Opinions on whats unrestored

[cliff604]

Hey Guys I found a nice non running 75. 7,000 miles It came with Title, manuals, Warr. booklet and all the reciepts from past service from local dealers. Looks like a two owner bike that one brother sold to another brother at some time. My plan is to leave this one all stock, My question is what do you guys consider unrestored ? I'm going to all the usual stuff filters carbs ect. But I want to paint the rear frame due to the acid damage Paint the seat pan and polish up the covers and legs ect. How far is to far?

 

[burns]

Hey Guys I found a nice non running 75. 7,000 miles It came with Title, manuals, Warr. booklet and all the reciepts from past service from local dealers. Looks like a two owner bike that one brother sold to another brother at some time. My plan is to leave this one all stock, My question is what do you guys consider unrestored ? I'm going to all the usual stuff filters carbs ect. But I want to paint the rear frame due to the acid damage Paint the seat pan and polish up the covers and legs ect. How far is to far?

Looks like you have a real find there.

My 2 cents on the topic is "unrestored" may be an issue for antique furniture, but not '75 XS650's. I'd clean it up (including paint where needed) change all fluids, put caged bearings on the steering stem and either bronze bushings or needle bearings on the swing arm, new tires, decent shocks, new filters, fork seals if needed, chain/sprockets if needed, and sort out whatever is keeping it from running (probably dirty carbs, maybe electrics/ignition). Then I would ride it whenever it wasn't raining or below 30 degrees and keep it forever.

 

[Downeaster]

The items you list sound like normal repair and maintenance to me.

"Restoration", at least to me, involves things like re-chroming, re-painting, going through it with a fine-tooth comb looking for any miniscule bit that isn't a documented original, things like that.

 

[650Skull]

Whatever you have to do to keep a bike running. General maintenance. There is a grey area there, if you get a guard re-chromed then that is restored but if you replace it with a VG second hand one then it isn't. If you only get one part restored then the bike isn't.

basically a good clean, maybe paint the frame, in your case upkeep, maintenance, rebuild brakes, clean motor, replace spokes, all maintenance and the bike would still be classed as original. Even putting a pamco in it, mainly because you can keep the parts you take out and the upgrade cannot be seen. That can be debatable though. Putting pods on and removing the air-boxes is visual so in that case it cant be classed original in my mind,. again debatable. Same with the exhausts, but because for me they are a defining feature, i would argue that the bike wasn't original.

look at the latest XSOTM contest and although they could be classed original they are more resto mod, royboy and blue900 have the most original, visually looking XS's but even then royboy has changed the handle bars and blue900 has an earlier model seat on it.

There are people who are advertising a restored bike, when all they have done is buy a well preserved bike and replaced things that are maintenance related and given it a clean and polish.

Case in point HERE. This is what i would class original, liberties taken including the word restored, but i guess the owner/seller sees himself as doing the maintenance work to get it running and on the road as restoring it and he does state original/restored, but then the bike wasn't stripped to paint the whole frame so i think including restored is misleading in this case

In truth this will/could start a very vigorous debate and a lot of varying answers.

 

[gggGary]

I'm for fix up, touch up, update as needed, desired, ride the damned thing.
Problem with restoration is it ends up being to foo-foo to ride and that's just wrong.

 

[GreasyC]

I'm not into motorcycles as investments and antiques either but if I was I would consider repainting too far to call the bike all original. Original means what it says. It might be mint, it might be faded and rusty, but either way it's the original paint. Tires and oil filters are normal wear items that get changed over and over but paint isn't.

 

[flthead]

It's only original once !! Coming from the antique American bikes side , unrestored original bikes right now are thru the roof in $$ .

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[weekendrider]

So what is original? Just the bike or does that include add-ons? Accessories that are time period correct but accessories.
Touching up acid spills = maintenance?
Stripping to the frame and repaint = restore?

 

[jd750ace]

RESTORED to me is showroom stock new look, stem to stern. Original can mean a lot of things, from a nice runner with usage wear and no abuse to a chicken shit encrusted rust bucket.
I wouldn't worry about it. Make it safe, and fix what needs to be fixed, especially the acid-damaged frame/swingarm. Maintained is not nearly the same thing as restored.
It's not like you're gonna split the Hope Diamond here. It's an XS650, and it's worth more running and "original" than not.
Make it run, and drive it!

 

[flthead]

Original in the amca ( http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/ ) world to me is accessories from period ok . No touch ups . No polishing of parts . A bike can be restored to original condition dozens of times but its only original once ! http://classicmotorcycles.about.com/od/collectingoldbikes/ss/ToRestoreorNot.htm

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[cliff604]

I'm gonna do what needs to be done to it while keeping it in stock form this time ! Those chrome fenders are growing on me, The luggage rack sissy bar not so much

 

[burns]

I'm gonna do what needs to be done to it while keeping it in stock form this time ! Those chrome fenders are growing on me, The luggage rack sissy bar not so much

10-4 on that.

 

[Kingwj]

My bike was a stock rider. I used only Yamaha OEM parts to fix what was needed, tracked down the original paint code, had the bike repainted but left factory undersides unpainted and oversprayed as from the factory. Touched up frame where needed. For reliability it had solid state regulator and rectifier upgrades. But all original parts were kept and no changes were made that couldn't be put back to stock in a few hours. Restored? No. Stock? Sort of. Mangled? Never.