xs650 hardtail for the freedom or death machine rebuild

tc bros. sent one of their famous xs650 hardtails this week. i ordered last wednesday. it arrived five days later. none of this “five working days” ****, either. it arrived monday afternoon. that’s great. no messing around.

but the box was pretty messed up.

“s**t,” i thought as i asked the driver “what did you guys do to this?” he muttered something unintelligible and which i was unable to decipher.

“do you need my signature?”

of course not. he was running back to his truck to hit the fuel pedal and disappear.

mildly concerned with the condition of the package, but knowing it was a hardcore piece of steel inside, i brought it in…

and tore it apart. this was my tc bros. yamaha xs650 hardtail:

wait. is that a beer koozie?

f*** yeah, it’s a beer koozie. most excellent. a sticker, too, which i’ve already applied to the laptop.

now for the serious stuff. some hardtail manufacturers will send their products and good luck to you. at tc bros, they hold your first-timer hand with four informative pages loaded with easy-to-understand instructions such as why a couple cross tubes are merely tack welded in place instead of fully attached, and why some xs650 model years will need a slight modification to properly accept the tail.

even a dummy like me understood everything.

even though ups obviously had a tap dance party on this box, the hardtail itself showed no signs of bending or breaking.

everything was in place and it looks like i have all i need to re-build my poorly hacked xs650 chopper frame.

with all the helpful information, and the beer koozie, any neophyte bike builder who can tig weld should be able to do this properly.

look for more info as we get this on the brand new frame of the FREEDOM or DEATH MACHINE!

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