The XS650 chopper may be the most popular home made bike project in America these days. These metric builds seem to have even surpassed the craze over Triumph choppers. There are multiple websites devoted entirely to creating choppers from this bike.
Do an image search for the word "choppers' and more pictures that show a Yamaha xs650 chopper will come up than any other single motorcycle model. It's crazy. I have to ask myself, "is this a grass roots obsession or one the biggest marketing campaigns ever launched on the custom motorcycle industry?"
In addition to the two companies that make the weld on hardtails, Ardcore choppers have literally become internet celebrities as a result of the interest generated about these bikes.
If you plan on doing an XS650 chopper project know that virtually anything you want to know about them is available somewhere online including the wildly popular XS650 chopper wiring mod that allows you to remove the battery completely from the electrical system. Can you say "kick start only"?
And it's not just Americans who are doing this. Canadians and Brits are also heavy in the scene, but the Japanese have taken these choppers to a whole new level with the "Brat Style" bikes. There's an entire American sub-culture just around these guys. Most of the Brat Style bikes are actually more bobber than chopper but their still worth mentioning when you're talking about the 650.
Most outsiders want to know one thing. Why the 650 and not the 750? Well, even thought it's tiny by today's' standards the XS650 Yamaha was the first "large" Japanese sport bike to hit the American scene. At a time when everyone was riding 350's or 400's these were mighty fast bikes. Couple that with the fact that there just so many of them out there and the 650 chopper craze was born.
