Thanks Pete! I bought it from a guy who had it in a barn in Crystal Lake, IL he was the second owner. I'm thinking it was a Canadian bike because of the brake lining warning light instead of oil pressure? Is there another way to tell?
No - I don't think so. I am not an expert on the various versions, serial numbers and colour schemes (Skull is I'd say, but others have extensive knowledge too). Perhaps one of them could chip-in on that issue.
Our '76s seem to be mostly the red version (see attached photo of my Lucille) while the US bikes seem to be mainly the blue variant - but those guidelines do not appear to be universal.
Our bikes only seem to come with one front disk (same as in the US) and the switch-over to metric speedos in Canada didn't happen until the 1977 model year. The oil light thing is interesting: Lucille came to me (from a barn) with an "
Oil" light instrument cluster while other '76s I have seen all had the "
Brake Lining" version. When I start my bike, the "
Oil" light comes on just it would if it were a "
Brake Lining" warning light - and then it goes off once she is running.
The problem is that as far as I am aware, no XS650 of
ANY year ever came from the factory with any sort of engine oil sensor (temperature, pressure or oil quantity) so there is no reason at all for an "Oil" light on an XS650 dash. I think that Lucille's dash is actually a 1976 XS500C part - as that bike
DID have an oil pressure sensor (and that thing
really needed it).
When and why her dash was changed.....I can only speculate, but given Lucille's somewhat "troublesome" nature, my guess is that she had a
close encounter of the ditch kind or something like that somewhere in her checkered past.