First time for everything

[rossness]

Been reading for a month or two but finally got around to posting (in the garage at least).

I bought my first motorcycle ever (I'm 25 and had a yz125 as a kid, but does that count?) and decided to start riding/wrenching. After searching all over CL I found a '76 XS in a smaller shop here in Austin and bought it. Owner of the shop had it running ok with a few odds and ends needing to button up. My only engine experience was that YZ and a Honda Big Red we had when I was younger.

Clymer and Youtube got me through a cleaning of the carbs. Some previous owner put on Mikuni's with UNI foam pods, but they run nice so I'm assuming it's jetted well. I took off some weight in parts as well, got new bars, cleaned some surface rust and rattle canned the frame flat black high heat (which turned out well actually... thanks internet). After a couple weeks I got crazy and decided to get a replacement tail light, cut the fender off and paint it. I have a friend who's going to recover the seat (it's got some holes with tape on it), but here she sits.

It's been a fun adventure so far. I may eventually try the 277 rephase cam from mikes but unfortunately, grad school starts in a week. Thanks to you guys for being a killer resource!

 

[rossness]

Here she sits before I rode it home from the shop


Post carb clean and new bars



There goes the fender


cut and mounted


As she sits (horrible lighting)

 

[xjwmx]

I bought my first motorcycle ever ... here in Austin !

I advise taking the MSF course soon as possible. Member here Dogbunny is a good guy in Austin to know, and his entire estate is filled with XS's and parts for them...

 

[rossness]

I'll have to look him up! Got my MSF and license out of the way before I started shopping (wife's orders).

 

[MaxPete]

Well, you've got a nice bike Rossness - congrats!

If I may suggest - just ride it as-is for a while before making too many more modifications. The XS650 Standard really is a damned nice motorcycle in stock form and all the money and swapping of parts isn't going to make it much faster.

Anyhow, ride safely and have fun!

Pete

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Welcome to the forum, rossness.
Member DogBunny is just about 9 miles north of you.
Not far from Limeybikes shop.

http://www.xs650.com/members/dogbunny.1552/
http://www.limeybikes.com

 

[5twins]

You must be new to bikes or you'd know better than to attach all that extra garbage to your motorcycle key's fob. The top of your bars, bar clamps, and triple tree will look like some varmint has been chewing on them in a short time, lol. Get a small fob for just the bike key alone like so .....

Mine is actually a genuine Yamaha accessory, one of the few things I bought from a Yamaha shop. It glows in the dark, lol.

And put something back on those forks, either the fender or a brace of some sort. They're going to squirm all over the place like that, especially when you grab that single disc front brake. A single disc on one side of the wheel puts tremendous twisting force on the forks when you apply it.