1982 Yamaha XS650

Description - Finished Changes - Planned Changes - Yamaha XS650 Links

A Description

I bought this motorcycle as a daily driver and had no intentions of fixing up. After having it for a couple of years, that changed quite a bit. There are a few pictures from when I first bought the bike, and several after the changes where made. When I first got the bike, it ran well and went down the road. But it had wiring problems, starting problems, leaked some oil, and seemed overtaxed when heading down the highway at 65. But it was cheap, had the look I wanted, and larger motor than my last bike.

Finished Changes

The first thing you notice on this bike is the paint. This is a one of a kind, hand painted original. Yes, I do all my own paint. The face on the front fender is almost completely freehand. I taped the outline and freehanded inside. The flames on the fender and gas tank make a nice matched set, yet still manage to hold a certain individuality when the two pieces are compared. There are actually two layers of flames. A lower level of red flames is ghosted in. This way they appear fairly brightly in sunlight, but tend to disappear when shaded. The top layer of flames are just plain bright and have a certain 3D look to them. I painted this mostly as a test project. However, I liked the outcome enough I left the paint until the bike sold.

As far as the workings of the bike, there's a lot of unseen improvements involved.

The front brakes have been upgraded from a single to a dual disk setup. The new disks are really nice cross-drilled disks. The front master cylinder has also been replaced to match the dual disk setup.
The instrument guages have recently been rebuilt with better faces. The original odometer has been kept.
The windshield is brand new
The sprockets have been changed from a 17 tooth front, 34 tooth rear to a 18 tooth front, 30 tooth rear. This setup lowers the highway RPMs of the motor, reducing vibration and improving fuel economy.
A new high strength chain has been installed.
The battery has been replaced with a sealed, maintenance free type. It no longer requires a vent and prevents the battery acid from leaking and eating away the paint.
The wiring harness has been replaced. This has solved virtually all of my electrical problems.
The headlight has been replaced with a hologen.
The turn signals have been replaced and rewired
A sissy bar and matching grab bar have been added.
The original foot controls have been replaced with forward controls. These controls are actually Chrome Specialties aftermarket controls for a 75 or 76 Harley Davidson. It took some ingenuity with a motor mount to make this happen.
The friction plates in the clutch basket have just been replaced.
The clutch basket springs have been replaced with high strength springs.
The two piece clutch pushrod has been replaced with a one piece rod. This provided a noticeable improvement in the clutch action.
Shorter shocks have been installed, lowering the bike by a couple of inches. This also caused the necessity to shorten the kickstand by a couple of inches since the bike kept wanting to fall over. Also, the center stand was removed since I could no longer lift the bike onto it. It was just to low to get it up there.
An oil cooler has been installed.
The tires are brand new.
All the brake pads are brand new.

Ideas that never came to fruition

None of the completed changes where extensively planned. They where almost all some kind of quick fix or "I'll try this" ideas that escelated into major projects. However, in researching upgrades and other possible changes, I found a few interesting things that I never had a chance to actually do. Here are some of those ideas.

Big Bore Piston Kit - A kit is available that will increase the motor size from 650cc to 750cc. This is a tempting upgrade, but it's costly.
Oversize Valves - Sold on Ebay, there's a guy that makes these custom. He also offers machining service for your existing heads. Again, a nice upgrade to get more power, but costly.
Engine Rephase - There is a method of rephasing the engine. That is change the point at which one of the pistons fires. In theory, this sounds like a real good idea. It should smooth out the motor and give the bike a Harley Davidson like potato potato sound. But to do this, you have to modify the crankshaft, camshaft, and ignition.
K&N Pod Filters - I currently have cheap immitations of these. At some point, I would like to upgrade to the real deal.
Taller HandleBars - These are available, inexpensive, and just plain cool. Someday I'll get around to this.
Sissy bar back pad - Maybe my wife will ride with me once this gets installed.

Useful Yamaha XS650 Links

Whenever I need something for a vehicle, I look on the Internet first. Here is a list of some of the better links that I have found regarding Yamaha 650s. Click on a picture to open the site.

This website has a lot of good parts for the XS650..

This is another website with a lot of good parts for the XS650. I found almost everything I needed for my bike from this website during my last round of upgrades.