The blue '76

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!
 
Wow good site Skull ...funny how most is $20 shipping to us here in Aus..two complete carb kits $53AUD!

They do charge for separate shipping on each purchase and you pay on that. What he does then is send an email and gives a refund for the combined shipping.

3 piston kits cost me $83 Aus shipping and got a $25 dollar refund.........Way cheaper than Mikes
 
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!

Hey CoconutPete, no, I got that 50cc FS1 in my native Holland where I lived until I moved to Florida at age 22. Although I do see vintage 50 cc Tomos, Yamaha's, Honda's and miscellaneous European brand mopeds being offered on Craigslist from time to time.
 
This afternoon I replaced the unsightly, oversized foam-with-chrome handlebar grips with NOS '76 correct ones. I wanted just those as I had exactly the same ones on my '76 FS1 moped and was happy to find them:
20181023_180326.jpg


I tried to fix the horn last night, as it only sort of whispers, but to no avail. It is another cheap aftermarket item that a PO must have installed at some point. Luckily, using the original parts manual + the internet, I managed to locate a NOS one, which is on its way, together with a NOS brake master boot. Slowly but surely the details are coming together. Next weekend I will delve into the ignition system, do an oil change and some other tasks.

Question: the bike starts very easily, hot or cold, but I find that, when the engine is warming up from cold, it runs at around 300 RPM lower than when fully warmed up and can stall at a light, so I just turn up the idle screw until it's warm. This doesn't seem right? If so, what could be the culprit?
 
About right for a cold engine. They tend to stall unless warmed up properly before riding. Needed to blip the throttle at the first couple of stops around town. Been some ingenuity involved in making the idle stop screw easy to use by hand until warmed up
 
My list of improvements/chores:

1. Changed fork seals and cap bolt O-rings
2. Changed fork oil
3. Mounted new gaiters
4. Mounted new tires
5. Replaced front brake pads
6. Set timing chain clearance
7. Chain tension adjusted
8. Set valve clearances
9. Replaced instrument bushings with NOS
10. Replaced indicator seals
11. Lubed clutch actuator
12. Replaced handlebar grips with NOS
13. Rebuilt both petcocks (new seals etc)
14. Greased rear swing axle and brake pedal

Planned:
15. Ignition dwell and timing adjustments
16. Check condition of coils, wires and boots
17. Replace brake master cylinder
18. Replace horn with NOS
19. Replace brake mastercylinder boot with NOS
20. Replace engine/transmission oil and filters, drain plug washers
21. Replace steering bearings
22. Replace manifold and silencer gaskets
23. R&R starter
24. Replace rear brake wear indicator lead with NOS
25. Replace starter button with NOS
26. Replace fork springs with progressive rate springs from Heiden Tuning
27. R&R indicator stalks
28. Replace defective instrument light bulbs
29. Replace clutch cable
30. R&R carburettors
31. Replace oil pipe seals/washers

Possibly:
32. Clean instruments inside glass
33. Replace regulator and rectifier with modern unit
34. Install electronic ignition incl advance
35. Slightly narrow (1“) original handlebars to facilitate lane splitting

The bike at its place of work, yesterday:

IMG_0113[1].JPG
 
Yes, replace the steering head bearings. You might also take the opportunity to install a grease fitting in the neck so you can keep them greased without disassembling things. But, with your steering lock in the side of the neck, you will need to plug the bottom of the pivot tube or grease will come out there. An old wine bottle cork does the trick.

Yes, replace the plug wires and plug caps. The stock coils allow you to change wires. The stock plug caps are the resistor type with a rather oddball rating of something like 8 or 9K ohms. They go bad, that resistance starts to grow, and eventually starts choking off the spark. Get some 5K ohm NGK caps, pretty much the standard of the industry.

Don't get a clutch cable from Mike's, they're junk. Get an aftermarket Motion Pro, only $10 to $15 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Motion-Pro-Clutch-Yamaha-Special/dp/B000OO0WT6

I usually replace bad/broken starter or horn buttons with good used ones scrounged from other switch assemblies, but if I was to buy some, I'd get these aluminum ones from this guy .....

https://www.freewebs.com/kibokojoe/

The oil filters on these are the metal screen type that you wash out and re-use. The bottom one usually rips but new replacements will do the same. Many of us just patch the torn filters with JB Weld. I do suggest getting some spares though. That way you can have clean ones on hand to swap in when changing the oil. The hot set-up is to get another sump plate too. Then you'll have a whole plate/filter assembly to swap in. You can usually score used sump plates off eBay for less than $20. Many times they come with an original torn filter still on them which you can patch up and have as a spare.
 
Thanks 5Twins. To your points, the PO gave me new conical steering head bearing. Good tip about the grease fitting, although I suppose that would be a pretty large quantity of grease to get in there? And would it come out of the steering lock?
I did already get all new cables from MotionPro including their lubrication tool and lube. so should be set on that. The speedo and tach are rock-steady with the current (probably original) cables, so I am inclined to leave them for now, until I may need to replace them. I already ordered a NOS starter button last night, but thanks for the tip. I have the new oil filters, I guess we will see what is in there now, what condition it is in and how the new ones will hold up.

I am finding the bike a lot of fun to ride, and quite capable including the handling in the few turns I have to make on my way to and from work. It also seems to do ok on gas. Looking forward to some canyon cruising in the weekends ...
 
The grease you pump into the neck won't come out of the steering lock, it'll drop out the bottom of the pivot tube. The pivot tube attached to the lower tree on the Standard models has a slot cut in the side for the neck mounted steering lock to engage into .....

XGiwlgp.jpg


Once the space between the neck and pivot tube fills with grease, it will start going into that slot and start dropping out the bottom of the tube because it's open. Yes, it takes a fair amount of grease to initially fill the neck, but after that, it's just a couple pumps of the grease gun occasionally to force new grease into the bearings. You can add what we call a "grease saver" to the pivot tube. This is nothing more than some vinyl tubing slipped on the pivot tube to fill some of the void between it and the neck. Here's one on a Special lower tree .....

7mRRBPS.jpg


On a Standard, you can't use one quite as tall, you'll need to keep it below the lock slot cut in the side of the tube.
 
I am finding the bike a lot of fun to ride, and quite capable including the handling in the few turns I have to make on my way to and from work. It also seems to do ok on gas. Looking forward to some canyon cruising in the weekends ...

Yup - for general weekend booting around, you really cannot beat an XS650 Standard in original condition.
 
Just now I checked the points gap with a dwell meter, and the ignition timing with the timing light. It was all pretty much spot on, only the gap for the right side needed a very small adjustment. So the PO had it all set very well. Disappointing in an odd way, as I was half-hoping I could make a improvement. But she does run very well, and quick.

Next on the priority list is checking the carb settings. But that will probably need to wait a week or two as we may be moving the boat/home to a better spot in the marina shortly. Funny idea, that we can just move our house to another place, another state or even another country for that matter.

I am also eagerly awaiting the arrival of a few new parts, including a new brake masted cylinder and progressive rate fork springs. As per the to-do list, no lack of fun chores for some time to come. Riding it just now was also great fun again, as always.
 
Good. You'll want to keep an eye on that. As the advance mechanism wears, the advance ... well, advances more than it should, which leads to detonation... which has holed many a piston on these bikes. Some people here even advocate running a degree or two retarded just for that reason.
 
- - - I tried to fix the horn last night, as it only sort of whispers, but to no avail. It is another cheap aftermarket item that a PO must have installed at some point. Luckily, using the original parts manual + the internet, I managed to locate a NOS one, - - -

Hi Ceed,
if you want an NOS horn for authenticity's sake OK but it's pathetic bleat can hardly be heard over the sound of an XS650's exhaust.
If you need a horn that the average SUV-driving soccer mom can actually hear try a 139dB Stebel-Nautilus mini air horn.
 
Hi Ceed,
if you want an NOS horn for authenticity's sake OK but it's pathetic bleat can hardly be heard over the sound of an XS650's exhaust.
If you need a horn that the average SUV-driving soccer mom can actually hear try a 139dB Stebel-Nautilus mini air horn.

Yup - I’m all for originality, but where horns are concerned, the original “meep-meep” doesn’t cut it in today’s traffic.

I don’t actually use the horn that often, but when some cell-phone-yakking / makeup-adjusting / sandwich-eating dipsh!t is trying to kill me, I really do not want to politely whisper “excuse me”.

Nope, I want to sound like an out-of-control / air-brakes-failed concrete mixer screaming GET THE F@CK OUT OF MY WAY!

....in the nicest possible way, of course.
 
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Thanks JimD54, will monitor the advance action.
And Fred, definitely agree that it's safety first so if the horn isn't up to the job, I will get the type you suggest.
Today it's the Yamaha's turn to get me to work. It's fun being able to choose among 3 bikes, each quite different (with the BMW 650 scooter the most practical around the city, with its storage and no-shift transmission).
 
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