Graphiti Photoshoot

My friend Roy built this bike, and it kicks ass...  We did a rephased crank and cam for him, he built the engine out...  We hardtailed the frame, made the brass pegs, turned the forks and I'm pretty sure he has bought almost everything we sell...  But as much as I'd like to take some credit on this thing, Roy simply built an amazing machine with a TON of nice features. 

He dropped in today, and I prompted him into a quick photoshoot at the shop...  The buildings surrounding my shop have some amazing Graphiti/Artwork on them, so we took advantage of it today.   Enjoy the pics...

 

Pretty rad machine, and it was a nice treat to see a customers bike totally finished.  We do so much work all over the world that we rarely see the finished projects in person...  Thanks for dropping in Roy...  

Holiday Giveaway! - Don't miss out on this!

I've been sitting around, thinking of all the things I am thankful for this past few weeks.  I have a wonderful family, and great shop helpers that make life pretty good.   I also have a pretty cool shop dog too - haha...

Then I sat around thinking about those who are lucky enough to spend some time in the garage/kitchen/shed wrenching with their loved ones, and I though to myself "People need to do more family based wrenching" - and the idea for this giveaway was born...

Jeremy V's boy helping him in the shop.

Most folks might know that my parents have both passed on.  What I wouldn't give to spend some time working on motorcycles with them now.  Even just to have the memory of doing it would be awesome. 

So what has this all got to do with an Awesome Hugh's HandBuilt Giveaway?  I want you to get in the shop with your family, make some memories this season, and get your families more involved in your passions/hobbies/lifestyle if they aren't already. 

So get your son/daughter/cousin/neighbor's kid - whoever and get in the shop working on an XS650 based project.  Even if you don't have children of your own, get your own father/mom out there with ya or go get that random kid who is always peeking into the shop to see whats going on and have some fun. 

How to enter?  

1.  Send in a pic like above, even better if you have yourself in it.  

2. Email Pics to: HughsHandBuilt@gmail.com and make the Subject "Holiday Giveaway"

3.  Give us a brief description of what your project is and what the ultimate goals are for the project.  

4.  Let us publish the pic on our Blog - to further inspire more folks to get out in the shop with their kids/family/friends.

It's that easy!  A single winner will be randomly selected and will receive an AWESOME package of our Parts.

Prizes you ask?  I've never done such a significant giveaway - The ONE winning Prize Package will include:

Hugh's HandBuilt PMA System - a $319.00 Value

Hugh's HandBuilt Solid Riser Bushings - a $75.00 Value

8 Metric DIY Tank/Fender Bungs - a $55.00 Value

Brake Pivot Kit - a $23.50 Value

2" 35mm Fork Lowering Kit - a $45.00 Value

Speedometer Eliminator - a $42.50 Value

$560 worth of prizes!  All for getting in the shop and enjoying life just a little bit.  I'd say that's a good trade!  

Deadline?  

I'd like to have this package shipped out in time to be sitting under your Christmas Tree - so let's get those pics sent in before December 1st.  Winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

And thanks to all of you who have made Hugh's HandBuilt the small success that it is.  When you purchase from Hugh's HandBuilt, you are directly supporting our part of the American Dream. My Wife (Courtney) and Child (3 Month Old Rebecca), and my 2 workers (Tevan and Bryan) are very grateful for your business.   And as always, I'm very thankful for the amazing customers who make my job the best in the world...   This is just our way of saying thanks - so get those entries in!

Hugh 

VIEW SUBMISSIONS HERE!  THANKS FOR ALL THOSE WHO ARE PARTICIPATING!!!! 

*Winner will be selected randomly.  Winner is responsible for shipping if out of the US.  Any substitutions/store credit are negotiable after winner is selected. Hugh's HandBuilt reserves the right to modify the terms/conditions/prizes/etc/ of this giveaway at anytime.

SOLD! A Rare One - Fully Built Bottom End Now Available for Exhange. SOLD!

SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD!!!!  This thing was gone in less than 4 hours of posting it up for sale!!


Well folks, I'm finally getting into the middle of the road for you XS650 fans...  Middle of the road?

Most of you know that we offer our exchange crank and cam services so you can build your own engine using our 277 Rephased Goodies.  Plenty of folks are capable of building their own engine, but not all are comfortable doing so.  This is quick and cost effective for the customer willing to disassemble and reassemble their own engine.

Then we started offering full engine building services - being very time consuming and costly for the customer...  We love building them, but have been backlogged on engine builds for a while, and sadly have been turning customers away almost everyday for engine builds.

So whats the middle of the road?

A Completely Rebuilt and Rephased Short Block XS650 Engine from Hugh's HandBuilt!  Now anyone who is comfortable installing a top end on these engines can have all the hard work done and done correctly.  This Bottom End has all the tricks and components we put in our full builds, and is ready for any top end you can throw at it.  It has the build quality and components to handle anything from a daily rider to a race bike.

These will be offered only when we have one pre-built and ready to go.
So what do you get? The Following Comes Pre-Assembled for you.


A Rare Bird you say?  Well folks, I've had this bottom end in my personal collection for a quite a while.  I scored this several years ago, and it came out of a Factory Sponsored Race Bike.  It originally came with the all-so rare Factory 750cc Pistons and Cylinders and (which I sold off long ago) and was in a Flat Track race bike.  When I got it, it was still left side shift too! (it is now standard shift)

So this engine block has some Race History, which is pretty cool.  Then you add in the fact that this engine was never stamped with an ID number, which verifies it to have never been in a production street bike and the cool factor goes way up.

I have very carefully and lovingly added only the best of the best into this Bottom End, and now it's time to part with it.

Some of the awesome things I have done to this engine include Polishing the Shift Shaft, Shift Drum, Crankshaft Flywheels and then adding in the normal goodies that we do to a Hugh's HandBuilt engine build.

This Build Sheet includes:

Rephased and Fully Welded Crankshaft (Mildly polished)
Polished Shift Drum
New 447 Rods
New Rod Bearings
New Rod Thrust Washers
New Rod Crank Pins
Fully Polished Bearing Surfaces
Late Model Transmission
5th Gear Overdrive Installed
Cases are Aqua Blasted and Fully Cleaned (Unpainted, Beautiful Natural Finish)
New Sump Filter
New Stainless Hardware
New HP Clutch Disks
New HP Clutch Springs
New HP Throwout Bearing
New HP Clutch Hardware
New 1 Piece Clutch Rod
New Camchain Pre-Installed (includes Master Link)
Refurbished Camchain Tensioner Installed
New Starter Gear Fix
New Bottom End Oil Seals
New Gaskets
New Shift Shaft Assembly (polished)
New Shift Springs
Electric Starter and all gears pre-installed.
7 Pack Cluch Basket

What else is included in the purchase?

Matching 447 Rephased Camshaft
Base gasket
Head gasket
All Misc. Gaskets Needed for rebuild
All Oil Seals Needed for rebuild
Stainless Hardware Kit
New Side Cover Oil Filter


This is easily the nicest bottom end I've ever built, and with the special attention to the shifting mechanisms this thing should be a dream on the road.  It will also easily handle any top end you can throw at it. 


So basically, here is how this works...   You send us your bottom end and camshaft as a core.  You will remove the entire top end, pistons, cylinders, head studs, etc..  Keep your engine side covers, cam chain tensioner and, charging system, kickstart lever, chain sprocket and nut.  We prefer you ship the bottom end to us on an engine stand (TC Bros makes a nice one) and in a well protected crate/box.  The only thing we ask is that your bottom end is not seized or damaged.

We will then ship you our Bottom End as soon as we verify your core as rebuildable.   And all you have to do is reinstall your top end and go.  This can easily happen in a weekend for most of you folks.

If you prefer to have our bottom end in hand before shipping us your bottom end, we charge a $500 core charge which is refundable after we receive your core.  We are happy to work with you as best we can.

The above listed XS650 Bottom End is available today for $1890.00 plus your core charge.  We accept Check/Mo/Cash and interesting trades.  Paypal can be accepted under certain conditions, and Paypal fees will be added to the purchase.

We can easily add a Hugh's HandBuilt Permanent Magnet Alternator to this unit for no extra labor costs if you so choose, just let us know.

Contact HughsHandBuilt@gmail.com if interested

PS - UPS can ship these in a crate, they are well under the weight limits

We'll be back after this short message from our sponsors...

Ok, so we don't have any sponsors, but we are taking a short break from now until next Monday. 

As most of you know, Sandy put a good hurting on most of the East Coast, which has severely slowed down shipping and even the production of some parts/components that HHB uses.  That has kept us from shipping a few things, unfortunately.  We are working really hard with our suppliers to see them back up and running as soon as possible. 

And, this weekend is my Family's annual hunting trip up to Missouri.  We'll only be gone for a few days, but I like to let you folks know as I know you are used to getting extremely fast email responses, but I will be away from the computer until next Monday.

We are hoping to give our shop dog Roxxy a few more treats this season, and as always thanks for being patient with us as we take a small break. 

Emails, Shipping, Etc... will all start back up as normal on Monday.  Thanks so much for your continued support of Hugh's HandBuilt - we couldn't do it without ya...

Hugh

Scary! And on Halloween too...

I have a friend who went and bought a Craigslist special...  You know the one - "XS650, Rat Rod Black, Harley Hardtail runs great won't charge a battery" or something along those lines in the ad... 

I have seen some aweful work come through here in the last few weeks...  Just plain aweful, but this one was "Running and Riding" and it's amazing it didn't just fall apart loading it on the truck...

What it looked like when it was purchased... 

Now, I'm not attacking the purchaser - this is his first bike build, and he didn't know what to look for..  But once the bike came to the shop, I knew we were gonna have to hack that hardtail off completely and start all over...  So we stripped the bike completely down to nothing and had a good look at it.

Lower Frame Rail - Butt Welded, no sleeve/slug and not the finest of welding either..

One of my favorite parts...  The tubes meeting the OEM backbone (notice the cracked tubing, nothing was actually attached here)

Pretty rough huh...  I know I feel safe on a motorcycle when it has a frame full of holes, and this guy must have agreed.  I've seen less holes on a sheet of target paper at the shooting range.

These holes are all the way through, BOTH tubes on the frame, not just 1 side... 

 

And just in case riding a Holy Terror or Hardtail Holes isn't scary enough of a thrill, lets go ahead and add some quality welding into the formula to completely round out the build... 

Say farwell to this tail section, there is just too much bad work to even try to save it... 

I counted 31 holes in the tubing of this hardtail section...  Someone needed to step away from the drill...

Into the scrap pile where it belongs... 

The owner opted for a New TC Bros Hardtail section, so we tossed the frame into the jig and made that happen.  A fresh start for a bike that should have never seen the road in it's previous state... 

 

Now this isn't to rant on Backyard Builders, I actually want to see more backyard/kitchen/shed builds coming out of the woodwork this winter...  Not everything needs to be done in a professional shop, just make sure it's done properly and if in doubt, find a friend to help...  I'm hoping his will educate some of you folks on what to look for, and what simply isn't acceptable...  

And you'd have thought that just 1 terrible frame was enough for this week, but I actually got to see 3 terrible frames come through the doors this week...  

This thing, what a MESS it was...  

Rear wheel was off center by at least 1", and the mess of welding/bondo/"fixes" and such were just unbearable... Note, there is no backbone behind the engine either...  I bet this thing rode like a wet noodle going down the road...  And yes, this was at one point a riding/running motorcycle in this state.

We pulled the motor, and I've never in my life seen so much All-Thread and washers holding an engine into a chassis...  Not a single properly graded bolt, and at least 1lb of washers were stacked into this thing...

Ultimately, the frame was deemed a complete waste, so it met it's fate in the scrap pile as well...

I mentioned 3 Frames right?  Well, the last frame is from a fairly famous bike, and let's just say I'm not going there...  But if you drop into the shop sometime, I'll be glad to show you what to look for and what isn't acceptable in person... 

Until next time folks, have fun and make cool stuff...  Just make SAFE cool stuff

Hugh