The Yamaha XS400 is a hell of a motorcycle, it was first released in 1977 and it came pre-fitted with luxuries like adjustable rear shock absorbers, self-cancelling turn signals and an automatic petcock. The punchy 392cc parallel twin produces 36hp and feeds that to the rear wheel via a 6-speed transmission and chain drive.
This particular XS400 was built by Andy Hull over at Hold Fast Motors, Andy found the bike for sale by a farmer who’d been letting his kids play on it and as a result, it looked like it’d been picked up and tossed around by an F5.
He decided to strip the bike back to its constituent parts and rebuilt it from scratch, the engine needed a thorough going over. He wanted to give the bike a little additional ground clearance so he moved the rear shock mounts down a few inches, he then added a set of vintage motocross handlebars and a minimalist tachometer above the headlight.
The finished bike was then handed over to the talented pinstripper Jeremy Pedersen of Relic Kustoms, he added some tasteful pinstripes and the Hold Fast Motors logo on the side of the tank. That handsome leather battery surround was handmade by Nick Pedersen, it adds a nice warm tone to the colour scheme and eliminates the unsightly clutter often caused by the electrics.
You can visit Hold Fast Motors here to see more of Andy’s work, we’ll be keeping an eye on him and will feature more of his work as it rolls out of the garage.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Ride Journal Magazine is a great example of what motorcycle magazines should be, with pages full of stunning photography and beautifully written articles – without any advertising clutter. The magazine is the work of well-known motorcycle writer and photographer Jeremy Hammer who you can follow on Instagram here. Jeremy is a native of one of…
Malcolm Smith is one of the world’s pre-emiment off0rad racers, he primarily raced motorcycles but in the 1970s while recovering from a broken leg, he built his own off-road racing buggy and competed in both the Baja 1000 and the Baja 500.
Editor’s Note: We’re now in touch with Stephen’s family and they have the negatives safely in storage. At the moment it’s just a matter of them finding time to have a look through the boxes. We also picked up two more leads on some other historically important Britten images. If you have any Britten-related images…
The Vincent Black Lightning was the fastest and most desirable motorcycle in the world when it was released in 1948. A factory-delivered Black Lightning was capable of 150 mph if you were brave enough, and no small amount of bravery was required as braking technology hadn’t yet caught up with rapidly increasing horsepower levels. The…
The Pillbox Bat Co. was formed by Zak Fellman and Dan Watson, two close friends who grew up playing little league together. Once they hit adulthood they talked about bringing back the classically styled, individually made wooden baseball bats of yesteryear – and set about making it happen. Zak and Dan set up a small…
This article was written by Walt Siegl of Walt Siegl Motorcycles – when possible we like to bring you the story of a motorcycle in the words of the person who built it to cut out the middleman, giving you unfettered access to their thought process and methods. It was a natural progression from building…
