My XS650 12 Months In.......

Paul75

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Time has flown since I bought a '79 Special exactly 12 months ago. I bought this partly because I knew it would help aid recovery from a serious brain haemorrhage (Stroke) I suffered 4 years ago and also because I knew it would be a lot of fun. I can't ride as much as I want (chronic pain) but I sure as hell can get into the garage and build!

So, bought as an American import and it was in a typical "barn find" condition, only showing 16,000 miles on the clock. Since then I've torn it down and put my own mark on it and am now looking forward to getting it registered and on the road. I'll post up all the photos I have from when I got it to how it's looking now. It's not complete yet but I must say that I've enjoyed working on it, it's taught me a lot and the help I've had from this site has been invaluable (Paul Sutton thanks for the time you have taken to help me via PM). When It's done I'll possibly be looking for another OR an old 70's BMW project.......I'll be keeping this one though!

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Hi Paul.
Nice job fixing that holey tank, your procedure could use a string of it's own to encourage folks like me who'd have tossed that tank and bought another one.
Now, the envious nit-picking about the tank paint:-
The white stripe from the filler cap to the rear of the tank don't look right. It should be exactly parallel to the centre of the tank, not skewed to the side.
And the white side panels should have a white pinstripe outside of them to show a perhaps 1/8" wide strips of the black base around them.
 
Looks like some quality work there Paul!!!
 
Cheers guys...... appreciate it! Fredintoon the tank line in the flesh looks straight.....you'll have to trust me...I'll take another pic dead on........

Seat is done but not back from Holland yet where it was done, some nice brown leather, will post up some pics soon!
 
Just wait until you start riding it. These bikes really grow on you. The motor was not designed for sustained high speed or RPMs but it makes wonderful midrange "real world" power. This makes it great for blasting around local or back roads. The bike is in it's element there, running up and down through the gears, cruising mostly between about 40 to 60, with occasional bursts up to 70 or 80.
 
EXACTLY - the XS650 is really not a particularly good freeway burner, but it is super for just booting around on a nice sunny day.
 
The tank stripe looks good to me.
From the straight-on perspective of the camera lens, the curvature or bulge of the tank gives the impression or illusion of the stripe being "off".

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Similar to viewing the first meridian just east of the Prime.

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