This is nice... Custom XS650

Loving the look of this bike what do y'all think?

http://www.pipeburn.com/home/2013/3/8/y ... stoms.html

 

I don't normally like Bobbers but that is really cool. I love the openness of it.

 

Gee I'll bet it stops GREAT. (Compared to a Schwinn.)

Sorry, I'm never impressed by a "custom" that represents a huge leap backward in functionality. That little tiny front brake is about useless.

 

Have to agree with Fitz. Has a cool effect but...

 

Agreed, love the look but wouldn't much fancy taking it on our roads in today's traffic conditions :?

 

That is a sweet ride. Love the simplicity of it.

 

So then what's the point if you can't actually RIDE it?

 

Nailed it.

 

Wow I only said I liked the look jeez! lol

Good point, but I guess in countries/areas where the roads are quieter/better surfaced & have better drivers than our hell hole then I'd be happy to ride it occasionaly.

To each their own, and no doubt there are people out there who'd be happy enough to ride it just not me, I like to ride fairly hard & want brakes *capable* of locking the rear or lifting it.

And then we have those strange people who buy motorcycles as "art"... :roll:

 

Pinteresting

 

I've seen dozens of these supposedly "art" bikes, and it makes me sick almost every time I see another one because I think about all good XS650s that were butchered to make horrible, non-ridable bikes.

I don't like 99% of them.

 

What about the ones where they take a crashed/otherwise ruined bike like the guy did here & resurrect certain parts of it in this way? That has to be a good thing surely as whatever parts are saved (engine etc) are still in circulation & in time if & when these bikes become rare enough to warrant it, these parts that would otherwise have been melted down to make coke cans are available to restore them...

(obviously not sure how he built the first two but I can't imagine he'd buy perfectly running bikes when he could just buy untitled/crashed/incomplete ones for the engine.

Still don't understand people who don't ride the bikes they buy, that's a sad state of affairs

 

From the colour of the pipes it looks like it's heading towards a meltdown. Although the write up says he's run several tanks of gas through the bike the colour indicates an extreme lean conditon,

 

I am pretty certain it is something they do to the pipes intentionally for looks. Like they came that way. Not that the bike did the blue/orange fade.


http://www.goodiegarage.com/60511-thick ... uffler.jpg

If that's what you mean? But I may be wrong.

 

I think so too, the inside of the pipes look like it hasn't been run yet when I zoomed into them

 

They're aftermarket, single-walled pipes. The motor's been run, they do that.

Any single-walled pipe will turn color; check the pipes on my Norton. I'm kinda proud of the fact that after 45K they're only "golden brown" and not bruise blue. Pics in this thread, bottom of first page: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=4 ... art=0.html Or look at a pic of any '70s ~ '80s Beemer twin.

The pipes are not the problem. The biggest issue is the front brake; then comes the hard tail frame. There were more than one good reason that bikes developed rear suspension systems once they began to be capable of serious road speeds.

It's a very well crafted show bike. But that's all it is and all it will ever be. Sure, ride it 3 ~ 5 miles to the bar on Sunday afternoon then ride it home.

But you sure as heck couldn't use it as a DR if you have to ride anywhere except down the block.

(It's what we call a "Trailer Queen.")

To paraphrase what W.C. Fields said about women: "They're like elephants; interesting to look at but I wouldn't want to own one."

 

I know stainless pipes "stain" with use & that you're aiming to keep them straw colour but I'm 99% that the finish is deliberate on this bike after all it being a show bike he'd have polished it out if it wasn't meant to be that way (it does polish off as we had discussions on the CX/GL board about this with somebody that had a lean condition, H**da double skinned design, must have been close to liquid pistons!)

I'm looking at the inside of the slash cuts & there doesn't appear to be the light grey ash colour I'd expect from lean running.

Who cares really though, as you say it's a show bike, and it'll probably never run long enough to overheat, and as far as the hardtail goes if you rode that over here with our lovely roads you'd never have kids! Motorised contraceptives!!!

 

It doesn't polish off once the pipes are colored through and through.

My point was that it's normal and not due to overheating if they are single-walled pipes, be they stainless or simply chrome plated steel. Beemers have the luxury of the former, my Norton has the latter.

The Yamahas also have dual-walled pipes; if an XJs pipes are turning color either the inners are cracked/rusted or as you said, it's on the verge of melting pistons. And we've seen that here more than a few times.

I'm sure the show bike has been started at least; 5 minutes of running could have turned the pipes that color.

I'll bet it sounds gnarly. I still wouldn't ride it though.

Be cool hanging from the ceiling of a bar... or in the window?

 

you'd have seen one more too if I hadn't spotted the 650 jetting in my baby! I mean, really... Ebay huh, the guy swears he's had it on the road with these carbs & never removed them. all the inlet stubs were either finger tight or about to drop off and the air jets were Haynes-ified...

Back on topic, I woulda sworn it did polish no matter what, how much running would do them all the way through?

In the window is right, saving for the day when XS's are rare enough to warrant putting the motor back in a proper one and make the owner a tidy sum doing it lol :wink:

 

I thought the topic was trailer queens with no front brake?

After probably about 3000 ~ 5000 miles and being caught in a couple of rainstorms, they won't polish back. My Norton has over 45K on it, and "pipes are permanently gold" isn't in my 39-year log book, so I can't say for sure.

That being said, I have had some occasional "blueing" on the Nort that polished back to a nice golden bronze color.

The cool thing about single-walled pipes is riding at night; then you get to SEE what's going on (they get red hot.)

The "pipes turning color" is a "quality perception" thing; which is why all the Jap manufacturers went to double walled. The inside pipes can turn any color in the rainbow and you won't see it.

 

Well now, that's just not good enough! :lol:

And the front brake on the trailer queen is Honda dirt bike (early CR?)

EDIT-: that being the case, your trailer queen with no front brake comment is effectively still accurate

 

Personally I like discolored pipes. That lets people know that the bike gets ridden (and I like the pretty colors (yes I'm still 5 years old on the inside)).

 

Nice work on the bike but it looks like it would make short work of your "undercarrige" over a set of tracks or a nice sized bump in the road.

 

Meh... I don't much like the look, but it's excellent workmanship without a doubt. Guess I'm more of a swept look kind of guy when it comes to atypical frames... This one reminds me of a bubble. Not too sure about the wheel and tire size either... I think it would fit this build better to have both wheels and tires like the front.

Just my $.02

BTW, k-moe, I'm with you on the pipes.

 

the color does not go all the way through. it's a function of metal reacting with oxygen in the air at different temperatures. polish a piece of steel then hold it to a grinder till it turns all the colors, then sand it with some 800, only the surface turned colors.
chrome is the same but it's harder and you can't sand it and it's really hard to polish metal away.
when you grind down a weld, doesn't the color go away?

 

That's what I thought but having never presonally confirmed/denied it further than cleaning up stuff that's only been heated for a few minutes I wasn't going to argue myself into a hole without the ladder of knowledge to climb out again lol.

Guess I shoulda thought of the welding analogy, but then it is over 12 years ago when I last welded & polished Inconel for work... And I've got more important things on my mind atm, like will these 32mm carbs be any good when I finally get them back on the bike (if it EVER stops raining grrr!) :cry: