First bike/project!

bakerman

XS650 New Member
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Hey y’all, I’ve been a lurker here on the site for a little while and I finally got my hands on a 1980 XS650G Special II this summer! My goal was to find a bike to ride for the summer and then dig into in the winter time when it gets cold and snowy here where I am. Finally made myself a profile on here so I can start posting and discussing.

I’ll share a couple pics of the bike here!

I haven’t done much to it yet aside from replace the lowered suspension in the rear and tighten up the drive chain & honestly it’s been a super fun bike to rip around on out here in the sticks.

HOWEVER—> just today, I was out for a short ride and all of a sudden, the engine lost power. Luckily no traffic and there was a gravel turn out right there so I pulled off and shut everything down and gave it a minute. I noticed some oil leaking from the cylinder head on the lhs and I’m thinking I may have blown the gasket. The ride wasn’t insane, I was riding between 45-70 on the mountain roads out here for like 15-20 mins when this happened. I tried starting it and the bike fired right up for me first try so I rode it back home. Didn’t notice any difference in sound or power but I was also going a little easier on it after that.

Anyways here goes my first foray into this forum. Stoked to be here and it looks like I may be digging into the bike sooner than I expected. Let me know what y’all think!
 

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Hey, welcome. The head likely just needs a re-torque. You'll find threads on the subject in the Tech section. I like the taller shocks and cool it hasn't been hardtailed. Yeah, definitely sportster vibe. Great look for a special ll.
 
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