What have you done to your XS today?

Getting close! Exhaust finished, wrap them or not?
Some planned stuff left to do, and some forgotten stuff to do( kicker hitting the rearsets). Looking forward too warm weather and first ride!
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Had some good shop time since the wifey is out of town a couple days this week. Got some new parts in, but the jury is still out on them. Installed MX style footpegs, which was easy and I am happy with. New Tracker bars are on, which is a nice upgrade from the Superbars I had before. Also installed new headlight ears, which isn't sitting well with me. I think the stock headlight is just too big for this build and the mounts stick it out too far. I think I will be going back to the bottom mount 5 3/4" unit I had on before. I also made some progress on mounting my CONE Engineering mini megs on my Pandemonium YO-MAMA pipes. Looking good, but I still have a little fitment issue to work out before I call it good. Need to get a seat cover made too.... all in good time. Hard for me to make the time to work on this project with my busy family life. I hope to get it fired and on the road this year... but I said the same thing last year... and the year before... LOL.
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I was thinking of getting a 6 1/2" light, like pictured below. I think these headlight mounts just stick that light out farther than i care for. I'm sure it would look better if I put the gauges up there on top to fill in the gap. I'm just unsure that I even want to run gauges. This is just doing to be an around town kind of bike. decisions... decisions...
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I don't recall where I got the gators from, possibly Mike's... its been several years since i bought them. Just need to get some radiator hose so I can secure the tops cleanly. Would really like a fork brace added too, but money is tight so the front fender stays for now.
 
Hi Willis. I`m running that same headlight on my new scrambler project. I used Bultaco 35mm headlight mounts and it puts the back of the light housing about 3/4" in front of the steering neck. They were around $30 on eBait.
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Got a hydraulic clutch set up ordered from Germany. My only hope is by the time it sits around here till I need it, that it won't be lost. It wouldn't be the first time.
 
I almost lost the bar that ties the carbs together Sunday. It got caught between the gearshift lever, engine and frame. I bought a bunch of 6mm allenhead bolts/screws and lockwashers and replaced the fallen screws. Found some other loose harware and tightened them back up. Fixed a lot of other "hippocket discrepencies" on the SG.What we crewchiefs called our unwritten write-ups on our planes.
 
Crashomon said:
Modified license light holder to become new stoplight/ license light. Retains all stock mounts so I can restore to stock easily.
Original Taillight Bracket had to be modified so I could retain stock mounting location and keep wires under fender.
Added rear LED turn signals to clean up the rear (screws right into stock location)
Replace T/S Flasher Relay with LL552 from AutoZone (two prong, works great, but no more auto-cancel, which is fine by me)
Next up will be front turn signals. Now, lets go ride!


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Yes, I give you an A+, +, +, +, +, +, +, +....... It's the best seat conversion I've ever seen.
 
May not sound like much but I put gas in the fuel tank at the local Fastrac gas station.

What might make this more "special" is to the best of my knowledge this is the first time since 1994 that this bike has been licenced and on the road!

I only did a total of 10 miles but it seems to run pretty good, the self canceling feature of the signals even works!

Only down side is there appears to be a drip or two of oil in the area of the front sprocket/shift shaft/clutch rod. I did replace all the seals in the engine when I had it apart so it does bother me a bit. Have to put up on lift and remove the left cover and investigate that problem.

Did find that it does have the same problem my Sportsters have. If you turn the right hand grip all the way and hold it too long the mirrors tend to rotate out of position.
 
Today in the sunshine I hauled my "rider" 78e down to an industrial loop, by the Columbia river, of fresh pavement, unloaded and had a real nice time bs'n
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with an older rider who found my bike in classifieds. We talked about my bikes systems uncluding all the functions of vacuum petcocks ( which worked perfectly) ignition settings, carb settings, etc then fired it up on 2nd kick.. He was delighted to hear it ! Was a joy to meet yet another ol'motorcycle nut . Price adjusted and that "rescue" bike was set free ! Another rescue for me and another XS Standard back out there rumbling somewhere ... truly good feeling. -RT
 
Thats a NICE looking machine there TimeMachine.
I went to the Auto Hobby Shop on base and changed the SG's oil. Usual swarf.
Then went to Bike Night at Barrio Brewery and looked at other riders rides and BS'ed with another cyclists a few hours. Good times. Enjoyed the night ride home.
 
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Thx, Was a worthwhile project. Some frustrations, Some fun, good learning on that one. Glad I had that to put together my way and ride awhile. Next 78 is much more special and I won't let it go ! -RT
 
Well one last step for the 1982 XS650. We had some not bad weather this morning so I checked with the guy at the shop who does the NYS Inspections for me and he was open and said bring it on in!

Well as I have known him for over 20 years and he was the guy who got me into my first XS650, traded him a Honda 750 Super Sport straight up, the "inspection" basically consisted of "Does Everything Work?"

Then we spent a bit of time talking about his favorite Asian restaurant in a town not far from where I found this bike 17 years ago.

The bike does have that little oil drip on the left side and the idle speed is a bit high, once warmed up it was steady at 2,000 rpm. Other than that it seems fine, accelerates nice and smooth right up to red line and shifts through the gears good.

As we are looking at a few days of cold and rain I may put it on the lift and take a look at that oil drip.
 
I picked up some nice little goodies on Craigslist this afternoon. Was really only interested in the headlight for my scrambler/tracker project, but scored a whole box of goodies in pretty good shape for a great price. Parts are all off a mid-70's Yamaha TY250 trials bike. Tank is in great condition with very few scratches or dents. It's pretty small and not sure it can be modified to fit, but if nothing else will make a great shop decoration as I have started collecting a few interesting tanks. I scored headlight, tail light, handlebar controls and cables, tank, a side cover, kickstand and several other miscellaneous parts. If anyone needs, I'd be willing to part with the stuff I'm not using...
 

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