One of the best ways to beef-up the looks of your bike is to shrink stuff, like the tank, the seat length, lights, etc, and this lovely XJ650 "Seca" from Tarmac Custom Motorcycles is an object lesson in doing that - along with all the other bits of hard work that go into building a desirable custom motorcycle.

The owner of this build asked the guys at Tarmac Customs for exactly this kind of aesthetic change, and on a modest budget. Luckily the bike arrived in a pretty good state so all the effort could be put into making her look just right. The tank on an XJ650 is pretty huge, so this was swapped-out for a tiny Honda MBX80 item, while at the back end the tail was chopped and a subfame-hugging seat was fabricated. This did the bulk of the less-is-more size reduction.

As the budget wasn't huge the guys didn't have the resources to hide all the electrics, so instead they made new side panels that sat inside the frame tubes to keep things as narrow as possible. The large foot rest supports were also ditched and replaced with more simple pegs.

A bates headlight and mini speedo keep the front end tight, mounted close to the chassis parts, and an ABM handlebar was drilled out to hide the wiring for the switchgear. Grips are by Renthal.

The engine was kept stock, but pod filters and a carb re-jet conspired with less restrictive reverse-cone mufflers on the standard headers to improve the fueling and looks. Fenders at the front and back were hand made in aluminium. The tri-colour paint scheme uses matte black, silver and anthracite in a vintage inspired design.

And the end result? a bike that looks like a little 400cc street machine with a big fat engine wedged into it, plus she rides really well. Another nice build - on a budget - from Tarmac Custom Motorcycles.