new guy and 1978 xs

[lude]

so i just bought this bike, decided to sign up to the forums, its a 78 xs400 8,000 original miles, all original besides the paint i think isn't stock, and bars i believe. they are awful i know, not sure what direction i'm gonna go, i was planning to make a tracker but not sure i have the balls to cut up a clean bike, so i may just paint it, change the bars do a few tweaks and call it good... ideas? let me know,

 

[Tubesteak]

veyr nice. very clean

 

[drewpy]

sweet ride and nice colour too

 

[OliverB]

Welcome to the forum. Nice bike - very clean and original. My preference would be to leave it stock. Yamaha offered two typed of bars - black painted and low or chromed and a little higher. Sport and Touring I call them. Yours may be original Touring. Like the front/rear disc brake setup. Only found on '77-'79, I believe.

 

[Shaun Chandler]

wow that is really clean. Your going to get a thousand different opinions on what direction to go. Personally I don't like stock yours is in really nice shape with low miles.

Mabey wait to find a beat up bike to start cutting.

Shaun

 

[Shaun Chandler]

Almost forgot ..Welcome to the forum

Shaun

 

[xschris]

Nice, I would keep it stock

 

[bcware]

Start with new bars and mirrors; it isn't permanent; it's cheap; it's easy; it can be reversed without much trouble; it changes the look a lot. If you don't have a clear vision you can start there and mull it over. Who knows, you might be happy with something as easy as that. Euro or superbike bars will give it a slight tracker feel.

Oh, and Yamahas have a left hand thread on one of the mirrors. I wish I would have known that before I cut one of mine off

 

[HoughMade]

Here's the thing- I agree with not cutting it up, but with just a few tweaks, you can change the look and feel and still have it look "vintage". This was my goal. I put on "European" bars, smaller turn indicators and bar -end mirrors. Other than that, it's stock, but cleaner than one of those "buck-horn bar" pseudo cruisers. Just make it your own. That's what I did.

 

[lude]

well first, is to get it running, when i got it, the starter didnt turn over, it didnt get any spark and the fuse box was 7 kinds of messed up. so i wired in a new fuse box, and now every thing seems to be working ish, when i go to start it, it will sometimes catch and put for a few seconds, then stall, when i kick it over, sometimes it will kick then a low pitch squeal will come from the motor, and it did it a few times from use of the starter too, once even stalling when the squeal happened, it doesnt sound healthy, very confused,

 

[lude]

anyone know if the boxier style tank would fit with my stock seat? im doubting it,

 

[bcware]

I have to imagine it will. I have a '78 and it comes with the boxy tank. The stock seat looked close to what you have, if not the same.

I like the boxy tank better myself, but I probably wouldn't ditch a tank in such good condition. People generally want a fair amount for a tank with no dents.