Manky's XS650 Yamaha

[Manky Monkey]

Took the top cover off my engine this afternoon to get at the 2 top engine mount studs, which are seized into the ali casing & have just been hacksawed off at either end by a previous owner. Managed to snap the chrome oil feed pipe that runs up the front of the engine in the process. Poo. There's a guy in Germany selling brand new ones on Ebay, but they're 70 quid each.
On a brighter note, Tony the engraver's finished the main cases. The small round cover inset in this case holds an oil filter. Although it sits quite deep into the main case, the front is only 1mm thick -too thin for Tony to work with. So his mate in Yorkshire machined up a new cover with a domed front & he's added the frog's head on it. I'm really, really pleased with these & so is he, which is good. I've Paypal'd him the last of the cash for them, which is apparently paying for a new roof on his workshop in Spain. Just need to sort out the postage now. Somehow I've got to clean the rest of the motor up to be worthy of these.

[Manky Monkey]

Beautiful traditional engraving with a modern slant. Nice.

[Clive]

The pics of these on Facebook are great buddy



Yeah, those ones!!

[Manky Monkey]

And they're mine, all mine! 

[kapri]

Make sure they are  WELL insured !!!!!

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah, so much for my ride it anywhere, chuck it against a lamp post & try & remember where you left it, daily hack.
Maybe I'll just frame these & hang 'em on the wall.

[kapri]

It's known as mission creep;)

[Clive]

What he said^^^

[Manky Monkey]

Found a way of paying my brother back.
I bought another XS engine from a bike breakers in Stoke on Trent. I picked it up for spares for my own, but most of the bits I wanted aren't actually on it -so I've given it to Steve. He hasn't got a bike licence but always had an interest in bikes & had asked me to look out for a cheap engine. There ya go -do something interesting with that.
Drove up to Stoke today, collected it & delivered it to Steve's workshop in Wiltshire.
I've swapped the aluminium handled dipstick for my plastic one, taken the top engine mount & Steve's going to take off the chrome oil feed pipe that I broke on my own. It's also fitted with the early model decompression valve lifter, (to make starting easier). Slight damage to the cable clamp which can probably be repaired. I'm very tempted to fit it on mine, just because I've never seen one fitted before so it's an interesting detail. Need to check that it will fit a later engine though -plus I've just paid a small fortune to have that tappet cover from my engine engraved! Maybe I could fit the engraved one on the Pop somewhere 
So a very expensive dipstick, (no, not me), but nice to do something for my big bro for a change.

[Manky Monkey]

Spent the morning at a local vintage Japanese motorcycle autojumble & picked up a few XS650 parts.
Found a Haynes manual, a set of points & backplate, a brake pedal pivot & the phone number for a lefthand engine casing for Brock;
A pair of front brake calipers & mounting brackets for Tom, which I bartered for his spare alternator for Brock:
A headsteady bracket & an oil feed pipe for my own:
A righthand engine casing, phone number for the lefthand one, dipstick & front engine mount for Lunatic.
-handy that we all have the same model of bike 
I also picked up this little tank for a fiver. Early 100cc Suzuki maybe. Plus a brand new Honda chrome fuel cap to fit it, still in it's bag for 6 quid. Picked it up cos I knew Loony would like it & sure enough he's grabbed it for his XS. Propped in place on Tom's.

[Manky Monkey]

Displayed my unfinished XS on our pitch at the Basingstoke Transport Festival yesterday, minus the engraved engine casings cos they were still in Spain.
They arrived this morning. Amazing workmanship & as Loon said, great to be able to handle them after just seeing the photos Tony the engraver posted on FaceBook. Nowhere safe to put them for now, so they're tucked away in my bedroom! Really, really pleased with these.

[Manky Monkey]

Compared to Loony's standard cover, just to give some idea of how much work's gone into them.

[Clive]

And you should be Andy!

That's my next foray into the art world, engraving!

[Manky Monkey]

Very labour intensive, (as I'm sure your airbrushing is), but trust me, there's big money in it! (these cost me more than I paid for the bike).

[Manky Monkey]

Out & about this afternoon & had to pass the lock-up garage the bike lives in. Couldn't resist taking one of the covers with me & very carefully propping it in place to see how it looked.