New to XS650’s (and Yamaha) Build

[Hoser59]

Thanks... That's more info than I've seen anywhere on the adjustability of those mechanical baffles. I'm assuming that you set up your phone off to the side (90 deg to the bike)?

Yes, set back about two feet perpendicular to the end of the exhaust and at the same height.

 

[RonXS]

I took the bike out for about 30kms last night before a storm rolled in and it isn't so bad on the road. Quieter than my GL for sure. I'd say the plugs removed a lot of the harsh 'tinny' sound but still rumbles nicely.

Nice!
As I understand it your gonna sell this bike... Now you have a marketable feature...
To buyer: "And you see those plugs in the end of the muffler? You can take them out and make it LOUDER."
LOL

 

[ThatXS650Guy]

It will likely be REALLY noticeable after an hour or so of droning along. Loud pipes are fun - for a few minutes in my experience.

Ear plugs are a requirement for anything longer than a neighborhood blast even if the bike is not that loud.
YMMV

 

[Team Junk]

looks like each plug dropped the sound level approx ~1 - 1.5 DB at idle. So not a huge difference, but noticeable.

3db with 2 plugs is a 50 percent decrease in sound level. The ear doesn't respond in a linear way

 

[Hoser59]

Got a few more rides on her in the last week, the weather hasn’t been great and my daughter bought her first car which needed a bit of work so that has been occupying a lot of my time. I’m still waiting on the new gold oring chain and the tach cable, other than that I’m just working on getting things dialed in. I shortened the clutch cable and adjusted it, still a little hard to find neutral at a stop but not too bad. It pops and backfires quite a bit when you let off the throttle, so I think I need to check the exhaust gaskets and maybe I’ll try some Uni filters. It seems to run pretty strong otherwise. The one issue I did encounter is there is a pretty sharp bend on the gas line between the petcock and the carbs - the gas line I used collapsed and kinked when it got warm which caused the bike to starve for fuel and cut out. I replaced it with some thicker walled hose and will see if that helps. The new manual petcock I bought came with some 90 degree fittings which would be perfect to eliminate the bend...but when threaded all the way in they point up towards the tank

 

[MaxPete]

oooohhhhh....pretty!!

 

[Hoser59]

Got one of the 90 degree petcock fittings to work so that solved my fuel line issue. Still waiting on the tach cable and chain - both are MIA and should have been here weeks ago. Covid has really caused some issues with cross border shipping up here in Canada

 

[Mailman]

Great photo!

 

[Hoser59]

X-ring chain and tach cable FINALLY showed up.

For the gauge cables I used a little trick I have done on a couple other builds to keep the cables straight - run them through the headlight shell with some rubber grommets

Not built for heavy rain, but I could find some tighter grommets to seal it better. I made sure all the wiring in the shell is really well weather proofed.

As an aside - does anyone have any clue what this head light bracket is from?? It bolts to the top triple where the gauge bracket mounts. Came with the bike when I bought it instead of the standard headlight ears.