XS650 Update

Well, I've run around on it for a week or so now, and the inevitable
little niggles have surfaced and been dealt with.

The most serious was the leak from the end of the camshaft, mentioned
before. One new oil seal, a gasket and an O-ring (cost under a tenner0,
and 45 minutes' work (two-thirds of which was scraping off the old
gasket) sorted that.

There was another, smaller weep from the camchain tensioner cover - a
bloody great thing that screws onto the tensioner locknut. You need a
22mm spanner to undo the cover, and a 25-26mm (no idea, because I
haven't got one that big and so used an adjustable) to undo the locknut.
Fasteners on XS650s tend to be *big*.

The weep was due to someone having tried to undo the locknut with a
hammer or something. They'd put a slight burr on the edge, which
interfered with the proper seating of the cover. Oh, and the cover's
O-ring was old and hardened as well. The took 10 minutes to sort -
carefully flat down the burr, and dig out a replacement O-ring from the
box in the garage.

Slightly more worrying was the way it died on my way home, on the
darkened A21 last night. Eek. No engine, but at least I still had
lights. I flicked the kill switch on and off and was rewarded with a
nice backfire and it picked up again.

I thought I'd accidentally hit the killswitch, but 20 miles later it did
it again. again, flicking the killswitch on and off sorted it.

OK, so we have a dicky killswitch. I carefully stripped it down (lots of
pingfuckits) and yeah, the copper contacts were dirty, so cleaner and a
rag were brought into play. And then the little circlip that holds the
bloody switch together did the classic pinkfuckit as I was re-assembling
the bastard.

No way could I find it. The air turned blue. As it does.

Never, ever, ever throw anything away. I reckoned the little circlip
that holds ignition points together would be the right size, and I've
got some old points sets knocking around. You never know when you might
want the tiny little screws and clips. And yay! A perfect match.

I've treated it to a full service. You don't even have to remove the
fuel tank to set the valves, which is brilliant.

It cruises happily at 70-75. These US models are slightly lower geared
than the roadsters, and so it would redline at about 105-110, I reckon
(calculated because the speedo is an 85mph maximum one). An 18-tooth
gearbox sprocket would raise the gearing a tad. A brand new genuine
Yamaha one went on Ebay for an astonishing £30 this week - I was going
to bid on it, but gave up in amazement. A new pattern sprocket is only
£15, ffs.

But gearing it up would lose that fabulous flexibility. You can run it
down to 25-30 in top, and open the throttle and it just snaps away.
Utterly brilliant. And the fuel consumption isn't bad anyway - 51mpg on
the first tankful, and 55mpg on the second.

I might experiment with a different sprocket, but it's not a priority.

The front brake is crap. One single-piston caliper does not stop 430lbs
of ShiteOldYamaha and *cough* lbs of rider. There's a lug for a second
caliper, and I've got a spare disc, so I might look out for an SR500
caliper, which does the trick. Or the left-hand caliper from an XS750,
which is the same unit.

It's incredibly smooth and sweet. The smoothest XS650 I've owned.
whether this is because it's got the US engine with the 20mm shorter
conrods, I don't know. Obviously, every single component is
rubber-mounted, and obviosuly, if you're used to a Jap four it feels
like a road drill, but still, compared to the hammering of a Brit twin,
it's extraordinary.

Me Happy Bunny.

 

On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 12:19:17 +0000, The Older Gentleman wrote:

Bugger, stuck in Leeds until Ged knows when........... hope you don't sell
it before I can get down for a go :-(

--
Bruce

"The internet is a huge and diverse community and
not every one is friendly"
http://www.ytc1.co.uk

 

I ain't selling it. I sold the GPz550 instead.

Mind you, that hasn't stopped Hog trying to tempt me....

 

message

Well the lovely Irene has a hankering for a little CB1 sitting in
Kernahans here. It's like a swiss watch, I believe they even have gear
driven cams. 14000rpm red line and 55bhp. I haven't found a bad review
about them, everyone seems to rave on. The only thing that concerns me
is spares availability??
I'm thinking that the Bandit 400, which was imported to the UK, might
not be such a nice bike but would be easier maintained and re-sold.

SO. Final Offer. £1200 and a night on your wine cellar, if collected
within a week or so. It would become mine after she moved on and up
y'see (1)

It's past time that you 'fluenced young Rich BTW!

(1) tried the R100RS on for size last night. With a Hagon 1" lower
shock (needs new anyway), forks dropped an inch, a Sure Foot sidestand
and a seat job it could work. Those extra narrow bars must have been
made for a woman anyway.

'Hog

 

You utter bugger. No - but I'll give you first refusal when/if I come
to sell it. I've just bought a pair of NOS oil filters on Fleabay, from
Germany. The XS650 uses washable mesh filters, one on the right-hand
side of the engine, like an old Honda twin, and one in the sump.
They're not supposed to be replaced, but washed in petrol, and the one
in the sump has a reputation for holing *really* easily.

 

Hmm I wonder where the breaking point is for this one ;o)

'Hog