Visitors bikes

We get a lot of visitors to our website and some even contact me by email and send pics of their bikes so I thought it would be nice to be able to publish the pics of those that do. Although they aren't club members they certainly have the XS spirit.

Hi guys,
Great site – My father in law gave me his old XS (he had about 4 of them) this one was in storage for the last 12 years and after a fair amount of work and $$ I got it on the road.
I then took it to the guys at Deus Motorcycles who did some work on it and this is this is the result – I’m hoping to pick it up today, although they’re struggling with an electrics issue whereby the fuse blows every time they kick it over.
Cross fingers they find the fault without having to fully rewire it!
Cheers,
Luke downs

I’ve been a frequent visitor to your site, and its been great for maintaining inspiration when enthusiasm is high and funds are low. About a year ago I bought what appeared at first blush to be a slightly rough but serviceable XS. I made the typical errors that all over-enthusiastic buyers do, and when I got it home and starting stripping it down, I discovered that it had been well thrashed. The reason it didn’t burn any oil when the guy showed it to me was…..it didn’t have any. Lesson one, assume nothing!. I won’t bore you with the details on how many horrors were contained within, except to say that it’s a testament to the strength of the motor that it ran at all. Not one screw head remained un-chewed, not one bolt or nut un-rounded. Anyways, $6000 worth of parts and nice bits later and the result is attached. Obviously, it’s ridiculously over-capitalised, but then we don’t buy them as investments do we?.

I did all the work apart from the actual re-bore. The paint is a stage 1 with 6 coats of clear. Shocks are Hagon Nitro, needed spacing out a bit, but transformed the handling. Rear hugger is hand-laid glass directly over some foam I taped to the rear wheel for clearance, followed by hours of filling and sanding. The rest is all Mikes XS goodies eg Dellorto pumpers, hot cam, tappets, stainless valves, guides, pamco ignition etc etc. By the way, I’m not sure on those Elephants-foot tappet adjusters from Mikes XS. They are now fragmented and distributed liberally through my crank case, and I have a stainless valve and guide to replace. I guess that’s lesson 2 and I’m sure there’s many more to come.

Hi. I found you will clicking around doing XS searches. I recently became and XS owner, 7 in fact during the last 6 months. One on the road and another 3 coming in the future. I will send in updates as I progress. I wanted to send along and interesting bike that was part of a bulk buy I made. I am in South Florida and saw an ad for XS bikes and parts for sale. Upon calling I found out a widow of an ex rider and racer had left her all his projects. The bike shown was his favorite drag bike. He raced it weekly during the late 70s and early 80s chasing a parallel twin world record in the 1/4 mile. I was told that he was a quarter second away when he started getting ill and had to slow down his efforts. He was 6'4 at 250 pounds and the size slowed him down. He let a very small woman run the bike a few times and she easily got the record but it was his goal to hold it and bring it public. He never had the chance.

I bought 4 truck loads of stuff including the drag bike, a semi there street bike, 3 frames, 3 motors and boxes of items, some new, some ruined by corrosion and some very cool racing parts. I have new Shell #3 cams, 80mm Shell pistons and tons of valves and springs including a full cut away of a cylinder head showing all the porting and passages. He was very serious. The bike came with wheelie bars, has an air shifter and I found notes about methanol fuel. So far no one can tell me what the times were that this was turning in. I plan on trying to find someone to help me fire it up when I get the time and funds. I am building a rigid frame and a street tracker now to go with the rat bike I ride when my Harleys are resting. Enjoy the photos. I will keep you updated.

Thanks Ron we look forward to hearing all about the bike and it's former rider and his achievements, what a great find - Terry

Hi Terry
Recently found your site. I think it is an excellent site with much useful information and of course the great photos of the bikes.
Here are a few photos to include in the visitors bike page. I am located in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA.

A little background.
My XS650 is a 1979 that I have owned since new. It has around 28K miles on the odometer and this summer I got it running again after sitting idle for 5 years. I have removed the badges and the front turn signals have been replaced with small lights tucked into the fork. Other than that the bike is original and the only repairs have been to the speedo drive gear and a fuel petcock rebuild. Over the winter I do plan on bronze swingarm bushings and will will replace the original steering head bearings to improve handling. This bike has been 100% reliable and has never left me stranded. In my younger years I rode this from Minnesota to California and back and and have also made several trips between Minnesota and Montana. Now at 50 I stick a little closer to home but a trip back to Montana in the summer of 2009 is in the works. I am sure the bike will be up to the trip, as for me we will see.

Steve Rust

Hello here is a pic of my 1978 XS650 special "that is for sale for the right price" thought you could add it to your visitors section.
Kerry Bearman, Tasmania
kerry_bearman@hotmail.com

Brent Balderston sent these pics of his dads old bike which has been handed down to him.

Lucky boy Brent the bike looks great but don't be surprised if dad wants it back someday, most people who get rid of their XS regret it and wish they still had it. Enjoy it while you can mate. It may turn out to be just a loan!

I've watched your website for quite a while now and used many of the suggestions and ideas from your members on my XS road racer build. I've attached a picture to share my progress to date. The chassis is nearly finished, so I'll tear into the motor soon for a 750 kit, ported head (Lillie Specs) and cam, then off to try her at the local track. I'm running an oil cooler, hydraulic clutch, heavily modified suspension, TLI, and Avon tires on rebuilt 18" rims front and rear. Should be a sweet ride soon.

Piet Laan sent these pics of his classic racer from Holland. Winner of the unlimited class at the classic TT of Gedinne Belgium 2008.

The problem with the standard spring is that it can curl up and break, this is caused because the material from which the standard spring is bent from is round (pic1). Its better to use a material with flat sides (pic. 2 and 3) I have used springs with flat sides for racing the XS and I have never had a spring brake since I changed them.
The XS is a 998cc, bore is 85 and the stroke 88. The engine produces 80bhp and 100nm of torque.
The best change I have made is to change the angle of the valves, it works very well. I will send some more pics soon.

The engine was developed by a man named Tony Bens from Holland around 1980/81,he used it in a motocross sidecar. He stopped making things for the XS in the late80's, Piet Laan got the engine about 1985 for the XS racer from the pics, which he had start building in 1974 and has changed a few times since then. He used for battle of the twin races in Holland until the late 80's and after that it stood in his living room for about 20years until 2007 when he started racing again at East Fortune in England and Gedinne Belgium, next season he will compete with the XS in the CRMB unlimited championship of Belgium. Since the race season has ended now the engine will be taken apart for inspection and we will send some pics of the stroker crankshaft, and the changed angle of the valves.

Here's a picture for the Australian XS650-club website.

This is by far the best looking XS-chopper I've ever seen.
I'm in Holland on vacation, visiting family and whatever, when I see this guy with his XS chopper.
He built it with a friend in ten days at Phoenix AZ (the XS-specialist apparently).
Check out the pipes on this beast!

He even let me use his computer to send you this mail!
All XS fans are XS friends!

Mike Johnson

Hi Terry,

Your site is awesome and I'm looking forward to joining the club even if I do live in New Zealand. I presume you let Kiwi's join. I was restoring my old 1975 Honda 500-4 when I got seduced by a XS650C on Trade me. So now I have two vintage machines. The Yamaha is fantastic, it is originally from the US and has done only 18,000 miles according to the clock, everything appears to be original. Judging by all the clear lacquer in good nick it could be correct. Anyway I enclose a few photo's of the XS650C.

All the best
Chris Toohey

Hello I am Gorän from Serbia I am owner of XS650 1976 model handmade. Picture is low resolution but my bike not.

Hello XS friends,
Hereby I send you some pictures as promised from my new ride. As I've seen the "old" one is still on your visitor's site. It is still the 880cc big bore, only in a new modified home made XS frame. The frond fork is a home modified lengthened up side down from a Kawa ZX7R with home made Alum. wide glide fork plates. Also the wheels are adopted from the Kawasaki. The tire size at the front is a massive 150 and aft is a 200 in a wide alum. fork. At the aft there is a 4 piston caliper and at the frond a double 6 caliper from HARRISON BILLET. To fit the 200 tire I needed a longer drive shaft to keep everything in the center line for good handling. The paint design I kept the same as the old one. So I hope you like the pictures and find a place at the site. With kind regards from a Dutch XS650 club member.

Sincerely
Bert Kettingvet

Bert's bike also features further down the page in it's former glory along with his wife's bike.

Dave Barrett in Canada sent in this picture of his restored 1979 XS650SF and a link to the full restoration process at:-

The bike now finished appeared on the Bratstyle website and is owned by Satou.

Thanks for the pictures Kim, it is certainly an interesting looking XS. The "bobber" style is very popular in Japan.

This message was unsigned but originated in Sanbruno California, sounds like an expat Aussie! Nice bike though.

I don't know all of Bob's plans for this bike but I do know it will be fitted with some new primary drive gears from Ivan.

Patrick Dimpre
Maîtrise Ouvrage Architecture et Sécurité
04 42 90 60 62 / 06 64 50 32 65

Hallo XS friends,

Hereby I send you some photo's of my bike. I'm a member of the Dutch XS650 twin club.
And me and my wife have both an XS My bike is a 79'-3L1 in bleu. Big bore 880cc - 8 disc racing clutch, hot cam, external oil filter and cooler. Home made stainless rear fork with 160 tire , Aluminium wide glide front fork plates, rear wheel at the front with 130 tire and double disc's with Harrison 6 calliper breaks.
Home made exhaust system, and painted by owner.
My wife's XS is a'78- 2m1 in red.
I made a open clutch cover in it, and special painted the tank.
At this moment I'm making a new bike with up side down fork, 200 rear tire racing wheels and lowered frame.
Send you pictures later on, if you want.(let me know)

With kind regards,

Bert Kettingvet

hi there dave Gary from CoffsHarbour here I thought I would send some pics of my 1976 XS650C that I just bought ,I sandblasted the engine painted the frame and polished the alloy, you may want to put them in your visitors bike section .

Love to Gary, nice job and if you'd like to meet some other XS owners and receive some great newsletters you could join the club if you've a mind to.

sorry I had to do that. I just wanted to drop you guys a hello from the usa. I got your site from one of the members of the xs650 garage discussion board for the refasing tech tips. its great that there are so many of us xs650 enthusiasts and so spread out. I was in Sydney in February of 1995 I loved it. it’s the only thing I try to remember about the old Navy days. I wish I could come back and visit again, maybe when I retire I will sail over there again and bring my xs650 with me and travel in style. kep up the good work down under.

The yellow one is my road bike, a '74 TX650 A. That has a std motor in it at present, running Yamaha's electronic ignition, & has an XV1000 TR1 front end on it ( they go straight on). I have been using this bike to test out a few motors that I have laying about. It seems to handle quite well with cheap aftermarket shocks(better than std, & a little longer), bronze swingarm bushes, taper roller steering head bearings. The forks are air assisted, but I use no air & put more oil in than recommended to reduce the internal air space, thus making the air inside compress sooner & more. This makes the forks dive a bit less & effectively ups the spring rate. It has the tank off a special, as the fuel sloshes around less in a smaller tank. I have also extensively de-wired it, no ignition key, turn the kill switch & push the button.

The other one uses a hacked up special frame, GSX1100 swing arm, floating rear drum(cures rear end hop) .Discs are off an XJ750, slotted as std, they are also 3mm thinner & about 1Kg lighter than std each. The motor is a 750 kitted 447, It runs 36mm flat slide Lectron carbs on homemade tunable length manifolds. I find these quite easy to tune. Gases flow out of a stainless 2:1 thru a Supertrapp. For maximum effect, it is best to run total loss electrics & no alternator rotor, as this makes the engine spin up a lot quicker.

The transmission uses an APE racing clutch with higher ratio primary gears. I had to gear the sprockets down a tooth on the front to make a realistic achievable top speed, as the std gearing of 17/34 took it to a theoretical top speed of 220km/h. So with 13/34 ratio it will achieve 206 km/h.

But 1st I have to modify the rear of the frame, making a new rear shock mount to give me more ride height, as using the alloy swingarm lowers the rear end by an inch, as well as lengthening the wheelbase by 2" . The XV1000 front end is 3" longer(also 3mm thicker), I have the forks protruding out the top, by an inch, & that seems to work fine with the std rear end, but if I am to use the alloy swingarm, to keep the right geometry(not to mention look) I need to change the top shock mount.

I am in the process of making fibreglass seat bases for '74-78 bikes, as a few people have been asking for seats over here. I also want to make a twin shock 650 dirt bike ( used to have a 650 beach racer).

Hey Terry
Pix of Champion framed 750 Street tracker built in 1979 went racing in 1980
My 1972 framed street bike . hope you enjoy them
Dwayne
650 CENTRAL

Lee Cole in the US sent these pics of his Special, he got it for free! Check out that original mileage.

Back-cut gears, ported heads, lightened, balanced, welded, rephased crank, adjustable [! ] race cam & springs, JE pistons, CARILLO RODS! Note flow bench . Also note all so shiny & new I hate to put it all together. At least I've got the photos. Apologies for all the attachments but hey, its just this one time - until the next time! Kim

The guys in the Vintage Road Race Assn. liked my bike so much they invited me to display in the Toronto International Motorcycle Show. How could I refuse ? Ignore the date on the attached photo, it was actually taken this past Saturday.(21 January 2006)

I've got the compression release and electric start operational, which really confounds the racing purists, but I'll show them on race day - no crew, no bumping, no roller starter - just push the button and go! And the hydraulic clutch works beautifully!
Kim Anderson

Here are some pic's of my Love, I would love to be a member of your site, (just broke right now:) I have been working on her for some years now, and always seem to get farther along but never seems to be close to finishing. Seems a twenty spot does almost nothing and a hundred makes room to spend some more, But most of you guys probably already know this story! Well she always makes it out, however I have waited for a ride several times. Most people really like it and to hell with thoughs who say they don't. Well I could go on and on like most of you I would imagine, So I won't. If anyone Happens to be in Idaho this year just give me a call I would love to buy you a cup of coffee or a beer :)

Thomas Johnston

PH: 208-573-2925

kc7ral@cableone.net