Archie's XS

[Tony oily bike]

Might cave and opt for an electric start to clean up the engine in the future. It'll also help to save my already knackered ankle, which I snapped years ago - anytime I get a kickback it makes it hard to walk on for about a week.

Re kickback - I had a relatively new XS in around 1982, and more recently another XS (This one's about 35 years of age) and don't recall either kicking back (but I'm using old Brit stuff as my ref point here!).

Many of the XSs seen for sale nowadays have had the electric boot removed, often because of their reliability.

Now your timing has been sorted, I'd expect it to behave pretty well. You could always fit electronic ign to help things further, but at the end of the day, if your ankle is saying 'no', then the leccy start has to be the way. 

[Archie]

Yeah everyone keeps calling me a girl about it, but I'll get a pic up of the bruise on my leg from a short one. Looks like it popped a load of blood vessels round the knee.

I know the guy who the engine came from was into his grasstracking, but I'd be surprised if it's been played with.

[Tony oily bike]

Some of the grasstrack brigade really used to make these old lumps tramp on.... like making them over 1000cc in the outfits (Wasps etc)  

[Archie]

Yeah - there's a halco xs on the bay at the moment. This one will probably need a trip to dynotech to get the jetting right for the filters and pipes so will get a printout then.

This is about 2 weeks old now, starting to go down. Think it's from a short stroke getting me. Scars from getting caught in a barb wire fence up an Italian mountain as a kid.

Archie's XS

[morrag]

Motorcycles kicking you back is to be taken seriously! as many years ago my Velocette kicked me back and broke my knee cap! Its also worth remembering that unlike the Japanese offerings, old Brit. singles invariably had valve lifters to ease the situation, plus magneto ignition with manual advance and retard!so you could retard the spark for starting, so there you go, advances, what advances? still I got it wrong that once with painful consequence's!!!....Morrag

[Cabman77]

Had a lovely Bonnie chop once, on the road for three weeks and stalled at some road works, kicked back, blew back through the cabs (velocity stacks!!!!), petrol pipes went up in flames etc etc etc........................................"nice" man from the water board, digging up the road, came to my rescue with a dry powder fire extingusher.............................had to strip the whole engine down to get all the powder out, it even got into the big end shells!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Archie]

Morrag that sounds immensely painful.

1 week till payday so hopefully that will be it! Mot done and then tax it and have some 2 wheel fun for summer. Maybe paint it at some point as well.

[Tony oily bike]

Had a lovely Bonnie chop once, on the road for three weeks and stalled at some road works, kicked back, blew back through the cabs (velocity stacks!!!!), petrol pipes went up in flames etc etc etc........................................"nice" man from the water board, digging up the road, came to my rescue with a dry powder fire extingusher.............................had to strip the whole engine down to get all the powder out, it even got into the big end shells!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had a Bonnie in the early 80's which I bought fire-damaged - blown back through the carbs and ignited the air-box, loom and seat.... bit of a mess but very salvageable, and at an affordable price. Luckily no dry powder to deal with.

A bike dealer I knew had a 14:1 compression Triumph that had featured on the front of Classic Bike or similar. Managed to kick that into life, but not sure if by luck or judgement 

The old Brits (esp singles) often had the carb pointing outwards and away from the flammable bits..... did they know something ? 

[Firery Fred]

Right, that's made my mind up,an extinguisher 1st on list as soon as my new garage is built Started last Sunday,had Joyce on the mixer and achieved quit a lot in 3 hours before my lunch,pics to follow if any interest 

[spanners]

yep interest in garage ,, as i,m doing the same  but just found out the hard way that my back is now to  knackered,, to lift the prefab panels 

[Manky Monkey]

Yup, my ol' 650 Bonny once gave me a wake up call when leaving home for work at 5 in the morning. It spat back through the carbs & set fire to the fuel line. Woke me up very quickly!
One of my XS650s had a habit of "hiccupping" when sat at junctions etc. It was fitted with K & N air filters, meaning the carbs weren't supported by the air box -like Archie's. I'd be sat at the traffic lights, trying to look cool, & it'd cough -& blow the carbs clean off their rubber manifolds. Very uncool!

[Cabman77]

I'd be sat at the traffic lights, trying to look cool, & it'd cough -& blow the carbs clean off their rubber manifolds. Very uncool!

Ditto with the Virago for a while............................

[Firery Fred]

yep interest in garage ,, as i,m doing the same  but just found out the hard way that my back is now to  knackered,, to lift the prefab panels 

I'm getting rid of my prefab garage and building a much bigger(and hopefully better) one from concrete blocks,Easy for me as I'm a bricklayer 

[Firery Fred]

Me and Joyce last Sunday morning 

[Manky Monkey]

You're building a new house, just for your bike Fred?
I see from your other thread that you've joined the XS club.
At this rate, new forum members are going to have to own either an XS650, or a Reliant trike. I think we've cornered the market in both!