What have you done to your XS today?

The Plan was to Fix the Tailight 20190322_105350.jpg


I had a new wiring harness on the bench, but the more I poked at the light and the harness, the more I thought that a bit of black paint on the frame would be a good use of my time and then the plywood floor and sides looked past their best before dates, and it was one of the first days it was nice enough to work outside so here I am.
Plan is to clean off all the dirt and rust scale to paint the frame and then I will replace the floor with some PT 5/4 deck boards, may stay with ply for the sides and front or use 1x lumber and so on.20190324_161916.jpg
 
I like it...you may consider adding something to the side covers as well...might look good.
Second that. I can’t stop thinking about repainting my tank and tins, and when I do I definitely want to put new gold “650” and border decals on the sidecovers.
 
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Look at what has been released from its Corten Steel winter repose!
About 8 kicks got it started; it took about 5 to remember to turn up the idle screw.
Ground so soft the tires sunk in far enough that side stand would barely deploy and when it did it just sank in. Hence, the need of a consenting spouse to hold it steady for the pic.
 
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EXCELLENT!! I'll bet M-E was pleased to be included in the initiative!

I went for a ride out to the CVMG coffee hour on Lucille this morning. The temperature was pretty "fresh" but she ran great and it was a nice ride.

Lakeview: my colleague and I will be along sometime around 5:30-6:30 to pick up the SV.

Pete
 
Took the bike to work again today. And left early just like yesterday:rolleyes:. Yesterdays high was 65, and todays was 60. I’ve already put 250 miles on in since last weekend. One of the best things about having this bike is the conversations I have with people. Had an older guy stop me in the gym this morning and ask me if I had replaced the seat on my bike. I said yes. Then he asked me if I had done something with the exhaust. I said yes, just replaced the mufflers. He said “Well it looks really good” to which I replied “Appreciate it!” After my workout I ran into him in the locker room and asked him if he was into older bikes or still had one. He told me that his first bike was a 75 XS650 that looked almost exactly like mine, and that he had considered buying a seat almost just like the one I put on. He has a honda touring bike now, and has had a few other modern bikes, but he said for around town nothing beats the XS. He said he put many miles on his and it was his favorite bike.
 
ZACKLEY!!

On my first ride with my ‘76, a lady came over to my table inside the diner and said, “I like your motorcycle. It’s a pretty colour and it doesn’t sound like a blender.”

Good for you Thaddeus!

Pete

PS - that old gent was also right on about the general booting around riding suitability of the XS.
 
Okay, you guys ready for a good laugh? I mean a real belly splitter. If you've read any of my other posts when attempting to fix something, or some of the ignorant questions I have asked you probably won't be surprised by this. So, one of the two little screws holding the face plate on the tachometer had vibrated loose and I had recently read on the forums here how to take the bezel off to get to it. So I carefully remove the windshield so I can get to the nuts holding the tach to the instrument bracket, remove the headlamp so I can unplug the wires and then remove the tach. Now time to get that bezel off. Well I thought I understood, but after prying up the entire FRONT rim of the bezel I realized I was supposed to be working on the back rim. So another 30 minutes later and I have the bezel off and found the faceplate screw and put it back in and snugged the other one up as well. Took me another 20 minutes to get the bezel back on and then 15 more minutes to reassemble everything. I now have 2.5 hours invested and a mangled tach to show for my efforts. BUT at least my tach will be working again until I can buy a replacement. Cranked Lucy up and the tach needle doesn't move. WHAT? How can that be? Upon closer examination I see that I left the needle BELOW the little stop post so now it can't move.

Guess who is not going to remove the bezel again? Unless it will hurt the tach cable to have it hooked up and the needle being blocked from moving. Will it hurt it? Guess who is now searching for a replacement tach?

By the way, anyone got an old tach that will work on my '81 xs650? I'll be happy to pay the going rate.

tach.jpg
 
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