What have you done to your XS today?

Hey wait, I dont believe breaking the chain is necessary. First you push the rear wheel forward slacking the chain. Then the chain can be ran off the rear sprocket side by turning the rear wheel. Backwards. The chain ends up next to the rear sprocket. Unbolt the chain guard if necessary.
The rear wheel comes out, the chain stays.
Im Lazy ! I do this Lol ..
-Randy
 
The axle is in the way. If your chain will flex sideways enough to clear that, I think you need a new one, lol.
 
The stock standard exhausts which have the crossover pipe, well all that is trouble to remove. I avoid that mostly because of the stock exhaust.
 
Hey wait, I dont believe breaking the chain is necessary. First you push the rear wheel forward slacking the chain. Then the chain can be ran off the rear sprocket side by turning the rear wheel. Backwards. The chain ends up next to the rear sprocket. Unbolt the chain guard if necessary.
The rear wheel comes out, the chain stays.
Im Lazy ! I do this Lol ..
-Randy
True, I have done this more than a few times, last year, with a new chain. Never needed to unbolt the chain guard
 
Upper 40's dry roads! Period piece been running a bit rough, hard to start, end of last season, only wanted to go on RH cylinder today. Pulled left plug, it was a bit oily, dried it with a torch, brrm brrm. Rode it round, all good, starts instantly now. Not happy with front brake, seemed glazed? Will look into that.
Madness got a pair of port reducers put in her 1 3/4" headers, I have two sizes, used the less restrictive pair, the inlets were just square pipe on the end so beveled the inner edge to flow better, I also dropped the VM34 needles a notch. Rode out, gassed it up. did a couple of hard acceleration runs, running real good. :thumbsup: That madness is fun!
I also took the Buell 1125R out for my first "real ride" runs good, handles quite well stops n goes quick. Short version a crotch rocket that's just crude enough to let you know you're on a "non Japanese" twin. A good day to ride! Gotta be careful on the wisco roads for sure, rough, pot holes ,sand, manure, wet spots :cautious:.
 
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I noticed some cracks in the sidewall of my rear tire; seems a little premature for a 1 year old tire. It only has about 3200 miles on it. How long do tires usually last? How often does everyone replace them?
 
How old is the tire by the date code? It varies by tire maker and where the bike lives, but I can usually use tires up to 5-7 years old for normal street riding.
 
Well after not touching the 1978 since sometime last fall and had a bit of maintenance I had to get started on for wife's GTV Vespa decided I should get the 650 off the work stand.

As I had put the old battery on the battery tender a few days ago decided I would see if there was a chance it would start. This is a sick battery that is actually a couple sizes too small for an XS650 so the electric foot was out of the question! Gave it a few kicks but no luck. Decided might be low on gas so flipped the petcocks over to reserve or was I prime? Anyhow a few more kicks and it would fire once in a while then actually started! Garage temp was around 40ºF so not surprising it took a bit to fire up after sitting.

Once it ran several seconds it would take throttle good and even idle. Rode it up and down the 200 foot driveway being very careful as it was wet and only a bit above freezing outside and the rear tire is an almost bald tire that has been on it since around 2000!

Only thing bad is I notice the left petcock was leaking bad so that will be one of the projects to look into when I do get back to actually working on this one.

Right now I have to study up on my Italian swear words so I can handle the Vespa job!
 
Whoo! Dodged my first deer tonight. Missed him by about 6 feet at 55mph.
Looked alot like this-
228A7E08-A136-40F3-BA20-32DDBBBE8723.jpeg
 
Changed the voltage regulator because of charging issues. No changes. It's still not charging. Still investigating....
 
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