Your Bike: Chad Daly
This week’s #tonuptuesday entrant is named “Cathy” and she comes from the gorgeous lake city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Chad Daly picked up this 1981 Yamaha XS650 Special from the original owner for only $400! It was his first project and he spent five months working on it in his garage when he wasn’t traveling the Northwest for his day job, which is building cell phone towers.
Here is the straight story, right from Chad:
“I personally crafted every portion of this bike, except for paint, powdercoat and upholstery,” he said. It’s a one owner, low mile classic! To cut or not to cut? She spent her first year being ‘old reliable’ spending most of her time running to the parts house, or the occasional lap around the lake!
“Then winter came;
“Time to cut, I mean it’s an ‘81, the most produced XS650 ever, hack it! Right? I hacked the back half of her off, and with the help of my good buddies at Villalobos Choppers, bent up a new subframe for her. I put her up on the jig and aligned everything to the moon, and mig’d her into place.
“I HATE fiberglass, so I knew my tins would have to be well, tin! I don’t own sheet metal tools, and this was my first real go at it. I had to 2 piece the rear cowl section to get it just right! It fits perfect, and is easily removable. I built the seat pan with the electronics box stashed inside of it, and then had the aged leather stitched up by Todd Van Houton out of Spokane, WA. I wanted underseat pipes, so after lots of beers, figured it out and made up a set, that are also easily removable.
“I fabricated a mount for the steering stabilizer, added the revalved RFS shocks, and added the Racetech internals to the stock front forks. I also built the fork brace, and under-swingarm battery box. The dual disc setup was almost factory bolt on, and I refaced and drilled the rotors out myself with a hand drawn pattern.
“The motor is bone stock with the addition of the Mikuni VM34s, Pamco ignition and a deep sump oil pan. This winter she’s back on the bench getting a 700cc upgrade. I love this bike. She handles awesome and has a ton of power.
“Now, as for the name… Have yourself a couple of pints and repeat the word Cafe’.. eventually as the night progresses, it will slur into Cathy. Trust me, I’m living proof!
Find Chad on Instagram at: @idaho_chad
