Matt Machine's 1978 XS650 Street Tracker

Ever caught one of those documentaries on TV where some unsuspecting Joe Average pays $1.95 for an "old painting" at a junk sale and ends up being told by some expert or another that he is the proud new owner of a multi-million-dollar Van Gogh? Or the spotty kid who gets given a dusty old guitar and amp from an dead relative and later realises he has one hundred large in mint 1952 1954 Fender Strat and Tweed Deluxe clutched in his sweaty little fingers. Never happen to us, right? Well looky over here and please do meet one very lucky Sydney-sider who goes by the name of Rob. Now when the rest of us combine beer, eBay and a "little bid to start things off", we usually end up with something that looks a little like this. But not Rob. See, he had a tipsy mash of the "bid now" button and ended up buying a bike from Australia's king of customs, Matt Machine. Pipers, say a big hello to Mr Ayres and the newest member of his personal rolling stock; the Matt Machine 1975 XS650 Street Tracker.

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Yamaha XS 650

I can't believe it's almost been a year since we featured Scott Halbleib's CB450 bobber. Lucky for us, Scott has been wrenching again, but this time choosing a trusty XS 650 as the donor. "The bike 'began' over a year ago when I saw the '69 Aermacchi scooter tank on Ebay for $65," says Scott. "I had seen a custom 650 with a similar tank and kind of dug it." The tank then sat in the corner of his garage while he took a long break from the CB450 which he finished in May of last year. And then winter came, so Scott started looking for a XS 650 to hibernate with. After a few weeks, he found the right specimen at the right price. "It ran, but was a little rough around the edges." 

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1978 Yamaha XS650

Another little video from our friends at Deus. This time featuring a freshly painted red 1978 XS650 cut to Al Barry & The Cimarons song 'Morning Sun'. The bike has been hiding out in the Deus 'Temple of Enthusiasm' since they opened their doors. Now it's off to a new home where she'll be enjoyed by some lucky bugger.

Holiday Customs XS650

This year has been no vacation for Jared Johnson at Holiday Customs. "We built some 13 bikes this year and didn't have time to build for myself" says Jared. After finding a rusty old 1976 Yamaha XS650 in Portland for $400, Jared knew exactly what he wanted to create. "I had been thinking of how I wanted this thing to look. I really like the lines on Schwinn cruiser bicycles, flowing with curves." The bike sat in his shop for a few months until he was ready to fully immerse himself in the project. "I made everything on the bike except for the seat. The frame alone took a week. I rolled the tube metal, welded it up, then put the tires on and realized it wasn't low enough, so I cut off the tail and started over." After the frame was complete, the idea for the curved pipes that follow the lines of the frame came to him. "The pipes took 4 long days, rolling the tube, notching out for the rear axle bolt, walking around looking at it for hours" he says.  

The other features include an old Hap Jones tank which he found online with "some awesome rust on it". He also made the fork covers out of exhaust tube, the front wheel came off a SL175 and the beautiful seat was upholstered by the very talented Ginger at New Church Moto.

Not only have they been busy building motorcycles but Holiday Customs have a new blog up and running. Judging by their blog, it looks like this XS650 has been getting some well-deserved attention, recently being featured in a Nike shoot – maybe their new slogan should be 'Just build it'.

[Photos by Neil DaCosta]   

1981 Yamaha XS650 Bobber

This is a story about a young man named Cassio Silva who fell in love with a bobber sitting outside a tattoo shop in Texas. "That same day I went home and spent hours researching how to build one for myself" recalls Cassio. You see, this 20 year old had never even ridden a motorcycle, let alone tried to build one. "I’ve been building and modifying cars for years and knew i had the skills to take on the project" he says. After finding a suitable XS650, Cassio took the bike home and within days it was cut in half in his garage.

The entire bike was built on a tight budget, not because Cassio wanted it to be cheap but to show that this can be done by anyone, with any budget, and almost any experience. The hardtail is a pre made unit made by TC Bros. "It stretched the bike 3 inches, making it very comfortable for my 6'3" body" he says. "The bike originally came with a 16in wheel that i swapped for a 18in from an older japanese bike. Wheels were wrapped in 450 rear and 400 front Firestone replicas. The velocity stacks were a NOS part off ebay and really one of my favorite things on the bike. The seat is a West Eagle and uncovered, keeping with the raw theme. The lights were ebay items that I then took apart for some paint. The rear fender is the stock front one that i cut up to save some coin. The entire bike was painted with rattle cans."

After working hard on the build for a month, the bike was almost ready to hit the road. There was one small problem though, Cassio didn't know how to ride it. So in the same week he finished the bike, he took a motorcycle class and got his license – talk about a 'crash course' in motorcycles.

[The beautiful photos were taken by a photographer named Banzai Steve. You can check out more of his work on his Flickr page and blog.]

Yamaha XS650 Café Racer

We love receiving emails from Ted at XS650chopper.com because he knows we get excited by Yamaha café racers. Frank Derris the owner and builder of this immaculate bike writes: "The concept was to blend old with new hence the crossover Yamaha racing paint scheme with the ton up stripe. I wanted the bike to handle and run as good as it could on tube tires and it does. I wanted to be able to look through the bike and see nothing but hard parts (no wiring, bolts or unsightly junk) 3 years of part time work. You judge the finished product." The parts come from a variety of bikes but they all work seemlessly together, the forks are from a 87 FZR 600, rear swing arm from a 1988 Radian, front rotor 87 FZR1000 and front caliper from a 98 Suzuki Bandit 600. The 2 gallon steel tank, seat and fairing have been painted in a fresh Corvette velocity yellow with classic black racing stripes. The impressive exhaust is a custom built 1¾ shell pipes with tuned port and exhaust port optimizers. You can read the complete spec list and view some more pics on XS650 Chopper.

Yamaha XS650

Just like Deus are influencing the motorcycle culture in Australia, the Wrench Monkees are having the same effect in Europe. This clean and simple XS650 took inspiration from the talented Danish custom builders. The German owner Nico Müller tells us "Most of my influences and inspirations came from the Wrench Monkees. I imported the XS650 from a family man in the United States. So it's a 1979 US Version type 2F0. I customized the electrics, headlamp, the seat, tail lamp, signals, fenders, exhaust, air filter, battery box and some other details. Tank is original and the the seat is handmade by a german guru of XS650's. The battery box is also handmade - i used some rusty steel plates and welded them." We really dig the 70's yellow stock tank and the raw feel of this no fuss XS650 - it looks like a bike that loves to be ridden. You can view more shots on Nico's Flickr page or his Rockefeller-Customs blog.

Fong Bros XS650

This beautiful piece of chopper craftmanship was sent to us by Ted from XS650 Chopper. It was built by Denis (AKA Billy Joe Fong) from Fong Bros who has built many sweet rides in the past. Here's how Denis described the project: "As for the white bike, It’s a 1982 xs650 special. It was a mail delivery bike for the Post Office in either Delaware or Pennsylvania but was only used for about 10,000 miles. The tail is a TC Bros tail that I made some very minor mods to. I was using Kansas Kustoms but I was able to get a good deal with TC Bros. From front to back, here’s what was done. The forks were done by hand. I used an angle grinder and a hand file to get rid of all the tabs and smooth them out, then polished them. They are also lowered 2.75 inches.

The front and rear wheels are 21 inch Ankront’s laced to the 650 hubs and have Trials tires. I usually don’t like to use shouldered wheels, but I wanted Fong Bros on the wheels and it was easy to do on the shoulder. I made the handlebars out of the stock bars and a pair of clip-ons. The gas tank is a high tunnel Wassel that did not fit well at all. I had to move the coil and cut part of the motormount off the top of the engine to get it to fit. It is silver leafed. There is a LaRosa polished seat. I pretty much just wanted it to look old.” Denis has truly created a super clean vintage looking bike, right down to those ingenious boardtracker styled handlebars. To see more pics of this old school chopper check out XS650 Chopper.

XS650 'The Hornet'

There are some people that wack a bump seat and some ace bars on a bike and call it a cafe racér. And then there are people like Chris AKA ‘The Limey’ who build inspiring cafe racérs like this beautiful XS650. Chris used to own a bike shop in London and wanted to bring the true meaning of a cafe racer to the Amercian shores. Chris migrated to Texas from London around 7 years ago because "he loved the weather in texas" and it's better weather for riding. As you can see there's been a lot of work on this bike and this is what Chris told the guys on the outstanding XS650 Chopper site: 
"It has Excel 18 inch rims, stainless spokes, fork damper valves, progressive springs, alloy swingarm, Brembo brakes (except for the front caliper… incidentally, the rear brake is a work of art from Banke Racing), 750 kit, Shell No.1 race cam, titanium valve tops, serious gas flowing, stainless valves, race clutch, Mikuni RS36 smoothbores (what a bitch to link up… it’s so tight that I can’t use intake gaskets), a gorgeous megaphone from Apollo Cones welded to 1.75 inch stainless pipes (thanks Matt), Yoshi rearsets, all electrics are under the seat (and it even has blinkers built into the headlight), Scitsu race tach…. blah blah blah… the list goes on and on. As you can all see, the bike is sporting some extreme stopping power with a 320mm Brembo front rotor, Tokico caliper, the rear is completely Brembo, Aluminum rear sprocket, X-ring chain, the lovely aluminum rear swingarm, S&W shocks (I used to deal in those back in the 80’s), Integrated turn signals front and rear (yes, the front ones are built into the headlight), Stainless 2 into 1 exhaust (thanks Apollo Cones and Matt for sticking it together)… and last, but not least… the paintwork is back from Full Custom Fab".
Blimey Limey that is one killer cafe racér package! Check out the full interview with more pics of this beast on XS650 Chopper. Chris also has a thorough build log on his site Limeybikes where he can also be contacted if you want him to build you a bike of this calibre. [Thanks to John for the tip]