of the bike was pretty much satin black with the chrome fenders.  Over the next few years I started eliminating the black.  I couldn’t get all of the dents in the tank to look good so I gave up and sandblasted it also and applied clear coat.  You can see all of the dents, but I love the way it looks.  Most people think everything is painted with silver metallic.

The fenders were quite dented, but smaller and lighter than the XS fenders so I took masking tape, marked them at the points of the last dents and v-cut them with a cutoff wheel.  I really didn’t like the chrome, so I sandblasted the chrome layer off to kill the shine and shot them with satin clear coat.
I trimmed the edges with plastic door edge guards.

The exhaust is built from the stock head pipes wrapped with header wrap that I welded automotive turbo pack mufflers to and then found an older NOS Thunderbird resonator that another friend of mine had.  I cut off the downspouts and they fit perfectly.

I wanted as few wires and cables as possible for a clean look, so I eliminated the turn signals and all other unnecessary wiring. The headlight switch is on the frame in front of the seat and the ignition is a toggle switch and a push button mounted inside the tool pouch tube. The high/ low beam is a toggle switch mounted on the headlight.

I needed saddlebags for storage and my wife insisted that I had to have a place to carry a cane as I need to use one to walk.  I looked for motorcycle saddlebags on the internet and couldn’t find anything I liked so I researched equestrian accessories.  I found inexpensive rough out leather saddlebags that were made in Mexico and they had a deal for a pair of saddlebags and a small rifle scabbard.  I had to modify the bags to fit, but the scabbard works perfectly for my cane.

The seat was also an internet find.

All in all I am extremely happy with the bike and get quite a few comments.
Total investment when I first got the bike on the road was $486.00. Thank you mike’s XS!!

Since the initial assembly I have been slowly updating as my budget allows.

Improvements are as follows:
Mike’s XS performance big fin 750 Jug and piston set
XS performance dual Kiehin slide carburetors
Pamco electronic ignition with e-advance
Jason’s big foot shift lever (you try up shifting with no toes!)
Mike’s black dirt track/street track bars
Mike’s medium Cat Eye taillight assembly
Halogen headlight

 All in all I am very pleased with the result.  It starts and rides GREAT and is easy for me to handle with my bad legs and feet.

Great thanks go out to Dale H. of Arnegard North Dakota without who’s help parts bike collection, imagination and fabrication skills none of this would have been possible.

Also a big thank you to Mike’s XS for all the parts and excellent service over the last 2 bikes and 12 years.