The Rusty Weasel

Rust - leave it, embrace it, encourage it

The Bike>

The Yamaha XVS650, Star, V-Star, softail Virago, what ever you want to call it, has been around for quite a while now, it offers a learner legal option to people who want to look like their on a big boy bike whilst actually obeying the law. As far as the bike itself goes, theres not really anything special going on, it sports an engine originally used in the Virago XV535 (released 1987) with the accompanying shaft drive (rather than a belt or chain) but bored out to a displacement somewhere around 649cc. It’s simplicity is definitely a selling point, a 2 cylinder air cooled small displacement engine, what can really go wrong, nothing I guess, from what I’ve read in forums - it’s the driveshaft and electrics that give way long before anything else. The XVS650 was released sometime during 1997 to replace the ageing Virago line of cruisers, whilst not capturing the small, lightweight agile nature of the Virago, the XVS follows in it’s often branded namesake of “Yama’Harley” whilst the Virago was comparable (in the larger displacement models) to a Harley-Davidson Sportster, the XVS is clearly trying to emulate the US manufactured Softail series, it even has imperial 1 inch handlebars for that more authentic ‘Fat American’ look. The XVS650 actually comes in 2 different models in Australia, Custom & Classic with differences being limited to the size of fenders, diameter of the front wheel and some bulky dumb fork covers (picture below)

This particular bike that I managed to pick up for an almost reasonable price was registered as a 2004 model (Classic) and came without functioning brakes, a nice amount of dents, rust and also some of the most ridiculous handlebars I have ever tried to get a grip on.

The Plan>

I had originally planned to actually put a lot of time and love into this bike with the intention of riding it everyday to and from work and so when the time came to start pulling everything apart to clean, adjust, repair or replace I was utterly overwhelmed by how poorly this bike had been treated, not a single component was unaffected by oxidisation in one form or another. So I did what any lazy operator would do, leave it, embrace it, encourage it - This is the birthing of a bike now known as The Rusty Weasel.

Solution>

Asides from modern apocalyptic “survival” bikes spawned from the popularity of media like Mad Max and The Walking Dead - A RatRod motorcycle is generally associated with bobbers, which is a great coincidence as the XVS650 is also often converted to a bobber, there are multiple companies that produce bolt on kits for this very motorcycle (I’m not paying $2000 for that shit though)

Implementation>

The only things purchased for this bike were handlebars and some blinker, everything else is either chopped up stock components or stuff made from recycled materials found around in my shed *cough* ~ or street. There really isnt much else to say that isn't already shown by the images below.