marine5811
XS650 Enthusiast
Hey everybody.
I'm new around here and I'm new to bikes in general, so bear with me because I'm going to have lots of questions and make lots of dumb mistakes, I'm sure.
I am picking up a 78 xs650 Special in a few days which has been sitting for a while (a long while). It's pretty rough but seems manageable.
A little background on the bike: It belonged to a buddy's dad and he bought it off a showroom floor way back in the day. I'm not sure if it was new or used at that point but the paperwork is clean and he had the good sense to non-op it when he decided to park it, so I'm not looking at a pile of expired registration fees. He did a little customizing while he owned it and had plans to build a chopper with a spare 650 motor he picked up but lost interest in both projects when he bought his R1. Lucky me, though, because I have one complete bike and two motors now for the low, low price of $0 (not including regular registration/licensing costs, of course).
The plan as of now is to get the bike running and learn to ride before I do any major customization/beautification (did I mention I'm NEW-new to bikes?). When I'm not busy laying the bike down in front of my house I plan on completely rebuilding/restoring the spare motor. Once that is completely rebuilt I want to pull the old motor out of the bike and start building the bike the way I want it. I have never liked giving names or titles to my tastes, especially in this case. According to everything I keep reading online I guess I am building a "Brat Tracker". I really hate to call it that because it isn't a Brat bike and I don't plan on ever racing it. Nonetheless, the world seems to know what pleases my eye as a Brat Tracker, so a Brat Tracker it shall be. The final plan is to get the rebuilt motor in the finished bike and then rebuild the old motor. I'm not sure what I'll do from there, but we'll see.
As for what I have already been up to: I am new to motorcycles but I am not new to wrenching. I will admit, though, I've never attempted a complete tear-down/rebuild. I am a diesel truck kind of guy so I am in pretty uncharted territory with this project but I am already having an absolute blast. I've always wanted a bike but could never justify the cost. Now that I have a "free" bike and the money is going out in chunks, though, I feel a lot better and I am already totally hooked. I am enjoying the building of the bike just as much as I am looking forward to riding it, so I am pretty much as happy as can be right now.
Ok, enough gabbing... Let's get to the good stuff.
I'm new around here and I'm new to bikes in general, so bear with me because I'm going to have lots of questions and make lots of dumb mistakes, I'm sure.
I am picking up a 78 xs650 Special in a few days which has been sitting for a while (a long while). It's pretty rough but seems manageable.
A little background on the bike: It belonged to a buddy's dad and he bought it off a showroom floor way back in the day. I'm not sure if it was new or used at that point but the paperwork is clean and he had the good sense to non-op it when he decided to park it, so I'm not looking at a pile of expired registration fees. He did a little customizing while he owned it and had plans to build a chopper with a spare 650 motor he picked up but lost interest in both projects when he bought his R1. Lucky me, though, because I have one complete bike and two motors now for the low, low price of $0 (not including regular registration/licensing costs, of course).
The plan as of now is to get the bike running and learn to ride before I do any major customization/beautification (did I mention I'm NEW-new to bikes?). When I'm not busy laying the bike down in front of my house I plan on completely rebuilding/restoring the spare motor. Once that is completely rebuilt I want to pull the old motor out of the bike and start building the bike the way I want it. I have never liked giving names or titles to my tastes, especially in this case. According to everything I keep reading online I guess I am building a "Brat Tracker". I really hate to call it that because it isn't a Brat bike and I don't plan on ever racing it. Nonetheless, the world seems to know what pleases my eye as a Brat Tracker, so a Brat Tracker it shall be. The final plan is to get the rebuilt motor in the finished bike and then rebuild the old motor. I'm not sure what I'll do from there, but we'll see.
As for what I have already been up to: I am new to motorcycles but I am not new to wrenching. I will admit, though, I've never attempted a complete tear-down/rebuild. I am a diesel truck kind of guy so I am in pretty uncharted territory with this project but I am already having an absolute blast. I've always wanted a bike but could never justify the cost. Now that I have a "free" bike and the money is going out in chunks, though, I feel a lot better and I am already totally hooked. I am enjoying the building of the bike just as much as I am looking forward to riding it, so I am pretty much as happy as can be right now.
Ok, enough gabbing... Let's get to the good stuff.