Styling Question, probably a stupid one

[Solomoriah]

HOKAY. So. I ordered a 12.7mm master cylinder, all-metal (except for the glass) mirrors, some standard bars and a set of generic grips from eBay. Had a $25.00 coupon burning a hole in my virtual wallet. Here's hoping it all works out to suit me!

Incidentally, I found the same vendor who I got my master cylinder from has a "sloped" master cylinder that's quite reasonable. k1motorcycles, I think the name is; I got the master cylinder for my Honda CB650 from them. They're the same "inexpensive" Chinese master cylinders you can get from a number of vendors, but k1motorcycles builds them in the US and backs them pretty well. You never know when you buy direct from the Chinese vendors if the parts are any good or not, but most of the Chinese parts being resold by American vendors are of the "better" grade. At least, that's my experience so far both with motorcycle parts and electronics.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Solomoriah,
FWIW when I swapped my '84 Heritage Special's stock rototiller 'bars for a straighter set it made no difference to the stock sloped m/c's operation,
just need to turn the bars hard right before taking the cover off so the fluid don't spill. Same wooden feel as before.
What DID make a difference in the feel was adding a left-side brake disk & caliper.
All the way from wooden to perfect.

 

[Solomoriah]

I'm hoping the smaller bore on the replacement will help the feel of the brakes... though at this point, given that the lever goes all the way to the grip without locking the wheel means even "wooden" feel would be an improvement.

I got shipping notices for some of the bits I ordered this morning already. Here's hoping it all goes together well.

 

[Downeaster]

My bars of choice are the Euro bend. I like them because they droop down slightly on the ends. This turns your wrists to a near perfect and natural angle. They are very comfortable .....

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding...we have a winner! Euro bars from Mikes were perfect on my '79

 

[fredintoon]

I'm hoping the smaller bore on the replacement will help the feel of the brakes... though at this point, given that the lever goes all the way to the grip without locking the wheel means even "wooden" feel would be an improvement.
I got shipping notices for some of the bits I ordered this morning already. Here's hoping it all goes together well.

Hi Solomoriah,
note that the stock m/c is sized to work the dual calipers that every XS650 had as stock except for those sold in North America.
Pity the North American models had the same diameter m/c as the rest of the world, eh?
Fitting a smaller m/c should improve the brake feel but only if it's done properly. New hoses are good, new stainless hoses are better
and they gotta be properly bled. If your lever goes all the way back to the grip, yours ain't.

 

[Solomoriah]

I've bled brakes before, and it's no big deal if you're just patient. As of right now, everything for this bike is in except the key chain... which is not exactly holding me up. What is holding me up is that I haven't made it to the store to get some anti-seize.

Anyone have an opinion on what's good in anti-seize lube?

 

[Solomoriah]

By the way, here are the items I ordered:

 

[5twins]

There are basically 2 types of anti-seize, nickel based and copper based. The temp rating is about the same on both so I don't consider that when choosing. I have always used the copper based stuff. The nickel based stuff is silver in color and difficult to see on the threads. The copper stuff is copper colored and easy to see. This comes into play when applying (you just want a thin coating, like paint) but more importantly, when to re-apply. You can easily tell with the copper colored stuff when it's mostly gone away and a fresh application is needed. And this will happen on frequently removed fasteners like axle nuts and oil filter bolts, to mention just a few.

 

[Solomoriah]

I hadn't thought about visibility... good point. In this case, I'm looking at head bolts, and with any luck I won't need to remove them for a long time.

 

[5twins]

But anti-seize is something you should be applying to practically every nut and bolt on the bike. About the only thing I don't use it on are internal engine and carb parts. It works very well on exhaust parts because they get so hot. Not just their nuts and bolts but the slip joint where the muffler slides on the headpipe.

 

[Solomoriah]

Likely I'll anti-seize anything I take apart, but I'm not going to proactively disassemble the whole bike just to lube up the threads...

 

[5twins]

No, that's not expected. Just do apply some to any nuts and bolts you happen to remove. In the future, if you ever do remove that nut or bolt again, it will crack loose nicely and spin off/out easily. I have a big pint can I transfer to smaller film container sized jars for use. I "paint" it on using a trimmed down acid flux brush. I've given little container-fulls to most of my biking buddies but when helping them, I often discover they haven't been using it. It pains me to remove a bolt on one of their bikes and have it come out hard, like it's cross threaded, and then find it all rusty. They have no excuse for this, I gave them the right stuff to avoid it. People are hard on machinery, lol.

 

[Solomoriah]

Ack, so true.