What did you do to your bike today?

[Wildkat]

Thanks!

Pretty stoked about this one.
The gators came from Mikes XS

[puskrat]

Today: Dealt with an issue with my painter. Seems he forgot we were talking about a two tone tank.

Recently: procurement. Fuel lines, badge screws, fuel filters, tools.

[IanDMacDonald]

I'm thinking about waiting till the Fall to break the engine down, just because I will be a sad muffin not riding it. Steering head bearings, tires, and new rings. It's not a single-day job for me.

[CJPetersen2000]

Puttzin with the XS

Fixed the not working turn signals... I found it to be 2 broken solder at the switch.Got the brake lights to work...and, at the same time... the warning lights too! That turned out to be a separate fuse that P.O. had "fixed" by wrapping the fuse with tin foil...nice lol! The fuse box on mine had been by-passed and all fuses are separate...pretty common with these I figure, as is on the xs650s that I'm more familiar with. Hitched up a plug to run aux. 12v power or plug in a battery tender. and broke off right sidecovers top mounting slot by being lazy and not unbolting my seat to get the cover off. Fixed with 2 part epoxy...sigh. Strapped my sheepskin cover on the double bucket seat. I can't wait to ride. I have about two more weeks till my Doctor says I can ride after my left hand surgery done on March 10th. Just in time for the "Slimey crud run" May 7th! To quote Tom Petty. "The waiting is the hardest part..." Be safe everyone! Charley

[MindWebs]

Replaced a shredded xs750 fd and stripped off xs11 drive shaft in my seca 750..

Huh.. who knew you could break that gear

Lasted 5 years at extra 20 degree's rake angle
And a copper driveshaft spacer that was apparently 1/4" too short.

Yamy makes some very heavy-duty parts!

Back to wheelies.. later!

[mschor]

Deep Thoughts on Compression

I've been working on this 1981 XS Special since about November. It was sitting in a garage for 20yrs when I bought it. I had a bike before, but never spent much time working on it, So I didn't know much about bikes when I got this one. So I spent a lot of time figuring things out, almost getting things right, losing it, getting close again, moving on to next issues, learning about carbs, electric, carbs, carbs, brakes, more carbs.......it's been an interesting few months filled with lots of hopes and frustrations. But I've been working on the assumption that the engine is basically good because the PO said it was perfect when he parked it. Never did a compression check. I think I just wanted to focus on the lighter stuff and learn something about bikes. I've been trying to tune it for a few days now and not getting much improvement, and a friend comes by, says it looks like a compression problem. So I did some reading about compression, looked at rings--I didn't know what rings really were, and still a little foggy on the inner engine workings, and in my research, I start to understand a lot more, and it occurs to me how closely ignorance is tied with frustration. I've run into so many stumbling blocks that were unendingly frustrating, simply because I didn't know what the hell was going on in that machine! Looking at rings and seeing what they do, and what it looks like when they're damaged, and how to test for it, changes my whole relationship with the problem. Most of the issues that have come up have been this way, but this seems to fill in a gap that needed to be filled. Like I've been dancing around tackling little things, but afraid to really look at the engine as a source of trouble because even the carbs, electric, brakes, etc were complicated enough. So now I see that after all this time money and effort spent working on everything but the engine, I may be sitting here with an f' d up engine....or maybe not, we'll see in the morning A little wisdom has come out of these months, and I'll take it with me: Reduce your ignorance to improve your quality of life (Ignorance is not bliss )......And a couple other things: Have a clean garage and good, organized tools to work with, and be willing to buy what you need to do it right. I thought this would be an easy few week job in my back yard, a couple parts and I'd have a great bike in my hands. The lessons I've learned have shown me how NOT to have done it this time......and how TO do it right if I try this again down the road. Happy riding

[dbbrian]

So now you know more than when you started. No one can ever take that from you.


Awesome journey.

[mschor]

Yes, I do.

[mschor]

And compression turned out to be 160 all the way across, good news today

[3Phase]

Wind

I scrubbed and oiled cylinder walls again and the case halves are next; been covered in diesel and soap off and on all day.

This round of Santa Ana winds left a layer of fine dust even on covered parts.

[dbbrian]

Seat Recover

I recovered my seat with OEM looking cover from Discovers.

Pretty happy with results. Here s a shared link to my XS11 pictures, you may have to scroll through a few to get to the seat.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwZkQa5ZVKTEVXY2emU0ek1XUWs?usp=sharing

[3Phase]

Seat looks good, bummer about the finger, it almost seems inevitable sometimes and required for a good job. Maybe hit the pan with a little paint so it won't rust but that's a nice seat.

[dbbrian]

Thanks. Drawing blood makes it real

I used a bit of phosphoric acid on the bottom of the pan to neutralize the rust, rinsed, dried and then sprayed it with some WD40. It was a shortcut for sure. Ideally I should have taken the foam off the pan and reconditioned both sides and painted it all fresh. But I wanted to get it done this weekend as the next two will be busy and XS East follows.

We'll see how it holds up, it may get all wrinkled or something. If I have to redo it no big deal, as it wasn't too expensive or difficult.

[puskrat]

Today I sneaked the hardbags out of the body shop and tried to frighten the "helper" into finding the locks he lost when he disassembled them for paint

[IanDMacDonald]

Today I sneaked the hardbags out of the body shop and tried to frighten the "helper" into finding the locks he lost when he disassembled them for paint

I'd like to know how that pans-out, lol. By the letter of the law, I wonder ir that's larceny?