A friend gave me a 1979 XS650 2F a few years ago that was sitting outside. It had no title and hadn't run in many years ... Just the way we like em
My brother and I picked it up and drug it back to my place. Getting old junk bikes is like Christmas morning for me and I can't wait to find and the rodent nests and spider webs packed into it. Under the seat on the XS it has the plastic document holder like a lot of the old bikes. Inside was the title signed off and notarized in the 80's
I ran down to the title bureau this next morning and I was the legal owner of this gem.
She's a beaut ain't she
The truth is that after I got the title I let it sit in my garage at home for a couple years promising myself I would not touch it until I had an actual plan and time to do it. I've done some other bikes and opened up a new shop for work since then. Also had many ideas for what the the 650 should be in its new life. Initially it was going to be a street tracker, then a bobber, thought about a cafe for awhile too. I really like the street tracker XS650s and that was it until I was searching Craigslist one morning and happened upon this jewel.
A 1987 YZ125 basket case. After seeing a few pictures on this forum of a YZ650F that someone made I was hooked. Another 650 adventure bike it was.
I put that YZ in the garage for a bit while I was working on my F11. Then the owner of a regional motorcycle paper, Midwest Motorcyclist, mentioned that if I wanted to run a series of articles on a motorcycle build he would be happy to support it. That was late Spring / early Summer. We talked about what to do and he liked the adventure bike idea and a possible second set up for supermoto duty. We are in the middle of this now, but here is what we have so far.
A hybrid of the XS650 frame and motor with the YZ125 front and rear suspension, monoshock and wheels.