Rocco wrote on 12/08/09 at 23:13:46:a guy came into the restaurant where i had my bike parked right out front, he's got an xs650, and a vulcan. both are hardtails, all bobbed out, all his work in the backyard, flat black rattle can. he really liked my bike, and was shocked it was a single 650! he said he's tired of seeing "clean and cookie cutter" bikes, and he asked if i'd ever sell her.
This is funny, cos most xs650's are bobbed ... the rest are cafe'd or flat tracker'ed. Cookie cutter doesn't even begin to describe that en mass movement. Its worse than the harleys.
In charlotte in craigslist there is 2 hard tailed xs650's for sale.
There are 4-5 weld in hard tail kits for the XS available right form 200 bucks. Its the most over done mod IMHO.
A unique XS will ironically have to be all stock.
Now the pre 76-77 ones have some collector value, and heck they even look 1/2 decent. So leaving those stock - fairly common. Post 78 and the ones designated "special" were fugly and ended up hacked some way or other. That being stock is truly rare.
Anyway I am re-building a special to stock functionality, then depending on my customer, I may lightly shave and mod the seat and pass it off to the guy. If he bails I would definetly mod it with mono shock, katana front end and fit my rephased motor in it.
That would be slightly unique. Mono shock is still un common in the xs world. Kat front end ... well FZR ones have been done before.
Cool.
Srinath.