Yamaha XS 650 US Custom
A quick page for my Yamaha XS 650 US Custom
I started on mopeds in the early 1980's riding my Dads Honda SS50 moped which he used to commute back and forth to work at the weekend and evenings it was mine wizzing about the with my mates running Honda MB50's Suzuki AP50's and Yammy FS1E's.
I quickly progressed to my first real bike a 1981 model Honda XL185 which was unfortunately stolen within a year. I then bought a non runner KH250 the seller promising me faithfully that the centre cylinder not running was due to the points not being set up and that it would run - yeah right.... Holed and seized piston was the real truth. Anyway to cut a long story short I didnt do my test when the 125 law came in but bought a car.
Fast forward about 20 years and in 2003 I was made redundant and during my time off I signed up for a fast track bike test and a week later had my unlimited licence. I had originally promised myself a Triumph Speedmaster and gone so far as getting all the blurb and info on the financing with the local Triumph dealer I really fancied that low slung US style of riding as I figured it would be more likely to suit my 40+ style. I then thought that it would be a good idea to get an older bike to get a bit of experience on before buying new so on to E-Bay to have a good look about . I rather fancied an XS750 triple following on from the Kawasaki Triple fetish I developed in the 80's, I was also buying plenty of copies of Classic Bike etc. and an article came up about the top ten classisc bikes and in there was an XS650 this also co-incided with an XS basket case '77 Roadster coming up on E-Bay although the price was a bit rich so when the auction ended not sold I sent the guy an e-mail and made an offer that was accepted.
Withe the basket case in the shed I realised that it would be years before I would riding it so the search for an XS750 continued - I did not want to pay a fortune for an XS750 so I missed out on plenty then by chance an XS650 came up in the local paper for not a lot of money so I thought that will do to get me started and so what if its rough as, because its just to get some miles on. So off to teford I went to have look at it.
Must admit I was a bit taken back when I first saw the bike.....The owner was emigrating so also had boots, jacket etc. for sale so we agreed a price and off I rode.
I think the bike was a real bargain.
The picture was taken a little while after first purchase and I had done a couple of bits of work on the bike which comprised the fitting of new shockers that I had bought for the roadster off of a fellow member of the yahoo XS650 group. Some nice chrome plated Hagons that went very well with all the rest of the chrome on the bike. The Silencers are Marshall Deeptones and are very nice with a deep but not over loud. The front mudguard is an after market E-Bay special and although not great does the job well enough.
The bike suits me great its not too fast and has a nice lazy character plus plenty of chrome to keep polished and clean when the sun goes in.
The on worry when the bike was described to me on the phone was the "..picture of a sort of Indian on a horse the tank..." well judge for yourself . I guess Anton who's name is on the standard carried by the Inca Indian type chap did most of the work on the bike and if you're out there Anton nice job.
The bike has been pretty reliable with just a couple of things in the first few months of use. First off the throttle cable broke which was easy enough to sort out then there was the issue of it cutting out on the LH cylinder that took a bit more figuring out but got sorted thanks to the XS650 yahoogroup. Turned out to be rubbish in the inlet pipe to the LH Carb - because of the way the bike leans on the side stand any rubbish or corrosion from the tank ends up in that car inlet and what was happening was fuel starvation after the foat bowl ran dry and the dribble getting through was not sufficeint to run the cylinder.
I dont have much planned for the bike other than using it although the lively rattle from the left hand cylinder will need to be investigated at some point as will it's oil use. The XS although not the best handling bike in the world is a nice ride. As for the Roadster look out for its restoration pages.
XS Travels - Link to travels out with the bike
