CoconutPete
1979 XS650 Special
Thanks for all the comments! Much appreciated. Very nice, friendly community here, it reminds me of the El Camino forums that I belonged to while I was the custodian of the 1973 El Camino, that you can sort of make out in my profile picture. It was the very car used in the 'My Name is Earl' tv series about 10 years ago; red with a blue banged-up door and primered hood, 454 CI engine. But that's another story.
Will keep updating how I fare with the Blue 1976. Incidentally the reason I really wanted that year and color was that was the year I got my first ever bike, a blue Yamaha FS1, 49 cc 2-stroke moped, the smallest they made (so it was almost an actual bike, you could even peddle it down the street if you wanted to). Now I have the largest they made, and I believe their first 4-stroke.
@ 5twins, I really do want to see if I can keep also the internals original. I do know the benefits of more modern components and if things get annoying I will cave in, but I see it as a small challenge to keep it purring with the old stuff. We'll see. On the 50-mile ride home last week it did run very sweet and quiet, I will try to upload some of my helmet camera footage of the trip later this week.
Oh and living on a boat means I do all my tinkering in the street parking lot. Luckily it rarely rains here.
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Holy crap, they sold these in the US??? I had one of these when I lived in Denmark in 1993-1995. I have never see one in the US!