I left my XS in the garage as I had some stuff to deliver out to the Earl of North Buxton and there was supposed to be a he!! of a thunderstorm hereabouts tonight. So, I took the Miata instead and we (Lakeview and I) wound up having a nice fish & chips dinner in picturesque Erieau.
I also got to see that snazzy new cafe bike he has been working on and wow - it is a stunner. He started it up and that 2-1 exhaust has a nice throaty bark plus the engine is one of the quietest XS650s I’ve ever heard.
Once it’s all sorted, I suspect that bike will be a real goer!
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Got mine fired back up today after 4 month re-furb, frame painted along with all tinware, piggy back shocks, forks rebuilt, new tyres, wheels painted, harness re-wrapped and a lot of the connectors from inside headlight removed and bullet connectors used and relocated under tank, KZ bars, clutch rebuilt using new parts, head has new stainless valves and tappet adjusters, new cam guides and tensioner, carbs stripped cleaned and re-assembled new boots and cable, stock jetting, braided brake lines, new front master cylinder, back master re-built, calipers re-built, Boyer Bransden ignition, new headlight and signals and most fasteners replaced with stainless, original paint
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Madness is in Georgia, the other XS runners are sold. There's a story about the Guzzi (more on THAT later)
How long can I ride the rockets? both position and license retention....answer not long.
Allison has glommed onto the Radian, so I did the minimum to be able to ride period piece.
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tillers bars Gone. Still need better bars but these were 'round
Special seat, grab bar, taillight gone, now: standard seat, mounts on frame and seat chopped seat as low as it will go, early special? grab bar, standard taillight. I'll go ride a bit now and decide what's getting changed next. Gotta get the wheels to match, simplest is the spoke front wheel off etsatz indian. Then get a smaller MC and SS front line on it.