Miss November XS2 tribute

Today, the 33T sprocket arrived so today's job was:





Being in no rush, soaked the sprocket screws and the castellated spindle nut in acetic acid. Well OK, vinegar and salt. They came up nice with a brass brush.

No pictures of the new sprocket in place - nothing much to see except it's black. Managed out for a 16-mile test run.

Worthwhile change?

Definitely. Doesn't sound like much, one tooth less on the rear sprocket. I expected the change to be detectable in top gear - a few less RPMs at higher MPH. But it makes more difference than that. Immediately noticed that the change has affected gear selection, for example, riding through a village with 30 mph limit, I have been finding 3rd gear too low, the engine feels too 'busy'. But in 4th, although the bike is happy enough, I tell myself that's too high a gear for tootling around in traffic.

Now, it's simple - 3rd feels right, 4th would definitely be a bit high. Similar on country roads - corners where we might have just backed off and limped round in 5th are now naturally 4th gear.

All in all, the bike feels better balanced. I suppose that must be improved balance of power and gearing. I didn't expect such a positive result from this wee change.

On another question, the 2F0 engine had allegedly done less than 500 miles, so I suppose I'm running in a forty year-old engine! I said before it felt smoother than the 'old' 447-. Well, the new engine seems to be still smoother today. Apart from my subjective impressions, I'll insist the image in the mirrors is less blurry.

Surely can't just be the gearing change? Can an engine become smoother with miles as it is run in?

I feel the 33T sprocket matches this engine's power output and characteristics very well, better than the original 34T. Yes, amazing the difference just that one tooth change makes.

Ray, that's really interesting feedback on the 33T vs 34T. I'm still playing catch up on this thread, and looks like 5T mentioned it previously, but to confirm - it was just a drop in with the existing front sprocket and your existing chain? Maybe I'll consider that as a future project.... I'm just replacing the stock 34T on mine

Go down one tooth, you won't be sorry. This is what they sold the bikes in Europe with and I think they got it right.

Something else I should mention, although it may be a little late for Ray - you really need/want to put anti-seize on the sprocket bolts. They can seize up big time if you don't. They're exposed to all sorts of water, dirt, etc. on the outside of course, but also on the inside because the holes open out into the brake drum.

Thanks, Somerville. But please, it's Raymond.

Yes, just a change of the rear, so gearing has changed from 17/34 to 17/33.

Normally, I change these when they're old and have, uhm, given of their best. So usually change both sprockets and the chain all at once. However, when I bought this bike - we've been together a year Wednesday just past - the chain and both sprockets were brand new and they've only done a few hundred miles since. So on this occasion I just changed the rear sprocket & pulled the wheel back a smidge on the adjusters.

5T we crossed in the post. I have had sprocket bolts seize up before, so today, as well as cleaning the bolts, I wiped them off then dipped the tips of the threads in grease. Probably not as good as ant-seize but ought to do the trick.

But thank you for suggesting the change. As you say, the gearing feels more or less right now.

Raymondo said:

Thanks, Somerville. But please, it's Raymond.

Click to expand...

My apologies Raymond!

Great to know.....It's not something I had really thought to mod in my build. You can imagine there were a million rabbit holes to go down, and I had to pick and choose. If I had come across discussion of this though, I certainly would have opted for the 33. Good upgrade to note for the future.

The 70 WJL has a 33 rear, 17 front, even with the 70 tranny's tall first it feels good. I'd consider 32 for a long distance road trip.

I keep drawing parallels to my old 4.2 Jag engine (really about 4.4 ltr.) as I read xs650 engine stuff. I went from a 3.57 to a 3.09 rear end and was much better use of torque....and a practically non-usable 1st gear. Note to file: count teeth. The 3.09 was Euro gear, 3.57: USA stop light drag gear.

If you clean the side of the sprocket off, the number of teeth is usually stamped on it .....

Lol...tells you how not clean mine is..

SpaceX has just passed over 10.10pm - 10.20pm. It was a very nice sight and as much as it was glowing it had nothing on that rear hub and sprocket!

Took Mrs to see her daughter today. Who's son is the lad who was so impressed by what his step-granddad was doing with an old motorbike. So we went by XS650, of course.

Which was a first for Mrs. Never been on this bike before. Hmm. A long round trip was never going to be an ideal introduction.

TBH not a good day. Strike that - we had a very good day. Haven't seen the daughter and her progeny for three months, great to meet up and share news and just enjoying being all together again. Plus Mrs' grandson loved seeing Miss November in the metal. Plus the weather was great. Plus, we had wondered if we would be stopped and turned back the Police Scotland but that didn't happen. (There is still confusion about whether/how far we are allowed to travel for purposes of going out to exercise or meet family.)

But the ride highlighted a few problems with the XS.

Bering a longer ride, and on faster roads, I soon decided that those Triumph 'silencers' are just too loud. Riding faster and with a pillion, had to open the throttle more than on local jaunts on back-roads.

At first you think, hmm, maybe that is a bit loud. Then you think, maybe a bit too loud. Then you wind it on some to pass a car or lorry and you think, forget maybe, that's much too loud. Then you try keeping the throttle as closed as possible. Which is annoying, because it constrains the way your ride. Then you think, it's not keeping off the throttle that's annoying, it's actually the noise that's annoying.

By the time we came home, I was hating it.

And I know that the roads are definitely bumpier and less well looked after than in past more prosperous times. But there's no denying, those rear shocks were not doing a great job. Especially with the very reasonable added weight of a pillion.

So by the time we rode home, I was hating trying to ride quietly on a noisy bike which seemed to lurch from bump to bump. And Mrs was decidedly of the opinion 'This bike is not for me'.

Further thought needed now.

May be ride with earplugs, or perhaps you did...

I was amazed at the transformation a set of properly weighted and set up shocks made to my road XS. Be prepared to spend some serious money though.
After that you could find the front end deficient and so it goes...

Shame about the trip...........These guys have a good rep.....used to be Koni and if you do happen to find an old set of Koni's they can be rebuilt with the Ikon shocks as they are just rebranded

https://www.ikonsuspension.com/international-distributors

Knew a gut who was a airline pilot and dreamed of sailing off into the sunset on a sailboat when he retired. Sent 10 years building a wooden dutch lugger. ...Beautiful boat....... Retired and started of on his world trip into the sunset only to find he gets sea sick..........turned the boat around and sold it.....True story...........

I bought a set of Koni’s for my XS2 and I absolutely love them. The bike rode like a wooden wagon before that.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/product-review-ikon-shock-absorbers-76-series-basic.56477/#post-627358

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Feeling a bit better this morning. Last night was in that ringing ears, aching limbs, befuddled brain state of exhaustion that has you questioning why you bother to ride a bike at all. Once, well 1983, felt like pushing a Kawasaki Z1B off a cliff after a horrible day of riding a twisty, rutted, slippery, interminable coast road in Northern Spain in never ending rain.

I have used earplugs in the past a few times, usually to cut noise-related fatigue on long motorway rides. But I'd rather deal with the problem so will have a look at whether I can buy long, cone-shaped silencers similar to the originals. Or it might be that some company will be able to modify the present ones for better sound baffling?

New suspension, especially the shocks, has now come to the top of the list. Ikons/Konis gets the vote from Mailman and Skull. Thanks for the link, Bob.
But there's also Hagon, Maxton, YSS and all the others. Good point that you need to consider fitting along with the chainguard, though the Tangerine Nightmare's guard is only a plastic one.

My Kawasaki W800 has Hagon shocks, which transformed the bike. They have adjustable pre-load and damping but as always once you've found a setting you like, you leave them alone.

Will do some research. But I doubt Mrs will get back on the bike any time soon.

Maybe wrap some cardboard around the end of the exhaust to extent it 6" to see if that moves the sound away from you. If no luck then put a 45 degree on the cardboard to see if that bounces the sound away. I think a lot of your concerns may be related to fatigue and riding two up. Try the bike again with just you on and see if things are better.