drewpy

the biggest I'd seen was 120 x 18 and it was really close to the swing arm and will touch the chain guard (100/90x18 om mine)

you need to look in ebay germany, and pay the postage!!

put the bike in gear and get someone to put the back brake on. then you can undo the sprocket nut after bending the locking tab away. It stops the sprocket turning as you undo the nut. check the cam chain whist the head is off and also the tensioner blades for wear. they will have a bit of a groove in them, but not much.

It was the English taunting the french, as the English were the best longbowmen. It was supposed to be at the battle of Agincourt (100 years war)

yes you'd better

I would think mikuni VM's http://www.mikuni.com/fs-products_guides.html

can't you post pics here. I'm not wanting to register on another forum to see pictures!

xs250 with wires on ebay now 120236111177

the bars puts more weight on the front which pushes the steering into corners, that's why it will corner better.

why upgrade carbs? to tune a bike it needs heads gas flowed, free flow exhaust, hotter cams and then you might consider changing carb to maybe a slide carb which gives a snappier response for racing purposes. usually to go faster, it depends where you ride. around town lower gearing at the expense of top speed, higher top speed fit a fairing and may be raise gearing slightly. twisties, get decent tyres to maintain higher speeds on corners (depending on rider ability) I have seen off modern 400's on the lanes of cheshire riding round the out side of racing leather clad pocket rockets, but i reckon it was rider experience that held them back! straight roads it was harder but it was all part of the fun! different again for track racing.

i think the 250 crank mouths are smaller, and final drive sprocket different. that's about it for the bottom end.

I lurrve Pontefract cakes

TWENTY FIVE!! TUT TUT

you need xs250 wire wheels, check on ebay as they come up all the time, they are disk front but also disk rear. custom styles will have disk front and drum rear. if you do get a drum front you will need the fork lowers as well. ditto the rear as you will need a bracket to stop the brake plate rotating. try german ebay as well, and get the hubs sent as you can get rims and spokes from central wheel birmingham. check out the garage for mine wires on a 400

are you UK or USA based? prob best to use the 360 brake and throttle cable

don't just rely on ebay. Yamaha dealers still have stock in. BTW there is a Yamaha official conversion for the oil filter. it lets you use an oil filter for an XJ600. you'll have to google it as thats all I know

if the srew part of the actuating mechanism has come off, there are two ways of putting it back in. there is a ball bearing, but it is in the screw mechanism. i think that there is another but at the clutch end between the clutch mushroom and the rod. the cover will be tensioned slightly when you first put it on but not in any major way. the adjustment is merely taking up the slack between mech and rod. it should be obvious if the screw mech is off as it doesn't follow the line of the clutch cable.

you need a tubeless wheel and a tubeless tire to work, XS400 wheels are tubed.

been there done that! the only way is to push them out from the top, both mine and my friend carbs did it! slightly upsets tickover , but not much as new needles will compensate. make sure you don't over tighten them and certainly not without springs fitted.

bike batteries arn't the most durable commodities

its do-able, don't bash the cyl head on the fins if it is stuck. soak some diesel oil down the stud holes and leave to soak. corrosion is worse at the front studs. use the sequence for undoing the cam cover and head nuts. make sure you get all the gasket material off the faces, but don't scrape with a metal object, use shaped wood. don't forget the black O rings above and the red O rings under the cylinder bore replace all gaskets with new, but don't use any gasket goo on the top cam over as you open the gap for the camshaft bearing surface and drop oil pressure. clean the barrels BEFORE starting work as shit will get into the bottom end. put rags under the cyl head when lifting to stop more shit getting in. give the cam cap a good polish when off the bike. (might as well when its off) don't forget to lap your valves and keep all springs and valves in the same set. use sandwich bags and LABEL everything. don't be tempted to smooth the inlets or exhaust unless your a tuner. a rough bore surface promotes better gas flow than smooth. you can use a dremel with wire attachment to get into the nooks and crannies whilst decoking. its said that solvol the piston crown afterwards stops the carbon building up on them. check the rings for breakages but dont remove them if you don't need to as they snap dead easy. take your time and enjoy the experience, don't try and complete it to a dead line as you tend to cut corners.

the XS voltage regs are usually mechanical and switched by contacts (replaced by electronic in 1980). due to this and the bikes age I'm not suprised these go. the suzuki GS series was different in that the 3 phase alternator powered separate electrical items rather than "pooling" the current. So that 1 phase ran only the lighting system, 1 for battery and the other for the rest. because the lights wern't on all the time that part of the alternator got really hot and blew reg/recifier. the key was to keep your lights on !!!!

xs's have 18" front and rear except customs and their derivitives which have 16" rear but higher profile tyres. 19" is for xs650,750, 850, 1100's to convert to twin disk; there is a plastic blanking plug on the other side of the hub (spoke or alloy) which is pulled off (it will probably break off in bits) there you will find the drilled holes for another disk. you also need an SR500 caliper and caliper mount (it says "L" on it for left) SR's have their single disk on the opposite side as our bikes. and you need an XS1100 brake master cylinder to push more fluid to counteract the extra brake piston. Keep the wires they are much nicer and I spent over £400 converting mine last year with flanged ally rim and stainless spokes. my wires are significantly lighter than the original aloys.

that's a wheely good deal!!! Got 2 sets me-self

what's black and bushy and sits on a C*nt? Alistar Darling's eyebrows!!!