Here it is gang! I've been wanting to post this sooner but wanted to get
a little further along on the build to post some good pictures. Last
October Ken, Chris, Ben, my ol'man, and I decided we will rebuild
the Voodoo Child, a 1972 Yamaha XS650 survivor bike, and give it away at
Strange Days 3!!
Some of you may say wait a minute, its not a survivor if you're
rebuilding it! You're killing it's original soul!! In reality, you
couldn't ride the bike the way it was. Between the top end needing work,
flathead screwdriver punctures in the gas tank etc, this ol' chop needed some
serious TLC to be able to hit the highway again.
Some background on the Voodoo Child...
Man, if cracked bondo and varnished gas could talk!! The Voodoo Child must have been someone's home built chopper. (Or may
even by a small shop, it's origin is a mystery) The swing arm was
extended 4 inches, the tank, frisco mounted and brazed directly to the
frame, tons of molding through out, and a wild candy tangerine color,
but the paneling looks like it was free handed and then wet sanded to appear faded.
I
picked up this old bike off of the Jockey Journal some time ago just
for parts. Once I brought it home I realized there was no way I could
part it out! Its an untouched '70s chopper! It ran good and I made a few
of my own changes and rode the bike for a number of years as is, but I
knew at some point it would need a rebuild. The aftermarket frisco tank
began to leak so bad it could hardly hold gas and the bondo was starting
to peel away. At that point I stuffed the bike in the corner of the
garage until the right opportunity came to restore her.
How did the name come about? The night I brought it home my ol'man and I
were sitting on the ground in the dark just staring at his funky '70s
machine under the single outdoor spotlight of the garage. Voodoo Child
Slight Return started playing from the stereo deep inside the garage and
it all sorta fell into place...
Original '70s madness! Look at that rear suspension set up!
Some changes over the years...
The Plan:
We
decided as a group to not only restore this funky original East Coast
chopper, but to rebuild with the mindset that what if the original owner
had the opportunity to take it one step further, to make it a real show
bike.
First thing we had to do was locate a new
springer. The square tube S.I.E. springer is long gone after it cracked
from pulling too many wheelies. Hence, the bike has had a glide front
end.
It took 6 hours of chipping away bondo to get the tank off!
Once
the tank was brazed on, they must have flipped the frame over and
dumped a gallon of bondo under the tank. There was bondo up inside the
tunnel of the tank! The braze job was so bad the only thing holding this
tank on was the bondo.
We made our own twisted struts to match the front legs on the springer.
The sissybar....
Stay tuned for more stories and updates on this build and Strange Days 3. This bike could be yours!!!
