Finally picked up my bike

As some of you know, I bought a '82 650turbo 3 or 4 weeks ago. The guy had some title stuff to take care of and I told him I'd wait to pick it up till that was taken care of since I wasn't in any big rush. In the meantime, I located service and wiring manuals online and downloaded them (The Eastern rep at Yamaha has told me they don't even worry about copywrite on models older then 15 years so don't wear a guilt trip), bought a new seat and made some space in my basement shop.

I called the guy yesterday and he had everything resolved so i rented a trailer from uhaul and went over to pick up the bike. It was even in nicer shape then I had remembered. The only things that will need replacement are the footpegs, handgrips(grip-puppies don't last very long) and of course, the seat that I bought.

I'll run it down the ramp in the morning and begin working on it next week. hopefully, by the first of the year it will be done, but we'll see how it goes.

Definitely a heavy bike which brings up a question. how difficult would it be to eliminate the shaft drive? Has anyone done it?

jeff

 

I think I had seen some talk about the shaft, But I haven't seen anyone on here do it. Some one had pics posted of there bike apart then some one els was mentioning how they thought it could be done, but like I said, I haven't seen it done on here, and pretty sure it hasn't been. This was my first shafty and I love it.

 

I appreciate the answer so fast.

I have never had shaft because I don't like the added weight and loss of power (10-15%) that it uses but granted, it's is clean and simple.

While with most of my vintage bikes, I'm pretty much a purist, this one being "born" in the 80's, doesn't really qualify it as a vintage bike so I don't mind changing things to make it better for me.

jeff

 

jeff do yourself a favour and stick with the shaft drive mate. no adjustments, no maintenance, (save for changing the oil at the required service intervals), and a lot less noise. once you get used to the weight factor you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

I got my son to come over lastnight to help me wheel the bike down the ramp and into my basement work area, a room adjacent to the family room. It's about 12 x 13 and I've covered the floor with a. heavy duty liquid-proof plastic, b. sheet of plywood, c. more plastic and finally a huge wall to wall tarp on top. I have never even got a spot of oil on the carpet underneath it all and have completed several bikes there in the past few years.

That bike is HEAVY. The heaviest by far of all that have gone down there. We got it in with no issues, bumps or bruises and I spent an hour removing all the plastic and tagging and bagging all the fasteners.

I'm pretty shocked though that even the screws, nuts and bolts don't have a lick of rust. In fact, I haven't seen ANY rust anywhere yet.

At this point I just want to tear it down, clean, check, repair & replace as required and reassemble it keep it completely stock for now. I have always disliked heavy bikes which is why I had asked the question about changing it from shaft to chain. I figured that while I had it down to the frame, that would have been a good time to do any mods like that. That not being the case isn't the end of the world for me but I do appreciate those that took the time to let me know that it wasnt a simple, straighforward job.

I took a few pictures after I was done working last night and will take more as I go through the bike. If I run into anything particularly interesting, I'll photo and post those. That way, when I'm done, I'll have a "pictorial" of my project. Sometimes I get so caught up in my work that I forget to take pictures....I'll try not to do that this time.

jeff

 

jeff, xs11.com would be the place to go, i've seen a few nice chain conversions. power loss is about 8% with shaft. also... I know you're a smoker guy, so here's some candy for you....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1973-Kaw ... 255fab40c9

 

speaking of smokers saw a ysr50 in one of the near by craigslist with an rd 400 motor still had the ferrings on it but needed to be painted now thats what i call a crotch rocket

 

Thanks Schooter, I'll check out that site. I had seen the Wirges H2 but thanks for posting the link, back in the day there were several guys making one piece bodies for the H2 and Gt750 including tracy and wirges and a bunch of others. Our race bike (GT750) had a Dunstall body on it.

Kinda funny though, a Wirges bike with Denco pipes instead of Wirges own but I guess the owner knew the denco pipes made more power<LOL>.

jeff

 

The Turbo has alot of parts that other bikes don't. The shaft is just the beginning of the weight. Ride it as is and enjoy!