What have you done to your XS today?

I have weighed a later disc before and after drilling, and the weight savings wasn't much, only about 1/4 lb. There is a weight advantage to your earlier disc though. With it's aluminum carrier, it's nearly 1/2 lb. lighter to begin with compared to the later one piece discs. Even though the weight savings isn't all that significant, I still think it's worth drilling them because it improves the braking, both wet and dry.

Interesting. Other that saving weight, I've never been an advocate of drilling metal rotors. I've used slotted ones before to help evacuate bad dust. I'm teetering on going to alloy rims. Need to see how the true spinning originals clean up.
 
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I was doing 85-90 the whole way home yesterday and it felt like 55. I got a pretty good deal I think. There’s only 12k on the clock. I’m probably going to take off the windscreen and the stupid speakers. In the future is whitewalls, white grips, And probably mini apes. My daughter loves it. She started crying when I picked her up because she was so emotional. She’s already asking to go for another ride.
 
View attachment 168751 Today, well yesterday to be honest, I spent a few minutes wondering what form of restorative work can be done to my wheels
I don’t know much about anything but I can’t help but think the chrome plating is compromised, making this a winter job. Anybody do do anything that helps? I polished quite a bit with steel wool and wd40. It helped I guess
Much easier said than done, but MikesXS has aluminum replacement rims for that bike. They have spokes, too. I think yours is toast. I put XS650SH cast wheels on mine, with the intention of respoking my original wheels. It isn't going to happen if I don't get up and get busy.
 
I’m flattered. I HAVE lost about 15 lbs since I first bought the jacket. Yesterday I weighed in at 188. Working 55 hrs last week, not sleeping, and stress in general have helped in the cause. The jacket is still snug, but it fits now.
 
Spent a while working on bikes yesterday. Started out going through the carbs and getting a coworkers newly purchased 1980 CB750 rideable-ish. That out of the way I went back into work a second time for the day and worked on my XS changing the front brake master cylinder, replacing the front brake pads, and scuffing the shine off the brake rotor. The clutch cable snapped on my way into work this past Wednesday so I've no chance to bed the stuff in yet. The front brake had no initial bite to it and you had to use a lot of force to get any stopping power even when compared to other single disc front setups. You can see in some of the pictures I've posted that there really wasn't a lot of swept area of contact so hopefully bedding in some new pads will fix that. Also the brake had gotten to the point where I would have to work the lever a couple times to get any pressure when getting on the bike. It was fine riding as it wasn't leaking internally TOO bad yet, but I'm not interested in waiting until it got that bad. I was originally intending to just rebuild it, but for $20 for a new one over the cost of a rebuild kit it was a no brainer.
 
Today I FINALLY managed to remove the new sprocket from the output shaft on my transmission... Like a dummy, I tore the motor down and left the sprocket torqued on.. a drive to harbor freight and a 30inute mount set up for a bench vise fixed me up good. Two pieces of wood for cushioning, and a good crank on the sprocket but got her loose. I'm excited for this purchase, it will make my life much easier. It has a built in anvil too! Pretty shwifty.

360° swivel, and 6 1/4" jaw width. Pretty nice.

Weird that I'm at an age where tools are more exciting than most other purchases.
 

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Metal Rescued my tank and cleaned the carbs, changed the lines, and inline fuel filter. While I did this I installed a Motion Pro throttle cable. Wow, I'm sure glad I did as the throttle response and smoothness is great. I didn't know how to oil the cable so I used a tiny drinking straw and slowly dripped oil down the cable which took about ten minutes.
 

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Got a bunch of bits sprayed today, was looking at the cordless grease gun thread and mistakenly talked about it there.
Must be the fumes.
 
While I’ve had my rear wheel off to fix my flat tire, I’ve been doing some maintenance work on my XS2.

First up, I had recently replaced both of the muffler joint clamps and I noticed that the exhaust pipe was all sooty right next to the muffler joint, so I ordered a NOS gasket from EBay to replace it. The old one was thin as paper and shot. The new one at first appears solid, but when you start trying to cram it in there, it surprised me by popping open into this spiral of material.
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Next up, I tackled something I should’ve done when I was restoring my bike. I pulled the center stand off and added grease zerk fittings. Something that 5Twins has advocated to everyone , and will be a nice addition.
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And as long as everything is opened up, a little cleaning because, well.....why not.
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Next up, the rear brake. I pulled everything apart and cleaned and lubed. I scuffed the glaze off of the drum with some sandpaper and I sprayed brake cleaner on the shoes and scuffed the glaze off of them as well.
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I re installed my rear wheel and my chain that I had soaked in motor oil. I tried really hard to get any excess oil out of that chain. I really hope that genius idea doesn’t make a mess on me! o_O
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Then , I didn’t photograph this but I rerouted my fuel lines and filters yet again to try and come up with a less crowded arrangement. Man there really is no room for filters in there!

And then when I was getting ready to put things back together, I noticed this. My coil has a flat wear spot on it.
Ruh Roh! That’s not good! My coil mounts on a plate that has slots for the mounting bolts, for adjustability. Somehow it had moved out of place. And it was rubbing on the tunnel under the gas tank.
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So now everything is back together. Checked checked and double check! I think I’m ready for a little test ride! :bike:
Later! Bob
 
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