1980 SG Back From The Dead – AKA Dad’s bike

Mike G

Mike G
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Hello to all. I’ve been on the forum for a while but mostly lurking and learning. I’m sprucing up a 1980 SG and putting it back on the road. A little background for those interested, if not skip down this rather long post to get to the project. I first encountered an XS when one of my coworkers at Montgomery Ward (remember them) rode his 1978 or 79 to work during the summer of 1982. Fast forward a few (20+) years and my dad, who used to ride a Norton Road Atlas when I was a kid, wanted to get back into riding. He was thinking about another Brit bike but I talked him into the less leaky more reliable XS alternative. He wound up getting THREE 1983 Specials (don’t ask me why all the same year) which we used to ride whenever I was in town (I’m near Cleveland and he was in Chicago) and he would ride out to my place a couple of times a year and we would do some riding. He was starting to find the 400 mile trips out to visit more difficult as he got older, he was in his 70’s, so I thought it would be good if he had a bike like his to ride at my place, which is why I think of it as dad’s bike. I looked around on Craigslist and found a 1980 Special that had not run in 10 years that had a clean title and looked mostly complete for a price I could afford so I trailered it home in February of 2010.

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I had been doing research on this exceptional forum for all the things to look for and recommended improvements and put together a list of things to address and with that in mind I started tearing it down in the basement. FYI, walkout basements make wonderful 2nd garages! About that time, dad had a quadruple bypass and was out of the riding game for a while recovering from the initial surgery and some post-surgery infection complications so the project sat pending the outcome of all that mess. After a couple of non-riding years dad did eventually start riding again and I began thinking about the XS again. Fate threw in another monkey wrench when dad had breathing problems and his riding days were over and I lost interest in the XS for another couple of years until he passed away a year and a half ago.

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Since 2010 when I bought it, nine years had passed and I finally got tired of walking past “Dad’s bike” partially disassembled in the basement and since I had some time off at Christmas/New Years this year I decided to get it running again.


From the disassembly I knew it would need:

New seat – it came with one but it was shredded.

New fork seals

Carbs cleaned and one cracked carb bowl replaced. P.O. tried to seal it with 5-minute epoxy

Fuse block added to replace the one the PO cut out and spliced all the wires together.

Sump filter repaired.

Complete rear brake system rebuild.

…and whatever else I found as I go along.


Things I wanted to change:

Replace front brake disk and caliper with FZR disk, R6 blue spot caliper and braided stainless line.(I really appreciate good brakes)

Strip the black paint off the wheels and go bare aluminum.

Replace special gas tank with standard tank for the extra gallon and I like the rounder shape.( when riding with dad it seemed like he was always filling up, probably only seemed that way as I have a Kawasaki C10 concours with 7-1/2 gallon tank which I love.)


There’s plenty of posts on here with pictures on doing all the normal back from the dead activities so I didn’t bother taking pictures of things you guys have seen and done a hundred times, like fork seals and carb cleaning so I mostly took pictures of things that were a little different like the blue spot caliper bracket so this isn’t a complete photo record of the project.
 
I started by replacing the worn out swing arm bushings with bronze bushings from TC choppers and shimming the swingarm. McMaster Carr has shims, PN 98055A222 pack of 25 for $7.10, 0.5mm thick that fit PERFECT over the swingarm pivot. Now the swingarm moved smoothly with no slop in any direction and I didn’t have to squeeze the frame to pinch the pivot and I now have a lifetime supply of shims. Next I disassembled the very nasty forks and cleaned out the 40 years of gunk, replaced the seals and refilled with fresh fork oil an inch higher than spec. Based on the smell of the old fork oil the PO had used engine oil in the forks. I stripped the black paint off the wheels.

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The steering head bearings were dented and notchy so I replaced them with a set of All Balls tapered rollers, spooned an unused set of Bridgestone Spitfire S11’s I had on the newly cleaned rims and finally had it back on it’s wheels and out of the sad “praying for salvation” pose it has been in for so long.

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Very nice Mike! I’m sorry to hear about your Dad but I’ll bet he’s cheering on!

Ask any question you like and you’ll get all the help you need.

Pete
 
Thanks for the encouragement guys! If there's anything I've picked up on this site it's that everyone is extremely helpful. I try and search first (seems like it's always here if you can figure out what to search for) and only ask if I really need to.

I wonder how many XS's owe their return to the road to this site...I bet it's an impressive number.

Aldo, thanks for the offer. I won't need one as I picked up a seat off eBay years ago, not sure what year it's from but might be a Special II? It's shaped like a Special seat but has a much smaller step, nearly flat, and the cover is almost smooth with just a bit of leather grain look.

To avoid confusion I should mention that I'm well beyond the posts above and the bike is almost done. I finally got to a point that I have more time to post to the forum and show you what I've been up to. I'd add a current picture but that would spoil the ending. Or maybe I'm not as close as I think...won't know until the first ride.
 
I always recommend 31 or 32 rear sprockets on XS units... (the across the pond units got them from the factory)....especially Specials with the 16 inch wheel.. the engine turns less rev's at 65mph.... :)
 
Seems like everything on this thing is either dented, twisted, bodged and rusted so I spend some time on almost every part straightening, tweaking and cleaning/polishing and I’ve gone through the better part of a bottle of chrome polish and half a pack of #0000 steel wool for the chrome. It took an entire day to repair/straighten/rebuild and clean the turn signals. I few parts I couldn’t save but went through the boxes of XS stuff my dad had accumulated and so far I’ve been able to come up with what I needed, thanks dad. I’ve never done any aluminum polishing and I’m partial to a warmer, not mirror polished look (plus I don’t have the patience) so the fork legs and cases have been cleaned up with 320 grit paper, red Scotchbrite, red rouge on a polishing wheel and Mother’s aluminum polish. The finish reminds me of nickel plating and I’m pleased with the way it turned out. It will never be a beauty queen but I’m shooting for presentable and trying to preserve as much of what is there as I can.

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The master cylinder was “furry” with dried up brake fluid that had leaked out over the years but I’m not reusing it anyway. The fluid fur did coat the right hand switch gear so I took that apart and cleaned up all the contacts. Pretty nasty.


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The speedo had one of the mounting studs on the back of the case snapped off but was otherwise in good condition so I thought I’d see if I could replace the stud rather than the gage. I tried to center drill it on the drill press but the bit wandered too much so I started the hole by hand and finished it on the drill press which worked much better. I started the tap on the drill press and finished it by hand and cut the head off a screw and red locktited it into the tapped hole.

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Turned out pretty good and even though the housing is cracked (actually, both studs on both gages had the same crack) the base of the stud still seem solid in the housing. We'll see how it holds up.
 
Looks like lot's 0'fun.... the results will be worth the efforts. We use a spray on decal remover from Napa.. coat the aluminum bits.. it's quickly turns the clear coat to goo and it comes off easily. Then you can wear out yer elbow....
You can send hours behind a two wheel buffer.... various rubbing compounds... my latest project I went a different direction... powder coat in a grey... photos once they'r done.
Wonder what product can be used to clean the innards of the switch's w/o damages.... muramic acid.. ?...vinegar ?
 
Both gage isolators, the ones between the bezel and the case, were falling apart and it seems are NLA so I went' through my junk drawers and found a vacuum cleaner belt from a long gone Hoover and it fit perfect! With the gage mounting nuts snugged up there is just enough compression on the belt that it's snug but still has a little give. The one on the tach is the original before I replaced it and the speedo is the Hoover belt.

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I decided to turn the "Hoover" and part number right side up and facing forward to see if anybody notices.

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I found replacement gauge rings recently.. ck this forum under classified.." wanted ".... they'r $19.00 each.. NOS.. good nic. But yours looks good.
 
Mike, I just caught this article. You certainly know your way around mechanically. I think this is a wonderful way to honor your dad and have beautiful and fun way to remember him.
I only wish I had something as cool as that , left from my father. Really nice work! :thumbsup:
 
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