But there is a bit of hanky-panky going on here with Pandemonium Custom Choppers’ head honcho’s personal build and it has nothing devious or sexual I can see. Well maybe it’s a little devious as Yamaha’s 650cc vertical twin is usually the subject of a more rough and ready budget build than an all-out custom. I probably shouldn’t be surprised that Pandemonium’s owner, Daniel Donley, pulled out all the stops for his own personal ride, but the more I looked at Jack’s photos, the more I saw and this is far from a budget build even if it was built on the cheap. I guess there was a bit of hanky-panky going on after all.

 

   Daniel began with an early model XS 650 that he immediately rigitized with one of his company’s proprietary hardtail kits. Pandemonium makes a lot of custom parts for Yamaha’s venerable twin that had a worldwide production run of 17 years depending on what country you lived in. Today, pieces like Pandemonium’s hardtail kit are sought after by owners looking to chop the excess off the XS. Keeping the headstock VIN with a new hardtail rear gave it the chops Daniel was looking for and the local DMV is none the wiser.

 

   One of the nice features of using this engine in a custom build besides reliability, adequate power, and Brit-inspired vertical twin good looks is that it’s a pretty damn compact unit to build around. The unit-construction architecture incorporating the engine/tranny in one casting keeps things tight especially since it’s a wet sump design requiring no external oil tank to deal with. It’s all there in one unit ready to be dropped into the chassis of your choice and has a huge following with decent parts and aftermarket parts availability. Pump up the volume with a bit more power and more volume via a set of rascal pipes running high and header-wrapped on the left side like Daniel and what’s not to like?

 

   If that’s not enough, then you could be like Daniel and take it even further with a highly-polished case and bits of nice work like the concentric circles he machined in the tappet covers or the multitude of speed holes in the engine covers before polishing the hell out of them. Lots of hard hand work and patience, but it pays dividends in the final finish of an otherwise unspectacular stock finish. Hopefully he’s got feeling back into his fingers by now.

 

  A shiny lump of an engine is extremely nice, but not revolutionary as far as XS 650s go. Where things get a little hanky-panky is Daniel’s use of a 23-inch front wheel on a build like this. You know something’s a bit different just looking at this bike as it does look a bit larger than life and that’s the bigger diameter of the brake-free, laced spool hub wheel wearing a tire with a little more beef to it than a usual skinny 21. There’s just a lot more forward wheel presence without looking cartoonish. Placed between the shaved, lowered and polished legs of an XS fork with more neat-o concentric machining on the top of the lowers adds a bit of interesting spice to the build. Looks tight and right.

 

   There’s another bit of hanky-panky going on with the rear brake that doesn’t have a brake pedal in sight. Daniel broke the standard DOT brake mold with a handlebar-mounted, right-side brake lever featuring the smallest brake fluid reservoir you can have (a short, capped piece of hose) and still safely operate the rear brake. An interesting take on rear-only brake operation, the hand lever should definitely give a nicer modulation to the Brembo caliper biting hard on a larger than normal rear disc that was originally intended for use up front. Running the brake line through the frame to the rear caliper kept things clean and tidy. Out back, the wheel appears to be a solid one like on an older Fat Boy, but it appears to me like there’s been some sort of hub cap/disc placed over the wheel to give it that look. Hey, I’m guessing on that one, but it looks that way to me anyway and if I’m wrong I apologize ahead of time. Either way, it’s all cool.

 

   Using a Sporty tank on a build, any build, is a no-brainer because it just looks good on just about anything. Daniel took this for granted and capped it off with a spinner cap that looks like it once was on a ‘50s lead sled and an always appreciated fuel-line gas gauge running along the bottom right-side of the tank. Yeah, I know it’s been done a million times, but I never get tired of seeing this mod for reasons even unknown to me. It just looks good every time I see it and makes me thin the owner is going to ride the bike and not just look at it.

 

   Pandemonium makes their own A-bomb oil tank which you can see hanging in space underneath the seat. At first I thought this was a bit strange as I knew the Yamaha didn’t need an external tank until I looked closely and saw electrical switches and connections coming out of it. Yep, Daniel packed all the electrical baloney neatly inside that floating orb keeping electrical clutter to an absolute minimum. Same goes for the speed-holed rear fender with a delicate set of fender stays that couldn’t be improved upon if he tried. Obviously the guy knows how to keep things clean and won’t accept less.

 

  Top that off with a squiggly set of narrow bars that seem to have their own unidentified agenda other than looking way cool and a minimalist seat mounted directly to the frame and you’ve got a winner of a bobber. I’m not exactly sure what the “paint” finish is, but the chrome finish probably isn’t chrome or paint, but some sort of chrome powder coating. Hey, maybe I’m wrong again, but with the advances in powder coating, especially some of the chrome-like finishes I’ve gotten, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. A bit of Hanky Panky graphics on the tank completes the look and lets on there’s a back story to this bike which I’ve attempted to interpret using my exceptional ESP.

 

  So did I decode the true meaning of the bike’s name Hanky Panky? Probably not as my dissections are usually way off base, but I can tell you one thing for sure, I doubt it had much to do with Tommy James and the Shondells. One other thing I can say with conviction is that the crew at Pandemonium Custom Choppers in Defiance, Ohio, built one hell of a bobber out of a XS 650 that raises the bar for all others to come.

 

  For more Pandemonium info, check out their website www.pandemoniumc2.com/ or visit their Facebook page.