berniebee Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Hi, I'm from Ottawa, Canada, where the temperature is at 0C/32F right now. ( Dec 8th.) I'm in my garage restoring a newly acquired 1976 XS500 to a pretty nice daily rider condition. I had a lot of bikes in my misspent youth. Started with a Honda Z50 (apparently a collectors item now! That's the funniest thing I ever heard.) then several Yamaha 2 stroke twins, then Suzuki fours: a GS550, 750 and 1100e. Somewhere in there, I commuted for a couple of summers on a Honda CB350, and briefly a CB400F. My last bike was a 1978 Ducati Darmah. No bikes for about 20 years and now a Yamaha XS500.. Why the XS500? Well I longed for a 70's bike, but many of them are now too expensive for me to justify the few times I will be riding.. The XS500 is the unloved brother to the RD400 two stroke and the larger XS650 so it's relatively cheap.. But it has that classic 70's style, with upswept mufflers and squarish lines. Mag wheels, DOHC, and four valves per cylinder are right up to date. Points and condenser, not so much. I like tinkering as much as riding, So right now I have it all apart with just the engine remaining in the frame. i have a small forest of (re)painted parts hanging from the floor joists in the basement. Several boxes of cleaned and waxed parts are waiting to be reassembled. Almost all of my ordered carb parts have come in! Looking forward to reading and writing mostly in the (surprise, surprise) vintage section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator DirtyDT Posted December 8, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2011 Welcome to the forum. Lots of vintage lovers here including XS's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator mervin Posted December 8, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2011 Welcome mate yes i like me old RD,s this one has replies so i have deleted the other on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berniebee Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Thanks for deleting the duplicate. I love RDs! I owned an RD200 (My first road bike, almost wiped out because of a giant front drum brake which was prone to lockup-very exciting!.) But my favorite was a purple RD350. I remember cranking the throttle and when it hit a certain RPM, (was it 4500?) the front wheel would get VERY light. I loved the RD350LC too, but could not find the cash when it came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhat250 Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Welcome bernie " get some pic"s of the old girl up,, we love 1970"s yams,,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Airhead Posted December 8, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 8, 2011 Greetings bernie and welcome to the forum, look forward to seeing and reading your exploits with the XS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Wheels Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Welcome along sir. I like the old bikes too, even though im not that old myself. I dono, its just there styling or something that i like ! Have a wee look through here http://www.stumbleup...rmuseumtour.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator drewpy Posted December 9, 2011 Moderator Share Posted December 9, 2011 to the YOC have a butchers at this baby more info here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berniebee Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 This is the nicest custom XS500 of that I've ever seen. Well deserved article in the magazine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhat250 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Shure is drewps ,,,, & theres a new series of Caffe racer , on disc turbo. have you seen it, ,, Rd350 in it,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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