What have you done to your XS today?

Yes - I’ve been thinking about that since the battery is now about 3-1/2 years old. I think I may bring a tender to the VYR or swap Lucille’s battery with the on in the ‘78 (it is new this year).
.

It would be cheap insurance to throw the new battery in for the trip. I wrote about my 77 a couple weeks ago, starter was sluggish, battery showed good voltage and good charging voltage, but the battery was 3 years old and had lost cranking power. New battery fixed it right up!
 
MaxPete, did you measure the voltage at idle or about 3000rpm? Also, if you do not night ride much and you have 55/60W H4 bulbs fitted reduce them to the 35/35W version. This takes a lot of load off the battery at low rpms. The H4 35/35W has a similar light output to the original sealed beam 50W bulbs.

14.2V is considered the optimum charge voltage because it gives a nice balance between charge rate and rate of water loss due to electrolysis. Higher charge voltages increase the charge rate but require more battery maintenance i.e. checking electrolyte level and adding distilled water if needed.
 
MaxPete, did you measure the voltage at idle or about 3000rpm? Also, if you do not night ride much and you have 55/60W H4 bulbs fitted reduce them to the 35/35W version. This takes a lot of load off the battery at low rpms. The H4 35/35W has a similar light output to the original sealed beam 50W bulbs.

14.2V is considered the optimum charge voltage because it gives a nice balance between charge rate and rate of water loss due to electrolysis. Higher charge voltages increase the charge rate but require more battery maintenance i.e. checking electrolyte level and adding distilled water if needed.

Hi Paul: yeah, that was revved up I’m afraid. I don’t often ride at night on the XS650, but as I noted earlier, she keeps on starting up using the electric starter, so I can’t complain too much.

Pete
 
OK FINE - I will go swap the danged battery Aunt Mildred!
160A81F4-5AAE-49C0-A378-8ADAFB70AAFC.jpeg

 
Well, I’ve had a delightful and educational afternoon!

Because everyone, AND my Aunt Mildred..was bugging me about Lucille’s lackadaisical charging voltage (ARE we surprised, I mean, it’s frickin’ Lucille right?), I went out to the DCW and swapped the nearly new battery in the ‘78E for the 3-1/2 year old one in the ‘76C . The fact that she has started instantaneously on the button every single time since last summer...meant nothing to you naysayers and gloom merchants. So, I did the battery swap and since I hadn’t done so yesterday, I popped the fuel tank back on and hit the button....aannnidd....no start. :wtf:

Lots of cranking, plus major occurrences of the “spoon down the garburator” noise (so apt - thanks Mailman) but no kablatta, kablatta. Geeezzzz Louise - I’ve got two busy days in the office and Lakeview is arriving on Tuesday night to load the danged bike and then we’re off to NC chop-chop on Wednesday morning - and I have a dead bike. Shits of hell! Everything else worked perfectly, but it was like there was no spark - and so I checked and by golly...there was no spark.

Well, I broke out the multimeter and started checking and all the fuses were good. More cranking and utensil gringing, aaannnddd... nothing.

Sooooo...I started snooping around and it turned out that in the process of removing and reinstalling the fuel tank, I had jarred loose the power connection to the coil which is under the tank. I guess one could attribute the NO spark condition to that broken connection. I fixed that and the bike started right up - so I reinstalled the fuel tank but in the process of doing that, I inadvertently jarred loose the main power connection (the one with the 20A fuse) so when I had her all buttoned up again, I turned the key and got....NOTHING AT ALL!
Lucille was as cold and dark as when I got her in February of 2016.

Sooooo, off comes the tank - again - and after more poking around and indecorous language and I found the bad connection - and now we’re back in business. I have now taped the offending bullet connectors to ensure that they don’t disconnect themselves at an inopportune moment at the VYR.

This whole process took about 2 hours and ruined my plans for nice little test ride and warmup session for an oil change. Dang it.

I need a break - and after the next two days, I will REALLY need a break.

Pete
 
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This whole process took about 2 hours and ruined my plans for nice little test ride and warmup session for an oil change. Dang it.
Pete

Story of my life. I had a heck of a time getting the caps on my forks and when I finally did I realized I had left out the little disc between the spring and the preload adjuster. Fast forward an hour or so later and I had the fork legs swapped so the mounts for the caliper faced forward :cussing::banghead:.
I just put my tools down and went inside...

All's well that ends well. I really like the new stance and the stiffer fork springs. It was long overdue. :bike:
 
Scrubbed the crap out of the rims, even got the women to help :D Spent several hours over a few days grinding all un needed metal off the frame. Not the stock exhaust mounts though... I wasn't sure about the exhaust, everything else is stock that I'm racing with so should I just keep the stock set up for now? save money?
 

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I have now taped the offending bullet connectors to ensure that they don’t disconnect themselves at an inopportune moment

Hate to cloud a sunny day, Pete, but:

Those bullets rely on a good friction fit to keep their solid electrical connection. The new ones I'm using are downright difficult to pull apart on purpose.

Taping them may keep them from falling apart, but it's not helping the electrical connection.

In my work, we use connectors which have 1/4" split pins which mate into bored solid females.

https://images.app.goo.gl/8agFL1JkzKjArbjT6

When those cables get thrown around a stage for a season or two, many of them start to get their pins pinched and they no longer hold the connectors together. Many stagehands will tape the connectors together so they stay together for the show, but in those venues you'll find the pins are all pitted and burned over time. Best practice is to spread those pins again. We have a three-ended tool for just this purpose. A splitting blade, a wire brush, and a hole with a little leverage to straighten.

https://pdxpendables.com/product/pin-splitter-ii/

Might I suggest pinching those female bullets just a bit to retighten the friction fit?
 
Hate to cloud a sunny day, Pete, but:

Those bullets rely on a good friction fit to keep their solid electrical connection. The new ones I'm using are downright difficult to pull apart on purpose.

Taping them may keep them from falling apart, but it's not helping the electrical connection.

In my work, we use connectors which have 1/4" split pins which mate into bored solid females.

https://images.app.goo.gl/8agFL1JkzKjArbjT6

When those cables get thrown around a stage for a season or two, many of them start to get their pins pinched and they no longer hold the connectors together. Many stagehands will tape the connectors together so they stay together for the show, but in those venues you'll find the pins are all pitted and burned over time. Best practice is to spread those pins again. We have a three-ended tool for just this purpose. A splitting blade, a wire brush, and a hole with a little leverage to straighten.

https://pdxpendables.com/product/pin-splitter-ii/

Might I suggest pinching those female bullets just a bit to retighten the friction fit?

YUP - already pinched - but I do NOT want anything to come apart while leaned way over on the Tail of the Dragon Daniel.
That could be.....unpleasant.

Thanks for the links - I will implement those during Lucille's mid-life refit which will likely be done this coming winter.

Cheers!

Pete
 
YUP - already pinched - but I do NOT want anything to come apart while leaned way over on the Tail of the Dragon Daniel.
That could be.....unpleasant.

Thanks for the links - I will implement those during Lucille's mid-life refit which will likely be done this coming winter.

Cheers!

Pete

Ah, just a little cheap insurance then. Excellent.
 
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