XS650

I painted the new fenders for the '79 Special and put them on the bike. I painted the front fender mount black, and think it looks nice that way.


The silver is actually the same 'aluminum' engine paint as I used on the '75 cases.




I'm still planning on using the larger '75 tank, which will be painted black, so have the Special tank on right now. Eventually I'll likely get longer shocks and an 18" rear wheel.




Here is a 'before' picture for comparison.

today

1903 Premier Special

923 cubes, and no engine block. I'd love to hear this run.

Big Oly

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

I hadn't been to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum in over a year, so visited with the family. They rotate out the displays, so always new things to see. I'd never done the grounds tour, so also did that. It was an interesting look at some of the areas of the track you don't normally see on a race weekend. It includes the start/finish line, media center, winner's circle and the broadcast areas and race control in the pagoda.












350 work stations for the media.






The race control room in the pagoda.

XS650 cafe' project

Since the head has to come off to replace the front cam chain guide I decided to do a top end rebuild, but would rather not go into the bottom end unless really necessary. The con rod small ends still have nice copper in the inside, and no play in the wrist pins. I checked big end free play and side play, and it is fine. Everything looks to be in good shape, so just a clean and paint, starting with cleaning the remains of the base gasket. A quick tip here is to use a shop vac as you go to keep any debris from getting inside the engine.


I'd already cleaned the major gunk from the outside of the engine before disassembly, so just needed to finish it to prep for paint. Kerosene works nice for this, applying with a paint brush, and then using wire brushes and Scotch-brite pads to really get it clean. I used brake cleaner to wash any kerosene residue from areas to be painted. The upper case is painted from the factory, and the lower is bare, but I'm going to paint them both.


Dupli-Color 'aluminum' is a close match to the original.


The masking takes much longer to do than the painting. I did two light coats, and it looks great.

The SR Times

photo source: http://sr400times.info/250customssr/

XS650 stuff

I've been disassembling the '75 XS engine in preparation for a top end rebuild. No surprises thankfully, and it looks like there won't be any need to go into the bottom end. I need to fix the starter gears, new cam chain and guides, and some other small things. I'll have to measure the pistons and bores. I'm leaning towards a stock overhaul, but if it needs an oversize I'm tempted to just go with a 750 big fin kit.




Here is what led to the rebuild. When I got this bike a couple of years ago, the first thing I did was an oil change. I found lots of black plastic bits in the sump, which were identified as being from the front cam chain guide. I decided not to ride the bike until I got it fixed.


Here is the front guide, which doesn't look too bad at first glance. The bike has under 9000 miles, so not much wear.


You can see where the long plastic pieces were coming from on the sides.


The plastic is only attached about 1/3 of the way on one end, the rest just flapping around. The plastic would have soon fallen off and let the cam chain start sawing into the aluminum.

XS650 cafe' project

It warmed up enough to get the clear coat done on the '75. It is a spray can paint job done next to soybean field, but looks good enough for me.