The basic bike was all done a while back, but now after spending several days FINALLY getting to it and screwing around with taping, painting,sanding, taping again, painting more, sanding, etc., it is finally mostly done. The only thing left to do is figure out what I want to put in the (now HUGE appearing) empty space on the headlight fairing....Other than that it came out about like I wanted it to...sort of inspired by the old Yamaha racing paint theme yet not exactly like it......but still yellow with checkers and a couple of tuning forks in there....I did all the dog work (sanding,taping, layout, and that stuff), but my buddy, Don Lee, did all the actual painting and the stuff that required any real TALENT with a spray gun, since I have absolutely no bodywork/painting skill and I paint paint like a drunken second grader. (don't ask!!!)
I will probably put it in the Asian Show in San Jose, CA the weekend of 28 MAR 2015 and then in the Japanese Show in Auburn, CA in a month or two, but will mostly just ride it as it is a real hoot to ride around town...not TERRIBLY powerful, but with the custom exhaust, carbs, intakes and a few other small things it goes pretty good, ESPECIALLY now that it weighs around 375 pounds instead of the 1981 stocker's 475 (?) pounds or so...Plus I made a slight (one tooth) change to the final drive sprocket ratios so it accelerates well, but doesn't rev too high when just running along on the freeway. If you are interested in seeing some more pictures, there are some on this site elsewhere..here....http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/1605/ and also here when I decided to cut up and re-make the pipes: http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/1630/
I will probably put it in the Asian Show in San Jose, CA the weekend of 28 MAR 2015 and then in the Japanese Show in Auburn, CA in a month or two, but will mostly just ride it as it is a real hoot to ride around town...not TERRIBLY powerful, but with the custom exhaust, carbs, intakes and a few other small things it goes pretty good, ESPECIALLY now that it weighs around 375 pounds instead of the 1981 stocker's 475 (?) pounds or so...Plus I made a slight (one tooth) change to the final drive sprocket ratios so it accelerates well, but doesn't rev too high when just running along on the freeway. If you are interested in seeing some more pictures, there are some on this site elsewhere..here....http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/1605/ and also here when I decided to cut up and re-make the pipes: http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/1630/