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Login to post Forums » Sprockets » Modifying Frames of Non-Rare Bikes

Jan. 18, 2012 2:10 p.m. PHeller Dork

I've seen plenty of Triumph, early Harley Davidson, BMW, Indian, BSA and others where a builder chopped up an already rare frame to produce a very cool motorcycle. Most of the time they build an all new frame and save the original.

With the cafe craze, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there cutting the tails off their classic Hondas, Yamahas, etc.

I really really don't want to cut my bike up...but the stock seat attachment on my 78 Yamaha XS650 is just poor. The hinges and latch assembly make the seat 2" wider than it needs to be, and modifying the stock pan isn't easy.

Should I worry about removing some seat hinges and the seat lock assembly on a common bike like that XS650?

I plan on keeping this bike for a long time, and have no interest in a restoration.
Jan. 18, 2012 2:57 p.m. Maroon92 SuperDork

Hell, they didn't make very many of my bike at all, and I'm chopping it every which way but loose.

It's your bike, who cares?
Jan. 18, 2012 2:57 p.m. BoxheadTim SuperDork

If it's just attachment points and not parts of the frame itself, it's a few minutes with a welder to return the frame to stock, right?
Jan. 18, 2012 3:21 p.m. Woody SuperDork

Don't let your bike own you. Do what pleases you.
Jan. 18, 2012 4:18 p.m. drmike Reader

Woody wrote:

Don't let your bike own you. Do what pleases you.

YES!!!
Jan. 18, 2012 4:30 p.m. stroker HalfDork

PHeller wrote: With the cafe craze, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there cutting the tails off their classic Hondas, Yamahas, etc.

I'm really not trying to be argumentative about this, but my good friend and I were talking about this the other day. IS there truly a "classic" Japanese bike? You can argue about CBX's, GSXR750's, whatever, but the market simply doesn't support the notion that they're iconic in any significant way. This is probably worth a thread of its own at some point, but while I love XS650 Yamahas (even in stock form), I can't say that the world is going to be critically short of an irreplaceable product when they're all chopped, bobbed, street-tracked, whatever. Other than things like RC166 Hondas or RK67 Suzukis, anything that was sold for retail sale is pretty much fodder, it seems like...

Or is it me?
Jan. 18, 2012 4:33 p.m. ClemSparks SuperDork

I'm not a fan of the "everything old belongs in a museum" mentality. I also see where you're coming form here.

Will it get used (or used as much...or will you have as much fun with it) if it stays stock. If the answer is no...do what you want.

If it bothers you to cut it...don't cut it and/or get another bike that you like more.

Ask a leading question, get an enabling answer ;).

Clem
Jan. 18, 2012 6:02 p.m. Appleseed SuperDork

A sand cast 69 750 Honda might fit the classic bill. Save anything you cut off. If they can make a warbird that sat on the bottom of Lake Michigan for 50 years fly, they can fix anything.
Jan. 18, 2012 6:50 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

Yamaha 650s are becoming more collectible as time goes on, but they are still relatively easy to find.

One thing to consider is once you start chopping up the frame you pretty much eliminate your chances of ever selling it.
Jan. 18, 2012 7:00 p.m. Rusnak_322 HalfDork

I wouldn't worry about it. The 650 is like a MG - there were more of them junked and left to rot by owners then will be cut up by hot rodders. Plus one that isn't mint is never going to be worth restoring because it will cost more to restore then a restored one will be worth.
Jan. 18, 2012 9:44 p.m. PHeller Dork

Good responses.

My following up explanations are this:

The stock seat is overly wide, its seatpan is metal, complex, and prone to rust. The stock seat isn't comfortable, and modifications to make it so would require a fair amount of work to the seat.

I actually think my bike would have a higher chance of selling once modified than in stock form because I am to take the bike back to a more simplified and subtle style. Smaller gauges, simplified wiring, small/brighter lights.

The bike wasn't complex to start with, but fixing it on the side of the road required a pretty good understanding of all of its random relays, safety switches, and other non-essential bits.

But then again, all of this is my personal opinon. So I guess it really is a case of who I'm building the bike for. If I plan to keep it...I'm building it for me. If someone doesn't like it, they don't have to buy it.
Jan. 19, 2012 12:39 a.m. Mitchell SuperDork

stroker wrote:

PHeller wrote: With the cafe craze, every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there cutting the tails off their classic Hondas, Yamahas, etc.

I'm really not trying to be argumentative about this, but my good friend and I were talking about this the other day. IS there truly a "classic" Japanese bike? You can argue about CBX's, GSXR750's, whatever, but the market simply doesn't support the notion that they're iconic in any significant way.

Or is it me?

Most Japanese bikes do seem kind of disposable. They have always been great in their performance to dollar ratio. Because they are affordable, they tend to live hard lives, where at some point they are scrapped or discarded.

A lot of the two-stroke bikes out of the 70's hold some value, but they are not high dollar items by Black Shadow standards. The gray market 2-stroke bikes out of the 90's also seem to keep value as well. Just the other day, someone pulled up next to me on a pristine Kawasaki H3. However, motorcycles are a bit of a niche item, classics moreso, and Japanese motorcycles.

I think that one problem will be the difficulty in finding parts a few decades down the line for modern machines. The model cycle seems to be just a few years at this point for sport bikes.
Jan. 19, 2012 2:11 p.m. 4g63t HalfDork

69 Sandcast is certainly one. But crappy chains took out most of that thousand, forty years ago. And a DIECAST 69 CB 750K0 is worth 5K at best, and you'll have 15K in it. I like my little retirement fund, 1982 Kawasaki Eddie Lawson Replica, which I am the original owner. The family member it's willed to knows what it's worth. (I mean how many orig owner ones are out there??)

My CB750F is a mutt. Chop away.
Jan. 20, 2012 5:51 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

An XS650 is a blank canvas, make it what you want it to be.

Or sell it to me and get something you really want.
Jan. 20, 2012 5:58 p.m. Taiden SuperDork

CHOP

IT

UP
Jan. 20, 2012 7:02 p.m. Curmudgeon SuperDork

I see both sides, I own a pretty radically modified XS and see no problem with others doing what they like (although a hardtail conversion is just painful).

But for years people chopped VW Bugs up like there was no tomorrow because they were common as dirt, with the result that clean original cars are getting rare and consequently expensive. Hodakas were considered disposable for years, now try to find a nice Super Rat without mortgaging your soul or at least taking out a short term lease on it.

Oh, well. In a hundred years who's going to give a E36 M3?
Jan. 20, 2012 8:18 p.m. Mitchell SuperDork

If no one ever chopped up the Bugs of old, and they were still cheap, I think that people would just chop them up today.
Jan. 23, 2012 8:06 a.m. PHeller Dork

What's funny is that recently I've read three posts on the XS650 Forums from folks who want to put my Standard seat with the hinges on the 80+ Special that has a lift off seat.

I'll start a new post with my next question:

What makes a motorcycle seat comfortable?

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