Mountain Rider
XS650 Member
Hello All,
To start my father-in-law gave me his 71 XS650 about 13 years ago and at this time I was able to get it running and drive it around the block with gas leaking out the overflow all over the eng and ground. This is when I found Mikes XS and I ordered a carb rebuild kit, new gasket kit and wire harness, head lamp kit, and bottom sump filter. I worked on the carbs adding the new floats as old ones were rusted and filling with gas. Once this was done I had to move out of state and the bike went into storage in a lean-too shed of sorts no rain but a lot of dust.
So now I have a proper garage and I am looking at bring this scooter back to life. I am stuck with, doing a restro or cafe/street tracker kind of build on the scooter. I would love to chop it but then I would not be able to do a restro on it later if I so thought it worthy. The first thing I will do is try to get it running again and then see what parts need replacing. As the bike has been in storage for so many years and being 45 years old with 18k on it,what would you all suggest I look at first? I believe that the engine should be fine with only 18k on it and my father-in-law is a auto mechanic so he took care of it when he had it (when he gave me the bike he said not to crack the engine open). I do have leaking oil coming out of the seals and this is why I picked up the gasket kit.
Would trying to start the engine now after stetting for so many years be a bad thing to try i.e. oil ports being plugged up etc.
Now as you can guess by my questions that I am not a mechanic, but I am very mechanically inclined at least I would like to think so. My Father-in-law did give me a original service manual for XS1 (1970), XS1B (1971), XS2 (1972) so this will help out a bunch. I will also read this post http://www.xs650.com/threads/bike-wont-start-running-rough.390/ to get started as well. I have been spending some time on on mikes-xs parts site and see that things like PMA can be done and other mods as well. If I choose to do a cafe kind of build then I guess mods that can bring the bike up to the modern age would be a plus. To try nto shorten this story up a bit I am looking at tearing the bike down and cleaning it up and go from there. Any thoughts on this would also be helpful.
Now for another question according to http://www.650motorcycles.com/XS650yearID.html. My XS should be candy orange. My neck sticker and stamped vin number do not mach with this site. build date is 8/1971 pic below
Any thoughts on this?
Two builds I would like to try for if I go cafe/streetcafe are
I know that this is a Kawasaki but I do like the look, sort of like an old BMW.
and another build I sort of like.
Ok, I'll leave it with this for now. I know it was a lot to take in and scattered brained. I thank all in advance for any thoughts and help.
peace.....
To start my father-in-law gave me his 71 XS650 about 13 years ago and at this time I was able to get it running and drive it around the block with gas leaking out the overflow all over the eng and ground. This is when I found Mikes XS and I ordered a carb rebuild kit, new gasket kit and wire harness, head lamp kit, and bottom sump filter. I worked on the carbs adding the new floats as old ones were rusted and filling with gas. Once this was done I had to move out of state and the bike went into storage in a lean-too shed of sorts no rain but a lot of dust.
So now I have a proper garage and I am looking at bring this scooter back to life. I am stuck with, doing a restro or cafe/street tracker kind of build on the scooter. I would love to chop it but then I would not be able to do a restro on it later if I so thought it worthy. The first thing I will do is try to get it running again and then see what parts need replacing. As the bike has been in storage for so many years and being 45 years old with 18k on it,what would you all suggest I look at first? I believe that the engine should be fine with only 18k on it and my father-in-law is a auto mechanic so he took care of it when he had it (when he gave me the bike he said not to crack the engine open). I do have leaking oil coming out of the seals and this is why I picked up the gasket kit.
Would trying to start the engine now after stetting for so many years be a bad thing to try i.e. oil ports being plugged up etc.
Now as you can guess by my questions that I am not a mechanic, but I am very mechanically inclined at least I would like to think so. My Father-in-law did give me a original service manual for XS1 (1970), XS1B (1971), XS2 (1972) so this will help out a bunch. I will also read this post http://www.xs650.com/threads/bike-wont-start-running-rough.390/ to get started as well. I have been spending some time on on mikes-xs parts site and see that things like PMA can be done and other mods as well. If I choose to do a cafe kind of build then I guess mods that can bring the bike up to the modern age would be a plus. To try nto shorten this story up a bit I am looking at tearing the bike down and cleaning it up and go from there. Any thoughts on this would also be helpful.
Now for another question according to http://www.650motorcycles.com/XS650yearID.html. My XS should be candy orange. My neck sticker and stamped vin number do not mach with this site. build date is 8/1971 pic below
Any thoughts on this?
Two builds I would like to try for if I go cafe/streetcafe are
I know that this is a Kawasaki but I do like the look, sort of like an old BMW.
and another build I sort of like.
Ok, I'll leave it with this for now. I know it was a lot to take in and scattered brained. I thank all in advance for any thoughts and help.
peace.....
