1978

Hello folks, New to the XS650 world. My 1978 Yamaha XS650SE is currently being transported to me as I write this. It is however missing a left engine cover. Does anybody have one spare, know of someone selling one, or where they might be readily available. I'm not having much luck online...

Helloo there. I have been eyeballing xs650's for quite some time and the wife finally let me pull the trigger on one and what did I do? yep, I stripped it all down and chopped the back of the frame. HAHA It's a terrible feeling let me tell you. I immediately searched craigslist to reassure...

Hey there, another new guy with more carb questions for those of you who aren't sick of them yet! Heres the story. -History Purchased a 78 xs650 with about 9000 miles that was kept just outside of the D.C. area, and brought it down to Mississippi. Bike is super clean, new gaskets just about...

My 1978 xs650 hardtail chopper has been running rough after it warms up and I let’er rip on the highway, typically past half throttle. It seems like it starting doing it after I adjusted the cam chain tensioner. Carbs cleaned and didn’t change anything. The main jet size has been fine in the...

I installed a Banshee rotor and a Kawasaki Vulcan/Drifter stator to my '78 xs650 using Hugh's Hand Built stator backing plate, stator mount & hardware. I had a wire rubbed through by the rotor rotation because I didn't tucked it away enough. When I pulled the rotor to inspect and fix the wire...

HHB PMA on my '78 xs650. The flywheel was slightly touching the stator wires that I thought were tucked away from danger and caused a wire to get exposed. This caused my battery to not get full voltage making the bike very poorly. I pulled the flywheel and noticed some wear on the inside in a...

1978 XS650 with pod filters, straight pipes and bs38 Mikuni's. Just replaced pilot jets from stock 27.5 to 30, main jets from 135 to 140, upped the clip on the jet needle to the 2nd slot from the top, have the mixture screw out 2.25-2.5 turns and had the entire carb sonic bath cleaned. Still...

Just to make sure I'm not losing my mind, I wanted to get a second opinion. I almost done with my first ever build so I'm a green horn. I have a '78 xs650 with bs38 Mikuni Carbs. I purchased a new throttle assembly from TC Bros. with the vintage grips. Bars are not taller so the stock...

This is the ongoing saga of a black 1978 XS650E that had been salvaged, bought then sat parked for about 20 years. This post is an ongoing log of all the things I have found to be broken and how, with the help of this forum, 'fixed' them to the best of my ability. I got the bike in September...