This worked-over Yamaha XS 650 vertical twin has been used a bazillion times as fodder for builds ranging from a street tracker, café racer, chopper, bobber, brat bike or whatever you got. It’s a tough, compact (although heavy) torquey SOHC mill that’s powered Yamahas of various guises from 1968 to 1985 so there’s plenty of those still around holding up garages, sheds, and basements. Even Mark Barnett has had an ongoing love/hate/indifferent affair with them after becoming the best XS650 flat tracker of all time at a very young age. Well, part of that is true anyway. Mark did ride XS650 flat trackers when he was young and probably still would today if he didn’t have the curse of the flat tracker’s back.  

 

   Anyway, enough about backgrounds and such, I should point out this is all guesstimated ‘facts’ I’ll be working on here as there’s no info accompanying these photos. I’m gonna say it’s safe to assume that somebody had a fairly derelict XS and decided to make an around-town blaster bobber on the cheap. Nothing wrong with that as that probably would suit more of us reading this than not. The build has the stamp of Monstercraftsman in Baltimore, Maryland, along with 515 Moto, and Lowside Garage which I’ll try and explain at the end of the article.

 

   I’ll also assume that the stock frame had one of Monstercraftsman’s pretty damn inexpensive XS650 Voodoo Vintage hardtail kits grafted on which changes the stock nice fellow image into a bad boy bobber after a bit of cutting and welding. The stock front end stayed with exposed springs lending a cool bit of mechanical funk. Same with the wheels except for a freshening in bright red after stripping anything resembling brakes off the front end. This baby is a drum-only rear-braker and that’s a strictly personal thing that would never be my personal choice, but then who gives a damn what I think? And, come to think of it, why should they? If that’s what this guy was going for, he got it.

 

   Continuing to simplify things while making things possibly a wee bit more complicated in the long run for the uninitiated is the switch to a hand shifter and foot clutch. Both feet now have more important jobs to do than they did on the stocker in stop and go traffic, but that’s the price to pay for a hand-shifting experience. Sure adds to the fun and challenge of riding and mastering this bike, though

 

  I’m sure the engine’s pretty damn stock and maybe not even freshened up as these 6500cc engines were known for their robustness with stator/electric starter problems being the only reliability problems I’ve heard of. The red foam air filter socks on the dual carbs and the header-wrapped open upswept twin pipes at least make more noise and maybe a bit more horsepower, maybe.  But, the reduced weight of this stripped-to-the-gills bike puts the zip in zippier as in stoplight-to-stoplight fun with the exhaust sound ricocheting off the inner-city walls of Baltimore while banging shifts by hand and anticipating the next light and the next impromptu race.

 

   Other neat bits are things like the spring-loaded skateboard wheel chain tensioner that’s Monstercraftsman’s stock-in-trade piece for clamp-on or weld-on units with skateboard wheels or sprockets as idler-gear tensioners. Definitely worth checking out what they offer whether you’ve got a Sportster or a Yamaha or a one-off build with a long chain just hanging out there.  Or even the interesting use of regular old bars flipped over and forward for a whole new look and riding position. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad ─ who knows? But it looks kinda rad cool for nothing but a flip and a dip in black. If it isn’t, just sulk a bit and put’em right side up and ride away no worse for wear. That seems to be the theme if there was one for this bike. No human’s ego was harmed in the making of this ride.

 

  Again I’ll assume someone had an old LePera seat around and slapped it on after a bit of fitment and called it a day on that one. Where some funky time was involved was in the tank which I’m still figuring out somewhat unsuccessfully. At first it looked like the old cut the round sides off a tank and weld them back on as a concave instead of a convex shape. But, there’s something about the ‘center’ of the tank that looks like a flat sheet of steel bent to fit the shapes of the now-concave pieces and welded just below the cap. Could be anything, it’s all a mystery to me. What isn’t a mystery other than who-done-it is the cool piece of different black and white graffiti art in each tank cove that gives this rough and tumble ride in black an arty edge. It’s really unexpected, but definitely appreciated.  

  Somebody built this bike on a budget and got a hell of a return for their “investment.” They had some fun, probably learned a lot, and can’t stop smiling whenever they’re bombing around Baltimore. It was probably built under Monstercraftsman’s tutelage in the collaboration called 515 Moto that they have with Lowside Garage. I’m not going to bore you with my explanation of what they’re up to, but it really is worth checking out if you live in the Baltimore area and you’re a motorcyclist looking for a place to work, learn, buy parts, store, or find and befriend people who are in the same boat as you. 

 

  Instead of my ditzy description of this worthwhile collaboration, just check out Monstercraftsman at http://www.monstercraftsman.com/ or Lowside Garage at http://www.lowsidegarage.com/ and last, but not least, 515 Moto, at http://515moto.com/ for the simple story.