Weight loss?

Trevor9

XS650 Enthusiast
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What realistically can you reduce the weight of the xs650 to without spending silly amounts of money? And what are the easiest parts to change/modify? I want to make my xs650SH a bit faster. So weight loss must be the way to go, as this will benefit braking and maybe handling on the cheap.
 
disc brakes (stock ones are boat anchors), exhaust, rims, gauges, battery/battery box, body work/seat, stick on a small gas tank, flashers, ditch all the extra wiring, side stand, bars… that’s just easy bolt on kind of stuff.

Rear shocks and a bit heavier/more fork oil and preload will do a lot as well (atleast they did on my bike)

How stock do you want your bike to look??
 
WideAwake covered most obvious items. I guess the stock front fender can be replaced with a fiberglass fender and a fork brace. That removes 1-2 lbs.
(On my Euro XS650D, I saved over 10 lbs/ 5 kg unsprung weight from front by ditching the stock dual disc setup, using a single 320 mm ISR disc and a Brembo 4 pot caliper, a custom alloy fender, and a Tarozzi fork brace. All that weight loss surely improved the front suspension)
Other upgrades often save weight as well. A Brembo master cylinder weighs just over half as much as the stock one. Same with rearset footpegs. RaceTech linear fork springs are lighter than stock springs. Complete forks from a newer bikes are often significantly lighter. A 520 chain conversion with alloy rear sprocket is also a bit lighter. Reproduction indicator lights for the earlier models are a lot lighter than the stock 77 indicators. An alloy handlebar (I have LSL) and bar end mirrors also save some weight.

The lightest XS with stock frame that I have read about, was a 160 kg/ 360 lbs cafe racer
 
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Run an ignition/charging system that is battery-less. Lightweight mufflers and single walled headers. Lighter fenders and seat. Delete the turn signals (this may or may not be a problem where you live). Run a single disc brake and optimize it. Etc, etc, etc.....
 
I think that you nailed it in the first sentance.
The main thing that you can do that costs virtually nothing is to dump the starter motor, and all the wiring, relays, shafts and gears that go with it.
All you need to do is to plug up the hole where the starter fitted into the crankcase.
When your battery dies replace with a smaller lighter item.
Everything else in the posts above will cost you (by my frugal standards) a truck load of cash (except for going on a diet)
Better to spend the cash on making more BHP in my opinion.
 
But spending cash on extra bhp would then show up the poor handling and braking.
To the others thank you for your input. I was hoping for some upgrades that would benefit the handling and the braking in straight swop for some 2020's technology without took much hassle. Originality is not paramount, the engine and tank would still say YAMAHA XS650.
 
Rear fender. Find a MX plastic cheap and mount a plastic trailer light. Fab a small seatpan and glue on some layers of yoga mat densefoam cut to shape. Scrap the tach and information lights. You don't need to be told you are in neutral! These steps are free or cheap. See the other ideas above and decide yourself.
 
Unfortunately wanting to lost weight and get better handling/braking is going to cost you, no matter what, full stop. Best you're going to get with stock items is racetech/traxxion dynamics springs along with racetech emulators, and maybe some Hagon shocks. You can get better stuff/ adapt it, but it will cost even more. For braking if you have 35mm forks a bracket is readily available to throw on a brembo front brake. If you have 34mm I'm sure you could fab something up. As far as weight loss, you've got suggestions but it's going to cost you no matter what. Filling the gas tank half way is another way, but you're kind of chasing the dragon with this one. No matter what you do this bike will still be ~50hp and a porker with 70s tech.
 
I cut back on beer to lose some pounds myself. Then amputated some excess appendages from the frame. I also am going tach less, renthal bars and plastic mx fenders with peanut lights. I already removed the battery box and built a aluminum plate to hold a light AGM battery. Considering a 520 sprocket conversion and definitely lighter high pipe with short mufflers. What is the stock weight anyway?
 

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The stock airbox on my Special was ridiculous and heavy.
 
That is just a 3:2 offset hole pattern. It can be found in the tech pages. and printed off. It takes a fair bit of reworking though. I had to scale it to size on my printer for starters. Also it is only printed in a 1/4 of the pattern and the holes are kind of wonky to try and cut and paste together. I am in the middle of making a pattern for my newer style rotor right now.

https://www.xs650.com/threads/how-to-cross-drill-rotor-w-patterns.12671/
 
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