My first bike, a 1980 Yamaha XS650

Wyatt Fritz

Wyatt Fritz

New Member
I recently purchased my very first bike, a 1980 Yamaha XS650, with the intention of cafeing it. It was set up as a weird dual sport with handguards, big plastic fenders, and a windshield. After removing the extras it looks quite a bit better. It starts right up on the first kick, but needs some electrical work... The taillight works for both brakes, but does not illuminate otherwise and it seems to have a little trouble with the electric start. The front end was raised about an inch and a half so I'll be reversing that this weekend as well as cutting off the welded on luggage rack. I need to find a caliper and cable for the left side front disc, and I definitely need to get rid of the dual headlight. This will probably be a super slow build, but hopefully taking my time will help me do it right. If anyone is interested in any of the bits I removed (handguards, windshield, luggage bags, fenders) pm me.
I'll a post a pic with everything stripped off tomorrow.
 

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Well , welcome or some such .
I'll start with the usual disclaimer , I'm an ass . So expect what you get .

Honestly I would have ridden it for a bit . It looks simple , clean , well sorted and okay , utilitarian .
Not the kind of bike that inspires , evokes or even exclaims "look at me" but a clean purpose built ride .
Yeah I'd ride the shit out of it until I got bored and tore into the engine to make some twisted impending metallurgical failure out of it . The look actually grows on ya , a bit , kinda , sorta .

You'll find all sorts of opinion , comment , experience , extemporization , creation and destruction here .
our active member/riders span 12 to past 70 . Our experience likewise spans days to decades .

No one else was here to play welcome committee so you got me . Lucky you .

Me ? four decades , plenty of XS 650x , KZ's , DS7-R5-RD-LC-RZ-TZ , XLCH FLH , BSA441 , T120 , even a honda or three .

And I'm an ass . get over it , I did :-)

~kop
 
Hold on Kopcicle, you're telling me that I should actually ride my motorcycle before I tear it to pieces?!?! What madness is this? (you may be a self proclaimed ass, but I can roll with the punches) I actually plan on very small changes until riding season is over for that very reason. I am way too excited about owning a bike to make it unridable off the bat. :) I just had to remove all of the extraneous "accessories". Any changes I make this summer will be small and simple. Maybe a handlebar swap, some new tires etc. I actually think that telling a noob like me to ride his bike and get comfortable with it is some of the best advice a new rider can hear.
 
You will love your XS. The Yammie twin has a feel, all right, a wicked vibe, all it's own. Been riding mine for 13 seasons now. I actually like what the PO did with it, have only seen a few modded into off roaders. Good luck with your build. A few other good sources of info & parts:

http://xs650temp.proboards.com/index.cgi

http://www.xs650.com/

http://www.mikesxs.net/

http://www.650central.com/

http://www.fidnet.com/~dlawson/yamaha650society/
 
Spent most of today either riding or working on the bike. Adjusted the front end, cut off the luggage rack, and generally tried to suss out my bike's quirks. Looks like i need new alternator brushes, and a speedo drive gear. I found some brushes online for $12. As for the speedo, when I noticed it wasn't working I disconnected the cable and gave it a spin with my fingers. It was pretty tight so I used some pliers for a littler more leverage and it spun easily after a little pressure. The speedo started moving as the cable spun so that all seemed to be in order. Next I disconnected the cable from the speedo, put the bike up on the center stand lifted the front end and spun the wheel. Not even a wiggle from the cable. After a little research it looks like I'll need to replace the gear drive. The tach works fine so I have just been using that and traffic to gauge my speed. One thing that I can't seem to figure out is why my taillight works with the brakes, but otherwise will not illuminate. I suspect it has something to do with the brushes needing to be replaced, but even after I charged the battery externally it would only light up for the brakes. I did replace the bulb, but that did not fix the problem. Any ideas?
Anyway, here are a couple pics. The first is after I removed all of the accessories and the second is after the work I did today. I'm having a blast riding so far, but I think I'll need to replace the tired asap. The dual sport tires just don't handle very well on pavement, and they are a bit of a rough ride.
 

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Great first bike, great second bike, great third bike.. you get my opinion. My avatar bike is a much altered XS650. The 650 is a blank tablet you can make it into virtually anything and it will work. Bullet proof motor. enjoy the board and the bike, welcome.
Cheers, 50gary
 
Awesome first bike! I just sold my bobbed Xs650 a couple months ago and when I am done with my current project I will get another XS because they are so awesome.

As far as the electrical, make sure that it is the actual brushes and not something else wrong with the electrical system, make sure it is charging. The way they are set up stock, the bike will not charge at idle. I actually swapped out my entire stock charging system to a PMA (permanent magnet alternator) and a PAMCO ignition system and it was bullet proof afterwards. The stock system can be pretty unreliable but it can also be fixed. It just becomes a matter of diminishing returns, is it worth having to mess with it and it nickel and diming you over a longer period or just forking out the money now and never having to worry about it again. You may already know but www.xs650.com has a wealth of information as well.

Have fun with it!
 
Thanks for the tip gheorghe. I friend of mine who has owned a number of XS's looked at my brushes and said they needed to be replaced. As for not charging at idle, guess I'll just have to do a lot more riding then, right? ;)
 
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