Bought another bike.

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Gowing
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Bought another bike.

#1

Post by Gowing »

Just brought home a craigslist mut. Old gal selling off her recently passed husbands collection. It’s a 1980 Xs650 special 2. 8700 miles, not licensed since 2011. Tank spotless inside. Engine free. Has title. I bought a 76 Xs650 new in 1976. Rode for 5 years. Loved that bike. Hoping to re-create my youth. She was asking $1200. Offered 800. Nope. Then 1000 nope. Then 1050 nope, she said she needed another 50 for the new now 20 year old rear tire her husband put on it. She has 5 more bikes to sell. A couple of hodakas, a ninja of some sort, an a couple trail bikes. I didnt look at any others cause my wife is gonna kill me if she ever finds out about this one.
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Last edited by Gowing on Sat May 11, 2019 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dave

1975 GL 1000
1980 XS650
1981 ct110
1972 F7 KAW 175
2000 moby blaze 40cc
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5speed
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Re: Bought another bike.

#2

Post by 5speed »

anim-cheers1
1982 1100 standard. (sold)
1986 Yamaha FJ1200
2000 Yamaha Roadstar
1976 GoldWing. running but not on the road
1978 Goldwing. future cafe project.
2019 Can-Am ryker (boss's new ride)

2002 Shadow American Classic(sold)
1983 Shadow 500. (sold)
bigscheaf
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Re: Bought another bike.

#3

Post by bigscheaf »

You got an underground bunker to hide that one in? If so, I might need to borrow it. My wife gave me the ultimatum of having to sell one before I could buy another, and I have my sights on a pair of '94 Honda CB750 Nighthawks for $500 - neither is put fully assembled, and one doesn't have a title, but the pair would make for the newest bikes I've ever owned!

Best of luck on recapturing the memories. Looks like a fairly solid machine, including the "new" 20 year old tire that cost an extra $50. Gotta give her credit though, she stuck to her guns on it.
1983 GL1100 viewtopic.php?f=16&t=67673#
1981 CB900F (Resto-mod Project)
1979 CB750F (Wiseco 823)
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Bugdaddy66
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Re: Bought another bike.

#4

Post by Bugdaddy66 »

Good on you, my 81' is still my favorite for just blasting around town or running a fire road. Hard to beat for modifying too!
(A shameless pic of my XS650's to share)
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Todd Logan (Bugdaddy66)
"Never argue with a moron, they'll always drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
1978 GL1000 Daily commuter (SOLD)
1981 XS650 Hot Rod play bike (SOLD)
2003 BMW F650CS (Wife Bike)
2009 BMW R1200RT
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Whiskerfish
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Re: Bought another bike.

#5

Post by Whiskerfish »

Gowing wrote:SNIP. A couple of hodakas,SNIP.
Soft spot for Hodaka's, about all I could afford as a kid. Had several.
"Agreement is not a requirement for Respect" CDR Michael Smith USN (Ret) 2017
"The book is wrong, this whole Conclusion is Fallacious" River Tam
2008 GL1800 IIIA "TH3DOG"
1975/6/7/8/9 Arthur Fulmer Dressed Road bike
1975 Naked Noisy and Nasty in town bike
and a whole garage full of possibilities!!

Psst. oh and by the way CHANGE YOUR BELTS!!!!
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desertrefugee
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Re: Bought another bike.

#6

Post by desertrefugee »

Whiskerfish wrote:
Gowing wrote:SNIP. A couple of hodakas,SNIP.
Soft spot for Hodaka's, about all I could afford as a kid. Had several.
Ha! Me too! Had a B+. Was my first true love.
- Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning to ride in the rain.
ChopperCharles
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Re: Bought another bike.

#7

Post by ChopperCharles »

I had a very finnicky 650 special. I suggest dumping the stock CV carbs and running Mikunis from MikesXS. You can also potentially run older XS650 direct slide carbs... but just buying new carbs and bolting them on and not worrying about it is a huge, huge plus IMO.

The original bakelite swingarm bushings are junk, and barely last 10k miles. Bronze bushings are available now.

The negative battery cable is attahched to a thin piece of sheet metal that tends to rust out. This causes hard starting. Mine would never start on the electric starter. It'd spin, but never have the power to fire and run the starter motor. It would only start reliably on the kickstarter. XS forum inidicated this was likely the negative battery cable, as I also had other problems (abysmally dim headlight, sometimes flaky signals, intermittent weak spark, etc). So, get a longer battery cable, attach it to a solid ground (motor mount bolt is a good place), and check that your starter motor cable isn't also corrosion city.

The bike benefits GREATLY from an aftermarket fork brace. The fork brace and bronze bushings really do tame the tendency to go into a tank-slapper above 80mph. Aftermarket shocks and tapered roller bearings in the triple tree together with the fork brace and bronze swingarm bushings will completely eliminate that tendency. The bike handles much, much better afterwards. Top it off with Progressive springs too, for a really solid ride. But, they're not as important as the rest. If you've got a high speed wobble, this will fix it. If you don't have one yet... well, you will eventually.

The 79 I had ran points and a mechanical advance. Later models went to electronic ignition, but I'm not sure if they retained the mechanical advance unit under the right chrome cover on the head. If you have one... open that cover and see if the springs pull the advance closed. Run the bike with the cover off and see if it appears to be operating properly - advancing as RPM increases, and the springs pulling the arms back in when at idle. If it's not working properly, the bike will be hard to start and sluggish to accelerate. Replacing the advance mechanism may or may not fix it! On my bike the shaft itself was slightly out of round, and produced just enough friction such that the advance mechanism wouldn't fully retract when the bike was running at idle.

Anyhow, enjoy your new bike!

Charles.
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