Blue Groove
BLUE GROOVE
American FLYERS
Serendipity and the XS street-tracker
TIMING IS EVERYTHING, right? Take this tasty Yamaha Twin, for instance.
Builder Richard Pollock is best known for the super-sano Harley street-trackers that roll out of his Mule Motorcycles shop in Poway, California, but he’s always wanted to build one based on Yamaha’s XS650, the “better Bonneville” (electric start, overhead cam, oil tight, etc.) campaigned by the likes of Kenny Roberts, Don Castro and Gene Romero on the 1970s AMA circuit.
He actually began this bike some 18 years back, hacking the rear loop off a used $40 Champion dirttrack frame (“Today, Champion stickers go for $40!”) and welding it onto a 1980 XS650 Special. But a friend hot to go Battle of
Twins racing talked Pollock out of the rolling chassis, which had sprouted TZ750 wheels, forks and brakes.
What followed is the usual lot of an old racebike, bounced from owner to owner, modifications made, parts robbed for other projects-until another friend, recognizing the handiwork, delivered the bare frame back to its maker. Fifteen years later, Pollock once again had his XS streettracker starting point.
Then, as if on cue. Rod Hendrickson, a San Diego computer manager, called, asking if Pollock would be interested in building him a 650 Yamaha.
“All I had was the frame and a bunch of design sketches, but we discussed what I had in mind and Rod said, “Go!” Two years later,
this is what he got,” he says.
Of course, Pollock has advanced his art over the past two decades, so the old frame, engine cradle cut away, now uses the verticalTwin as a stressed member. Also added was a C&J adjustable steering head, sheeted-in gusseting, and motor mounts, front downtube and swingarm made from “cro-mo,” Pollock shorthand for chromoly steel. All mounting hardware is Grade 8, ream fit, with stainless washers and aircraft locking nuts.
“Nothing too fancy,” in the motor says Pollock. Which means a 750 kit,
Shell cylinder head, valves and springs, porting, 34mm Mikunis and Boyer-Bransden electronic ignition. Swoopy stainless-steel exhausts were executed by welder Tim
Tabor, their SuperTrapp megaphones actual veterans of AMA national competition.
How much work was involved in the front end? Well, Mule billet tripleclamps hold a Suzuki GSXR750 fork, which attaches to a modded XS650 hub that carries twin rotors from a Yamaha FZR1000, grasped by Suzuki TL1000 calipers, controlled by a Yamaha Seca II master cylinder. More Yamahas provided the switchgear (TDM850) and tach (Radian 600). A Harley Sportster donated its headlight.
Mondo amounts of handwork, but that’s what Pollock does. “Rides bitchin’, stops good, blows minds when parked,” he says of the XS street-tracker. “I got my chance to build a 650, Rod gets to own one, mission accomplished!”
David Edwards
