Well this might need a double heading
1 What did you do to your XS today
2 What did your XS do to you today
#1 I adjusted the floats in the carbs then installed them about three kicks and it was running and sounded pretty good. The patched up original equipment mufflers seem to be working good. I had it hooked up with a temporary gas tank , actually off a old Tecumseh snow blower motor and no seat but figured I make a pass down then back up the driveway an it seemed pretty good until........
#2 Until as I got near the garage I applied the front brakes that I had just bleed a few days ago. Well they worked good. The problem is the 20+ year old tires on the bike decided they did not want to grip the 30º blacktop driveway! In a blink of the eye bike was down on it's side and I was doing a face plant on the pavement. A couple things I noticed right off was the large amount of red stuff coming from my face and the somewhat shorter right upper front tooth.
Well I got up and with a some help from wife managed to push bike back into the garage then spread some oil-dry on the oil I'm assuming came out the crankcase breather while machine was laying on it's side.
Due to the aforementioned red liquid coming from the face wife decided a trip to the Urgent Care Clinic was in order. After taking a shower to make it look a little less like I had walked into the prop on a Cessna getting ready to take off we were on the way. Actually 98% of the leaking from face had stopped by then. After some in-depth questioning and inspection by nurse and NP they decided to take some pictures to be sure no critical parts were broke inside, besides the 1/2 missing tooth. Seems the worst damage was the upper lip getting torn up by the front teeth.
Also made an appointment to see dentist in the morning, she will probably smile and shake her head when she hears the story!
Now for the more or less good news part. I have not really looked over the bike very close, wife for some reason feels that can wait a few days, but like I said the bike was running on a temp tank so no damage to the good tank. I had been in a bit of a hurry to see how this rebuilt engine would run and had not got around the install the signal lights or head lamp. So all those parts were safe on the bench in the garage. The exhaust system on this bike is a very rusty original system that I was only using to see how the bike runs so if it sustained any damage it will not be a problem.
Moral of this story is when reviving a bike that has set in a barn or shed for 20+ years with the same tires on it treat any test ride like you were riding on glare ice old rubber has VERY LOW coefficient of friction under the best conditions and at below freezing temps it is even much worse.