project bike, suzuki t500 or yamaha xs 650

hi im new to the site and to cafe racers as well. i am looking into takeing on a new project and i found that one of the hardest things to do is to decide to what the doner bike should be. i have narrowed it down to the suzuki t500 titan and a yamaha xs 650. as these bikes are verry different i would like to know peoples opinions and strong or weak points about each bike. any help would be appreciated,thanks

Hi there rod
Here’s my pennies worth

Your right they are both very different bikes with one being 2 stroke and the other 4 stroke

Never owned or rode a titan should imagine they are ballistic being a 500 but a bit expensive to buy in any condition but the overall style looks spot on for a cafe

Now xs650 I know a little more about I had one as a hack for about 18 months 20 yrs ago, people have been choppin and changing them for donkeys years I’ve seen them in just about every disguise known to man but because of their popularity along with cb750 there aint no cheap ones around even complete knackers fetch good money ,mechanically they are bullet proof if you change the oil on a regular basis, all in all I would IMO go for a xs but compared to what else is on offer for less cash I would have to think long and hard

Im with miffa the only other considerations is spares availability your budget your knowledge and ability what ever you decide have fun

i have been to a few swop meets and looked over craigs list well in search for a good doner bike and it looks like a will need to spend about 500 to 1000 to get a "complet bike". i have gone to check out a few that said they were all there and when i show up the guy would show me a box of parts. the xs seems to have many parts available but i cant find as much for the t500. does anybody know of any good sites i can check out for performance stuff for the t500 to see what i could do with it?

Hi two things you mentioned Craig list does that mean your in the USA secondly if you just Google t500 you get loads of sites and pics

yes i live in the states. massachusetts to be exact. i actually found a few sites for the t500 but most of the good ones seem to be based out of england i think. i think the prices were in pounds. so i was looking for something more local to buy from. i dont mind buying from over seas just longer wait time for packages

might pay to contact a Suzuki owners club or similar in the states to find out there contacts either that or I could export stuff