franticvike
XS400 Enthusiast
Aloha from the mild north pacific of Vancouver Island.
Picked up an 82 XS400 yesterday. My first bike was an 82 XJ650 that got stolen, so when this came up locally it called out to me. That said, my 650 was all stock and this bike has been tinkered with just a touch. This is my first 400 and first modified bike.
The whole thing looks very clean, and I'd guess a recent PO has gone through just about everything. New turn lights, battery, partial wiring. Some kind of custom seat. Starts right up, runs strong, but doesn't love being in the low RPMs, seems to bog down more easily than I remember from the 650.
The ODO says 46k, but the frame and engine have non matching VINs and the ODO doesn't look original so I'd say that number is a guess at best. The PO who cut it up modified it listed it as 20,000 on the nose so I'd bet that was also a guess.
Fork seems a bit on the soft side, so might look at replacing that. Since it's already been chopped up I'm not too concerned about keeping original, so if there are good suggestions for after market options I'm happy to hear them.
PO also put on some extraordinarily loud pipes on this thing. My 650 was loud, but this is deafening. I live in a quiet residential neighbourhood and my reputation for noise -- having jackhammered 25 tons of rock out of my basement -- is already good enough so I'd like to put something much quieter on here.
Lastly I'm wondering if there are any reasonable options for getting this thing back to being a 2 up bike. My neighbour has a welder and between the two of us we're handy enough. I'm guessing it may be more work than is wise but though I'd check. I'll be reading through everything before I come back with any specific wrenching question.
Edit: Link to quick youtube of bike startup and working the choke
Picked up an 82 XS400 yesterday. My first bike was an 82 XJ650 that got stolen, so when this came up locally it called out to me. That said, my 650 was all stock and this bike has been tinkered with just a touch. This is my first 400 and first modified bike.
The whole thing looks very clean, and I'd guess a recent PO has gone through just about everything. New turn lights, battery, partial wiring. Some kind of custom seat. Starts right up, runs strong, but doesn't love being in the low RPMs, seems to bog down more easily than I remember from the 650.
The ODO says 46k, but the frame and engine have non matching VINs and the ODO doesn't look original so I'd say that number is a guess at best. The PO who cut it up modified it listed it as 20,000 on the nose so I'd bet that was also a guess.
Fork seems a bit on the soft side, so might look at replacing that. Since it's already been chopped up I'm not too concerned about keeping original, so if there are good suggestions for after market options I'm happy to hear them.
PO also put on some extraordinarily loud pipes on this thing. My 650 was loud, but this is deafening. I live in a quiet residential neighbourhood and my reputation for noise -- having jackhammered 25 tons of rock out of my basement -- is already good enough so I'd like to put something much quieter on here.
Lastly I'm wondering if there are any reasonable options for getting this thing back to being a 2 up bike. My neighbour has a welder and between the two of us we're handy enough. I'm guessing it may be more work than is wise but though I'd check. I'll be reading through everything before I come back with any specific wrenching question.
Edit: Link to quick youtube of bike startup and working the choke
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