rossness
XS650 Enthusiast
Been reading for a month or two but finally got around to posting (in the garage at least).
I bought my first motorcycle ever (I'm 25 and had a yz125 as a kid, but does that count?) and decided to start riding/wrenching. After searching all over CL I found a '76 XS in a smaller shop here in Austin and bought it. Owner of the shop had it running ok with a few odds and ends needing to button up. My only engine experience was that YZ and a Honda Big Red we had when I was younger.
Clymer and Youtube got me through a cleaning of the carbs. Some previous owner put on Mikuni's with UNI foam pods, but they run nice so I'm assuming it's jetted well. I took off some weight in parts as well, got new bars, cleaned some surface rust and rattle canned the frame flat black high heat (which turned out well actually... thanks internet). After a couple weeks I got crazy and decided to get a replacement tail light, cut the fender off and paint it. I have a friend who's going to recover the seat (it's got some holes with tape on it), but here she sits.
It's been a fun adventure so far. I may eventually try the 277 rephase cam from mikes but unfortunately, grad school starts in a week. Thanks to you guys for being a killer resource!
I bought my first motorcycle ever (I'm 25 and had a yz125 as a kid, but does that count?) and decided to start riding/wrenching. After searching all over CL I found a '76 XS in a smaller shop here in Austin and bought it. Owner of the shop had it running ok with a few odds and ends needing to button up. My only engine experience was that YZ and a Honda Big Red we had when I was younger.
Clymer and Youtube got me through a cleaning of the carbs. Some previous owner put on Mikuni's with UNI foam pods, but they run nice so I'm assuming it's jetted well. I took off some weight in parts as well, got new bars, cleaned some surface rust and rattle canned the frame flat black high heat (which turned out well actually... thanks internet). After a couple weeks I got crazy and decided to get a replacement tail light, cut the fender off and paint it. I have a friend who's going to recover the seat (it's got some holes with tape on it), but here she sits.
It's been a fun adventure so far. I may eventually try the 277 rephase cam from mikes but unfortunately, grad school starts in a week. Thanks to you guys for being a killer resource!