A quintessential rags to riches, barn find to showroom shine build from Jeremy Tagand.
A quintessential rags to riches, barn find to showroom shine build from Jeremy Tagand. Like wayward teenagers in the Summer of Love, it was found in the back of a shed with nowhere to be. Needless to say that after years of salt and cobwebs, time had not been kind to this poor TDub.
The engine internals resembled metal confetti (patent pending) and everything else wasn’t faring much better but somewhere between ingenuity and masochism lay the desire to take a neglected wretch and make it anew.
After a full strip down, every last bolt was either discarded and replaced or zinc coated. The motor received a complete rebuild including a custom exhaust and Keihin FCR carburettor.
The frame checked into the OR, received a board rack and left powder-coated in satin black. Both wheels received new rims and spokes and got ceramic coated in champagne gold to resemble XT’s of the late 70’s and early 80’s.
The excessively extended swingarm on the bike was shortened with a custom YSS shock keeping the bumps in check. Up front the forks were rechromed and the lowers powdercoated to OEM finish. 
A shortened seat was sourced from Japan and then re-foamed for a more VMX shape and adorned in gripper vinyl and Alcantara, accented by the red stitching and branding in the rear.
An alloy trackmaster style tank sporting the infamous, early 80’s XT500 colour scheme and graphics was perched atop the refurbed frame.
In the cockpit a set of Protaper EVO tracker bars hold the Motogadget Motoscope Mini and Mo.sign recessed into the bar pad- Which is also handsomely dressed in the gripper material from the seat. Messner Moto throttle and switches and motogadget grips finish off the bars perfectly.
The final piece of the puzzle was the lighting, Kellermann Jetstream indicators take care of the left and rights while a Highsider bates style LED looks ahead. 
Original post on modernclassicbikes.co.uk and published by Frank Duggan. Frank is the Founder and Editor of Modern Classic Motorcycle News, an independent motorcycle publication covering modern classic motorcycles, roadsters, scramblers, cruisers, electric motorcycles and the wider motorcycle industry.
