Do little to no actual research other than maybe one or two Google image searches.
Ask Frank to find me a slightly used XS650. He calls back in short order with a number for Paul.
$200.00, sight unseen, seems like a fair price for an "almost complete, no papers XS from some year or another", bike.
Convince 9 year old son to get up and go with me to pick up our new bike.
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| Cody, almost ready to ride. Have to find a spot for some passenger pegs :) |
Start by removing all broken, rusted or unnecessary parts... or just remove all of them.
You have a jewel in the rough! I had an XS2 and it was stock, Red, White and Chrome! The engine was the original “256” and complete. All the PO had done was a valve job and a resurface that raised the CR to 9.25:1. The mufflers were the straight through JCWhitney bullet style. After a good cleaning and rinse it was really nice. The emblems on the tank were missing but it waxed up well. I bought a book on Yamaha Performance tuning. I changed the oil and filter. , lubed the advance shaft and replaced the points with Yamaha original and kicked it over a few times to lube the chain to the cam. Set the cam chain, adjusted the points to spec, set the lash. And by the book set the springs for advance to a performance tune. Put on new resistor caps and wires and one step colder plugs. Cleaned out the petcocks and the tank was still pristine. Remounted the petcocks with new gaskets pulled the carbs apart and cleaned them and by the book recommendation set the clip to the richest setting. New floats carefully setting and gaskets all gin through And set. The rest justify normal maintenance on the bike and it was in great condition, put on new tires and chain. Put gas in kicked it a few times and it seemed like it was kicking stronger each time. Turned the petcocks on walked it through both cylinders a couple times and a good hard kick, turned on the key and stepped through the top cylinder and then jumped into the 2nd one and it fired right up!! I kept the rpm’s at 2500 and used my feet to back out of the garage and revved it up and down to let everything get aquatinted again. It felt like it was warm so I let it idle while I closed the garage. My wife came out and used her little instamatic with flashbulbs while I sat astride it and continued to rev it up and down, it was dark but the lights worked great. And she went back in blowing me a kiss. And reminded me of my helmet. I put it on. And put it in 1st and it just pulled away no having to slip the clutch and it just sounded so good! I went a block before getting to a good road , it turned the corner so easily and I just went through the gears and it was so calm but the wind was blowing kind of hard, just in 3rd before the shift and glancing down at the tach and speedometer It was at 7200 and 90 mph, shifting to 4th right back to 7000 and 5th I let back on it at 105 mph. Just as relaxed as it could be! Let it down an I had to get to 3rd at 4500 to keep from lugging it, and it just had this let’s play again way about it! I just blipped and 7000 before I could let off. I don’t care what the Superbike guys were doing, this thing tuned right was the most responsive and relaxed thing to ride that I had ever ridden! As I got used to it, I took it to a drag strip and I did a 13.02 at 96 mph which is a half second faster than any magazine test. The tune worked! And how! And it got better than the brochures all said. In 1973 Yamaha was required to neuter the engine by changing the cam to a much gentler camshaft. The 73 was much wimpier than the 72. The magazines could barely get a 14 from them, going 14.97 as opposed to the 72s 13.56 and my almost a high 12 which is super bike territory. Alas two and a half years later I sold because the rectifier died and the XS 650 was in the rear view mirror at the time. My son was born in 1982 and parts dried up. We were 20 when we married and “the bike” had to come 2nd. Only to roar back in the 2000s on. My kids were in high school daughter 10th and son graduated. And here we both are now 62 we were born 2 days apart, retired and 41 years of bliss, I recall this from out of the blue, that sounded like no other bike had and the newer ones were just not the same. I have wanted at least an XS2 engine to rephase to a 277/83 and have a cam ground exactly like the original XS2 256 camshaft, a bobber with a buddy seat for my wife….
ReplyDeleteWould you know the cam specs of the XS2 cam? I want to build a 277 Rephase with a 256 cam . I have read to not port the exhaust and just port the intake. The 256 cam was made to prevent overlap by limiting the exhaust flow and keeping the velocity to allow the intake flow to increase by scavenging velocity, but not flow , the EPA made them change the cam in 1973 on. The 72 cam was somehow out of EPA specs. But every single Yamaha I put it in really picked up hilarious power. Torque everywhere from idle to 7500, in EVERY gear and porting the intake was even better and a set of thick pipes 1.75 ID with straight through mufflers the exhaust was released and the XS2 cam was just crazy powerful . I would have thought that the cam would fall on the tach but the torque came up and the hp kept rising and 7500 again. Great cam. I wish I knew what the specs were.
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