Recent content by Bandito

I'm not saying you can't tour on it, but to venture and call it "sport tourer" is a stretch. I do quite a bit of "sport touring", with an emphasis on sport. A sport touring motorcycle these days will go faster in first or second gear than an xs650 will do flat out in 5th gear. My current...

I have kenda challengers, they came on the bike... and seem pretty good.

The rotors seem fine, there is no pulsing at the lever during braking... aside from this funny vibe as you are coming to a halt.

I built my xs650 last year and have put about 500 miles on it since. I put brand new calipers on the front, all new pads, braided lines, new master cylinder/lever combo. Everything is nice and tight, I've gone through it all... the brakes are bled and feel very solid. BUT the brakes...

I fit into the category of sport touring motorcyclist. I can't say the xs650 is anything remotely close to what I would describe as sport touring. On an xs650 in anything close to stock form, you would be lucky to keep up with a good rider on a modern sport touring bike for more than about 2...

Where do these clutch cables fail? I'll have to take a look at mine and maybe just swap it if it's a problem part. I don't need it snapping out on the road somewhere, when the original cable was fine for 20 years. I spent well over $3000 on parts from Mikes.. I did have one item returned...

Haven't been on here for quite some time... what sad news. John and I exchanged some PM's about gearing and tuning and he was a huge help. Sad how life plays out.

34t claims to be standard, but it's not the case on the Canadian bikes I have found. I've looked at 5 of them out here, and all have 36t rears. I have two sets of spare wheels, both had 36t rears, all original. So I am going to say that it was likely this was the standard gearing in...

I switched my bike to a 17/31... it's just exactly what I needed. No longer am I being passed by 50cc scooters with my 36. LOL.

I'm going to assume you have the sidecase back on and everything assembled... Are you certain you have the kickshaft inserted all the way in? It is a bit of a tricky assembly to install exactly as it needs to be. I have a feeling your return spring has come out of the recess.. and thus...

I always love the "Jap peice of shit" comments...

I pulled the side cover, cleaned the threads and re/re with a large portion of blue threadlocker. Thanks for the heads up on that. To remove it, all I did was put it into gear and hit it with an impact driver, came off no problem, but it was on tight. Used a torque wrench on reassembly.

Normally I'd be very suprised if that bolt tightened down to 12.5mkg would come loose. Then again, I have found that essentially every single nut or bolt on an XS650 is game to falling off if not having a lock washer, correct torque, nyloc, or blue threadlocker... (or combinations...

I picked up a master link, all is good. It's pouring rain at my place... so I haven't been able to ride it with the new gearing... There was some drama with the whole thing though... I torqued down all the bolts and put the clutch cover back on... and noticed the cable was very loose, and...

Where am I when this kinda shit goes down?!?!