BAZ

Looks like a nice bike, see if you can talk him down a little. I also bought a bike without title recently and I've heard its not an easy feat to get the title. I bought my xs400 with the intentions of teaching myself to ride, I only paid 100 bucks for it and its in pretty decent shape. What state are you in? I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and after some searching found this in regards to registering a bike with lost/no title: http://www.anubiscycle.com/lost-title-wisconsin.htm I'm sure the process varies from state to state though.

Wow, your bike looks tits in flat black. I'm definately gonna do the tank/sidecovers soon. It will go well with my new Bell Mag-8 in flat black: So, is changing out the bars a complicated procedure on these bikes? Any writeups on the forum or on other forums?

Upon further research, I've found out that these are actually called "European bars". They're very similar to the superbike bars except that they have a little more pullback and maybe a slightly lower rise. I'm thinking these will be my next purchase after I address the battery and tires. I'll be replacing the grips, and maybe some other misc. controls stuff when I'm at it. I found this website that seems to deal with xs650's primarily. Will most of the non-motor/driveline parts cross reference with the 400? Any input on grips as far as comfort/style points? I think I'll be taking the tank off and spraying it, along with some misc. items flat black because I am in love with flat black spray paint and I think it makes anything look super badass. Even my little 400

Awesome. I just realized I have a leak around the petcock somewhere that I'll need to address sometime. This cant be a very hard fix can it? Are motorcycle tires something that can be installed yourself or is this best left to a professional? As far as the bars go, I think these look prety good and are probably more comfortable than clubmans or clip ons. Do these resemble the drag or superbike bars you mentioned? Oh, and the tires this guy is running look pretty nice I think. Any ideas what they are?

Awesome, thanks again. I guess I should mention that I'd like to buy tires on the cheap since this will be a city commuter and not see much freeway use. I'm not really feeling the raised white letters on the 491's. I know it sounds stupid. Any other good bang for the buck tires available? Best place to buy online? I'd really like to change out the handlebars eventually also to something a little more "cafe". Any experience with practicality and how comfortable the riding position is with clubmans, drag bars, or clip ons? Lastly, before the battery completely died when i turned the key to the lock position the tail light came on and stayed on after the key was taken out. Is this a sign of potential electrical problems or is it due to the fact that the battery needed replacement anyway? Oh, and does it need a charged battery to run or should it fire up with the kick starter?

Thanks for the response man, I appreciate your input. Regarding the battery; I am going to purchase a new one for it tomorrow hopefully. What am I looking for? Is it a maintanence free battery or a lead/acid type? Do I need a certain size, etc? The tires are a bit cracked and worn so I guess thats probably the next thing on my list of things to do. Any suggestions on brand, size, etc? Oh, and what is the fuel valve by the carb all about? it has three settings. Prime, Run, Reserve. :beer:

Here it is:

Hey everyone, I just bought my first motorcycle yesterday. Its a 1980 xs400 special-II. I bought it from a really nice older guy on craigslist like ten minutes after he listed it. He has a bunch of scooters and a friend of his traded him this bike for one of his parts scooters. He never rides it and needs room in the garage so he gave it to me for the pricely sum of 100 bucks. Even helped me load it into the back of my truck. It has no rust, 11,000 miles, everything works, no dents. I havent ridden it yet (I've never actually ridden a real motorcycle) but he started it up no problem and rode it around the block when I was there. The bike has no title, but apparently my friends know ways to get around this and get tags for it. I had to set it on its side to get it into my truck, (I have a cap on it at the moment) and it leaked gas all over the place. I got it down and put it up on the kickstand. Put a gallon of gas in it and proceeded to figure out how to start it. I noticed the little valve under the tank has three settings: reserve, prime, and, run. What do these mean? The toggle switch on the right handlebar has "run" in the middle and "engine stop" to the left and right of "run". Why is there two "engine stop" settings? If I take the key out and leave in in the "run" setting will it kill my battery? There appears to be two choke settings also, which one do I use under what circumstances? I played around with it for a bit and kick started it, ran fine. I was excited. Went back a few hours later to start it again and when I turned the key to the "on" position, the oil and neutral lights were very dim and no matter how much I played with the choke, etc. I could not kick start it and the electric start sounded like it wanted to turn the motor over but didnt have enough juice. I'm assuming I need a new battery? How do I even access the existing one? I basically need an explanation on how to start the bike step-by-step and what settings to use under what conditions, etc. if you guys would be kind enough to give me your advice, input, helpful "getting started" links, etc. I would greatly appreciate it. I am very excited to get into the world of motorcycles but definately need some help learning the basics. Please bear with my noob-ness here, I'm completely clueless when it comes to bikes. Of course, from reading this post I assume you already know this. Haha. Thanks for reading through all this guys! :cheers: -Barry Kehoe. (Milwaukee, WI)