New here and new to bikes in general

[August]

Well I recently inherited if you will a 1975 XS 650 from a friend of the family who moved back out of the country.

The good news: Only 12k on the odometer, it was free, and I took pictures of it (trust me, this will come in handy).

The bad news: Engine has seized from sitting, tires are rotted out (makes sense), just dirty in general and could use a good wash, and it's been disassembled (mostly).

Everything is there (minus a head lamp and a front turn signal). The bike was purchased new by his grand father and rode it for short time before he retired from riding all together considering his health. Spent most of it's working time in Arizona then stored under (until it fell off anyway) a tarp in a Wisconsin barn.

As time went on and no one used it, it sat until last year when my friend decided to work on it, but stopped. Now I own it.

So since I'm used to going fast on four wheels (raced stock cars), I will more than likely be asking a lot of questions...probably dumb ones, but I'll do my best to figure it out if I can before putting forth a topic.


the bike by Hachi Gatsu, on Flickr


the bike 2 by Hachi Gatsu, on Flickr


the bike 3 by Hachi Gatsu, on Flickr

 

[gggGary]

Title? In Wisconsin that's a biggie. Welcome to the neverending show. You lucked into getting a great bike to work on. It's together in the pics, been deconstructed since? What are your plans for it?

Pull the plugs spray in some PB blaster. wait, try to turn it, repeat. FWIW if you remove the alternator (LH) cover you can get a pipe wrench over the back half of the rotor and apply some decent torque to the crank. This is probably the best way to apply "unsticking" torque I know of. Figure on a top overhaul though.

 

[August]

Working on it (title). Just recently came into the bike two days ago.

Thinking of doing it flat-tracker styled but street-able, we'll see how it goes. Currently have the dual Mikuni's on my desk as I write this. Going to rebuild those some time soon when my rebuild kits get here.

 

[gggGary]

I would also open the valve covers and hit the valve stems with pb blaster. A fairly common theme is a barn find, rescued and made to run till a sticking valve hits a piston.........

Look through the tech area. There is a great carb overhaul guide that will save you a lot of frustration and grief.