2nd Xs, first complete one. Project beater bike.

[crazyorigin]

I picked up an xs to customize early this spring. It was a basket case with low miles, still is a basket case. I figured it would be a while before it was done so I picked up another bike to ride while I work on that. This bike ended up being rougher than I first thought when I bought it but luckily it did start and run quite well so that was the main thing I was worried about.

I have put new wheel bearings in it, new tapered steering stem bearings, new bronze swingarm bushings, new 520 chain and sprockets spaced out to the far outside with some custom spacers I made. I also just installed some new tires, but sadly I have a leaky valve stem so I need to mess with the front some more. The Special bars on it felt terrible to me so I swapped them for some Renthal Fat Bars I had for my other project. I installed a a magura master cylinder and rebuilt the front caliper, I will be doing the rear soon.

The tach was busted on it so I removed it and installed one of my tach deletes. I also chopped the front fender down into a strut. I was gonna weld it up some more but my welder is out of gas from me leaving the valve on last time, luckily I didn't have very much left so no huge loss. I purchased the pipes and longer shocks here, I welded in the baffles that were in them, they were a bit small, it seems to run much better now. The stock pipes were blown out and rusty, I chopped the left side up to retain my center stand bumper. I will post up some more pics of those items soon. I have some side covers coming and another tank I am painting to put on this, then I may end up selling it but who knows. I kind of want to do a kick only setup on this and solo seat but we will see.

So far it's a pretty fun old bike, my first bike actually that I have ridden more than just once on the street. Looking forward to doing some more with it.

How I got it:



This picture makes the bike look way better than it was. It had a lot of plastic dip spray on the tank, and fender, and a bunch of other places it shouldn't be. It's still on the forks, I plan to clean it off sometime soon.





The bike had 30+ years of chain lube on it as well as an oil leak and an old one at that, lots of grease was cleaned off this, still a lot to get too but in due time. I am glad to be riding something. These bridgestone trail wings feel much better than the Cheng Shin tires that were on it.

 

[crazyorigin]

Put over 80 miles on this yesterday. The head gasket is weeping a little oil, I am going to swap out the old plastic washers and see if that cures it if not this winter I will do the gasket and a cam chain and tensioner. I also welded up the passenger pegs so the sat level, just added some tack welds onto the rest area.


Here is a shot of the bracket I made out of the rusty stock muffler and the stock hanger. I drilled the hanger and frame for a .250 pin and welded the pin into the hanger. Now it won't spin and is held on with the stock acorn nut. Works great.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi crazy,
re-torquing the cylinder head fasteners to the proper spec. may well fix the oil leak.
That and replacing the sandwich-style sealing washers with Dowty washers.
Or, as you can't find Dowty washers in Saskatoon except by mail order from McMaster-Carr in the US, Mr. Impatience used 10mm copper brake line washers instead and that worked too.

 

[crazyorigin]

Picked up some cheap bar end mirrors so I could do away with the stock ugly mirror, it also was kind of in the way when I wanted to take my hand off the bars and back on. I really like the look and function of the bar end morror a lot, I can see things behind me way better, the old stocker looked right into my shoulder really and was a pain to use, glad I had it tho its nice to know what's behind you.

 

[crazyorigin]

Installed a used Heiden oil cooler kit I picked up here used. Looks great on there.

 

[crazyorigin]

Finally got my better looking tank put on. It looks good from a little ways but up close it isn't great, much better than the best up red tank tho. I also welded on a larger foot for the kick stand, and built a fishing pole holder to bolt on some bolt locations near the grab bar.

 

[5twins]

Get the welder out again and add a brace to the centerstand tang. They have a nasty habit of breaking off .....

And if you really want both stands to operate and deploy the easiest and best they can, add grease fittings to the pivots .....

It's really amazing how much easier the bike will go up onto the centerstand when the pivots are greased. Many, in particular Special owners (because of the angled shocks and lowered rear end), struggle with this. Rusty pivots and pivot bolts are a big part of the problem.

 

[fredintoon]

Get the welder out again and add a brace to the centerstand tang. They have a nasty habit of breaking off .....

Hi 5twins,
Yamaha became aware of this over the years, one way to tell an XS650's year is to check how much extra bracing is holding the centerstand tang in place.
My '84 Heritage Special's centerstand looks like it was sired by the Forth Bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge

 

[crazyorigin]

Thanks for the input guys. I am pretty sure there is a gusset already on the lever on my center stand but I will double check and add one if there isnt. A long term oil leak that was on this bike, that's not fixed, has impregnated everything on the bottom of this bike with a lot of oil, so the stands work quite nicely, I may do the zerk mod someday tho if they become problematic.

I am also in the middle of a clutch replacement on this bike. The stock clutch plates were really rusty when I removed them even after 700+ miles of recent riding, and the pressure plates were glossed over pretty good. I ended up breaking my inner basket while removing the original hardware, luckily I had a spare motor with nice untouched bolts that were actually loose, and the good 7 disc clutch setup. I replaced my inner basket and 6 plate setup with all new plates and pads and a 7 plate setup. All I have left to do is install the clutch levers adjustment bolt and put my grip and mirror back on.

I installed a Magura clutch lever from MikesXS and the adjustment bolt didn't have a big enough bore to fit the stock style cable in, so I chucked it up in my lathe at work and milled the hole out larger, should work great now. Looking forward to riding this bike with a good solid clutch.