OliverB
XS400 Junkie
Good choice on the oil! Yep, no need to spend the extra dollars.
When you buy a battery, if price is not an object, get an AGM maintenance free type. The AGM batteries will hold a charge on standing for a much longer time and have better construction to withstand vibration and thumping our batteries are put through. NAPA carries a line of AGM batteries and they have a full year warranty unlike many others that only have a 6 month warranty - including the AGM from Walmart and Sears.
If you will be riding the bike a good bit after dark, consider upgrading the lower watt sealed beam headlight to a modern reflector that takes a replaceable H4 bulb - if not already done on yours. I use SilverStar Ultra H4 for a nice bright white light. Our headlight reflectors are a weird size and not readily available. The reflector can be purchased from: http://store.candlepower.com/ca631quheleu.html Since the H4 bulb will put a little more strain on the charging system, replace the tail light bulbs with LED type. Doing this saves about as many amps as you increase by using the H4 bulb. I bought mine from this ebay seller in Hong Kong but he currently does not have any listings: warden_jp2008 ( 2581) LED bulbs are tricky because they don't emit light in the same pattern as filament types. The "off-the-shelf" ones in auto parts stores are not satisfactory in our old design tail light reflector.
When you buy a battery, if price is not an object, get an AGM maintenance free type. The AGM batteries will hold a charge on standing for a much longer time and have better construction to withstand vibration and thumping our batteries are put through. NAPA carries a line of AGM batteries and they have a full year warranty unlike many others that only have a 6 month warranty - including the AGM from Walmart and Sears.
If you will be riding the bike a good bit after dark, consider upgrading the lower watt sealed beam headlight to a modern reflector that takes a replaceable H4 bulb - if not already done on yours. I use SilverStar Ultra H4 for a nice bright white light. Our headlight reflectors are a weird size and not readily available. The reflector can be purchased from: http://store.candlepower.com/ca631quheleu.html Since the H4 bulb will put a little more strain on the charging system, replace the tail light bulbs with LED type. Doing this saves about as many amps as you increase by using the H4 bulb. I bought mine from this ebay seller in Hong Kong but he currently does not have any listings: warden_jp2008 ( 2581) LED bulbs are tricky because they don't emit light in the same pattern as filament types. The "off-the-shelf" ones in auto parts stores are not satisfactory in our old design tail light reflector.