XS650 Chopper Update

It's been a while since we took a look at the Yamaha XS650 chopper build. We figured it was time for an update to see how it's coming along. Take a look and let us know what you think or ask us questions.

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Welcome to Speed and Color, a podcast and YouTube channel about custom motorcycle culture. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications to get all the latest content. You can also follow Speed and Color on Instagram. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Hi there. Welcome to another episode of Speed and Color. If you're a first timer, uh first time listening to the podcast or watching the YouTube channel, uh welcome for the first time. Uh if you're back for more Speed and Color, uh welcome back. Nice to have you. Thanks for being here. So I uh I was giving things some thought here in the past couple of weeks, and I was looking at some things, and uh first thing I gotta tell you about Bad Living Road Show. So the Bad Living Road Show is just two weeks out. Um boy oh boy, if you're in southwestern Ontario, uh some of the northern states that border Ontario there, if you're in Quebec, uh you know, even Manitoba, you've got time to get over there. Um Bad Living Road Show is just awesome. That is, you know, that is gonna be one of those premier Canadian events, uh, is the Bad Living Road Show. Um camping, all kinds of fun, all kinds of good stuff. Uh little chopper centric, maybe, uh, but there's lots of other stuff too. There was some restoration stuff there last year, cafe racers, stuff like that. So it's uh it's just a good time. It's in a great part of the country, good riding, uh well organized, you know, uh entertainment, live music, all kinds of good stuff. So I can't say enough good things about what Lee is doing there and about the Bad Living Road Show. So I would highly, highly recommend that you be there. That said, I had told everybody that I was going to be there again this year. And we uh we launched into building an XS650 that we thought we would have there. And I think I've probably mentioned this before, but uh in all honesty, August 5th of last summer, we had a hail storm here. Calgary is uh hail storms are frequent in this part of the country, uh south uh central and south Alberta. Uh hailstorms are pretty common. You get different weather patterns off the mountains and different things happen. And anyway, we're just susceptible to uh to these darn hail storms. I've been through lots of uh little ones without damage, but boy oh boy, this one last year cut a swath right over the subdivision we're in, uh, right over the airport, caused uh billions of dollars of damage at the airport. Uh, the roof of uh Terminal B or uh anyway, the B area, whatever that is. Uh, all kinds of damage there. I believe it was 11, 11 West jet planes uh on the ground at the time were damaged. Don't know how much other stuff was damaged at the airport, but it it was it was a very significant storm. And uh we wound up in a in a position here. We had to replace um, had to replace six windows in the house. We wound up replacing seven. Uh, but six windows in the house, siding. And of course, the way the insurance companies work, and I don't I don't blame them at all, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining here, but the insurance companies cover the walls that are damaged or the siding that is damaged. So as it turned out, the two sides that were not damaged were also the sides that face south and and west and get the most sun and were the most faded and chalked and ugly. And uh, of course, to boot our siding, uh, the same color and profile was not available. Uh, you know, uh shingles don't matter. Uh, you know, charcoal shingles are charcoal shingles pretty much. But on the siding, it wasn't gonna match perfectly. Probably might have been close enough, but with the chalking and the fading and all the rest of it, we decided that we would go ahead and just reside the house and the garage, uh, major undertaking. And uh, you know, gonna cost us a little bit out of pocket, but uh our home's gonna be beautiful when it's done. Uh, but uh what can I say? You know, it just uh unexpected, we weren't really planning on it, and as it turned out, everything building materials and everything got delivered, windows came in a couple weeks ago, they're in the middle of doing siding now, and then we still have the roofs to do. Uh, and it just turned out that Karen and I really weren't comfortable leaving in the middle of all of this. So, unfortunately, we're not gonna make uh the Bad Living Road show this year. That said, um we're gonna be back there. We're gonna be there next year for sure. Uh, for sure, uh, we're gonna do that. For this year, I have um the Queen Street motorcycle guys, uh, guys and gals, I guess, are going to uh gonna cover the event for me. Uh so they've got a camera and they're they're gonna do some recording and they're gonna cover it and cover some of the bikes and stuff. And you know, hopefully the uh the builder invited builder section, and uh there's a couple pretty cool bikes this year with the Queen Street Moto gang. Uh oh, not a gang, I shouldn't say that, but with the with the Queen Street Moto Group. Uh so there you go. Uh so they got some cool stuff. They've got a display this year, it's gonna be pretty exciting. Uh, so if you can get there, July 18th to 20th, uh, Durham, Ontario, not Durham County, but Durham, the town, uh, which is up by Hanover, up in that area. Uh so if you can get there, go take it in. It's fantastic. Yeah, you won't be disappointed. Uh also should mention to you LCP, Luciano Capaso Productions did a documentary on last year's Bad Live and Road Show. It's on YouTube, uh, it's on Luciano's channel. Uh, I'm sure if you do a search for Bad Live and Road Show documentary, you'll get taken right to it. Uh, really, really good. Professional quality, really well done. Um, really, really good. Um, can't say enough about Luch and everything he did. Man, that guy worked his tail off, and it's a great documentary. So you can also take that in if you want more information about the Bad Living Road Show. Uh and I think I think that's about it for Bad Living. So go have fun. Uh, let me know what you thought, and uh I hope you enjoy it. Um The Bad Living Road Show. What did I have next on my list here? Give me a second. Um yeah, I gotta get into the phone. Um yeah, so I wanted to talk a little bit here quickly, too, about uh about speed and color and about my brand. Uh I've been doing a little more research and homework on branding and that kind of stuff. And uh, you know, I want to let you know I'm uh I've always worked hard to make sure that the podcast is listenable while the YouTube channel is viewable, uh, and and that both have good information. And you know, I've just uh the audio on on the podcast is exactly the same as as the audio you get on the YouTube channel. Uh it's just that on the YouTube channel, of course, you get video with it. It's tough to uh to do video and audio for those two different platforms and have it uh have it totally work, have it totally make sense. But we've been trying, and and I'm I'm aware of that, and I've done a couple episodes lately that I think have been pretty good for the the podcast. I think they've made sense. That said, the YouTube channel is far more popular than than the podcast is. Uh that just makes sense. I don't have an issue with that. Um, you know, originally I set out to do a podcast, but then the YouTube thing happened. And um, you know, we're we're dealing with a visual thing like paint and you know, fabrication and custom stuff and and all the different things that go along with this. Um, the visual is an important part. But as I say, we're also trying to keep it uh so that the podcast, the audio stands alone and makes sense. So that's part of my my branding. Uh the other things I'm trying to do, I'm trying to be informative. Uh I want to be informative and I want to be accurate. No, I want to be accurately informative about um motorcycles, uh, new motorcycles, custom motorcycles. Uh, whenever we talk about motorcycles, I want to give you information you can count on. That is a little bit of a challenge for me right now. I work in the motorcycle industry, I work for a manufacturer, and that that kind of keeps me cautiously silent on some subjects. Uh, so we'll leave it that way for now. Um my uh my my time in a in the motorcycle business as a career uh will be coming to an end before the end of the year here. Uh I'll be officially retiring. And uh that may give me a little more freedom to speak about what's going on without fear of offending people, offending my employer, uh whatever, uh saying something that perhaps I shouldn't. Uh so that that may change a little bit there. But also accurate information about how-to's, uh, you know, how to how to do different things. And I enjoy a whole bunch of different things around motorcycle building. And uh, you know, we can get some people on the show who are uh who are uh skilled and experienced. You know, we've had Brent from PFX on talking about some of their builds. Uh that guy, man, he he's brilliant, he's sharp, he he knows a lot of stuff, he's done a lot of this. Uh and we've got a couple guys coming up who uh I'm excited to get out and interview. And they have some some very cool projects and things they're doing. So we're gonna we're gonna expand on that a little bit on uh on the bikes and the how-tos and the the how we do it kind of stuff. Uh and that uh I'm excited to do that. Um the other thing in terms of branding, um there are there are some podcasts and YouTube channels out there that are probably again more chopper-centric. Um and I I understand the culture and I understand what they're doing. I do find some of them, yeah, some people might find them offensive. Um obviously people who listen to them don't, and that's fine. And I listen to those podcasts and stuff, and and I don't have a problem listening to them. I uh I don't I don't necessarily agree with the language and and some of the the thoughts, but mainly the language used and stuff. Um I don't I don't think you need to go there to get your point across. But as I say, I don't get particularly offended by it. Uh but I do understand how perhaps a younger audience, you know, a father who uh who is out in the car and turns on the podcast and has his teenage son or or daughter in the car with him. And uh, you know, the language may be a little bit colorful and something a little bit uncomfortable in that kind of situation. So my branding is I I'm I'm trying to get to a broader audience. I want to make this palatable, acceptable for a larger number of people, and I certainly don't want to be offending people. And uh the feedback I've gotten is uh a lot of my regular viewers and listeners appreciate that they don't have to worry about colorful language, things like that, ideas being expressed that are let's say adult or mature. Uh, you know, they don't need to worry about that stuff. So we're definitely going to stay on on track with that as well. Uh yeah, that's uh that's a little bit about about the brand. Let me just see if I had any other points here that I wanted to mention. Um yeah, and I guess the final thing is yes, I like choppers. Admitted, uh, I'm a chopper guy. I enjoy the creativity in them. Uh I enjoy the style, I enjoy the paint style, all that kind of stuff. But I'm capable of doing other stuff as well. And I do enjoy cafe racers, brats, diggers, all you know, all genres, all types of motorcycles. So we are going to start covering a broader, um, offering of custom motorcycle culture. Custom motorcycles are not just choppers or bobbers. There's way, way more than that out there. So I'm going to make an effort to cover more cafe racers uh and and and all the other styles. Uh as a matter of fact, after this one is done, I have two more XS650s waiting in the wings here. One is going to be a brat and one's going to be a cafe racer. Um we're gonna we're gonna move ahead with those projects and and talk about those and uh and cover those on the build stuff episodes as well. But certainly that'll be a part of speed and color. And uh as I said, I have an interview coming up with a fellow here that I'm I'm excited uh to do, uh, and it's gonna be something different, some different kind of content, uh, and I'm looking forward to it. It's gonna be really good, and it won't be about choppers. So that's in general what I'm trying to do with my brand. That's the audience I'm targeting and the way I'm trying to bring information to that audience. And uh I'm looking forward to it. I think it's exciting. So if that's the kind of content you're looking for, uh I hope you'll stick around and and be here, uh be here with me. Um yeah, uh I guess the uh the other thing that I wanted to mention is, and part of why I'm doing this episode and sitting in front of the XS650 right now, is I've noticed there seems to be a little bit more interest out there for some reason in metric choppers, uh, which I think it's cool. I I get it. Harleys are cool, they got the culture, they've got the history, uh so much going on there, and there, you know, there's so many variations, the whole evolution of Harley. Uh, yeah, yeah, I get it. It's it's the it's the brand, it's the culture. Um, but that said, if you look back, CB750s, and we've got one of those coming up that I'm really excited to to bring to you and bring the young man who built it to you, and let him tell his story and and how it came together. But CB750s, XS650s, Triumphs, which are not metric, I I know, but they're they're British, but again, they're not Harley, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Um, so I want to bring you more of all of that kind of stuff, and uh, and you know, why the whys of why somebody would go with a metric chopper versus a Harley and you know just the different uh the different offerings and maybe where to source parts and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I I think uh I think metric choppers deserve a little more attention. I think they're cool, and uh you know, there's been lots of cool ones built, and we need to keep moving in that direction. So that said, the other thing I noticed um is that the episode I did, and it was several months ago, the episode I did on the XS650 build uh all of a sudden is getting a lot more views. Um, not necessarily getting a lot of listens on the podcast, but that kind of makes sense because it is, I'll admit that episode is a very visual kind of episode. Uh however, uh it is getting a lot more views. Uh don't know if the algorithm is picked up on it, if it's who it's being presented to, if it's my subscribers who are finding it, if people are scrolling through the past episode, that uh I'm not totally sure why it's gaining in popularity, but it is. And looking at that, I thought, well, you know what? If if people are liking it, obviously they are because it keeps getting more views. Uh if it's getting some exposure and if people are interested in XS650s, as I figured they were, uh, this would be a really good time to do a follow-up at this stage of the build, which uh I don't know, are we halfway there? I I don't know how you tell. I don't know how you gauge that. But we're we're well into this build, so I can do some updates and I can talk about some stuff on here. And uh yeah, I just figured it'd be a good time to do an update on the XS650. So that's my preamble. Uh that gets us started. Um I'm gonna change the camera angle here, and uh we're gonna talk about some of what I've been doing on this thing. Be back with you in a minute. All right, here we are. We've come around to the other side of the bike. Um this is really the business side of the bike. This is where things are happening and going on. So I decided to to move the camera around to this side and we'll talk about this. Uh there might be, oh, yeah, there is something to cover on the other side, but we'll get there. So, for those of you listening to the podcast, I'm now on the right side of the bike, or what a lot of people would call the A side of the bike. Um, and I'm gonna talk about a few things that I've done here. So, I believe the last time I talked about the XF650, we didn't have handlebars on it. I don't think. Uh anyway, to go over. This quickly. Handlebars and sissy bar. I went with almost old school. Graham at almost old school, phenomenal guy. Love the guy. He is he's a chopper head guy for sure. Really, really good. Very talented with stainless steel. Does a lot of really, really nice work. His handlebars are really good. So he made this set of bars to uh to my specifications to bolt on the springer front end that I'm using. He makes a cool little adapter plate. I think I did a yeah, I did a build stuff episode on this. Um, but just to bring you up to date, uh bars are very narrow. Um wanted to follow the lines of the gas tank. Um Graham was able to capture that really, really well. Uh the polished stainless is beautiful. Um I haven't used a lot of polished stainless before, so I'm curious to see how it is for cleaning and everything versus chrome. I'm told it's very good, uh, but I'm gonna give it a try for the first time. Uh when Graham built the bars, I got Jeff over at Perth County to send over an internal throttle setup to Graham. So this already has the internal throttle setup on it and a hole drilled in the bars to bring the cable through. So this is going to give me a really tidy look on the on the bars, very clean. Uh, and it was nice to to get Graham to do that while he had everything there. And I know it's installed right and set up, and the length is right and all that kind of stuff. So good, good, good worked out really well, and he was happy to accommodate. So the bars, the bars are great. I have no issue with the bars at all. And I'm gonna jump back here. Oh, just for those on the podcast, this is a rabbitier style bar. So they come straight up at the front off of the springer front end, and then they have a real nice drop back. Uh the grips are 12 inches apart, so very narrow. Um, you know, lane splitter kind of stuff. Um, and a real nice position when I'm sitting on the bike. Uh, the bars are, you know, my hands are very comfortable, my arms are in a real comfortable position. Um, I think it's going to work out really well. I'm really happy with the way those came together. Still have to figure out what I'm doing for grips and stuff like that, but but the bars are good, no issue there. The sissy bar. Uh, sissy bar stay polished stainless again uh to go along with the handlebars. The the shape, again, we bent the top of the sissy bar. So very very standard kind of bend up to the top, uh loop around the top and down the other side. Uh, the only thing that I wanted to do was I wanted to bend about six inches of the top backwards again to keep that same kind of look with the tank, with the handlebars, with the fender, with a lot of stuff that kind of droops to the back. I really wanted to keep that, you know, falling to the back kind of look, if you will. Uh, so that worked out really well. I'm very happy again with the polishing, the bending. Graham did a great job on everything. I, and and you know, I said I want to be informative and uh give you give you all the information I can. I'm gonna be totally honest about this. I have no idea what I did, either when I measured this or when I sent Graham the measurements. I missed the measurements on this thing totally. So, width-wise, I got it. It's it's a nice distance from the fender, uh, the height is right, uh, everything is good. The bends are right around the fender where I wanted them to be. From the fender up, it's awesome. What I missed was the measurement from the bend at the fender where the I guess maybe call it the top mount uh to the fender is gonna go. From there down to the mounting point at the uh at the axle plate, I missed that measurement. I was way short. As a matter of fact, I'm exactly three inches short. And that's what makes me think, okay, did I did I write something wrong incorrectly? Did you know, did I and I'm not by no means am I blaming Alfred, but did Alfred write it down and I read it and read it wrong? I who knows. Anyway, we have a three-inch problem at the lower mounting point on the sissy bar. And I I looked at this and I thought, ah, son of a gun, what do I do with this? And and the thing is, it's not gonna work for anything else because given the size of a back wheel, this this is just it is gonna be too short from the mounting point to the bend to ever be of any use, from what I can tell. So it has to be modified. Now, something that I'm doing on this bike, and I'll show you more of it, uh, but all my spacers, my foot pegs, my toe pegs, all kinds of stuff has this ribbed or kind of cooling fin effect. Um I'm I have a membership now at what's called a makerspace here in Calgary. Uh the name of it is Protospace. If you have one of these places in your town, you really got to think about getting a membership. Uh, you know, if you don't have full machine shop at home and everything, you should go take a look and see if it can do you any good. We've got a milling machine and a lathe and you know, bandsaw and welding equipment. I have welders here, but there's welding equipment there, uh, belt sanders, all kinds of stuff at Protospace. The the thing that I've really gotten turned on to right now is the lathe, and I'm learning how to machine a bunch of stuff. And it, you know, I gotta tell you, it's a lifesaver to be able to jump in the car, run over there, and machine out a couple uh spacers or, like I say, foot pegs or whatever it is you want to do, uh, little adapters, all kinds of stuff. So knowing that I'm going with this ribbed cooling fin kind of effect, and that I can make this stuff to my specs on my own, uh, I looked at the sissy bar and I thought, well, you know what? If I put, and I picked up some stainless here, if I cut the sissy bar and put in a piece of stainless with that ribbed look, with that ribbed effect, then that would tie it in to everything else that has that ribbed look to it. And it it will it will actually, I think it's gonna enhance the sissy bar. It's gonna give it a different look, it's gonna make it different than other sissy bars, uh, it's gonna tie it into the bike. I thought, you know what, that's gonna be a great fix. So the plan here is now that I have these three-inch spacers to get the sissy bar to the right height, I'm gonna plan out the mounts to the fender, get those in place. Once those are in place, I'm gonna make a cut in this section that is wrong between the lower mount and the first bend. I'm gonna make a cut in an appropriate place there, and then put my three-inch spacer in between and two options there. I could use a set screw on the back side so that when the uh when the 916 goes inside that new piece of tube, I could use a set screw there, and that'll that'll work, or I'm gonna see if I can get a really good TIG welder or somebody who's really good with stainless. I know a couple guys uh to uh to weld that in place. Because once once we have the right height here, there's gonna be no need to change it or modify it. Um so I I think welding it might be the best option. But anyway, we're gonna get that piece in there. That's gonna make that just great. Uh, and like I say, it's gonna give it a little more detail, a nice look. It'll tie it into the rest of the stuff. Uh, should be real good. So that's the handlebars and the sissy bar. Uh, we got the rear brake mounted up. Um disc I got at PFX. Uh uh, I forget who it comes from, might be a mid-USA. Um, it's the same pattern that I used on the Sportster, and that pattern looks particularly good with a spoked rim, I think. So uh it has um has holes drilled in it, and it has some oval kind of slots going around the center, uh, gives you lots of visibility through to the spokes, uh, looks real good. I'm I'm happy with that. I went with a mid-USA polished aluminum uh caliper mount bracket, if you will. Uh well, of course you will, that that's what it is. Uh went with that bracket and went with a mid-USA uh dual piston caliper. If uh, you know, if this was a Harley um, you know, a bigger cubic inch, more power, more weight, uh, would that be enough brake for this thing? Maybe not so much. However, uh for this little XS 650, the weight of it, the power, um, all that stuff, I think that's going to be more than enough stopping power right there. So used a dual piston polished mid-USA caliper. Once we got the bracket in place and got the wheel spacing set up, which I was able to make some custom wheel spacers, which was really cool. Uh, got that all set up, and then we made the uh uh I don't know what you would call this, the uh the brake uh locating rod. Uh so used a couple rod ends, uh welded up a tube inside here with collets on either end for the rod ends. It's adjustable, it's strong. Um it attaches to the frame uh of the motorcycle and to the bracket and uh you know has the rod ends give you some maneuverability there, it's all good. So that that should give us all the security we need to hold the brake in place. Uh that should be real good. Uh along with the brake, I decided to go with a Sportster master cylinder, rear master cylinder. Um, I had this one left over from the Sportster build for mock-up. So I used it to take a look. And one thing about the Mid-USA caliper is it does take um, it says that the the master cylinder you use has to be minimum three-quarter inch bore. Well, that's what the Sportster uh master cylinder is. So I figured that was good. It's big enough, it's got the capacity, everything is good. The mounting is real nice, and it mounted just a short distance back from my my mid controls. Um worked out really, really nice. I was able to uh weld a couple tabs on the frame, it's above the bottom frame rail, so it's protected. Uh, you know, shouldn't have any issues that way. The other thing I'm doing on this build, uh, just something I want to try to see how it works out. Uh I've I've purchased a hearst roll control uh or line lock, some people call them. Um it's uh essentially a solenoid that will hold the brake pressure. So because this is foot clutch, no front brake, when I'm stopped, uh you gotta have, well, I think you have to have at least one foot down. Uh that's my goal anyway. Uh, and probably that should be the brake side. So, with this, I'm gonna have a switch, uh, and I need to find some really clean switches I can use. Uh, I've got some ideas. Motone makes some nice ones, so does Moto Gadget. So I'm gonna have a switch up on the handlebar that when I come to a stop, I can put full pressure on the back brake, hit the switch, and this solenoid is going to hold that brake pressure on the caliper. So this the bike isn't going anywhere, it's being held with the back brake while I have my my thumb probably or finger on that switch. Um, when you release the switch, the pressure comes off. So if I start to let the clutch up, release the switch, pressure comes off, away we go. Uh I thought it was a cool idea. Uh, I don't have a lot of experience with a foot shift uh foot clutch, uh hand shift. Uh it's gonna be interesting to see how it works, and then you know, throw in the uh the extra challenge of no front brake, and uh I'm excited to try riding it. I I think it's gonna be very cool. I've always admired guys who have choppers with no front brake and and jockey shift. I've always thought that was pretty cool. We'll see if the old guy can think it through and handle it. Uh, so that's what I'm doing with this piece hanging down here. If nothing else, it's gonna be a really interesting talking point. I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of people asking me, what the heck is that? And uh yeah, so that's what we're doing back there. Moving up the frame. Um, well, actually, let's jump to the fender first. So this is a Wyatt Gatling fender from Perth County Moto. Uh, fender is really nice shape for this bike. I think it goes really well with the gas tank, has the right lines, it's smooth, um, really, really good. The way this fender is made is it's two halves, and and they weld it together down the center, uh, halves lengthwise. So you have two halves lengthwise, and I'm I'm guessing that what they do is they put a strip of metal on the inside and they tack weld both sides to that strip of metal. Now you have the two halves coming together, butted together with a strip of metal underneath them. Then they go ahead and Tig it down the center and grind it, and voila, you have a one-piece fender. The challenge I had was that that strip of metal is still on the bottom side of the fender when you get it. It's of course it's picked up some of the TIG welding, it's spot welded in place, a few things going on there, but it's not totally welded and it's not totally sealed. To me, the issue I was going to have is painting, it was gonna be a nightmare. Uh, and the way I paint, and we'll touch more on this on another episode, but I like everything under the gas tank and under the fenders and whatever to look just as good as the top side. I think that's very cool to go to that detail. Maybe a lot of guys wouldn't agree, they say, who cares? What difference does it make? You know what? For me, knowing that if somebody looks underneath the fender, the finish under there looks just like it does on the top. Yes, it's gonna get more beat up, I understand that, but it's gonna look right. So, to do that, you got this strip running under the fender that's partially welded, it's gonna collect dirt, uh, moisture if you get caught in the rain, whatever. Uh, it's gonna collect a lot of crap, you're gonna get corrosion for sure. It already has manufacturing oils and stuff under there that are not really desirable when you paint. Uh, it's gonna be hard to seal it up. And, you know, to try and to try and run some sealer on it or to use filler and fill it, you're gonna wind up with a lot of extra weight, a lot of thickness. Um, you know, it just uh to me, it just wasn't what I wanted to have underneath the fender. So I did take the time to go in and cut all the spot welds and grind out anywhere that that the TIG had gone through and connected it and got that strip out of there. So now I have a very nice finish uh on the inside of the fender. It's gonna need a little bit of filler to smooth it out, but that's okay. It's good. Top side, topside looks just like it did. Um maybe a little discoloration from some of the grinding, but it's still smooth and and straight and everything's good. So a little little grinding on top. Um, the other thing I'm gonna have to do, and because they they use two pieces to make the fender, it's very hard for for that curve on the top of the fender to be absolutely perfect. And in this case, if you look at the fender from the back and look down it, you can see that one side is slightly lower than the other side. Uh, and it's very slight. But you you know, if if you're that kind of guy, you're gonna look at it and go, oh, so the fender is not quite symmetrical. Um, I'm not a big symmetry guy, you know, in terms of paint and stuff like that. I, you know, I don't care if the flames aren't identical on both sides of the tank. Um you know, unless unless you want them that way, which is fine. Symmetry is good. I'm just not big on symmetry for that kind of stuff. When it comes to a fender and the the radius or the contour of the fender, yeah, I'm kind of a stickler for symmetry. Uh I am not enough of a metal worker, nor do I have the devices I would need, like an English wheel or whatever, to straighten this out perfectly without filler. Um, but I am pretty good with filler. Uh I've got lots of experience. So this fender is gonna get a very light wipe of filler down the center just to build up the one side and get that contour right, to get that radius right. And I think uh I think I can do that and it's gonna be fine. But it will have just a skim. It's not gonna take much, it's not out by much at all. It's not like I'm gonna put an eighth of an inch of bondo in. There or anything. You know, it's going to be minimal, but just enough to build it up. I could probably build it up enough just with high solids primer, but I, you know, to keep the primer a reasonable thickness, I'm going to go ahead and use uh use a little filler there. That's what I did to the fender. The only thing that is still a question mark here for me, obviously I have to get these mounts done to the sissy bar like I was talking about. Uh, pretty straightforward, a piece of stainless welded across uh into a bung with a screw on the inside of the fender. That should do the trick to mount it and make it good and strong. In case I decide to put a pillion seat up here, uh which I think I'm gonna do. Um so the only other issue with the fender involves the tail light. And I I got looking at what some other guys have done, guys that I know, and I really love their work. Don't get me wrong, beautiful work. Anybody who does this stuff is an artist. I I love it. But I looked at what they were doing and I thought, well, that's kind of like the last bike you did, and kind of like the one before that. And I got thinking about my own deal, and on the last few bikes I've built, I've mounted the tail light off of the back axle plate area off to the side. So low on the on the left side of the bike. I don't want to become that pigeonhole guy. I don't want to be that, oh look, Bruce did that, you can tell, because it's mounted in the same place. Um, so I'm I was looking at how to mount the tail light on the fender. The tail light that I've ordered matches the turn signals, uh, which you can see them on the video. Uh, they have a grill across them that looks a lot like that cooling fin pattern that I'm using on the foot pegs, uh, that ribbed look. So that's tying in really nicely. So I ordered a tail light that has that same look to it. Whoops, that's obviously not very tight yet. I just just moved the turn signal around here. Um, anyway, uh so ordered that tail light. Um, it's a little bit big. I was gonna try and mold it into the fender. Now I'm looking at it thinking, man, that thing's gonna look like a big ass wart hanging out there. So, not sure where it's going yet. Sissy bar's an option. I will admit, I'm not a fan of wiring wound around a sissy bar. So I'm trying to figure out how to hide the wiring if I choose to do that. A couple things I'm looking at, but I'm gonna try and avoid doing the same thing that I've done before. So I'll be looking at that. While I'm talking about the turn signals, uh had an idea for the turn signals to make the front fender mount and turn signal mount in the same piece, in the same location. I'm happy to report that my idea worked really, really well. The turn signals mount on the outside of the frame, they're threaded into a bung that is welded into the frame. On the other side of the frame is the piece that extends out to the front of the fender, and the fender bolts to that piece. So uh, you know, again for the podcast listeners, what you have here is you have a piece, one piece that mounts the fender to the frame and the turn signal to the frame, and I drilled it out and drilled out the bolt that mounts the fender to the to this mount so that I could run the wiring from the turn signal straight through the whole mount. So the wiring is totally hidden. It goes through to the inside of the fender. On the inside of the fender, I'm gonna run a piece of probably fuel line, uh, steel or aluminum fuel line, hide all the wires in that, and just run it around the inside edge of the fender where there's space for it. Uh that's gonna keep the wiring as hidden as I possibly can. It's gonna have to go from the fender to the to the frame somewhere, not sure where yet, uh, but for purposes of the turn signal mounts and everything, uh the wires are totally hidden. It's a really clean look. The other thing it's done is instead of having a mount on the front face of the fender going to the frame, this has kept it very clean where it's tied to the frame on each side, and the front is totally exposed. So you just have the the fender coming down and there's nothing, nothing connecting it. It keeps a large space under the seat in front of the wheel behind the engine, uh, a really large open space there, which I really like. I think it's really good. Uh, the seat was on before, I believe. Um that brings us to the exhaust. Uh TC Bros universal exhaust kit, whatever, for an XS XS650. So I guess it's not universal. Kit comes with the right bends. I had never done an exhaust before. I'm very happy with the way this first one turned out. Uh, lots of clearance. Well, I shouldn't say lots. There's enough clearance on the front here. We got the bends right, uh, came out of the exhaust ports, around the frame tubes, down the right side or the uh the show side of the bike, uh, the A side, if you will. Um, down this side, brought the pipes back, had a little uh bend done at an exhaust shop here, and then used my multi-tool grinder, belt grinder, which I absolutely love, to make a little bit of a scallop or whatever you want to call it on the end of the pipes. So they run together, one's a little bit shorter than the other. You get that nice downturn. Um, you know, they're they just they look good together. Uh when we put them on, we were wondering if we were gonna have to do another mount. Umriginally, I was thinking that somehow I was gonna have to tie it across to the backbone to uh to mount the pipes up. But the first thing we did is we tried welding a bung to the inside, not the inside of the tube, the back side of the tube, the frame side of the exhaust pipe, and welded a bung top and bottom, made a little bracket to go across there. And I'll tell you what, once those two pipes were tied together, uh a little more than midway back to the to the tips, uh, the strength here is fantastic with it tightened up on the on the head on the exhaust ports, super, super strong. I don't think we're gonna have any uh any excess vibration issues. You're always gonna have vibration, and especially on a thumper like an XS650, but uh good solid mount. I I don't think we're gonna have any issues there. While we're on this side of the bike, I'll just speak quickly to uh to the uh the mid-controls. So I went with Beck Bilt Fabs, uh BeckBilt Fab, sorry, uh, with their mid-controls. Dustin's a great guy, he's doing a good job building a beautiful product. Uh had to modify them a little bit. Uh they're designed and they come with a mounting tab to mount to the original exhaust hanger on the side of the frame here. That had already been cut off of this bike. I had done away with that, uh cleaning the frame up. So we cut the bottoms of the tab off and welded it to the top of the frame rail. That allowed us to position it back to front a little better, a little more where I wanted it, gave us room for the uh the rear master cylinder as well, and uh and worked out really nice height-wise. Because I'm going with a foot clutch and a hand shift, uh, that's the way BeckBilt Fab sets up their mids, so that worked out really well. Uh, on the brake side here, actuator back to the master, uh, the angles, the mounting worked out really, really well. The modification I've made to what Dustin does here is originally um his mid-control comes out and and it's a solid mount. There's no hinge on it, which is okay, it's fine. I like my my foot pegs to be on a on a hinge. Uh you know, you you lean into a corner, you get kind of low, uh, you drag that peg. If that peg can't move, that becomes a pivot point in what you're doing in your cornering. If that peg can give, if it can come up, now you're just gonna push it out of the way. Uh, probably gonna scare the crap out of you when you feel your foot coming up, but it's gonna it's gonna push out of the way and allow the bike to corner as it should. Uh, so I wanted a pivot point there. Also wanted to narrow it up a little bit as much as I could. So my foot pegs are a little bit narrower than what Dustin designs, and I was able to narrow the mount a little bit. So, all in all, it tightened it up and it gave me a folding foot peg that when the bike is on display as well, I can fold the pegs up and it keeps from the back, it keeps that narrower look to the bike. Uh, you know, when the when the pegs are out, they kind of stick out a little bit, as they do on pretty much any bike. Uh, but with them folded up, it just keeps that narrower look. The toe pegs, again, I did my ribbed cooling fin kind of look. Um these mid-controls are made out of good uh must be close to quarter inch uh steel bar, uh, you know, nicely, nicely cut out to lighten them up. Good, good, good, solid, uh, no complaints. I'm gonna be doing some some cleanup work on these, some grinding. Uh, they certainly don't need it in terms of the welds. Uh Dustin's welding is beautiful. Uh, I gotta give that young man credit. Welds are just fantastic, but I am gonna clean these up and I'm gonna have them chromed. Um they come bare steel, which is fine. Powder coating would be an option, painting would be an option. In my case, though, I I'm really uh a chrome and polish kind of guy. Uh, so that's what we're gonna try and do to this. Uh there are a couple things I want to show you on the B side of the bike or the left side. Uh, so I'm gonna change the camera angle and show you that stuff here right away. On this side of the bike, uh, the uh the B side, the down side, the non-show side, the left side, whatever you want to call it. Um the jockey shift is gonna mount here. Uh the uh the mid-control is not hooked up yet because I've just got my mock-up engine in here, so I don't actually have a clutch to hook this up to. Um, but the uh the mid-control, just like the other side, very, very similar, it's gonna actuate the clutch. That'll be cool. And then I have the um the jockey shift, which mounts here. Originally, the jockey shift, uh, sorry, uh, and for people on the podcast, when I say mounts here, I I meant that that mounts on a bracket on the on the engine side cover on the uh on the left side. Now, initially, and I forget how does he do it like that? Maybe maybe Dustin does it that way. Initially, the lever or or yeah, I guess the lever for the shift points back a little bit and comes in behind your your leg, so kind of under your arse there, uh, and you would reach down, and of course, that's why it's called a jockey shift, is that's where a jockey whips the horse, I guess. Um, you know, so it's behind your leg there. I wanted something a little bit different, so I decided to change it, and I'm gonna bring the shifter up towards the gas tank. Um, so I've lengthened it with a piece, drilled some holes in it to give it a racier sort of look, uh, lighten it up a little bit maybe, and that will come up and I will shift in front of my leg, kind of beside the gas tank, rather than back behind my my leg. Part of the reason for that is that we also went with a one into two um intake manifold that BeckBilt Fabs makes. So it's a stainless steel manifold, can be polished. Uh either you can polish it yourself, or I think Dustin will do it for a price, obviously. Uh, anyway, single carburetor into the XS650. Um, we're going to have to modify on this one the angle of the inlet a little bit. Um, so we've got a couple different options there. I'm talking to Dustin about how to do it, but we just need to get this carburetor moved in a little tighter to the frame and aimed a little more towards the back. But very cool look with the carburetor hanging out out the side of the bike. Um, throttle cable, everything's gonna work fine. Good, good, good. Uh, the only issue with it out here like this, when I'm in a riding position, it's fine. If I try and put my left leg down, this is right under my thigh, and I just don't want to be putting pressure on the carburetor or on the cable or anything like that. So I do want to get this moved so that it's in a different position. So that's the carburetor on this side. You can see on the video the uh the signal light mount and frame mount, uh, fender mount all worked out just fine. Uh, the other thing we added is a chain tensioner from TC Bros with the skateboard wheel on it. Uh, I may change this skateboard wheel to see if I can find something else that's a little more bruised than this. Um, not big on skeletons and skulls and stuff, and that's what this has all over it. So I'm not a big fan, but the wheel's not really the important part. That tensioner will sit on the bottom of the chain and keep some tension up. And because with the hardtail, it has extended the the wheel base, the chain's gonna be a little bit longer. This is kind of a nice piece to take up that tension. It's also gonna give me a lot more flexibility in adjusting the back wheel so that the wheel looks right inside the fender. Um, so that's kind of a cool piece. And the last thing I'm working on is getting this anti-gravity battery mounted. Um I again I I mentioned that we have this big open space under the seat. I'm really trying to keep this because I I love the look. And from this side, I like that you look through and see the exhaust pipes. Um once these pipes are chromed, it's it's really gonna be a good look. Um, so I'm trying to keep this big open space, but the battery's got to go somewhere. I think I can bury it down in the bottom here, uh, where it'll be behind the chain, behind the master cylinder, really won't get a lot of attention, and it's not gonna take away from this free space that I have. So that is that, and I don't think there's anything else right now that uh that I need to share with you. That's how it's coming along. Hey, appreciate you being here. Uh love that you take time to watch or listen. Uh, really appreciate you. We're on Instagram, we're on podcast platforms, we're on YouTube, uh doing what we can. Appreciate a thumbs up. Be sure to subscribe. That that works real good too. Uh, we'll get some build stuff episodes going again here as time frees up a little bit. And uh comments. Love to hear from you. Love to hear what you think. Any questions you have, by all means fire them at us. Thanks for being here. I'm gonna go check on the sliding and see how it's coming along. See you soon.