Boredom bought the bike

[Str8Legs]

As far as the cosmetic items go I'm not worried about the scrapes, dings, and bent items at all. My plan is to keep the bike as stock as is feasible (minus safety items like brakes, brake lines, etc.), with the possible exception of the bars as I'm really not yet sold on the swept back ones it came with. Also pictured are the gauges and an inspection/registration sticker that's still on the rear fender.

[cajun31]

The covers aren't currently leaking and that's close enough for the girls I go out with. I double checked the left hand side one and it matches, no groove on either of them. Double checked the title too and it does read 1981. Would there be a chance that they are original to this bike and that the year of sale or date of production would be affecting that? I.E. it was made at the very end of the run of 80's but there were still parts laying around at the factory when the year ticked over or maybe 81 is when the paperwork/import went through?

Anything is possible I suppose, however even if from the 80 run they would still have gold decals on them. I suspect that those covers were replaced for some reason. Who knows ... maybe someone decided to sell the originals for a few bucks and just put those on there. Never can tell. That bike could be easily brought back to factory specs. With no more miles on it then what the speedometer shows the engine has just been broken in. The tank emblems look to be in very good condition. New paint job would do a lot for the bike. Easy enough for me to say, I suppose, because I do my own painting. I learned how to do that in my first job while I was in the Air Force. I painted fighter jets for my first two years and then cross trained. Whatever direction you decide on the bike.. do yourself a favor and if you replace or change anything, ,short of cutting the rear end off to make a cafe out of it, keep all the parts as original to the bike. If you ever decide you want to sell the bike it will be worth more to someone knowing you still have them.

[Str8Legs]

The tank emblems are pretty solid, no real cracks or chips and the white gunk on them just scrubs right off. I wish I had the set up to do painting, but such elaborate setups in barracks rooms are highly discouraged....

[Ranger_xs1100]

To my eyes, you found a real treasure there... and in my home state too! I'd have snatched that up in a minute! From what I can see so far, in my opinion that MNS is worth putting some bucks into it to bring it back to it's original beauty. You'll always get your money back out of a Midnight Special! Just contact me and see! Ha!

[cajun31]

The tank emblems are pretty solid, no real cracks or chips and the white gunk on them just scrubs right off. I wish I had the set up to do painting, but such elaborate setups in barracks rooms are highly discouraged....

that white gunk is old wax. Someone got sloppy putting the wax on and taking it off it seems. I agree with Bob.... that bike is in too good of shape not to bring it back to factory original. Of course it is your bike and you will do what you want with it and rightfully so. Good luck with it and we are still here to advise and help if needed.

[Str8Legs]

Update: It runs!

Well the hardest easy part is over now, time to get the tuning just right...

[Str8Legs]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vi1fosG5ctDcof4x5

Here's a video of it running, had the occasional miss in cylinder 2 until it warmed up but ran without a hitch after that

Edit for more information: The carbs have not been on a vacuum gauge yet, and they haven't been colortuned for afr yet either. The bit of smoke you can see is various bits of oil that I've gotten all over it while working on it, this is its first time up to temperature

[Ranger_xs1100]

Congratulations Str8Legs... Sounds great !

[cajun31]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vi1fosG5ctDcof4x5

Here's a video of it running, had the occasional miss in cylinder 2 until it warmed up but ran without a hitch after that

Edit for more information: The carbs have not been on a vacuum gauge yet, and they haven't been colortuned for afr yet either. The bit of smoke you can see is various bits of oil that I've gotten all over it while working on it, this is its first time up to temperature

Now that you really have the inspiration you can really get her looking like you want her to. From the video I think I saw that the choke lever was not pulled out at all and you were idling at 1500 or a bit above and the bike was misfiring slightly. You also are running the carbs with no airbox or pods which will impact the final tuning. Have you decided to stay with the original airbox? If so when you do the final tuning a synching, make sure you have all that on.

[Str8Legs]

Now that you really have the inspiration you can really get her looking like you want her to. From the video I think I saw that the choke lever was not pulled out at all and you were idling at 1500 or a bit above and the bike was misfiring slightly. You also are running the carbs with no airbox or pods which will impact the final tuning. Have you decided to stay with the original airbox? If so when you do the final tuning a synching, make sure you have all that on.

Yes, the bike was mostly warm and was running well enough off choke that I took it off by then. I do believe my mixture screws are currently rich and I hadn't had a chance to adjust the idle screw yet, but more importantly I realized later that I'm an idiot and didn't plug the vacuum port that the octy would've been on . Having ran it a few more times, and ridden it once to move between garages, I've got the idle sitting nicely around 1000-1100. The original airbox is back on for now though I'm having a good think about it only because taking the carbs on and off without it is a one step process, but on the other hand my brain is telling me once they're finally set right I won't be fiddling with them very frequently.

The biggest hurdle for me is over now, my foremost concern was does the dang thing run and ride as is and it does! So at this point I'm comfortable putting some good money into it. I can say that cosmetically and mechanically I'd like to keep everything as stock as possible, I like the way the bike looks and Yamaha did a good enough job putting it together in a way where everything works. I'll be keeping all of the dents, dings, and scrapes but I'll be making sure any exposed metal is taken care of. I'm still not 100% sold on the swept back bars but I will be keeping them as all of the controls are already on them and they work so I'm not going to mess with it. My current long term vision for the bike is to turn it into a touring machine, I have a need for interstate travel and with something like a windjammer and some hard bags I think this bike would do great for munching miles.

[bikerphil]

The 850 final drive mod would make it better for highway riding. The taller gear ratio will lower the RPM's by about 900.

[normalthom]

Looking good. Looks surprisingly just like mine!! Whoda thought?

[Str8Legs]

Biiiiiiig update: https://youtu.be/LB0Z27-No6w

Got new tires on it, figured out the rest of the brakes, synced and tuned the carbs (still needs more work though), and she runs and rides! It'll happily bury the speedo and keep on pulling, one heck of a bike

[Ranger_xs1100]

Excellent!!

[bikerphil]

Congratulations on getting it running, sounds great!