1977 Yamaha XS750-2D living the past

Jgg

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I live in Dallas, summer after high school my friend and I were gonna road trip to California. I sold my car, bought a XS750-2D on the advice of my brother. I think I put gas and oil in it and no idea how to work on it. My friend lost interest, never made it to California, and here I was driving to work and school using it as a daily driver in the city. After multiple minor mishaps over a year or so I sold it and didn’t really look back. Dallas is not the place to own a road bike. Fast forward after a divorce and a new marriage retirement set in and I can only stand playing bad golf for a limited amount of time. I googled the bike and sort of looking around the internet and thought that might be fun to see what those bikes are like today. I found old postings 3 and 4 years old of pretty nice ones selling for 2K and being sold very quickly. I learned how to search Craigslist nationwide and I got a hit on a 77 in Northern California for 2K reduced from 3K and the ad said it ran just needed TLC. I bought it site unseen, trusted what the guy told me (which turned out right) and hired a guy to bring it to Dallas for $800. The bike had all of the components but many were faded, broken, or rusted. The seller bought from a junk yard for 400 but it looked and seemed all in tact. There had been some weird modifications to the headlight, blinkers, seat was unhinged, switches were mostly broken, and there was considerable surface rust likely from sitting outside and maybe under a tarp halfway blown off. It seemed like one side of the bike was more rusty than the other. The front brake caliper was locked up due to rust, the battery was dead, and after kicking it a few times it turned over but no spark or hope of it starting. I’m not much of a mechanic at all but I can view a YouTube video and follow instructions. I took it to a shop to have new peacocks installed and the inside cleaned out ($300) and I hired a really good motorcycle mechanic who knew a lot about the carbs and timing. I sent him the carbs and when they were ready he brought them back and installed them, installed new points and condenser, and timed it. I did the labor taking off the carbs, taking out the air box, replacing the battery and and cleaning and painting a surface rusted battery box. I had the wheels off, the pipes off, the seat and tank off, fenders off and went to work with lots of WD40, wire brush, steel wool and about 60 hours of elbow grease. I spent about $2000 on tires, battery, front fender, switches, blinkers, battery, battery charger, small miscellaneous parts I wanted to replace to make it nice. I had to buy a helmet etc. I think I have about just under 6000 in it and 60 hours of labor. I didn’t buy it to sell or make a profit but more of a project and something I could put my heart in. It’s been great and I highly suggest to anyone thinking about it you will love it if you have the time and a few extra dollars to invest. I will probably keep it a few years to tool around the neighborhood, maybe join a 4th of July parade, and at some point sell it and hopefully get half my money back. Any loss I take on it will be well worth it and much more satisfying than hacking a golf ball around but I can’t get enough of that either. The first pic me in 1979, then from the guy I bought it from and it doesn’t look bad at all, then a few pics with it stripped down and the last pic with my Mid Life Crisis plate is the finished product.
 

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Congratulations on your find and your efforts, she looks to be a very nice original bike! I had the silver version of that bike, I bought it new in ‘78 and had it up until about ‘85. It was a great bike, loved everything about it!
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Enjoy your new to you bike and btw……..betcha that won’t be your last restoration, it’s a fun hobby. 😉
 
Thanks for the positive feedback, that is a nice looking bike Mailman. Sometimes I think my bike looks like an old clunker and sometimes I just fall in love with the lines and beefiness. Wifey wants me to paint it, detail it all around and make it showroom, but I think I want to keep it looking 47 years old but in perfect mechanical and operating condition. I might break it down next summer and do some painting to clean up and find nice NOS items, but right now I’m just thrilled that it’s running and everything works nicely … except for the tach, it’s sticky and moves very slow. I greased the cable to no avail. The cable spins but the tach barely reacts.
 
Thanks for the positive feedback, that is a nice looking bike Mailman. Sometimes I think my bike looks like an old clunker and sometimes I just fall in love with the lines and beefiness. Wifey wants me to paint it, detail it all around and make it showroom, but I think I want to keep it looking 47 years old but in perfect mechanical and operating condition. I might break it down next summer and do some painting to clean up and find nice NOS items, but right now I’m just thrilled that it’s running and everything works nicely … except for the tach, it’s sticky and moves very slow. I greased the cable to no avail. The cable spins but the tach barely reacts.
If you go inside the rev counter it runs on a 2 peice magnet system. The bottom. If the bottom is spinning the top half could b stiff from .....whatever. also I have seen chips out of one of the rotating parts, making the connection fail.

Might find this thread handy if you decide to get into the gauge. 2manyxs1b gets into the guts of a gauge on his XS1B . It is different to yours but some principles will b the same

https://www.xs650.com/threads/gauge-repair-refurbish-yamaha-xs-tx-70-83-gauge-repair-honda-70-71-750-4-ko.5201

PS, nice colour on the 750. Sometimes it isn't about the value in $'s of the bike. Just the bike it'self. Great build.
 
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