Having fun and making progress

Tumblin

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Hello TX and XS'ers,
I was given this 80 special from a new friend that I met walking his dog in my neighborhood. As a professional painter he had admired my house painting strategy and finished product on his strolls. We chatted about everything except motorcycles until I finally got around to telling him about a basket case Triumph I just missed out on to appease my garage Moto fix over the winter. The conversations then got more serious with the typical bench racing when we'l intersect. I shared how I competed and actually won our local TT/Flat Track hi-point one year competing against the twins with my CZ400. How I shook up the competition with my squared up turns and railing the fence LOL.
My new friend Ron invited me over to his house for a beer and after multiples he rolled out his XS from the shed. He then asked me if I was interested in taking on bringing back to life this project. Well both tires were flat, the throttle was seized with corrosion and rust beginning to consume. He hadn't rode it in 10 years but after all the stories I knew it meant a lot to him. I volunteered to see what we could do to get it back on the road for him and then he handed me his title and said, no I want you to have it!
As I said I've always loved the twins...motors that is and actually the early XS models but the Specials are some of my least favorites with their King/Queen seats, rear wheel weight emphasis and those damn rototiller bars, JMHO! Knowing his pride I said I would love to fix it for him, but for me I always wanted to customize one to my liking. He said perfect, its meant for you to enjoy, its just rotting here and motorcycles are too much fun - meant to be admired and rode!
So all this led me to you guys, it is amazing the exposure to friends and communities our 2 wheel passion spins us towards.
The picture unfortunately isn't a great representation of what the jewel looked like the day we pulled her from the shed. Taken after I had scrubbed her clean, changed the bars, filters, fluids, battery, plugs, cleaned and soldered up both carb floats, inflated tires and put a hundred miles on her around my valley. Both cylinders were pushing 200lbs and I was confident with my tear down that thee motor was going to be well down the road.
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Unfortunately I had a friend get in some serious trouble, thrown in jail and needing to sell his moto inventory to cover legal fees. I was ab
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le to revive and sell his four motorcycles, but that pretty much toasted the last year for personal projects and this is how she sat.
 
Certainly the price is right! 200 lbs compression..........................either you have an engine that someone has modified the engine internals, or your compression gauge is not accurate. Normal compression is around 140 to 150 psig.
 
which gave me time to market some of my own stuff and stock parts I wouldn't be using. Which seemed important to me being how I was raised a "poor dirt biker" scraping to get to weekend races Lol. But it also became a bit of motivation to appease the wife and see how thrifty I could be with my build. The delayed project also gave me time to shop, consider and research before moving forward. Although I knew I wanted to maintain suspension and rideability this bike would be as much about the look I wanted and would be a garage queen as much as ridden locally and short distances since I have another canyon carver and several others with fresh knobs.
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200lbs?? well there I go already screwing up my thread and you all knowing ones catching me Lol.
It's been about 18 months since I've ran that (and the tear down) and as slippery as my memory is, I got a little off line. Both cylinders tested very close to max and the same...hmmm 150? hopefully I'll have it running by late January and I'll get back to you with that one...however the bike ran hard, started easily and I was very pleased with the test.
 
I scored a cool tank, headlight, pipe wrap off this classified section and began my mock up. In my mind I wanted a street scrambler, but stretched and lowered a bit
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Finally started reassembly so I could confirm most of my needs and ponder the swingarm mods and possibly using the GSXR rear wheel. I shaved down the steering head added the required races and bearings to mount the new front end along with new upper motor mounts from Hugh's Bros for tank clearance. I also scored this 2 into one exhaust added my wrap, new paint and muffler stuffing along with some shopping from Mike's and my local shop for other incidentals.
Last week I picked up this Chinese seat from another project builder for cheep, I'll try not to destroy it with the heat gun and stapler...we'll see. My current intention is to use the factory loom as I had no issues and my aging carcass appreciates the button
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I purchased a lockable hand gun case I was needing thinking that may be the right size for an electric tray...it was! So I went back for another. Finally spent dome real money and purchased TC Bros' artsy battery box so I could boldly showoff my unwillingness to PMA
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Since I haven't welded since high school some 40 years ago... and forgot everything I thought I knew. I'll be having the swingarm stretched, braced by the professionals. Actually hoping to have a friend's son who's a fabricator in my area with experience with such projects to ponder the wide gsxr wheel. I know with counter sprocket line up, gearing and frame clearance it will be snug and a compromise on top speed at best if it can be accomplished. Please chime in if there is a successful experience out there!
Once I have that work done I'll play with shock lengths and settle on chopping the rear frame loop to shorten...or remove. I want to try and incorporate the shortened stock fender and LED light I have mounted.
 
Hey, Tumblin. Try a forum search on "offset sprocket" and "Gary Poh" for some stories on wide rears.

I ran a mustang tank like that for awhile back when, lotsa fuel, great for x-countrys. Had to goof with rubber isolation mounting a bit. The engine noise goes right thru those things...
 
That tank is already a pretty snug mount even without any current anchors, rubber or foam. I'll bet it will be buzzy...maybe the wife will want to pilot this one?!?

Thanks for the forum search direction TwoMany...I'm on it
 
It's a Bull Dog Vault I purchased locally. I'm using the keyed model to open and have additional access, though I'll have to pull the battery still to have effective access through the clam shell. The access through the top is sufficient for fuses, but with the stock brackets I'm using I'm hoping the clam shell opening will be a good option...still need to work on final wiring though.20161129_102503.jpg 20161129_102310.jpg
 
If you're looking for improved performance, those short UNIs with the capped ends won't help much. They don't flow any more than a stock airbox really. You have the room so you could go with a longer UNI with the open end. They do flow more.
 
...so at least I'll be close on jetting eh?

I hadn't realized they were capped when I ordered... oh well probably get me a big bump on the mower and rototiller
 
Well, you have the BS34 carbs. They were very lean from the factory. Almost any little change from stock can throw them off. In fact, many claim a bump up one size on the mains even works better on a totally stock machine. That tells you right there that they were borderline too lean right from the factory. You've changed the exhaust as well, so a little jet swapping is probably in your future. For the basic mods (pipes and pods), these bikes don't need much but they often need something, more so in your case with those factory lean BS34s. The usual is one up on the pilots and one to three up on the mains.
 
When I get my swingarm worked out and ready for final mods I'll be stripping it all back down for paint and final clean up of loom, etc. I'll also pull the carbs back apart to replace the heavily soldered floats with a set of freshies and I'll most likely take your jet recommendation prior to reassembly. It did run well prior, no lean pop and plugs looked great. That 2 into 1 exhaust utilizes a baffle system and now with fresh packing it should still be pretty calm. I'm looking forward to playing with jetting along with possibly opening that exhaust some if it's too restrictive. Thanks 5twins
 
Although the BS34s were very E.P.A. strangled, they can be tuned and "made right". They were the last and most modern carb fitted to the 650 during it's production. Many prefer the older BS38s and think they're better but I think down the road in the future, the BS34s are going to emerge as the best stock carb.
 
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