Recent content by TheRadBaron

I'm rebuilding the motor of my '78 XS650 and it's pretty much done accept for the cylinder head. I found that one of my exhaust valve guides was scored up and the rest were on the loose side, so I decided to replace all four while I had the head off. I'm an experienced mechanic on these old...

Sorry. I found a lot of good information using the search function. I must have misspelled "sidecar" the first time because I swore that I tried and didn't find anything. Still, I didn't find anything really detailing the actual mounts.

I'm preparing to put a home built sidecar onto my '78 XS650. I've assembled a lot of general information and studied a lot of different sidecar rigs, so I have a good idea of what needs to happen. I haven't been able to get a look at any XS650 sidecar outfits, though. It would be nice to have...

Has the PE swap been done, or is it purely hypothetical? I don't think I could get one to compare it to without paying for it, and I'd rather not buy one to find out that it won't work for some reason.

Sorry if this has been covered before. My slow internet makes it really hard to search for stuff. I'm looking for a swingarm to swap onto my XS650 scrambler that's a few inches longer than stock. I'd like to do something that wouldn't take a lot of modifications, though I can weld/fabricate...

Alright. Thanks for the info. I think I'll stick with the 38s for now.

I was just wondering the reasoning behind Yamaha changing from the BS38 carbs to the smaller BS34s for the later years of the XS650. Do the 34s offer better fuel mileage, throttle response, etc? I have a '77 with the 38s on it and I'm happy with them. I have a set of 34s as well, and I was...

I think the "only for the serious" was in regards to the dry clutch modification, though I'm sure that it takes some seriousness to do the pull-clutch mod as well...just not as much.

I've been exploring options for upgrading the clutch on my XS. I was thinking about going with a hydraulic setup but leaving it as a push-type (thanks to all that replied to that post), but I've been thinking about it more and I'm really starting to like the idea of a pull-type release...

Thanks for the good info and links. I considered using one of the kits that pulls on the existing release mechanism, but I quickly wrote off that idea for the reason Travis listed. Travis, were you able to compare the 38mm slave to the 33mm unit? I'd be interested in which unit worked better.

I'm looking to do the hydraulic clutch conversion that people have done using the Magura master and slave cylinders. I haven't seen that type of slave cylinder for sale anywhere. I know that Magura makes it, but I really can't find any info on it. Does anyone know the part number or the model...