Tom Sittler

I saw that tank on eBay a while ago, bones. If it's the one I'm thinking of it's more of a cafe style tank, and I'm kinda leaning towards a more practical bike. The curvy tanks have a slightly bigger capacity, which is pretty essential for me to be able to go camping on it (since in NM it can be easily 100 mi between gas stations depending on where you're going) One of the advantages of living in the southwest is that salvage yards have parts that last *for*EVER* because it barely ever rains. There's a motorcycle salvage yard in A-Town that I'm going to stop by either today or next saturday and see if I can find a tank and handlebars there. That way, I don't have to pay shipping or wait for it to come in. MIght be able to come by a new speedo too, although I saw an OEM one on ebay with 0,000.0 mi on it, and that'd be more appropriate since it's a complete rebuild.

I use Picasa (picasa.google.com) since it's free and you get 1gb of hosted storage, which you can turn into albums. And if you already have a gmail account, you don't have to sign into anything. Also, for us Mac users, Google makes an iPhoto plugin to export directly to Picasa so you don't have to fuss with web-based upload forms. There's also Flickr or Photobucket.

As luck would have it, my partner-in-rebuildage just emailed me a bunch of pictures she took today (before it started raining... finicky southwest weather *shakesfist*). They're found in the picasa link in my original post. Or they will be, as soon as iPhoto starts dealing with my glacially slow connection speeds. I'm going to tear down the wheels next weekend, try to get rid of the rust on the spokes (or would it be a better idea to replace them?) and get new brake shoes and cables installed. I figure, what's the use in being able to go if you can't stop, right? Also, have to start somewhere and it seems the simplest place to begin. I'm probably going to keep it dual-drums, since you really don't see a lot of bikes like that, and I like the touch of uniqueness that that brings. All the controls on the handlebars are frozen... Can I take a set of handlebars with working controls and just slap it on and hook it up, if it's from an XS-series? That'd probably be less expensive than getting a new set of handlebars *and* new controls, both of which it'll need. Also, new gas tank. The current one's cracked, and dented all to hell. It's like someone laid it down, and ran their helmet through the speedometer. And somehow snapped off the needle. Cha-ching. Btw, GaSo, thanks for the video. I like the way it sounds when the choke's halfway, but I somehow don't think it's a good idea to run it all the time like that, correct? I'm sure that once I get the thing running I'll manage how it sounds, though.

I've yet to begin teardown, but I'm kind of leaning towards less of a cafe-like look and more towards something that I can pack a sleeping bag, hammock, and cooking gear on and take off to the mountains (<3 living in the American Southwest) and go camping for a day or two. As such, I'm probably going to not chop the seat or the back-bar (sorry, i'm not very technical on the names of things like that) and possibly even go so far as adding a back rack. I realized I haven't properly introduced myself yet, so uhm. Yay threadjacking myself! I already ride a Honda Elite 50S 2-stroke bike, and I've ridden (and broken--badly broken) a motored bicycle before, so I have some idea how to handle a 2-wheeled motored cycle, but I'm not very technical with them in terms of engine parts or adjustments. Trials by fire is how the Tom learns best though, so I'm rather excited to get working on it. Too bad my Elite's almost out of gas and the trip to the bike is 1/4 tank of gas away. Anyway, I'll keep posting updates as I go, with pics. Definitely need to get a Haynes manual and get cracking. PDFs don't quite cut it. By the way, I'm trying to figure out how to make it sound the way I know a motorcycle should... smooth, purring, and not obnoxiously loud like the Sportsters and Fat Boys I see on the streets all the time (and am deafened by). A friend suggested gutting the mufflers but I don't think that is a good idea... Can people post (or link to) sound files of their bikes running (or videos?) and tell me what they've done to the exhaust so I know how to get close to the sound I'm looking for?

I was trying to figure out if this is the DOHC or SOHC model, too. It doesn't look like the DOHC model, but I don't know the difference.

Hi guys, I'm new here, and I'm a total rebuild noob, but I plan to learn as I go. I picked up an extremely rough 1981 XS400 today for $150, and it's my new winter/spring project. I have some pics from a phone camera: http://picasaweb.google.com/asittler/XS400...feat=directlink As you can see, pretty dang rough. It sort of starts (except for the fact that there's no gas in the currently-cracked tank) but doesn't run (currently... By next summer, that'll change). The handlebars are DEFINITELY gonna go asap. Anyone got any suggestions on what would work comfortably and add a sorta cafe-like look but without being impossible to ride on a fairly long (~5hr) ride? The controls also need replacement, they're all frozen from sitting so long, so I may end up having to frankenbike it with some controls from another bike. Also, headlight enclosures... What else fits it? Someone mentioned a Honda one that would work and not be too horrifyingly expensive. It needs turn signals too. It's going to be solid gloss black, with lime green pinstripes around the fuel tank and the airbox covers and probably the top ring on the cluster. And the piping on the seat if we can find it in lime green. I'm looking forward to getting her running again, she's definitely sat for a while but for $150 and the privilege of getting to learn about how to rebuild bikes? Worth the work at any cost.