My 81' XS650 Chopper & Intro

Do you ever get used to it? :yikes:

Sillier question... is there a real "danger" of it making you go down or is it just a loose feeling that you get used to?

I've got used to it. But it's hairy on a curve going really fast like 80+. I guess it could cause a problem but I don't know. Going straight it's no big deal to me anymore.

I have no skills, I'm just shooting in the dark. Don't look too close at my bike. LOL
 
Those pipes were the first thing I did when I got the bike. I'll post up some photos. Had photos here but not sure what happened to them.



Got the seat at a swap meet and I cut it down and reworked it. I love the seat. Fits me perfect.



Yeah, front and back do. It's like riding a hula-hoop.

I've got used to it. But it's hairy on a curve going really fast like 80+. I guess it could cause a problem but I don't know. Going straight it's no big deal to me anymore.


Man I wish I had balls as big as yours... but then I might need a bigger seat!

I just do my best to avoid those stretches when I ride locally.
 
So back in the day I had a headlight with the H4 bulb in it. Used to burn out bulbs all the time. I thought it was because I had a ground problem after finding a ground problem on my bike. But I switched the head light with one that uses a mini-bulb when I rebuilt it last year.

I had the headlight on the bike for just over a year now. It worked good but it wasn't very good lighting at night. So I swapped it with a brand new head light that I purchased for my other bike. It worked great...for two days then burned out. It has a H4 bulb in it.

I was out of town at a maker space when it happened. It was late at night and nobody had a bulb that was open. I had a spare mini-bulb in my kit though.

We pulled the H4 bulb out of the holder and used the TIG at the maker space to weld in the mini-bulb. It fit just perfectly in the hole of the H4 bulb so it was easy to weld.

I put it in and it worked perfect. Road all the way home (about an hour). It was nice and bright and I could see much better with it.

So I'm going to fab up a way to mount mini-bulbs in this housing. They don't burn out as easy. LOL.

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And just because people are asking. Here is a snap of my other project. A 1970 Ironhead. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it or not. I love the look of it. But I also like riding.

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I have these brass petcocks on my tank. They are pretty cool. But they have been getting harder to turn. Last night I could barely turn it on to get home (after my headlight problem).

So today I drained my tank and took them off. I took them apart and sanded around the hole because it was a little sharp there. Then I put some anti-seize on them and put them back together. Now they are buttery smooth.

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And just because people are asking. Here is a snap of my other project. A 1970 Ironhead. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it or not. I love the look of it. But I also like riding.

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Looks damn near done to me! Awesome work on both man, it's motivating. Hoping to get there someday myself. Good work, although after seeing your chopper I find myself asking why I haven't hard tailed yet. Money pits I tell ya, no end in sight. Lol
 
So last night my headlight burned out. I went do the store and bought a new one so I could get home. Within five miles it burned out again. So I road about 35 miles without a headlight in the dark with no moon. My brother was riding with me and I used his light to see.

Got into the next town and stopped for gas. I wired up the high beam and we rolled through town. By the time we got on the other side of town the light blew out again!

So I road the rest of the way home with no light. Like another 15 miles.

Today I torn into my bike. Fixed up a few things. Checked all the wiring. I didn't find anything wrong with it save one area by the switch that _might_ cause a problem. So I made a switch mount and reworked all the wires so there would be no possibility of a short.

Got another H4 bulb and went out for a ride to test. Within five miles it was burned out again!

Went back home, put on my old triangle headlight, and went out for another test ride. Road for an hour with no problem. The triangle light uses the mini-bulb (H3 55w).

I strapped the multi-meter on and tested the voltage and it's all good. I have a 10amp fuse on it so I don't think it's over amps. Maybe it's the vibration?

It's lame whatever it is because I like my new headlight. I'm going to make an adapter to put mini-bulbs into it. Or maybe I'll test out a LED H4 light.
 
Got my narrow triple trees today. I couldn't wait to get them on the bike.

I cut the spacers down and cleaned them up on the lathe... but I miss-measured and still need to take 3/16 off each side. Doh.

So I cut the mounts off my bars and reworked them to fit the 3" wide mounting holes on the trees. Got that done tonight.

Tomorrow I'm going to recut the spacers and get the front wheel on. Then I need to drill a hole in the new bottom tree for my headlight.

I hope to be done tomorrow.

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OK, It's almost done. Just need to mount the mirrors on somewhere. Doing that tomorrow.

Had a little problem with the headlight though. The bolt on most headlights is one inch. I drilled a hole in the bottom tree and put the light on and oops. So I cut off the bolt, drilled it out, tapped it, put a stud in and bobs your uncle.

I think for my mirrors I'll weld on some nuts to my bars and screw them on that way. Then use a jam nut to keep there there.

Oh, and I think I'm like an inch lower now in the front. I'm going to have to take the lowering kit out of my forks.

Photos:
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Hi Phail,
reading your entire string, you never had a stock XS650 but if you had, you would have noticed that they are designed backwards.
That is, the engine ain't rubber mounted but everything else IS.
Lamp mounts, bars, battery cage, gas tank etc. etc. all got rubber cushions to stop them being shaken to death.
Betcha if your lights were rubber mounted the bulbs would last longer, eh?
And mirrors? I like bar-ends, if you don't like the dull boring round ones, Maltese Cross?
 
I should give that a try. I really like the new light and want to run it. I'll have to figure out how to rubber mount it.

But my triangle light with the mini-bulb has lasted a year and a half. Must be tough little bulbs.
 
I should give that a try. I really like the new light and want to run it. I'll have to figure out how to rubber mount it.
But my triangle light with the mini-bulb has lasted a year and a half. Must be tough little bulbs.

No problem,
bore the tree out so a rubber sleeve will fit between it and the mounting stud.
Use a longer stud.
Put a ~1/2" thick rubber washer and a plain washer top and bottom and do the nut up tight enough to squash the rubber a bit.
Fix the nut with Loctite.
 
Wow, what a difference that made. Last night I took the lowering kit out of my shocks. I had another set of forks that I used the springs from. They were stock. So I opened up my forks and found they had a really tall lowering spacer. Like three to four inches. Wow! I took it out and my bike feels really tall in the front now. lol

Now no more bottoming out and it steers way better. It also fixed the death wobble if I let go of the bars. Much much nicer now.

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We celebrated with super burritos.

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Hi Phail,
"if it looks right it is right" was working for you this time.
Lifting the front end increases the front wheel's trail which reduces the bike's tendency towards steering headshake.
Us sidecar operators see the reverse effect when reducing a bike's steering trail to lighten it's steering. That's why we reef up on the headraces and fit steering dampers.
 
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