The custom Sportster is one of those motorcycle varietals that can really go either way. I’ve seen beautiful examples and I’ve seen garish and raked out hack jobs that’ve made me want to set them alight, just to put them out of their misery.

This customised Sportster is one of the best I’ve seen in recent times, the combination of flat-tracker seat and rear cowling, 2-into-1 scrambler pipes, chain drive, boosted rear suspension, lowered front suspension, a hand-fabricated headlight cover/assembly and a series of parts additions from The Speed Merchant’s online catalogue have left the bike looking like a 70′s version of a modern hypermotard. And I think that’s a good thing, hell, I think it’s a great thing.

The Sportster was built by Brandon Holstein at Brawny Built for The Speed Merchant and the bike is now for sale via this store.

have a habit of producing off the wall customs, just when you think you’ve pigeon holed them, they go and create something like this and move the goal posts on you.

Surprisingly this bike, dubbed “The Mouse Trap” was produced by the Deus Sydney garage. We’ve become accustomed to seeing similar styled bikes built by Deus’ Bali based garage, largely intended for use belting around the island’s various beaches and often using the same Yamaha Scorpio 225 base model.

Some have taken to calling this style of motorcycle a “Beach Tracker” and I see the appeal in the name, the bikes have a lot in common with Flat Trackers though are clearly designed to be ridden everyday, often down a long beach with a surfboard strapped to the side.

For this build, Deus stripped the bike back to it’s bare essentials and de-lugged the chassis, they prefabricated the sub-frame, created a new battery box, made custom front and rear fenders, pulled off the shoes and added slightly fatter rubber front and back, they added a K&N filter, a custom alloy tank, the single exhaust tube was bolted to twin Laser reverse cone mufflers and a modified Nitro Heads seat was fitted.

Say what you like, Deus is thorough.

The Mouse Trap is now for sale at Deus Ex Machina’s “House of Simple Pleasures” in Camperdown, Sydney. Hit the link here to visit the website.

Pursang is the latest custom out of the Spanish motorcycle garage, Radical Ducati. Already famous for their focus on precision and engineering, Radical Ducati has built some of the more extreme Ducati customs we’ve seen in the past couple of years.

We recently featured the Café Veloce and 9½ by Radical Ducati and Pursang follows closely in the footsteps of these two bikes. The frame is a bespoke chrome moly fabricated in-house, the wheels are forged aluminium Marchesini, the forks are track spec Ohlins, the engine is a Multistrada 1100cc with ported heads, it has DP Camshafts, NCR titanium valves and it’s fitted with an EVR Antihooping dry clutch.

Not content to leave it at that, RD then set about hand-forming the fuel tank and carbon fibre seat, they also added a 2-into-1 WolfMan exhaust system, a Keihin FCR41 carburettor and an Ohlins rear shock.

Most of the bikes built by RD spend just as much time on race tracks around Italy and Spain  as they do on the road, taking a look at the gallery below it isn’t hard to see why, Pursang looks like it could give a MotoGP bike a run for it’s money if ridden in anger.

Visit Radical Ducati here.

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

The best custom motorcycles have a coherent look—a visual balance and flow that literally stops the traffic. And the modifications should perform on the road as well as in front of the camera. So this bike, a mix of Suzuki, Honda and Kawasaki parts from different eras, shouldn’t work. But strangely, it does—and very well too.

The core of this custom is a 1975 Suzuki GT550. It was created by MotoHangar, a Virginia-based workshop run by Pat Jones. Pat wanted to combine the old with the new, with particular attention to the suspension. “The bike handles like a modern sportbike, but with the charm of a vintage two-stroke,” Pat reports. “I wanted a more ‘road worthy’ two-stroke.”

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

MotoHangar completed the mods entirely in-house, including the paint and graphics. They gave the GT550 a custom subframe, and fitted the tail section from a Kawasaki GPZ. The air-cooled triple is bored .50 over, and has been boosted further with modified Kawasaki H1 expansion chambers. The seat is crafted from elk leather, and sits in a fiberglass seat pan. A Honda headlight sits up front, and the rear suspension is from a Kawasaki ZX-6R. The swingarm is a Suzuki SV650 item, and at the other end are GSX-R forks. It all helps to reduce weight, along with the GSX-R wheels.

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

The instrumentation is a little more down to earth, with just a tachometer and voltmeter providing information. And the oil reservoir, adding a twist of humor, is a German “Pilot’s Beer” aluminum beer bottle.

This GT550 is one of the most ambitious customs we’ve seen recently, but somehow, Pat Jones has made it work. And I bet it’s a blast to ride, too.

[Spotted on Return of the Cafe Racers.]

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

Suzuki GT550 custom Honduki

1973 Honda XL 285

Short of cash after the build, Jake was forced to send the XL out to work in a bakery

Finding and showing the world great custom bikes. It’s what Pipeburn does. But being at the pointy end of the whole process with it’s constant search for the latest and greatest can easily make you forget about the other amazing part of the process – the part where all you guys arrive and check out the cool bikes. Now here’s the really cool part of the whole process; like some crazy custom bike feedback loop the bikes we find and feature then go on to inspire the new builds to a greater or lesser extent. Like the simple, clean, elegant Honda you see here. Except in the case of Jake Lyons and his XL it was a little more, shall we say, direct than usual. See Jake went from nothing to knee deep in grease and Shoichiro design after his first ever session of Pipeburning. So if you’ll allow us a brief moment of pride, please enjoy the bike that Pipeburn built.

1973 Honda XL 285

“I’m Jake Lyons – a Washington contactor and bike fan. While on a job site a couple years ago I began to speak with an electrician about motorcycles. Prior to this conversation I had zero awareness of any sort of vintage scene, I had only owned enduros and newer sport bikes. He insisted that I take a look at your site; arriving home that day I pulled up Pipeburn and after about 6 hours and 60+ pages later the decision was clear – I would be building a bike. I already had a sentimental old XL sitting in my shop and I began work immediately.”

1973 Honda XL 285

“I pulled up Pipeburn and after about 6 hours
and 60 pages later the decision was clear -
I would be building a bike”

“This XL 250 was in fact the first motorcycle I had ever ridden and learned to ride on back in 4th grade. My dad picked it up in the late 70′s and dragged it around the states, beating it up along the way. In late 2008, it had nearly 40 years of abuse when I pried it from under some old lawn chairs below his deck. He made me complete various tasks, including climbing and pruning cedar trees before I could have the title but I was rewarded with this 4-valve, rusty matriarch of a machine.

After getting it home I put new tires on it and drove it once before the kick starter snapped off inside the case while up in the mountains. After nervously compression starting it and getting it home, it sat for over 2 years until my eyes were opened to Pipeburn. I started the project in mid July 2010.”

1973 Honda XL 285

Won’t

1973 Honda XL 285

somebody spare a thought for the poor tuna cans…

“I started with a complete tear down. I stripped most of the excess tabs off the frame, welded in a hoop and sent that and the swing arm off to powder coating. I do all of my own work and put the majority of other components into primer, wet sanded, and then base/clear black. The tank was beat by my father and took some effort to straighten out; the blue paint being a 40’s Ford truck code. The motor was rebuilt with the JE 285 kit in trade for a parts bike I had bought for it. The seat I built using a piece of steel I yanked out of the bin at a recycling place and then plasma cut it out after making a cardboard template. I then used some neoprene foam and a steak knife to get the shape I wanted. I had all of the paint and body work supplies from my car projects. The bike fit perfectly in my shop and just came together really smoothly.

Being my first bike, each decision took at least 10 times as long to make as the actual building took. I got the bike into a roller within a month and then took an additional year to really finish it, working in the evenings. The 13 year-old across the street, Harrison, usually helps me with projects and this was no different. He was a huge help and came over to work pretty much any time my garage door was open.”

“After a battle fitting the front CB 18″ wheel I got for free, using a CB 360t front end and some pro bono millwork by my friend Mike, I finally fitted the 4:00×18 Avons I had been drooling over. I had it dyno tuned a couple of times before the bugs were worked out for the 285 kit but now it first kicks and runs super strong. It even picks up the front end into second, which was not quite an option before the build.

I’m completely addicted to these classics now and have several other projects in varying degrees of completion. A 1968 Yamaha YCS1, a 1974 Honda CB550SS, and a 1981 Honda CB750k. I love the energy of these bikes, they have a distinct soul in comparison to their modern day successors.”

1973 Honda XL 285

So there you have it. And do we feel like proud new fathers of a beautiful, bouncing baby bike. Scott’s just lit the stogie and I’m on my third glass of single malt. Jake, the mother in this case, is doing well though he’s obviously a bit tired and definitely needs his rest. Quiet now – you don’t want to wake her…

Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa

Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa

This 1970 Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa is one of the phenomenal vintage motorcycles being offered up from the private collection of former Ducati factory test-rider and Ducati dealership owner, Carlo Saltarelli.

The Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa will be accepting bids at the Monaco RM Auction, taking place between the 11th and 12th of May 2012 in the tiny European principality, many of the greats from the world of motorcycles and motorcycle racing are expected to be in attendance.

This is shaping up to be one of the largest Ducati auctions in history, with over 100 motorcycles spanning 30+ years being offered for sale. As the prices these bikes will fetch are expected to be somewhere in the jillion-bajillion-dollar price range our only hope may be an Oceans 11/Italian Job style heist. Who’s with me?

Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa

Ducati 450 Desmo Corsa

And a Video of a similar bike to give you a idea of the sound!

2013 muscle cruiser launched

2013 Victory Judge

VICTORY promised it would launch its first 2013 model at the weekend and this is it – the Victory Judge.

cruiser, muscle bike and flat-tracker styling wrapped around Victory’s usual 106cu in V-twin engine, it’s not going to be to all tastes – the overall look is less gaudy than the usual Victory styling, but we’re not convinced by the number board (if that’s what it is) below the seat.

Victory is going hard on the ‘muscle’ angle, so presumably this is a competitor for Harley’s V-Rod Muscle. Ducati’s Diavel probably isn’t going to be to worried when it comes to real power and performance in a cruiser shape, though.

Even the name – Judge – is designed to evoke images of old-skool American muscle cars, particularly the Pontiac GTO Judge (one of the icons of the muscle car genre, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it). Other cues include the 16-inch wheels and raised white lettering on the tyres. Unusually, the wide front tyre is matched to a relatively narrow rear, so both ends are almost the same (the front is a 130, the rear a 140 section).

2013 Victory Judge

In the States the bike costs $13,999.

Now I’m not saying that some customs can be easy to build, but very few get into the level of engineering that Chris Barber from Crossbreed Cycles often goes, in this case by deciding to mate two Ducati 900ss Cylinder heads to a Harley big twin bottom end, and mounting it all in a hard tail chassis. Quite what possessed him to do this is a mystery, but it’s a work of insanity and/or genius.

What’s even more impressive is that Chris does everything himself, from drawuing up CAD images of what he wants to build, to engineering it all himself, while licking all his own stamps and making his own brew and sarnies – but the outcome looks more like the work of a huge team of Americans in a hangar-sized chop-shop in Cali.  Bloody impressive stuff.

The Desmo Hog

The Desmo Hog

The engine uses Carillo Rods, with stock stroke crankshaft and flat top Keith Black pistons, providing 10:1 compression ratio. Axtell cylinders are made to Chris’ own design from ductile cast iron.

The Desmo Hog From the drawing board… to the workshop

The Desmo Hog Two rear 900ss heads are used because the front has vertical fins, the front mounted head is turned through 180 degrees and runs a cam from the front cylinder of a 900ss. Lubrication is via a high volume pump running high ratio gears for more scavenging.

The Desmo Hog Ducati cams run off the reduntant Harley cam via a series of gears and toothed belts,the train of gears of various tooth numbers, allows for fine adjustment of valve timing… Apparently it’s also a bit confusing to time!

Chris is clearly driven by a passion for machines, and the beauty in his engineering is a match for the beauty of his bikes as a whole.

Check out more of his work at Crossbreed Cycles.

The Desmo Hog

Honda CB550

Paraphrased from Bike Magazine circa 1975.

“In the States the Honda was transformed into the CB550 from the 500 in 1973 and, subsequently, the CB550F in 1974. So the latest derivative in Europe is more than just an upstaged CB500. Having been though its transition period as the CB550 in the States, the bike is just about on the ball and it’s been well worth the wait.

Honda now appear to be designing machines specifically for the European market rather than merely insulting European taste with that sit – up – and – beg riding position that sells so well in the US. It’s a trend we noticed with the CB400 first tested in these pages in July ’75 and which became consolidated in the CB750F, a greatly improved version of four-piper CB750s.

Seating position on both the 400 and the new 750 was good and it’s equally accommodating on the CB550. Footrests sprout just to the rear of the engine and the rider leans slightly forward on to the handlebars raised a couple of inches above the head-stock. The bars are wide enough to afford bags of control through the turns, yet they’re sufficiently narrow to maintain the rider’s body in aerodynamic’ balance for those long motorway bashes.

Honda CB550

I can almost hear the potential customer mulling over the comparisons between the 40 lb lighter and, at the time of writing, £166 cheaper CB400, and the heavier and £250 more expensive CB750, as well as pitching it alongside the GT550 Suzuki.(At the time the British pound was worth roughly 2.5 times the US buck). Yet the CB550 is much more than just an in-betweenie in the Honda range; more than merely a compromise between 750 cc beef and 400 cc cheap thrills. The CB550 provides one of the finest balances between performance, economy and handling quality in today’s motorcycling arena. That may sound like a tribute normally reserved for the two grand-plus machine, but we thoroughly enjoyed the CB550 and consider it to be one of the better bikes to emerge from Honda’s design team in recent years.

At £975, the Honda CB550 is cheap enough to fall within easy HP reach of most bikers and possesses performance that makes you wonder why you ever considered buying the

CB750. We dubbed the CB400 a Poor Boy’s Musclebike; the CB550 is that and more. More weight, more muscle, more torque and more pure motorcycling enjoyment.

Thumbing the starter button on the right of the handlebar induces the crank to revolve and the Honda ticks over with the precision of a quartz wristwatch. Yet such is the efficiency of the fashionable four -into – one exhaust system that it creates a false impression that the 550′s.engine is mechanically noisy.

Round town the Honda felt more like the 750 than its smaller 400 cc brother, yet it was maneuverable and the tractability of second and third gears provided the right combination of acceleration with minimal use of revs. However, continuous subdued start-stop riding showed up a couple of flat spots below 5,000 rpm and with an overly strong throttle return spring I occasionally grabbed more revs than was really necessary. Still, right down to walking pace the machine felt balanced. Even tall dwarves of 5 foot 6 inches can foot their way through the traffic with a seat height of 31 inches.

But it’s out town where the fun really begins. Wind open the throttle to around 5,500 rpm and the Honda begins to come on strong. There’s no power surge, just an enthusiastic urgency about the way the revs climb usefully to 8,500 rpm before power tails off. Revving to the 9,300 rpm red line has little effective value in terms of road speed and merely increases petrol consumption. All the time the exhaust remains quiet and the rider, in helmeted isolation, is barely aware of the high-pitched but heavily muffled scream that inoffensively finds an orchestrated passage through the system. There’s just a faintly perceptible mechanical rustle from the motor to keep the rider company.

Performance is not excessive but at least it’s all usable and it’s available in quantities that will please all but the looniest speed freaks. The Honda nips up to well over 90 mph — VASCAR permitting — at any time of asking and keeps up 70 mph at a leisurely 6,000 rpm in top. Yet if you’re anxious to find that extra 10 to 15 mph on top speed the throttle has to be screwed

viciously and fuel consumption rises in sympathy. When that’s all in aid of knocking a couple of minutes off your ETA the strain seems to be an exercise in pointless-ness. Tramping hard along the M4 unmerci-lessly using revs, the Honda struggled to average 38 mpg. Even with more subdued and realistic riding, petrol consumption only staggered into the low forties. That’s the price of performance, but proved quite acceptable in the Honda’s case.

The frame is basically identical to that used on the CB500, although the front forks have come in for some internal redesigning and the rear suspension units have been uprated and more heftily sprung. The Honda’s performance, sporty appearance and excellent seating position encourage spirited riding, but push the 550 to its limits and you’ll discover that the handling isn’t quite up to the standard it’s led you to expect. Chasing hard into a bend, braking, changing down and peeling into the turn in one swift motion induces a tail-end wiggle which serves as a warning that the CB550 is not, after all, a GP racer. Brake and change down well before you’re into the neck of the bend, accelerate right through it and the Honda drives round just dandy. It’s just a question of tuning your own riding style and abilities to tit the feel, performance and handling of the 550. Once you’ve done that you’ll discover how easy it is to drag the collector box across the blacktop on right-handers, contrasting with the much better ground clearance on the spartan but functionally attractive left side of the bike. Comments on roadholding have to be subjective in this instance since our test machine was shod with a pair of nonstandard Continentals which broke away on several occasions in the dry. Wet weather performance remained untried due to the total lack of rainfall during the test period.

But it’s out town where the fun really begins. Wind open the throttle to around 5,500 rpm and the Honda begins to come on strong. There’s no power surge, just an enthusiastic urgency about the way the revs climb usefully to 8,500 rpm before power tails off. Revving to the 9,300 rpm red line has little effective value in terms of road speed and merely increases petrol consumption. All the time the exhaust remains quiet and the rider, in helmeted isolation, is barely aware of the high-pitched but heavily muffled scream that inoffensively finds an orchestrated passage through the system. There’s just a faintly perceptible mechanical rustle from the motor to keep the rider company.

Performance is not excessive but at least it’s all usable and it’s available in quantities that will please all but the looniest speed freaks. The Honda nips up to well over 90 mph — VASCAR permitting — at any time of asking and keeps up 70 mph at a leisurely 6,000 rpm in top. Yet if you’re anxious to find that extra 10 to 15 mph on top speed the throttle has to be screwed

viciously and fuel consumption rises in sympathy. When that’s all in aid of knocking a couple of minutes off your ETA the strain seems to be an exercise in pointless-ness. Tramping hard along the M4 unmerci-lessly using revs, the Honda struggled to average 38 mpg. Even with more subdued and realistic riding, petrol consumption only staggered into the low forties. That’s the price of performance, but proved quite acceptable in the Honda’s case.

The frame is basically identical to that used on the CB500, although the front forks have come in for some internal redesigning and the rear suspension units have been uprated and more heftily sprung. The Honda’s performance, sporty appearance and excellent seating position encourage spirited riding, but push the 550 to its limits and you’ll discover that the handling isn’t quite up to the standard it’s led you to expect. Chasing hard into a bend, braking, changing down and peeling into the turn in one swift motion induces a tail-end wiggle which serves as a warning that the CB550 is not, after all, a GP racer. Brake and change down well before you’re into the neck of the bend, accelerate right through it and the Honda drives round just dandy. It’s just a question of tuning your own riding style and abilities to tit the feel, performance and handling of the 550. Once you’ve done that you’ll discover how easy it is to drag the collector box across the blacktop on right-handers, contrasting with the much better ground clearance on the spartan but functionally attractive left side of the bike. Comments on roadholding have to be subjective in this instance since our test machine was shod with a pair of nonstandard Continentals which broke away on several occasions in the dry. Wet weather performance remained untried due to the total lack of rainfall during the test period.

Honda CB550

The brakes have evidently been set up to suit the machine’s bulk and potential performance. Grabbing a fistful of the 11 inch front disc from any speed left it fade- and grab-free, and the rear drum brake just helps keep things in a straight line when you begin to stand the 550 on its front wheel.

Exterior dimensions of the 550 motor are identical to those of the CB500 but internally there have been many modifications. The clutch and gearbox have come in for some particularly extensive revision. The engine was hogged out by 2.5 mm per bore raising the capacity to 544 cc. and max torque output moved 500 rpm down the scale to 8.500 rpm.

Numerous styling changes have given the CBS50 a fresh, polished image. Its reshaped petrol tank now holds 3.7 gals and the toolkit is housed on the underside of the seat. Out front there’s a large twin-dial setup of speedometer and rev-counter, with an idiot light console neatly tailored to go in between them. The 550 shows its American connection only in the tiller cap, which in bath-plug style is chained to the inside of the tank, and in the flap which hides the whole caboodle.

We tried to find serious fault with the 550 and failed simply because it’s a competently designed motorcycle. Okay, so maybe the seat is an ass-deadener after 100 miles, and the rider is always aware of a high frequency buzz too fine to be called vibration, but nevertheless noticeable. But apart from the bleeping turn indicators the CB550 is not plagued with gimmicks. The styling is clean, even subdued, available only in just blue or orange. No flashes, no stripes, no unnecessary fuss.

The CB550 is an enjoyable motorcycle to ride because it’s so “together”: each facet of its design complementing the next. In the same way that the RD400 is the optimal development of the road-going two-stroke, we reckon the CB550 enjoys similar status in the four-cylinder four-stroke market, at least in the sub-900 cc category.”

Source Bike Magazine 1975

Honda CB550

Yamaha XS500

Road Test 1975

Yamaha’s engineers are nothing if not fearless. Most of their experience has been acquired working with the two-stroke engine, which though exquisitely arcane in some respects is mechanically simple. Yet with the XS500B sports/ tourer they demonstrated a headlong willingness to embrace enormous complexity when given a four-stroke engine to design. In this device they doubled the usual’ complement of camshafts and valves, tossed in a heaping scoop of counterweights, sprockets and chains, and even included a second oil pump to perform a task others leave to gravity.

True, they divided their 500′s displacement into only two cylinders, but the surrounding hardware makes Yamaha’s medium-size twin one of the most intricately-contrived motorcycle engines ever fashioned. There in lies some of the Yamaha XS500B’s virtues, and at least one major weakness.

Prior to the introduction of Honda’s CB750 Four, the Triumphesque vertical twin had firmly established itself as the prime-mover for sports/touring motorcycles. Twin-cylinder engines were also made in Vee and horizontally-opposed configurations but the upright-inline layout was inherently more compact and less costly to manufacture, and its performance in terms of power, vibration level and ease of starting proved able to attract buyers in satisfactory numbers. Vertical twins had popularized British motorcycles in America, mighty Honda had successfully used the vertical twin to overrun the English position, and Yamaha hadn’t done too badly with its own line of vertical twin two-stroke street bikes.

Yamaha XS500

Yamaha XS500

Honda had reduced the traditional (that is to say, British) vertical twin’s vibration by moving its crankpins 180-degrees apart, giving the pistons a right-left, right-left marching order, rather than having them stroking in unison.

Yamaha adopted that shake-reducing measure, and added further compensation in the form of contra-rotating weights driven from the engine’s crankshaft. The XS500B balancer shaft is chained to the crank, and the chain wraps around four sprockets and passes through a welter of guides. Rotational reversing occurs because the driving sprocket on the end of the crank meshes outside the loop of chain, while the driven balancer shaft sprocket (and the two idlers) are inside the L-shaped loop. That’s just one collection of chain and sprockets concealed by the engine’s left-side crankcase cover; the other is to connect the electric starter-motor, which is behind the balancer shaft, with the crankshaft. Finally, packed into the same cavity, there’s the rotor and two sets of windings comprising the machine’s controlled-field alternator.

The engine’s right-side crankcase cover houses an area no less solidly filled with busy bits of metal. You find there the usual oil-bath clutch and helical primary reduction gears, but that’s only the beginning. There’s more reduction gearing to drive the ignition contact-breaker camshaft, at half engine speed, and a pair of larger 2:1 spur gears to drive a sprocket, which drives a duplex chain leading upward past tensioners and idlers to engage yet more sprockets on the ends of the twin camshafts.

Yamaha XS500

Also, we must not neglect to mention the spur gear hidden behind the driven primary gear, which meshes with more gears to turn the tachometer cable and zips around corners—via shafts and skew gearing—to drive the engine’s two oil pumps, the second of which has as its sole duty the job of gathering lubricant from hither and yon and then stuffing it down into the sump. Why not let the oil trickle down there, compelled by the usually There are obvious reasons for the complexity of the XS500B’s cylinderhead. It’s one thing to decide in favor of a twin when the major opposition shows every indication of having made a commitment to fours; quite another to give away all hope of matching the fours’ horsepower in case they are successful in the marketplace. Here again, as when providing a balancer to counter vertical twin vibration, the steps taken by Yamaha to make the 500 an equal for Honda’s inline four led deeper into the thicket of complexities.

When fours do display horsepower superiority it is because they have bested the twin in terms of crank speed and valve area. Yamaha apparently reasoned a lot of two-cylinder slack could be gathered in by giving the twin room for plenty of valves with big cylinder bores, and a very short stroke to permit high operating speeds. Hence the XS500B’s 73mm x 59.6mm bore/stroke dimensions, and its four-valve twin-cam cylinderhead layout.

The XS500B engine’s innovative complexity is not repeated in its chassis, which is constructed along entirely conventional lines but provides better than average results. Its frame is your standard collection of gusseted steel tubes, supporting the engine/transmission unit in a two-tube cradle, with the familiar telescopic fork up front and a swing-arm rear suspension. If there’s anything unusual about any of the chassis specifications it’s the steering geometry, which has the steering axis inclined only 26.5-degrees but the trail pulled back to 4.6-inches.

There have been some changes in the XS500B since it was a TX500. Originally the combination of minimal flywheel effect in the engine, excessive lash in the transmission engagement dogs and abrupt off-idle throttle response made the bike jerky, difficult and unpleasant at low speeds. And the real horsepower didn’t begin to appear until the rider had at least 6000 rpm showing on the tachometer, which meant downshifting any time the Yamaha was asked to pass anything faster than a tree.

Yamaha XS500

All that mass has a bad effect on the Yamaha’s acceleration, and loads its brakes to the point of perceptible fade when they’re used often and hard, but it doesn’t hurt the handling—which could be improved only with better rear shocks. The existing stiff-spring/ limp-damper arrangement creates a bit too much bounding around at the bike’s tail to be either comfortable or entirely confidence-inspiring.

In all, the Yamaha XS500B is a package made up of numerous small to middling strengths, encumbered by fewer but larger weaknesses. It is smooth, and it does handle. Yamah’s twin also is mildly overweight, and if its power band is broad and sufficiently substantial for most purposes it also begins too high on the rpm scale to be convenient. It is remarkably compact for a 500, and experience will tell you that’s a virtue not to be scorned.

The machine is blighted by its hair-trigger carburetors (Keihin’s CVs have imparted equally unlovely low-speed manners to many another Japanese-made motorcycle) and by all the lost motion in its drive system. Otherwise, if we forswear invidious comparisons with the Honda CB550, Yamaha’s XS500B comes near —but only near—being a persuasive argument for the design concept it represents. With less abrupt throttle response, a tighter transmission, and an added dollop of displacement to give it low-end punch equal to its own weight, the bike could be a real winner. As it now stands, its less attractive traits mock the XS500B engine’s ornate complexities, and the first two letters in its name begin to seem like a fair description of what it is.

Source Cycle 1975

Yamaha XS500