A friend of mine offered to bring my XS650SH from storage in Atlanta. So, here's the history on it.
I had a coworker who bought the bike in 1983. It had been squished between a car and garage wall. I assume it was totaled, but it has a regular Minnesota title. Nothing on it says "salvage" or "rebuilt." The list of replaced parts is as follows:
Frame - throttle top housing - latch & seat - left shock - chain guard - hold bar - fuse box - lt & rt sidecovers - left pipe - gas tank -rear fender - lt buddy peg - rear taillight and holder
After repair, he rode it this far:
The bike ended up in Atlanta, disassembled in the basement as a future chopper project. Russ had long since moved on to Harley-Davidsons.
Anyhow, I had been long time encouraging him to do something with it, like build the chopper. He took a new job and was moving. He called me and said if I'd come get it, I could have it. My daughter had recently expressed an interest in having a motorcycle. So off we went and piled all the bins into my El Camino.
We hadn't had it too long when this photo was taken. This would have been 2008.
This is probably 2009 or '10. It was painted black with purple glass in it. I held the bike until 2018 at which time I was moving and insisted she take it. So, it sat in her shed until now.
Here's how it arrived on Sunday.
I gave it a bath, swapped the handlebar and the grab bar.
I can't remember where I am with this thing. AFAIK, I need a battery, tires, and some grips. The fork oil needs replacement, and I need to grease the steering bearings. The petcock and carburetors need attention. All I need is some time.
The swingarm feels tight. Based upon my recent swingarm experience, I may need to shim it as I did in my SK.