1971 Yamaha XS-1B 650

A Chopper is Born

Note that the seat is protected from winter with tape!

I rode that Yamaha stock for a while, getting acquainted to its character and performance. Compared to all my previous bikes it had plenty of power, was comfortable, and handled passengers without complaint. It looked and sounded great and many would easily agree with me that this bike was cool. But in the early seventies, choppers were the biker's ultimate statement of cool and I wanted in on the club. Thanks to the many magazines on the subject, I made a list of the necessary modifications required to make the transformation from solid and respectable to in your face rebellion. Unlike today, custom parts were rare, especially for machines originating in the orient. Most builders had to rely on their ingenuity and talent to achieve their dream bikes. It also helped if they possessed the skills and tools needed to fabricate, paint, and assemble these works of art. If not, it was little wonder that many of these early modified machines were evil handling at best and downright dangerous at worst. Luckily for me, my lack of shop, tools, and as usual, money prevented me from straying too far into that dark zone.

I discovered a small business on Jane St. known as the Chop Shop. The proprietor was naturally enough a big, bearded man who surprisingly treated me extremely well, bearing in mind that I was a teenaged punk after all. He provided me with much needed advice, but even more importantly, parts that I could afford. The first purchase that I made was for a set of extended fork tubes. Since I had no way of raking the neck of the frame, the tubes were limited to six inches over stock. This I had read would affect slow speed handling moderately, while at cruising speeds the straight-line stability would be enhanced.

I also picked up a cobra seat, z bars, a sissy bar, a pair of bell tip mufflers, and a set of over and under rectangular headlamps. None of these parts were meant for my bike, but with my trained eye, I had decided that they looked like they should. The last visit I ever made to the Chop Shop was to pick up a pair of struts to replace the rear shocks. The following week when I was to have made another parts run, I learned that the owner had been shot and killed in a dispute, and a "For Rent" sign was now hung on the front door. It took me a long time to get over the loss and the shock.

It was late fall when I started the Yamaha's transformation. As we did not have a garage, disassembly took place in a shared laneway behind the house. Light snow flakes would gently float into my eyes with irritating regularity as I struggled to remove assorted nuts and bolts. Most of the front end, the gas tank, and much of the body work ended up in the basement where it was significantly warmer and drier. Working without a manual under a naked 100 watt bulb, I rebuilt the forks with the extended tubes. The job was surprisingly easy, and I got pretty good at it as I would do it a few more times before a year had passed. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Being the seventies, a chopper needed a paint job that screamed for attention – gaudiness not-with-standing. I planned for green panels with swirling overlaid red ribbons on a deep gold base. It took me months to spray bomb and sand the many layers of lacquer that made up my design, but I was quite proud of my effort in the end. My only disappointment was that the finish was not very resistant to the effects of environmental forces, or the occasional bit of 89 octane. But before that would happen, I had a bona fide work of art.

Spring was coming and it was time to for a final assembly. Once again in the laneway, I reinstalled the front end. The wiring once contained in the discarded stock headlamp shell was modified to accommodate the very custom looking dual lights. When I switched on the power, the high and low beams actually worked as they were supposed to. The fuel tank being stock re-installed without a hitch, or even a scratch I might thankfully add and it really made a visual impact.

My first problem started with the new saddle, as I believe it was probably designed for a Triumph or Harley. It seemed to fit the Yamaha's frame reasonably well except for a bit of a gap near the tank. I think I used the rear tank mount to somehow

Getting there...

secure the front of the seat, but I can't remember what I did with the rear. Most likely I bolted it down after drilling new holes somewhere since I do remember it being mounted solidly. The sissy bar went on without fanfare, as did the handlebars. Earlier, I had the Chop Shop make up a new cable for the front brake because of the longer front end, but the remaining controls remained unchanged.

Finishing touches included twisted bar highway pegs and struts. When it came time to install the new mufflers, I ran into a second problem. The slip-ons were of an upswept design, and unfortunately interfered with the passenger peg mount brackets, which were welded to the frame. Not by much, mind you, but by enough that it would be impossible to install them. The obvious solution would have been to find another set of mufflers, but that would mean a loss of the original investment and an additional cost that my dwindling finances were reluctant to sponsor. But as I sat and stared for the longest of time at my conundrum, I finally came to the conclusion that since this was a chopper, it would only be natural to "chop" the offending brackets. And so I did. With my rusty saw, I hacked off a couple of inches off the brackets' tips, and re-drilled new holes that provided a connection point for both passenger pegs and the muffler brackets. It was truly ugly and a genuine "hack job", but not terribly visible, and so I learned to live with it. With a top-up charge of the battery, I was ready for a ride.