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...
Recommended Posts