My experience also, often Japanese chrome isn't great. I've had some poorly chromed Shadow rims.
The Yamaha Star line seems to have high quality chrome. shrug.
The Yamaha Star line seems to have high quality chrome. shrug.
-
Enjoy XS650.com? Consider making a donation to help support the site.
XS650.com receives a small share of sales from some links on this page, but direct donations have a much greater impact on keeping this site going.
New to me - ‘95 Honda Shadow VLX600
- Thread starter bosco659
- Start date
My Ace Hardware and True Value Hardware chains have a good selection of metric SS bolts indidually.
Yes that’s the case with this bike. If I owned it for as long as the po I’m sure the chrome would be in good shape but the years of neglect are showing through. Most has been cleaned to an acceptable level.
My experience also, often Japanese chrome isn't great. I've had some poorly chromed Shadow rims.
The Yamaha Star line seems to have high quality chrome. shrug.
Carbs back off to install new bits and valve covers removed for cleaning and polishing too.
Last edited:
One valve cover done. Fast tracked it and I’m not proud of the results. Nobody will notice but me. Fortunately this one is covered 75% by the tank and air cleaner. I’ll spend more time on the next and last one.
There is a lucky buyer in the future....
Update: Jacked the back of the bike up today with more careful placement of the jack, blocks and rubber pads. Wheel spins fairly freely so on my earlier test, the chain must have bern rubbing on something. The chain need to be cleaned and lubed but they might happen next spring.
Almost anything is better than HD chrome, especially if you live in a salt air environment
Spent a few hours on the Honda today and polished the second valve cover. Roloc, 120, 180, 240, 400, 600, 800, black compound on a sisal wheel then white on a sewn cotton wheels. Turned out pretty good but the bad news is once I bolted it on, the cover I did yesterday looked like a$$ so I removed that one and did it over again. 
. Put the polishing supplies away. The handlebar clamps and master cylinder look bad but I’ll only do those in case of extreme boredom.
Gaskets, seals, carb mount boots should all be in Friday. Good chance the bike will be all done by Christmas. Then to storage for a few months at my friends place.
. Put the polishing supplies away. The handlebar clamps and master cylinder look bad but I’ll only do those in case of extreme boredom. Gaskets, seals, carb mount boots should all be in Friday. Good chance the bike will be all done by Christmas. Then to storage for a few months at my friends place.
Storage at your friend's place after all of this amazing work? It is not being allowed in your house?Spent a few hours on the Honda today and polished the second valve cover. Roloc, 120, 180, 240, 400, 600, 800, black compound on a sisal wheel then white on a sewn cotton wheels. Turned out pretty good but the bad news is once I bolted it on, the cover I did yesterday looked like a$$ so I removed that one and did it over again.
Gaskets, seals, carb mount boots should all be in Friday. Good chance the bike will be all done by Christmas. Then to storage for a few months at my friends place.
View attachment 257849View attachment 257850View attachment 257851
seriously, my wife wouldn't allow it either. Is your friend's place low humidity etc to keep the bike in it's now beautiful cosmetic condition ?
OMG, that is a GOOD one! Ho ho ho! (special Santa laugh)
No, it will be in an unheated garage.Storage at your friend's place after all of this amazing work? It is not being allowed in your house?
. I suppose once the work has been done to it, I might be able to shoehorn it in until the springtime. I’ll see after its all back together. If I could bring one inside the house it would probably be the XS. Right now it’s shivering in the cold shed.
Received two new rubber carb mount boots yesterday and installed them today. The soft rubber makes the carb install much easier. I was going to soften the OEM boots but the cost of wintergreen oil and alcohol would exceed the cost of the Amazon sourced boots. The quality seems good and I’m sure they’ll last as long as I own the bike.
I am disappointed my gasket order didn’t come in. I had hoped to have the bike back together and running for the new year.
I wanted to install a new fuel filter and refuse to pay close to $37 for a Honda plastic filter - crooks. They are an odd size as the inlet and outlet are 3/8”. I’m sure one size fits many Honda’s as this bike wouldn't drink fuel that quickly to warrant such a large diameter. I found a universal filter for $17 and thought that would do the trick. It came with three different sized hose barbs. I got it home and attempted to assemble the 3/8” barbs. There was no way they would go in straight. I inspected the threads and they were rough and crudely cut. I disassembled the filter and planned to run a pipe tap through it. Next question was NPT or BSPT? Fortunately I had both taps. The NPT seemed to do the trick but I was surprised because the hex section was 13mm. The next issue I discovered was the glass center section was deformed at one end. It has a 1/16” pronounced hump in one section and I figured it would most likely leak when fueled up. Rather than take it back I decided to try to flatten it out. I found my diamond sharpening stone and used it to grind away the end until close to flat. That took a while. All back together now and I’ll throw it on the bike later today.
I need to polish the front rim and 52 spokes and think this will be more easily done with the wheel removed. I knew there was a lot to clean up on the bike but I think I’m on the home stretch.
I am disappointed my gasket order didn’t come in. I had hoped to have the bike back together and running for the new year.
I wanted to install a new fuel filter and refuse to pay close to $37 for a Honda plastic filter - crooks. They are an odd size as the inlet and outlet are 3/8”. I’m sure one size fits many Honda’s as this bike wouldn't drink fuel that quickly to warrant such a large diameter. I found a universal filter for $17 and thought that would do the trick. It came with three different sized hose barbs. I got it home and attempted to assemble the 3/8” barbs. There was no way they would go in straight. I inspected the threads and they were rough and crudely cut. I disassembled the filter and planned to run a pipe tap through it. Next question was NPT or BSPT? Fortunately I had both taps. The NPT seemed to do the trick but I was surprised because the hex section was 13mm. The next issue I discovered was the glass center section was deformed at one end. It has a 1/16” pronounced hump in one section and I figured it would most likely leak when fueled up. Rather than take it back I decided to try to flatten it out. I found my diamond sharpening stone and used it to grind away the end until close to flat. That took a while. All back together now and I’ll throw it on the bike later today.
I need to polish the front rim and 52 spokes
and think this will be more easily done with the wheel removed. I knew there was a lot to clean up on the bike but I think I’m on the home stretch.
Is there no room in your living room? Years ago, I was working with a woman who went to a friend's house. The husband had his HD in the living room for the winter. "Who puts a motorcycle in their living room?!" she asked. I said "Perfectly normal. Where else would you put it? In the garage?"
No room in our small house for a bike so they live in the garage / shed. There’s a chance my XS will be in the local spring bike show again so maybe I should dig it out of the shed before the snow flies?Is there no room in your living room? Years ago, I was working with a woman who went to a friend's house. The husband had his HD in the living room for the winter. "Who puts a motorcycle in their living room?!" she asked. I said "Perfectly normal. Where else would you put it? In the garage?"
As I recall, Yamadude has a Triumph in his living room, but he lives alone...
I’m so mad
. Longish story - after mounting the carbs and rehanging the side covers (temp without gaskets), I checked the operation of the choke. It appeared the cables weren’t quite right so I started trying to reroute them with the carbs in place. I wasn’t being so successful so I decided to pull the carbs and do it right. Carbs off, choke fixed, carbs back on. I was hooking up the final vent hoses and cables when I noticed one hose spring clip was nowhere to be found. I got out my flashlight and still nothing. Panic set in as I envisioned the clip having fallen into the open carb intake (Carbs point up at a 45 degree angle). I looked inside and there was nothing. Lifted the slide, nothing. Opened the butterfly and nothing. I then tried to mentally retrace my steps and it wouldn’t be impossible for the clip to have gotten past the slide and when I was removing the throttle cables the butterfly was open and maybe the clip was now inside the head. I searched again and couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to risk having the clip get into the motor so off with the carbs - again!
Carbs were removed along with the air intake box and hoses. I expected to find the clip on top of the engine but nothing. I removed the rubber carb boot and stuck my scope in the intake and looked at the intake chamber and nothing was to be found. Now confident the clip wasn’t in the motor, I started the reassembly. I looked one last time and found the bugger wedged between the rad and rad guard but 
. 
I finished reassembly but the hoses and lines didn’t go back into place as easily as before. A couple of hours later it was all back together and I’ve had enough of the HAHaHaHonda for the day. Had to come inside with this rant.. All's good now.
. Longish story - after mounting the carbs and rehanging the side covers (temp without gaskets), I checked the operation of the choke. It appeared the cables weren’t quite right so I started trying to reroute them with the carbs in place. I wasn’t being so successful so I decided to pull the carbs and do it right. Carbs off, choke fixed, carbs back on. I was hooking up the final vent hoses and cables when I noticed one hose spring clip was nowhere to be found. I got out my flashlight and still nothing. Panic set in as I envisioned the clip having fallen into the open carb intake (Carbs point up at a 45 degree angle). I looked inside and there was nothing. Lifted the slide, nothing. Opened the butterfly and nothing. I then tried to mentally retrace my steps and it wouldn’t be impossible for the clip to have gotten past the slide and when I was removing the throttle cables the butterfly was open and maybe the clip was now inside the head. I searched again and couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to risk having the clip get into the motor so off with the carbs - again!Carbs were removed along with the air intake box and hoses. I expected to find the clip on top of the engine but nothing. I removed the rubber carb boot and stuck my scope in the intake and looked at the intake chamber and nothing was to be found. Now confident the clip wasn’t in the motor, I started the reassembly. I looked one last time and found the bugger wedged between the rad and rad guard
but . I finished reassembly but the hoses and lines didn’t go back into place as easily as before. A couple of hours later it was all back together and I’ve had enough of the HAHaHaHonda for the day. Had to come inside with this rant.. All's good now.
When I stuck my scope inside the head, I noticed the intake valves had what seemed to me, a lot of carbon build up especially at the bike‘s low mileage. Any tips on how to remove this without disassembly of the head?
Last edited:
