What did you do with your XS today?

[willem]

Willem, can you post a pic of the packaging or the product's website link or something?
It's been 35 years since I did any dry-walling, and back then they had a plastic mesh "tape", but it was mostly air holes, not something that I would think would seal or even bind tin cans to an H-pipe. Sounds like this stuff is different.

I think you're talking about the same stuff actually, it's kind of like a mesh

it looked like this one

but when you apply multiple layers of the stuff it will hold something in place at the very least. And that's what it needs to do with my bike, keep the tin cans from falling off and protect the exhaust paste a little.

@recreate, make sure you start wrapping at the rear of your pipes, that way it'll look nicest the ride wind also wont grab under the wrap that way

edit: one more pic found

 

[Lou Ranger]

That's interesting, it's the same stuff.
Any idea how long it lasts before burning off?

 

[Recreateme]

Willem - I have always wondered why people suggest wrapping from the bottom up, i have gone through it in my head a hundred times and i cant seem to figure why, the wrapping pattern looks the same to me

Can you explain why the overlap pattern changes that much ?

 

[Lou Ranger]

I think it has to do with having the lap joints such that the wind flows over them rather than into any leading edges.

Similarly, one puts shingles on a roof from the bottom up so the water runs down and over rather than into a leading edge.

 

[willem]

it's not a huge difference, but look


started from the back:

started from the front

it's like laying roof shingles, you stack them so the water flows from one onto the other.

you have to work from the bottom up when laying them.

the same way with the exhaust wrap: if you start from the rear (the base) then you wrap every layer on top of the previous, so if you run you finger down the pipe from the front to the rear you don't 'step up' but you 'step down' continuously. It just looks a little more streamlined in my opinion.


EDIT: I missed Lou's explanation but yes that is exactly what I wanted to say as you can see from my story here I guess great minds think alike?


On my Seca this glass fiber stuff has held for at least 3 years already. And it's been living outside like a hobo without a tent for at least 6 months during that period, and I think the rest of the time it only had a little tarp. And it's been ridden a lot of course. Today the wrap is in really decent shape, I expect it will outlive the rest of the bike actually. So no use in spending top dollar on 'real' heatwrap if you ask me

 

[Recreateme]

Thanks, Guys... I was thinking about the wrap all wrong lol I get it now..

Good to know about the 'cheap stuff' because all i ended up getting was the standard white fiberglass wrap. It was like 13$ for 2"x20' so i bought two rolls of that. I was avoiding white but this was like 25$ cheaper then an alternative of any other colour for the same amount.

 

[meyekj]

I rode in to work for the first time today. It's a good feeling knowing that I've been able to take a bike that sat for years and coax it back to decent reliability. I've decided I like the stock look, so other than some cosmetic work (new seat cover and some polishing for sure) to keep me busy when the snow flies she's ready to roll!

 

[willem]

Rode it just for fun (most times I use it to get to work) for a few hours

got lost, which I kind of intended, and practiced my cornering. Not quite at the level I want it to be yet, more of a mental barrier than anything else I think.

Also played around in a bunch of sand. Some road construction in a quiet area (nobody there, guess they don't work on saturday) so not like loose beach sand, but dug up soil or something. Had loads of fun just riding up the 2 feet bumps and stuff. This is not really an offroad bike in any way, but man I had a lot of fun! Never tried dirtbiking, maybe I'll give that a go in the future.

After kitesurfing. And a car.

 

[racegeek]

even though its up for sale I cleaned up some chrome and the lower forks legs. looks like maybe a rainy weekend so may try and get the carb boots on and air boxes back on .

 

[Scorpio1963]

Its been raining a lot so I haven't been able to ride the blue bitch in a couple of days.

 

[MjrYam]

Raining here in Cleveland too No riding today. Guess ill polish the chrome and clean the garage.

 

[Scorpio1963]

Its supposed to rain here on and off for the next 2-3 days,I don't mind though we need it.

 

[16VGTIDave]

Spent the rainy afternoon in my shop and fabricated a spring loaded drive chain tensioner. I fabricated an arm with a pivot point, installed a MooseRacing chain roller, and modified a spring that I had to apply tension. The only alterations to the frame was drilling a tiny hole for the end of the spring to hook into, and increasing the size of an existing hole for the pivot bolt. I'm going to do some final tweaking and smoothing of rough edges before painting it tonight.

Now I'll be able to have enough chain slack for my suspension, without having the chain dragging on the frame! This was required as I just ordered a new EK SRX chain and 38 tooth JT rear sprocket. The rear sprocket should get me about a 1000 RPM increase in engine speed for a given speed compared to my current 17-35 gears.

 

[Recreateme]

omg i actually road mine... Well kinda. I mean i tried to ride it lol

I took it out for the first time, started up no issues at all, warmed up great, pulled in the clutch and shifted into first and let the clutch out as slowly as humanly possible and it grabbed and stalled out.

I tried again a few times and got the same result, so i tried giving it some throttle (up around 2k) and let the clutch out slowly again and it stalled..

I tried again and decided that i was just gonna giver and let the clutch out and right before i expected it to stall i just opened the clutch up to like 2.5-3k and it caught, felt like it was gonna stall so i kept opening the clutch and it took off. I was able to ride it up and down the street this way a bit but i know its not proper.

It shifted up fine when moving but if i were to ever come to a stop and need to engage a gear it either stalls or launches off. When it does launch i can immediately let off the clutch back down to just above idle and it will slow right down and just cruise along.

Tomorrow I am going to do a clutch adjustment and see if i can get that fixed. Its like there is no friction zone, its either off or full on.

From what i have seen on other bikes you should be able to feel it catching as you let it out and it should be able to catch without the need to apply throttle and it should grab and start rolls all with only your left hand right ? (at least thats what all the Youtube - "how to ride a motorcycle" videos have shown me lol ) I just want something where i dont feel like im starting a drag race off every stop.

 

[xschris]

Got the 79 out for a nice ride in the mourning

 

[Lou Ranger]

... Its like there is no friction zone, its either off or full on ...

If the clutch isn't worn out (let's hope not) or simply out of adjustment (let's hope so), it sounds like maybe a PO ran the wrong oil at least once and your friction plates were "modified".

I read on some other Forum that if they're not too far "modified" they can come back, but I do not know if there is any validity to that claim. The article did contain a tip for getting rid of a bit more of the wrong oil. It said that right after the warm up ride to heat up the oil for changing, pull in the clutch lever and and hold it in by wrapping the lever it with a bungee, then leaving the bike to drain for several hours. This leaves the plates apart so no "modifying" or old oil is retained between them. Again, I don't know if this technique has any actual validity, but I do it now - what can it hurt?

I assume you have changed the oil and used only a proper JASO MA oil.

 

[Recreateme]

Thanks again Lou, that could be the case, this is the same PO who thought it was a good idea to use DOT 5 in the brakes and connect his pod filters to the carb with PVC piping so anything is possible.

I haven't changed the oil yet, I got the correct stuff I have just been putting it off cause I wanted to ride it first. This week though.

If this is a worn clutch plate that needs to be replaced I assume that's a difficult and expensive job?

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[Lou Ranger]

I don't think it is that difficult if you read about it on here first, and don't take any short cuts. Don't know how expensive it is though, sorry.
If, by chance, the root cause is the wrong oil then I wouldn't ride it anymore and I would try the open clutch trick when you drain out the hot oil.

On my first oil change, I got called to dinner after I thought it was all drained and so I slipped a plastic dish under neath as I was curious. The next day there was quite a bit that dripped out slowly overnight - so if it were me, I would try and get every last drop out, including in the oil filter cavity.

I couldn't find the place where I read about getting rid of bad oil and saving a clutch - but I did find this guy's comment on another: "I ran some Pennzoil cause I didn't have nothing else. And when the bike was cold it would jerk while pulling out. But not after a few min of riding. Changed to recommend oil never again"

Here's hoping you will be lucky too!

 

[Recreateme]

I adjusted the cable at the clutch handle and it got a bit easier, but still needs to be adjusted at the case, which I did but the battery was dead from starting it so many times after stalling out last night and earlier today lol. I made the adjustment and put it on the charger.

When I get it into first it changes gears up and down with no issues at all I can pull it in and let it straight no issues but just from a stop it has trouble. I'll see if I did the adjustments properly in a couple hours.

 

[arfstrom]

I adjusted the cable at the clutch handle and it got a bit easier, but still needs to be adjusted at the case, which I did but the battery was dead from starting it so many times after stalling out last night and earlier today lol. I made the adjustment and put it on the charger.

When I get it into first it changes gears up and down with no issues at all I can pull it in and let it straight no issues but just from a stop it has trouble. I'll see if I did the adjustments properly in a couple hours.

Hi, we had this disscussion last summer,
http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10687&page=2 note 33, has a print out from the manual.
note 50 has the pictures to do it on the engine.

Hope that helps