Written by Martin Hodgson
If it’s true that one’s destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things, then surely a trip to the Himalaya’s can lead to a vision where anything is possible. The Yamaha XS650 has been a mainstay of the custom motorcycle revival and even before they were being cafe’d they were being cut up and bobbed. But it took Kacey Elkins of Stanford, Kentucky, to adventure towards the world’s highest peak for us to finally see the mighty twin transformed in such a way. The Krossover Customs craftsman calls it #45 T.A.T Special, we say it’s the coolest XS650 Adventure bike we’ve ever seen.

But as Kacey explains the journey to Dual Sport nirvana started well before he ventured over the ocean, ?I had actually built this bike originally into a cafe bike a few years back for a good friend of mine with his help on a crazy four-day alcohol fuel weekend, surprisingly it went really well but after about a year he disassembled the entire bike to build something else then lost interest in it, then he called me and asked if I wanted the basket case bike and that was that.? Pretty sure the smoke comes from the other end
Not yet sure how he’d transform the bike, a jaunt to the Fuel Cleveland show had Mr Elkins walking away as the lucky winner of a trip to ride in the Himalayas in Nepal with Himalayan Heroes USA and Old Bike Barn. It was here on this epic adventure across rivers and snow that he came up wi...