1976 XS650-C Project From Ireland

Yea it is......same colour as the red XS2..........Euro 76 had 3 colours....Star black, Silver dust and Brilliant red
 
@650Skull you are absolutely correct, I must apologise, there has been a monumental brainfart on my part.

The DISKS are from the RD350, the fork lowers themselves are from the 73-75 TX/XS 500. I don’t know how I managed to screw that up in my mind, but it happened!! Everything else (springs, dampers etc) seems to be the same as the U.S spec.

I have edited my previous post's to correct this. I feel like an absolute idiot now.

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Haven't ever seen a euro 74 but on the Euro, (sorry i have included Ireland in the broad scope of Euro)

Its OK, the Irish distributer (Danfay) actually sourced most of their stock from the UK, so we here in Ireland got the same spec machines, and consequently got lumped in under “England” in the parts books also.

The reason you've never seen a Euro 74 is that we never actually got the 73 TX or the 74 TX-A on this side of the pond. Yamaha imported an initial batch of approx 80 XS-2's to the UK. The bike was so poorly received and sales such a disaster that Yamaha discontinued imports of the 650’s at the end of 1972.

Here's a model range brochure showing Mitsui (the UK Yamaha importers) still trying to flog their remaining XS-2's in 1973.

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The road test reviews from that era that I have read (UK based publications) do not paint the XS-2 in a good light at all.

It was a similar story in other countries around Europe. In Germany for example they only sold 192 XS-2's in 1972 before being replaced by the TX750 for 1973 (Ireland and the UK never got the 750 model either).

This was when the European importers intervened and where Percy Tait’s involvement began, and is the reason we got our own bespoke version of the 650’s starting from 75.

One market they did do well in was the Netherlands, where the main importers actually had to source some TX's from the USA to fulfill orders already previously placed (believed to be less than 100 bikes). These are the only models I know of that were at least semi-officially imported into Europe.

@Rasputin I had no idea it was you that originally posted that picture. That bike was absolutely stunning, those are some fantastic shots thanks for adding the extra pics.

@MaxPete Thank you for your kind words, I will send you a PM with the details of the silencers.
 
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@beano I just came across your thread and I've been enjoying reading through your build, really cool stuff, especially all the Euro/UK-specific elements. Oh - and congrats on earning your MEng degree! Keep up the great work.

Thank you @SomervilleXS650, your thread has blown me out of the water already I think!

You have beaten me to it but my plans were very similar to yours. (With regards to building a vapour blaster etc). In fact my girlfriend bought me a blast cabinet for Christmas and I have spent ages researching plans, pressures, ratios etc. I haven't assembled it yet due to time constrains but its on the list. I may pick your brain later on in the year when I finally get around to building it.

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Back to the project at hand and I spent most of last weekend trying to remove the liner from the tank and finishing the initial build up of the bike. This liner is driving me mad, its like some kind of epoxy or something, real thick at the bottom over a half inch thick. Old faithful methods like simply throwing a few nuts and bolts in and shaking it around will not suffice for this application unfortunately.

This is the side profile of one chunk i managed to remove:

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I filled the tank with diesel some time ago and managed to dislodge some of it with a long screwdriver hoping the diesel will get underneath the liner and affect the adhesion. This has worked pretty good to an extent and I have managed to get a good bit of it out. the areas at the rear of the tank by the petcock still look pretty messed up and there's other random patches all around the place, but we're getting there slowly but surely, like this project.

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Apart from the tank the rest of the mock up went quite well, I seem to be missing the castle nut for the rear axle, and the chainguard but it appears otherwise complete.

I'll be home again this weekend so the plan will be to see if I can get more crap from the tank and then strip and clean the petcocks. I'm also gonna go through all the random boxes of spares my father accumulated and try and organise them. I will have to drag the bike outside in order to do that, so I will try to get a few pics of her out in the sun.

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The 13k is about right taking into consideration that the caps should be 5K each. To check the ht system just apply momentary 12v to the orange wire. It should spark.
 
Thank you @SomervilleXS650, your thread has blown me out of the water already I think!
Ahh, I don't know about that, but thanks for the kind word. I was really touched to see that this was your Dad's bike and I have to imagine he would be really excited to know that you're bringing it back to it's glory days - it's a really awesome story. My Dad had bikes (choppers!) but gave up riding when I was born. He passed a few years ago, far too young, so we were never able to share motorcycling which is something I'll always regret...

Well, slight correction... I suppose we do have this memory, although it's a bit fuzzy for me :laugh::laugh::laugh:
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I may pick your brain later on in the year when I finally get around to building it.
Absolutely mate! Glad to share everything I learned to help you get it up and running. Maybe it will be useful for others on here as well. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
I was really touched to see that this was your Dad's bike and I have to imagine he would be really excited to know that you're bringing it back to it's glory days - it's a really awesome story. My Dad had bikes (choppers!) but gave up riding when I was born. He passed a few years ago, far too young, so we were never able to share motorcycling which is something I'll always regret...

Thank you very much Somerville, that’s a great pic of you and your dad. I was lucky in that my dad actually bought me my first motorcycle and taught me to ride in the months leading up to my 16th birthday. He died when I was 18 from pancreatic cancer, he was only 44. This all occurred pre camera phones so unfortunately, I have no pictures of us with bikes, just a couple of very rare pics of him with the 650 back in the 80’s.


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Back to the project at hand, and during lockdown I was bored on eBay and started adding to my collection of original documentation. I’m looking for genuine European stuff really, so after much searching, I eventually added the owner’s handbook and a couple of brochures, as well as the C model service manual supplement.

It’s really cool to look through and see what these things were like originally. I still find myself just randomly browsing them every now and again.


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I started dragging out all the boxes of parts that were crammed underneath a workbench in the shed, boxes and boxes of stuff and before I knew it, I had half the shed taken over with XS parts.


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The original engine is in there along with some other interesting things, anyone notice the XS-2 stuff??


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My aunt sent me a few pics of the bike from the 80’s, the quality isn’t the best, but it looks like dad found a scrapped XS-2 and used the parts to turn his bike into a cool little café racer style machine at one stage. I really got a kick out of this photo; I love the look of it with the dropped bars and stealthy black colours.


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I bagged and tagged everything and separated them into boxes so now I know exactly what I have and where it is.


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I also stripped and cleaned the petcocks; The seals were leaking on each side, and after disassembly I could see that dad had cut his own gasket from some thick rubber (It looked like bicycle tube which swelled up like a balloon once exposed to fuel).

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It looked like playtime was over so I made a mental note to order some new seals, and since there was nothing else I could do to the bike, decided to do some tidying up around the shed.

By some miracle I found the original seals in the bottom of a box of nuts and bolts I was sorting out. I recognised them straight away and simply couldn’t believe it. The missing castle nut for the rear axel was also found in this box.

They were rock hard but there were no punctures in them, so the wheels began to turn in my head and I soaked them in a container of silicone spray.

About an hour later after I had finished sorting out the nuts and bolts, I returned, and the gaskets felt pliable! I noticed the heads were pretty chewed up on the screws so I replaced them in the hope that I could squeeze them up a bit and so far, and unbelievably, it seems to have done the job. There hasn’t so much as been a weep from the petcocks for nearly 2 weeks now.



With the above accomplished there was now nothing left to stop me from taking the bike for a ride. I took it for a couple of very short spins today to confirm that the gearbox worked, and the engine was in good order. So far at least I simply can’t fault the motor, which is a huge weight off my mind.

So as promised to @MaxPete here’s a pic of the machine in the outside world.


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There’s lots of low-down grunt, I liked that, whack her open in 2nd and she just digs in and drives forward, it’s addictive and fun. There is a massive shaky shaky bit in the middle where you can’t even see the clocks, but it then seems to smooth out a bit. The clutch plates are a bit sticky making coming to a stop a bit of a handful, but she goes and stops……..kinda.

Even after intense bleeding, the amount of softness and travel in the lever is alarming to put it mildly. There’s so much give in the rubber hoses that its like squeezing a rolled-up towel!

There are tags on each of the brake lines with 2/76 stamped on them, I’m going to assume that this is the month and year that the hoses were manufactured, so they’re only a couple of decades passed their four-year lifespan!


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There is also a disturbing amount of play in the swingarm, this will have to be addressed during the restoration and there are already plenty of threads on the matter to read through.

So…….I’m calling phase one: “The Recommissioning” complete. The next phase: “The Restoration” will begin probably in the autumn as I have some things I need to get in place before I start breaking it down. I want to get my blast cabinet set up and need to clear out and make some workspace in the shed and generally get organised.

Till next time…………….

From a happy Beano.
 
Excellent news Beano! Great to see the progress you’re making and I love all the family history.
When I first got my ‘77 on the road it handled like a wobbly goblin! The biggest culprit on mine was worn out steering head bearings, I replaced those and new bronze bushings in the swingarm and the handling was transformed. Also going through the entire brake system is a must, I was amazed at the muck living inside my master cylinder and caliper, and I threw out those rotten rubber hoses and ran a one piece steel braid line ( single front disc ) and again the brakes were transformed. It’s a labor of love and you’re doing a great job! :thumbsup:
Keep it up buddy!
 
Thank you @SomervilleXS650, your thread has blown me out of the water already I think!

You have beaten me to it but my plans were very similar to yours. (With regards to building a vapour blaster etc). In fact my girlfriend bought me a blast cabinet for Christmas and I have spent ages researching plans, pressures, ratios etc. I haven't assembled it yet due to time constrains but its on the list. I may pick your brain later on in the year when I finally get around to building it.

hDAIEu6l.jpg


Back to the project at hand and I spent most of last weekend trying to remove the liner from the tank and finishing the initial build up of the bike. This liner is driving me mad, its like some kind of epoxy or something, real thick at the bottom over a half inch thick. Old faithful methods like simply throwing a few nuts and bolts in and shaking it around will not suffice for this application unfortunately.

This is the side profile of one chunk i managed to remove:

3kojUYCl.jpg


I filled the tank with diesel some time ago and managed to dislodge some of it with a long screwdriver hoping the diesel will get underneath the liner and affect the adhesion. This has worked pretty good to an extent and I have managed to get a good bit of it out. the areas at the rear of the tank by the petcock still look pretty messed up and there's other random patches all around the place, but we're getting there slowly but surely, like this project.

muq65bwl.jpg


Apart from the tank the rest of the mock up went quite well, I seem to be missing the castle nut for the rear axle, and the chainguard but it appears otherwise complete.

I'll be home again this weekend so the plan will be to see if I can get more crap from the tank and then strip and clean the petcocks. I'm also gonna go through all the random boxes of spares my father accumulated and try and organise them. I will have to drag the bike outside in order to do that, so I will try to get a few pics of her out in the sun.

lEITGBjl.jpg
Acetone should cause the old liner to dissolve although not completely.
In fact petrol with Ethonol reacted badly with a tank I had and it became cracked and loose.
 
Hey Beano - well done! I’m sure your dad has an ear-to-ear on looking down watching his old bike being rejuvenated.

I have a suggestion on the brakes. It likely is true that the old hoses are flexing and that makes for a soft brake lever (so you really ought to replace them) - but, also try a bit of overnight gravity bleeding:
- put the bike on the centre stand
- turn the bars so that the master cylinder is the highest point in the hydraulic system
- remove the master cylinder lid
- fill the master cylinder reservoir to the upper level
- cover the master cylinder with a sturdy cloth to keep bugs and moisture out (and be sure to throw the cloth away afterwards)
- leave it for 24 hours - just like that.

If there is any air in the system, it will migrate up and simply bubble out through the open master.

@lakeview had a dual disk system that didn’t want to bleed and he used that technique and it worked like a charm.

Cheers,

Pete
 
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