Yamaton

The Yamaha XS650 motorcycles are among my top favorite motorcycles.  The look of the 20th century British motorcycles is what my eyes most enjoy.  This is especially true of the Manx Nortons, and their long successful history at the Isle of Man TT is legendary.  So I decided to give my Yamaha that similar look.  A 5 gallon hand formed aluminum replica Manx gas tank was purchased and I fit it to the Yamaha frame by cutting the bottom out and welding in a 4 inch wide tunnel.  Then I added a Grimeca double sided, four leading shoe, cable operated front drum brake.  (There was a time when I replaced the Grimeca front drum brake with twin disks and hydraulic calipers, but now the Grimeca is back.)  The front forks are the Yamaha forks but the stock caliper mounting nubs were removed and I fabricated two rigid black gaiters to simulate the Norton Roadholder forks and riveted the Norton badges on them.  I also added 1 ¾ inch stainless exhaust pipes with Super Trapp mufflers, a fiberglass seat made from a mold, a tail light made from 12 welded pieces of aluminum with a 4 inch LED trailer light in a PVC drain pipe cap, supported by a Yamaha XS650 bracket. 

Shouldered alloy wheel rims were added (one size wider than the stock Yamaha) with stainless spokes, also a headlight bucket with supports and custom warning lights. I removed the steel side covers and made new ones out of aluminum (my first go at annealing 3003 aluminum and hand forming it around a wooden buck) made to look like an oil tank by adding an oil filler neck and cap on the left side and a faux oil line on the right side.  The engine breathes through two Mikuni 32mm VM carburetors. (No, I do not like big throated carburetors because they have no midrange RPM power where I spend most all of my time when riding.  The 32mm size works very well on this engine).

Many changes were made to the stock wiring so I first digitally scanned the original 8 ½ x 11 black and white wiring diagram, colored each and every wire using MS Paint and saved that as the original wiring.  Then I revised it to memorialize all my wiring changes to it and saved it to a different file name. This now allows me to print a large color 24” x 36” diagram.  

To understand the symbol on the side covers, look at the Yamaha “three tuning forks” symbol and the Isle of Man flag showing the “Three Legs of Man”. Motorcycle boots replace the flag’s spurred boots.

To understand the writing style of the name Yamaton on the gas tank, consider the style of the Norton name found on their gas tanks.

As of end 2025, I had ridden it more than 36,000 miles.