New seasoned XS400 member here saying hi!

[Ilovemountains]

Just wanted to say hi, I rebuilt a 1977 Yamaha XS400D years back and sold it like an idiot, I’ve missed it ever since so I just picked up a new to me XS400! I bought my 77D as a barn find and stripped it completely down, cleaned every part and reassembled it with as high of performance parts as I could find for it at the time. It rode GREAT, sounded GREAT and was more fun to ride than my 01 Triumph Sprint RS!! My new to me bike is a 1979, I’ll have to get some pics posted but I wont be able to pick it up till Thursday. I’m not sure of the exact model code, its “supposed” to be a 1979, it has cast wheels with disk brakes front and rear, my plan is to retrofit a “D” tank on it and start over to build it to what my 77 was as the 79 has more chrome and a stepped seat, and the standard teardrop type tank. The hardest areas of my 77 D project were the carbs / jetting issues with the 2-1 exhaust and pod filters and the electric starter clutch assembly!!!! It was a great bike, Im really looking forward to digging into another one… Anyway, some of you might have seen my bike on BikePics before, here is a link to it!! Thanks for having me! Matt

http://bikepics.com/members/ilovemountains/77xs400/

 

[CadXS]

Welcome to the forum Matt I look forward to seeing what you do with your new bike.

Caddy

 

[hmusket]

Welcome Matt,
Looked at your pictures of the '77, you did a fantastic job.

 

[Ilovemountains]

Thanks, that was a labor of love, not sure if you took a look at my other bikes on my bikepic page, the first street bike I ever rebuilt was my very first street bike, it was a 1985 Yamaha FJ600, another rarer bike that I scoured the globe for little bits and pieces for from the Yoshimura 4-1 exhaust to the Spec II body kit!

http://bikepics.com/members/ilovemountains/85fj600/

When I bougth the FJ it had been partially stripped, crashed and thrown in a shed to rot for several years, it looked like it fell out of an airplane!

And another bike that I regretted selling to make room for another project! Funny story, the guy I sold it to that lived about 4 hours from me called me out of the blue after several years this past fall, he now lives in California, he was moving and asked if I wanted the FJ back, I got pretty excited till he told me it was crashed once and the paint and body were pretty banged up and he snapped the exhaust studs off at the head, I had just rebuilt the top end with a cleaned head right before I sold it and didn’t want to get back into it, I would have had to buy the bike then pay to have it shipped from the west coast to the east… It would have been great to have it back but it needed a lot of work all over again! He had only put 400 miles on it from the time he bought it to the time he called me… Anyway, Im definitely looking forward to the XS project! I bought my old KLR250 on Craigslist for $300 and have completely rebuilt it, its UGLY but is 100% reliable and safe, it’s a street legal trail bike that gets used on and off road so I really don’t care what it looks like

 

[bcware]

I like the seat a lot on the xs; it made a huge difference in the overall look of the bike. Combined with the exhaust it looks quite sporty.

 

[drewpy]

welcome ILM to the forum, good luck on your new quest

 

[Ilovemountains]

Thanks, I had the upholstery shop at work make the seat cover for me; I bought a couple yards of marine grade vinyl from a marine supply shop. For the seat I left the stock seat cover on it, which was in decent shape, the “D” series stock seat is pretty bad in stock form; I marked it up with white chalk and eyeballed it with an electric slicing knife that people use for cutting roasts! I got it cut down to where I wanted it and where it felt the best then turned it over to the upholstery guys; they covered the top of the stock foam with a layer of ½” high density padding then formed up the cover for me. The pics on Bikepics were taken before I modified the seat trim. I only had about $125 in the seat when all said was done…

Here are some pictures of the “Beast” that Im picking up Thursday, it’s a little rough, BUT it has the rear disk brake and is more or less all there, and already has a 2-1 header. The tires look stock so It might not have too many miles on the clock and it has a key. I bought it sight unseen, non running so it could turn out to be a pretty in depth project or might be a quick turn around on the mechanicals, Ill know Thursday!

 

[Ilovemountains]

What model is my "new" bike? Its supped to be a 1979......