XS500 and XS650 differences????

[heyyou]

Hi everyone, I am new to the XS world and just recently picked up my first XS for free. It is a 500 though. I would like to convert the engine to a 650 and making plans to do that, but as far as frame, suspension and everything else...what are the differences? Is it the same platform as the 650, just different engines? Any feedback would be awesome!

 

[mrriggs]

It's a completely different bike.

 

[5twins]

Yes, completely different. My advice would be to use the 500 for parts. I've stripped and junked two over the years. Useful items acquired from them included the brakes, turn signals, wheels, and a coffee can full of metric nuts & bolts. They're not worth fixing up in my opinion. Too hard and expensive to find parts for.

 

[grizld1]

You're not gonna see a Japanese-designed 4-stroke twin with a 360* firing order. The XS650 motor is descended from the 500cc. twin designed by Horex in the 1950's; Horex went bust, company got sold to the Japanese, and two defunct Japanese companies later, Yamaha wound up with the plans. When a big (for the day) 4-stroke motor was needed in a hurry, Yamaha knocked the dust off the Horex plans and rushed a 360* 650cc. twin into production.

Meanwhile Yamaha's engineering department got busy designing their own motors, represented by the XS360/400, XS500, and TX750--all 180* twins in the Japanese tradition, and considerably more sophisticated in design than the old 650, which turned out to be the most popular machine of the whole bunch!

I hope that a walk through the manuals makes it very clear that you cannot "convert" a XS500 to a XS650 and that if you could, it would be a mistake. The only item you need to be cautious about in the 500 motor is the cam chain adjuster. It's automatic, and prone to failure if not changed out on schedule.

5twins, I can't agree with your assessment of the 500 as crusher feed! Yeah, parts are hard to find--so much the better, that difficulty is just moron repellant. The motor is very lively, and a good one will leave the XS650 eating dust. Handling is nice too. Clean specimens are getting very hard to find.

 

[heyyou]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, its greatly appreciated. I was hoping it wouldn't be so difficult to use 650 parts as far as frame and suspension goes, but sounds like it might be. It is my first bike/build...i think I got a little over zealous when I heard the word free, with the title. I'll see what I can do with it before I decide to part out.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

if you do decide to part it out, being a more rare bike can work to your advantage.keep the parts that will work on a 650 and sell the rest one at a time on ebay.i like to part out bikes during the winter months. seems like more guys are holed up in the house cruiseing the net looking for stuff when its too cold to wrench or ride.

ive often taken bikes that you would think were worthless and made 100 to 300 dollars profit on them. last spring i auctioned a 550 4 honda with rusted out tank, froze carbs and rust on everything for over 500$. it was complete with title tho.guy was local and i made it clear that if he didnt like what he saw when he got here, that he didnt have to take it. he was happy tho,we loaded it and he paid me and drove off.

 

[650Skull]

A for the XS500 Road test against a Honda CB500 twin and and Qwaka KZ400D