John DeSoto

Josh Hayes

Josh gets a 7th place finish in his MotoGP debut riding in place of the injured Colin Edwards.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=46570

today

A very windy but otherwise really nice November day, I got the XS out for a nice ride getting the mold release compound worn off the new front tire and bedding in the new brakes. I like the new 17/30 gearing. The 17/34 it had before would be better in the city, but the 17/30 works great for faster backroads or on the highway.

XS650 Special

Just a few checks and adjustments to do and it is ready to ride.


The exhaust cleaned up nicely. This thing is very quiet. My '75 has much longer mufflers, but is also much louder.

The black chain guard looks great with the new gold chain.





I'm glad the fork dust wipers I bought didn't fit right, since that led me to use the gaiters, which I think look great.

At first I had a set of old Suzuki GT250 bars on it, but I went with some Bikemaster "European" bars, which are a bit lower, and just right. The grips and mirrors are what came on the bike when I got it. I don't care much for the mirrors, so might change them later on, but they'll work for now.



I kept the old sticker on the rear fender.

And here was the starting point for this, the Special model I swapped a Suzuki GS for. I think that with just a few minor changes to take the bike back to it's standard roadster roots, and the Special models look fantastic. I like certain things better than the standard XS, like the slimmer gas tank.

This was the second old Yamaha I got this year, and just fixed a few things and kept it stock. Really a lot of fun for just the cost of a few payments on a new bike.

Now back to some other projects.

rusty chrome

If you like to work on old bikes then you'll inevitably have to deal with rusty chrome. On a full restoration you might either replace the part or have it rechromed, but no need to do that if you are just making a decent rider like what I'm doing. Here is what I did to a couple of the worst parts on the '79 XS650, the headlight bucket and chain guard.

Here is the headlight bucket after washing. Rust and lots of hazy chrome. Most of this is hidden, and never gets washed, which is why it looks like this. The top and sides where it is exposed look fine. Nothing here a quick polish won't fix.


Ten minutes later and it looks much better. Any visible areas look just as good as new. You can then use clear coat touch-up paint on the pitted areas to help seal them up, then wax it and it'll look fine for years.

And now the chain guard. Like the headlight bucket, areas that get washed look fine, but not so much the more hidden parts.

Here is the inside. Rust like this is too far along for polishing. I decided to sand blast and paint this. The gunk buildup underneath here needs cleaned before sandblasting, or the sand tends to just bounce off it or push it around, so I hit it with my pressure washer first.

This is what sitting under a battery for 30+ years will do, and why I'll be using a sealed AGM type battery in it.

Here is what you are doing with the sandblasting, basically roughing up the chrome for paint adhesion. It feels smooth to the touch, but lets the paint get a mechanical bite in the chrome.

Nice and clean. The chrome around heavily pitted areas will peel away with the sandblasting, so hit these areas hard to remove any chrome that isn't firmly attached.



Ready for paint.

I start off with a self-etching primer for better adhesion, shown here. Next was a high build primer filler to smooth some of the pits, sanding, and then I painted it black.

RS125

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