Am in the middle of a "Tour de Midwest"

rick8928

XS650 Enthusiast
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Baltimore MD
Here's my itinerary:

June 25 Baltimore to Chillicothe, Ohio on route 50 (gorgeous run through the Appalachians)
June 25 Chillicothe to Mitchell, Indiana (Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club National Rally) [VJMC]
June 26/27 Great fun at the rally- conversations with dozens of folks, back country rides..
June 27 Mitchell to Philo, Illinois to visit with friends and checked out Bloomington Gold Corvette Rally
June 28 Philo to Lawrence, Kansas to meet up with wife, son at In-Law's lake hours (endured 1.5 hours of horrendous rain and a dozen nearby lightning strikes)
June 29-July 7 Fun with family in Kansas + bike maintenance (new battery, missing bolts....)
July 8 Lawrence to Joplin, Missouri to visit friends
July 9/10 Joplin to Mansfield, Ohio for AMA vintage days (using rt. 60 scenic highway partly)
July 11/12 AMA vintage days
July 12 Mansfield to Pittsburg International Race Complex (vintage car racing), then back to Baltimore (late night arrival)

As of today, July 6, trip is on schedule and have accumulated ~1500 miles. Will be leaving Lawrence on Tuesday morning for a several hour jaunt down to Joplin.

So far on the trip have had several mechanicals (this trip is kind of a beta; only was able to put 150 miles on bike before taking off). On day one, started incurring oil leaks on both sides of the engine. Ended up getting the countershaft seal replaced in Cincinatti on day two, and sealed the missing tachometer cable lock bolt hole with RTV later that day. My battery died on day 4 (since replaced in Lawrence) but the bike kick started and ran anyways. In Philo Illinois took a short ride w/o ear plugs and heard a squeal coming from the engine. Earlier that day, I had felt a very unusual and strong low frequency vibration as I was idling into a gas station. I think I fried a crankshaft or rod bearing. However, several days and 550 miles later, the squealing has abated so I'm not worrying about it until I get home. Any ideas as to what it could be?

After spending Tuesday with friends in Joplin, I'll be heading back East on hopefully scenic route 60 through Louisville and then heading North to Mansfield for the AMA vintage weekend at Mid Ohio.

black bike is mine. perfect bikes are show winners (yamaha class) at VJMC show.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1284[1].jpg
    IMG_1284[1].jpg
    306.4 KB · Views: 280
  • IMG_1279[1].jpg
    IMG_1279[1].jpg
    317.2 KB · Views: 293
Color me green with envy!
And don't you travel light. . . .no bags?:umm:
Sounds like the ride and shows are top notch entertainment.
You really could post a few more pics along the way. :wink2:
Have a great ride!!
And thanks for the post.
 
That's what these bikes are meant for. Nothing like getting out on the open road and putting on some kms..............oops, I mean miles for my american friends.

Fine looking bike:thumbsup:
 
Oh, man, I wish I was on a trip like that. You're reminding me of my cross-countries of the '70s.

You could pull and inspect both oil screens, see if anything's in there. The oil change wouldn't hurt.

Might be able to catch a little bit of route 66 on the Joplin run...
 
Good on ya Rick8928. I hope to go from California To Northern Georgia next year. I am not sure either my 78' xs or my 63' BSA. Either could be an adventure.
 
Fun trip completed. Bike leaked oil and was making squealing noises when hot, but completed my 3,000 mile journey yesterday evening. I lucked out on the weather, only experiencing that one rainstorm coming out of Philo Illinois. I also had very few really hot days.
-Nice pretty ride between Lawrence Kansas and Joplin Missouri
-Really liked route 60 East out of Springfield, and then onto 69 East of Princeton
-The AMA vintage weekend at Mid-Ohio was great! So many bikes out of the 60's/70's that I was in nostalgia heaven. I saw all my early bikes: '70 Yamaha L5T-A 100cc trailbike, '68 Yamaha DT-1 Enduro, '73 RD-350, '78 GS-750, '82 GS1100E, '86 VF-500F....The racing was fun to watch too
PICs: The winning XS's at the VJMC rally show, Yamaha class; family and inlaws at lake outside Lawrence, KS; my bike parked at the VJMC tent at mid-ohio; just after arriving home yesterday evening after a 450 mile day
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1279[1].jpg
    IMG_1279[1].jpg
    317.2 KB · Views: 227
  • IMG_1282[1].jpg
    IMG_1282[1].jpg
    307 KB · Views: 230
  • IMG_1292[1].jpg
    IMG_1292[1].jpg
    313.5 KB · Views: 233
  • IMG_1306[1].jpg
    IMG_1306[1].jpg
    265.1 KB · Views: 252
I wondered if you managed to stay behind the storms. Quite the trip. Next time the "will an XS do long trips" question comes up. . . . .
 
Congrats on your trip, seems like you had an awesome trip. How many miles did your bike have before starting your trip? 3000 miles, even though quite a few for short period of time, still not a lot of miles for an engine to develop oil leaks, overheating, and wheezing noises. Once again I am assuming your engine was in top shape before starting out on your trip, are these bikes just not able to handle high mileage?
 
I'm the third or fourth owner of the bike. Original speedometer/odometer long gone so have no idea how many hours the motor has on it. Also, no idea if it had been sitting unused for years, allowing seals to dry up. The bike is also a bit of a "bitsa"; it looks to have been messed with. Summary, no idea of the condition of the motor when I started my trip. I'd only had time to put about 150 easy miles on it before I started journey. When I bought the bike, I had spent time eliminating surface corrosion, plus adjusting cam chain, valve clearance, and points; plus changing oil and filters.

I had always planned on stripping the engine down to components to check it out, and I'll be doing that this year. Will be going through fuel and electrical system as well.

Once returned to specs, I'm sure the bike will be able to handle high mileage/high speed running.
 
Update: upon returning home, redid the tune-up (adjusting cam chain, valves, ignition timing). Did some reading and found that these bikes had a propensity to spit oil out the breather tubes if overfilled, and there was a service bulletin indicating that the dipstick should be modified to induce a lower oil level. With slightly less oil in the crankcase, oil leak has stopped. Just to be sure that no matter what, none would end up on the rear tire (like during my trip), I modified the breather output as follows: cut the two clear 1/2" ID tubes at the rear of the carb tops after running them horizontal; ran the tubes into the opposite ends of a brass 1/2" T fitting from Lowe's; ran a single tube down vertically from the stem of the "T" to a small automotive conical breather filter terminating just above the center of the swingarm pivot; cut off the bottom 3" of a plastic water bottle, and set it on top of the swingarm with the filter inside it (also serves to hold the water bottle container in place). So far, no oil accumulating in any of the clear tubes. I suspect the resistant air pressure of the filter plus the opposing orientation of the two breather tubes entering the top of the "T" tend to mitigate any residual oil loss.

Haven't figured out the source of the noise yet; could it be simply an exhaust leak from the header pipe gasket? Will replace gasket and see.

Also raised the needles one notch and opened up the pilot screws a half turn (bike came with K&N type conical air filters and essentially open megaphones and I think was running a little lean). Bike now runs great.
 
That was an adventure since you only test drove 150. The squeal could be the advance rod needing to be cleaned and greased. Nice bike By the way. Looks like a fun ride. Great pictures. Did you check gas mileage? :thumbsup:
 
Great idea about the advance rod-that's about where the noise seems to be emanating from! Grease time!

The odometer on the Dime City speedometer is suspect (both gauges started oscillating madly during the trip, and the speedo is now toast), but I'll guestimate low to mid 40s MPG (depending on road conditions and my right wrist).

Rick
 
Back
Top