Low Buck XS 650 Bobber Build, Part 1

This is a totally oblique project for the Bikernet crew. For 10 years we worked with Ed Martin of Chrome Specialties. Ed owned the Jammer product line, and was the first guy to build today’s hot bobbers, tight and right. He hooked up with Custom Chrome and sold the Jammer name to the bros in Morgan Hill, but he kept the Mr. Lucky name alive during the economic downturn. Now he’s on his own distributing bobber-based products the world over.

We decided to give Ed a hand promoting the lowest buck streetable bobber a brother can build. The platform for this project is the exceedingly reliable Yamaha XS650 built from 1970 to 1981. They look very much like the classic 650 vertical twins from Triumph, BSA, and Royal Enfield, so they fill the eye-candy side of the coin but on half the budget with late model and easy-to-find parts. They are noted for being exceedingly reliable and fast, but we’ll see.

When we were approached with this project I looked in the mirror and said, “Do I want to build another bike this year? Do I want a Jap bike tainting the interior of the hardened steel Bikernet Headquarters? Am I nuts? Can I get laid?”

All the answers came up negative. I tried to pawn the project off on other staff members, but they ran for the door. Then during a heated editorial meeting, it came to us. We have a number of kids who hang around the shop. Very few of them discuss any goals aside from scratching the dough for a six-pack or their next joint, but one kid stuck out.

Danny Gonzalez is a 26 year-old San Pedro kid who has helped us with many aspects of this building. He was an interior painter from 14 to 24, working for his dad, until his dad graduated from Cal State Dominguez and became a Spanish high school teacher. Danny hated painting, partially because his dad struggled with the business, but Danny became an expert. No bullshit, nobody preps or paints a room with more care and detail orientation than Danny.

But like I said, Danny hated painting and was burned out at a young age, so he tried the union gig when the longshoremen’s union opened a lottery opportunity and he signed up, but the work was sparse and he needed to fill the space. In the meantime he met Shirley Wismann, and they had a child, Emma, and a family was born. Shirley is going to UCLA studying biochemistry, and she works for a fabric distributor.

Danny also stepped into an educational program at Newbridge College studying to be a medical assistant and graduated, but with the shrunken economy, it was tough to find work. He worked part-time gigs, worked pulling weeds at the Bikernet Headquarters, anything to keep his family moving ahead. He also had a dream to ride a motorcycle, so he became the natural candidate for our build. He has no money, struggles with his bills, works four jobs a week, and chases real employment, between calls from Shirley, asking about money. Tough life.

We were fortunate enough to run into a crew who build XS650 bobbers on the other side of town, in Rancho Cucamonga, Spitfire, the same group I’m working with to build our Mudflap FXRs. Paul Cavallo and his group build whatever customers need and they know the XS-650s. They hooked us up with Import Cycles, a junkyard of all motorcycles on the edge of Riverside in Colton. We needed to find a late model XS with low mileage, all in one piece, for cheap. We succeeded.

Imports Cycles had a slightly dinged 1981 XS complete with just over 20,000 miles on the clock. The notion was to use the wheels, front end, drivetrain, some of the controls, the brakes, some electrical, you name it, coupled with Mr. Lucky’s Paughco-built, single loop rigid frame.

Mr. Lucky supplies the bobber industry with classic Bates headlights in black and copper or brass. He sells donkey-dick taillights, shorty mufflers, wheels, classic luggage racks, weld- on kick stands, and complete El Loco Rolling Chassis kits.

With this project, we have one mantra: Build it cheap and rideable. So we’re digging in the Bikernet trash bins, brothers garages, and around booths at the Long Beach swapmeet. So far we have $700 invested in the used ’81 and a smooth grand into the frame. Oh, and with the frame came a Mr. Lucky battery box and the neck cups to take the races and the forks from the stock XS.

So where the hell do we start? I called Paul Cavallo and asked the man. He told us to take the stock seat off first, and you’d better have the key to unlock it. Then we disconnected the lines to the gas tank and removed the rear fastener. It slipped off easily from rubber bungs in the front.

Then we had to remove the massive top motormount with its multitude of fasteners and components. It was a battleship. Then we slipped off the two masterlinks and removed the rusty chain.

Next, we had to dig out the front motormount plate with 14 mm wrenches. We never use our metric tools. In the process of removing the air cleaners, we spotted a large foreboding black widow spider who wasn’t happy about the move. He jumped onto the pavement, spread his legs into a fighting stance, and flipped us the bird.

“I killed that crazy motherfucker,” Danny said, but it put us on edge through the rest of the disassembly process. Where was number two?

We had to remove the exhaust system before we went any further with the engine removal. They were heavily mounted, but easy to pull off the engine.

The plates at the back of the engine were a bear to reach. We were forced to remove the primary case cover. It also covered the alternator. That allowed us access to rear lower motormounts bolts that run through the engine plates, through the frame and back through another engine plate.

We dug around for lines and electrical connections. Since we plan to use the stock electronic ignition, there’s no sense in wire destruction. Danny carefully unplugged connections and I tried to document everything with the camera.

Years ago, I interrupted Mike Egan, a master Harley restoration expert. He had a thing about taking copious photographs for future reference during restorations. There’s nothing better than a photo of any specific area, and Danny started searching the net for a manual.

With the motor out of the bike and carefully supported with chunks of wood on a bench, we looked into removing the front end and the rear wheel. We removed and stored all the controls for future use. The headlight shell was the wiring nerve center, and we carefully disconnected all the junctions and cleared the housing, before removing it.

Then we could disconnect the speedo cable, the throttle, and the tach. Since we plan to use this front end, we stripped off unnecessary covers and brackets, fork locks, and trimmed it down to the bare essentials. We plan to remove the cracked chrome front fender and trim it to its bobber glory.

At one point we needed to drop the tubes out of the trees and remove headlight and lower tree chromed trim. Then we slid it back together. But we didn’t need to tighten anything since the glide front end was quickly being moved to the Mr. Lucky frame. The fork neck bearings are all .250 ball bearings, but we’re not sure we captured them all, so we need that manual. There may be a couple bouncing around the shop floor.

Then we disconnected the rear brake lever, linkage, and rear brake anchor, so we could remove the rear wheel. We were beginning to catch the buzz of being close to switching frames.

We carefully compared the top and bottom neck cups, because there are differences between the Mr. Lucky top and bottom neck cups. Then we cleaned the surfaces to be mated and tapped the chromed bearing cups into place. But we had to dig out the bearing races from the 1981 frame and tap them gently into the new bearing cups. I used a slathering of old bearing grease to hold the bearings as we installed the front end.

We slipped in the rear wheel and discovered the need for some new axle spacers to center it. Danny and I had a meeting at my Panhead desk to study his file of bobber photos and discussed styling notions, general design, and paint schemes.

We plan for a series of lightening holes, and I’m going to try to locate a source for stainless wing nuts, which we will drill and attach with safety wire. He wants to use the old coffin gas tank we have and we dug out an old small flat fender that fit the bike perfectly. To top it off we already have a hand tooled leather seat that might work.

Don’t miss the next installation and fabrication installment.

Bucks Spent

Bike: $700
Frame: $999
Neck cups: $49
Battery Box: $100

Sources:

Mr. Lucky

Custom Chrome

Spitfire