Wretched XS

[Ceolwulf]

Yesterday I carted home my first cafe project, a 1980 XS850. Itsa heavy beast ;D

Here's what it looked like:

After some feverish wrenching, here it is de-crapified:

The plan is to get the basics in place over this winter, i.e. seat, clip-ons, rearsets, exhaust, paint, and various smaller odds and ends, and then next winter to do a complete teardown and detail/rebuild-as-needed. As it sits now, it runs nicely, has next to no rust, and is generally a really solid if rather odd start to a cafe project

This is what I'm taking inspiration from:

[youtube=425,350]0oSnUCGnj_Y[/youtube]

Love that triple sound

 

[Swagger]

I have several of those bikes, gotta love the triples!
Lot of potential for performance as well.
Carbs from any mid-90's era Triumph triple will drop right in and are way easier to deal with and tune. As well, the header will fit with a little work at the flanges.
I had spares from my 95 SuperIII just laying around....

You got a standard! Cooool!

You'll want to rebuild those forks and add as beefy a brace as you can find. Progressive springs are nice and some cartridge emulators will really help. Cool bike!

 

[Ceolwulf]

Great to know, thanks ;D I know very little so far about these things other than that they sound great!

found a couple forums for the XS triples as well which I shall be mining for info.