The Yamaha XS500 may not have anywhere near the street credentials of its big brother, the XS650, but if you ride a parallel twin less than 30 years old you owe a debt of gratitude to the younger sibling. It’s a potential Tommy Rand, Co-Founder of
Relic Motorcycles from Aarhus, Denmark, saw when he found this particular 1977 Yamaha XS500 for sale in Copenhagen. He must have a great creative imagination, because the bike he came to see had been subjected to a terrible rebuild, strange yellow paint, no seat and it half resembled a hot dog stand. It’d also been on the market for over a year. Clearly, no other prospective buyers saw the possibility of a perfectly built Nordic Cafe Racer that Tommy and the boys envisioned and then brought to life.
To light the way a smaller than stock round headlight is one of the few modern features, with rear lighting coming from an LED tail light mounted under the heavily bobbed rear fender. Low mounted clip-on bars add to the tough low lines and are fitted with Chocolate Brown Biltwell grips that butt up to the refreshed factory switch blocks. A single chrome cupped speedo is all the instrumentation the build requires and the overall minimalism of the accessories let the stunning body work take centre stage. Tommy and his three best friends only established Relic Motorcycles just over a year ago, but with their design skills and ability to execute flawless work there is no doubt the orders will start pouring in and they just might have sparked a renewed interest in the little XS sibling!
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