BSAKat
XS650 Enthusiast
I'm back! I changed the title to make this a thread about my work on this bike in general rather than just the carbs. Here's what I've done so far, what's happening soon, and some pictures.
Work Done So Far:
- New (to me), fully-rebuilt carbs using K&L rebuild kits.
- New rubber intake boots, carb mount boots, and the little airbox crossover boot.
- New fuel lines.
- New points.
- Valves and cam chain adjusted.
With that done, the bike started right up and idled like a champ. It's extremely eager to run and will start with just the merest, most low-effort nudge to the kickstarter. The other day I decided to take a break from my BSA project, so I pulled the Beezer off the lift and replaced it with the XS as seen below.
Y voila. Once I got it in the air, I gave it a thorough once over. It is, without a doubt, the dirtiest, crustiest, scabbiest, most forlorn bike I've had in the shop to date. The underside of everything is caked in ancient dry mud, and there's a layer of mixed road grime, oil, grease, and general filth covering just about every flat surface. It's real gross. It has solid bones, though, so here's the plan going forward:
- Suspension: These forks are hashed. The seals are garbage and the tubes below the triple clamps are rusty. I'm going to replace them with a very nice set from a junked XS750D I have laying around. The KYB shocks are the ones the bike came with from Japan, so I'm replacing them.
- Brakes: I bought new brake lines and rebuild kits for both the master cylinders and the calipers. The rotors are in rough shape, but I'm going to give them the flappy wheel treatment to see if I can spruce them up. If not, I'm going to just pull the ones off the XS750.
- Exhaust: The head pipes are in great shape, but the mufflers are shot. I'm going to cut the mufflers off and replace them with something close to stock using the instructions outlined here on the site.
- Electrical: I put a new fuse block in to repair some previous owner hackery in the loom. Surprisingly, this thing still has both the RLU and the headlight relay in it, along with the OG regulator and rectifier. I haven't actually seen the headlight work, so I don't know if either of those units are any good. I'll probably still remove them, though. The speedometer was broken, so I'm replacing it with a full set of gauges I bought off eBay that are in way better condition and cost less than the one working speedo I could find. I'm going to convert the headlight from sealed beam to a replaceable bulb then change everything out for LEDs like I did on my triple. I may install a modern regulator/rectifier and an electric ignition.
- Everything Else: Every piece of rubber on this thing is trash, so I'm replacing all the dampers. New Metzeler tires (ME77 rear, ME11 front). All new cables. A thorough cleaning, which may include multiple cans of Gunk and a trip to the coin-op car wash. A ton of wire wheeling and polishing to get all the rust off. This bike is suffering from the starter gear problem, so I have a repair kit on the way. A new chain, of course.
So, yeah. I have a lot of work ahead of me but I got a garage heater and a fridge full of beer. Should be road ready by spring. Here's how I left it this morning after more poking around. Poor thing...
Work Done So Far:
- New (to me), fully-rebuilt carbs using K&L rebuild kits.
- New rubber intake boots, carb mount boots, and the little airbox crossover boot.
- New fuel lines.
- New points.
- Valves and cam chain adjusted.
With that done, the bike started right up and idled like a champ. It's extremely eager to run and will start with just the merest, most low-effort nudge to the kickstarter. The other day I decided to take a break from my BSA project, so I pulled the Beezer off the lift and replaced it with the XS as seen below.
Y voila. Once I got it in the air, I gave it a thorough once over. It is, without a doubt, the dirtiest, crustiest, scabbiest, most forlorn bike I've had in the shop to date. The underside of everything is caked in ancient dry mud, and there's a layer of mixed road grime, oil, grease, and general filth covering just about every flat surface. It's real gross. It has solid bones, though, so here's the plan going forward:
- Suspension: These forks are hashed. The seals are garbage and the tubes below the triple clamps are rusty. I'm going to replace them with a very nice set from a junked XS750D I have laying around. The KYB shocks are the ones the bike came with from Japan, so I'm replacing them.
- Brakes: I bought new brake lines and rebuild kits for both the master cylinders and the calipers. The rotors are in rough shape, but I'm going to give them the flappy wheel treatment to see if I can spruce them up. If not, I'm going to just pull the ones off the XS750.
- Exhaust: The head pipes are in great shape, but the mufflers are shot. I'm going to cut the mufflers off and replace them with something close to stock using the instructions outlined here on the site.
- Electrical: I put a new fuse block in to repair some previous owner hackery in the loom. Surprisingly, this thing still has both the RLU and the headlight relay in it, along with the OG regulator and rectifier. I haven't actually seen the headlight work, so I don't know if either of those units are any good. I'll probably still remove them, though. The speedometer was broken, so I'm replacing it with a full set of gauges I bought off eBay that are in way better condition and cost less than the one working speedo I could find. I'm going to convert the headlight from sealed beam to a replaceable bulb then change everything out for LEDs like I did on my triple. I may install a modern regulator/rectifier and an electric ignition.
- Everything Else: Every piece of rubber on this thing is trash, so I'm replacing all the dampers. New Metzeler tires (ME77 rear, ME11 front). All new cables. A thorough cleaning, which may include multiple cans of Gunk and a trip to the coin-op car wash. A ton of wire wheeling and polishing to get all the rust off. This bike is suffering from the starter gear problem, so I have a repair kit on the way. A new chain, of course.
So, yeah. I have a lot of work ahead of me but I got a garage heater and a fridge full of beer. Should be road ready by spring. Here's how I left it this morning after more poking around. Poor thing...