Bobber update

A short little update for ya, made my license plate/tail lamp mount bracket and got my chain tensioner mounted, thanks to some help from my buddy Rick, who welds for his day job. He's been a big help...just wanted to give him a shout out here.

More Reader Rides

Paul sent in some shots of his '73 TX bobber project. He has a pretty good start on it and things are shaping up nicely. I'll let Paul fill in the blanks.
"It's a 1973 TX500...somewhere about 15,000 miles on it. Back half is a TC Bros chopper builder kit, all loose tubes put together by your truly. The rear drop outs are part of the original swing arm with custom cut gusset plates welded to them for support. The seat is a Chopper shox kit. The kit comes with a seat pan and two coil over shocks, mounting plate and all hardware.
Just made battery tray for it today 4/2/11, and now it will be on to the wiring, it's getting the basics....headlamp, tail lamp, condenser, regulator, and rectifier wired up. Bare bones.
Once it's running I'll ride it for a little while make sure the bugs are outa it, then it's back apart for paint. The frame is going bass boat flake candy green, the tank, headlamp and headlamp brackets are going to be bass boat flake pearl white. And the tank it probably gonna get scalops in the green.
Of course the motor will get a fresh cleaning too and polish some parts on it. I'm shooting to have the bike painted and finished by June/July. Ahh toys and projects".


Paul is making some good progress and I'm going to have to get on the stick if I want to catch up.

Thanks Paul for sharing your build with us, looking forward to the updates.

A Couple of Rare Birds

Keith sent me a shot of his original '78 XS500 that he has owned since new. It has 24,000 on the clock and has been as reliable as the day is long. As you can see from the pics, he has treated the bike as well as it has treated him over the years. He is also the proud owner of a '75 Cosworth Vega, a pair of rare birds indeed. I think the pair look great together, like they were made for each other.


Thanks Keith for sharing your passion.

25 Micron Oil filter

The OEM oil filters have long been out of production,the Emgo replacements have a tendency to leak,and filter prices aren't getting any cheaper.On occasion you can locate a factory oil filter adapter kit.I decided long ago to come up with my own system.It makes for 10 minute oil changes too! It uses an industrial stainless steel 25 micron filter.Flowezy part # Y2-SS-1/4-25-F3 [flowezyfilters.com] Jim

Ignition Improvements Part 2

Nippendenso also makes decent points sets.If you want to run hot coils there are many 3 ohm choices: Dyna is always good stuff, and auto coils are abundant.I use Pertronix epoxy part number #40611 and NO ballast required.I purchased mine from Summit Racing. Now you need some good plug wires.Dyna universal set#516? work great and use the nipple on the end of the plug which is much better then just the threads.My favorite choice of plugs would be the NGK Iridium DR8EIX[stock heat range].These are expensive at about $10/$11 each.Now if you are a throttle twisting freak you can add the Dyna DRL300 revlimiter and it is adjustable to whatever RPM you want to set it at.I rev mine to 9500 with my tune up.I bought all my Dyna stuff from Pingel Enterprise, but shop around! Also make sure your mechanical advance has good springs and moves freely.Take it apart, clean it and lube with motor oil or light grease.You should be able to use the springs for the XS650 from MikesXS. Good Day! Jim P.

Ignition Improvements

Improving the igniton can be grouped in two ways:using points or going pointless.Pointless the best option is the Newtronics kit # YAM3.It is out of production,but I am sure their are some sitting on a shelf somewhere.Newtronics was bought out several years ago and if we show a big enough demand we could probably influence them to build more kits.I have tried contacting them,but so far no response.They are located in England.I have used this kit and it works great.You can always modify an existing kit for another bike or build your own from scratch if your are up to the challenge.Using points really isn't all that bad.You can find FactoryYamaha points sets and tune up kits by visiting older Yamaha shops[especially if they have been in one location for a couple of decades], or of course there is always Ebay[just saw a complete OEM kit go for $10 which included points,condensor and 2 plugs!]. You can get good Hitachi tune up kits or individual points sets from Sudco International in California.While checking them out,you may want to order parts for you stock CV carbs! Yup, they have some of that too.Now that you have a good set of points adjusted properly with a touch of oil on the felt pads you can add a Dyna Ignition amplifier DBR-2 which drastically improves performance and points life.

Oil filter adapter kit

Right now on Ebay Germany is the very rare adapter kit to convert the oil filter to a common filter.First time I have ever seen one actually available. 60.00 Euro. I would jump on it but I use something I built .10/28/2010 Jim