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Hey all,
Just joined your forum, looks like a cool sight. I'm looking for some insight as I recently acquired my first vintage-ish bike. My original thought was building a cafe racer but the more I research about this bike the more I don't want to chop it up. Looking for some thoughts on the subject. Here's my position;
The bike I ended up with (traded an old dirt bike for) is a 1975 Yamaha XS500. I found it on craigslist, went to see it, it started up and ran fine; only needed a front brake caliper, a left gas tank valve, and the gas tank was leaking through the paint (rust inside the tank got so bad that the top of the tank is now paper thin with a little pinhole that seeps fuel onto your crotch). Other than that the thing was mint... no rust outside of the tank, not even a little corrosion or anything anywhere else on the bike; the chrome, steel, aluminum, paint, everything is tops. And the engine runs great; only 7,000 miles on it and no drips no runs no errors.
Like I said I was planing on doing a cafe bike but as I was researching the XS500 I learned what a piece of crap it was. Apparently the XS500 was one of Yamaha's first ventures into the four stroke market and they over engineered the thing to a fault; multiple cams and levers where fewer would suffice. There are even two oil pumps, one to pump oil up and one to pump oil down for some reason (something all other manufacturers rely on gravity to accomplish). From what I've read it's pretty much a Rube Goldberg four stroke and there are not many around because they broke so easily. So here I am with one that's in (close to) perfect condition and runs like a top. I've looked online and there's none like it, it's not like the Honda CB750 that lasted forever and that everyone has, this thing is apparently extinct... but I have one.
My question is; is it valuable? Is it worth keeping this abomination of a bike just because it's "rare" to find one still around, that's still original, and still runs well?
Thanks!
Just joined your forum, looks like a cool sight. I'm looking for some insight as I recently acquired my first vintage-ish bike. My original thought was building a cafe racer but the more I research about this bike the more I don't want to chop it up. Looking for some thoughts on the subject. Here's my position;
The bike I ended up with (traded an old dirt bike for) is a 1975 Yamaha XS500. I found it on craigslist, went to see it, it started up and ran fine; only needed a front brake caliper, a left gas tank valve, and the gas tank was leaking through the paint (rust inside the tank got so bad that the top of the tank is now paper thin with a little pinhole that seeps fuel onto your crotch). Other than that the thing was mint... no rust outside of the tank, not even a little corrosion or anything anywhere else on the bike; the chrome, steel, aluminum, paint, everything is tops. And the engine runs great; only 7,000 miles on it and no drips no runs no errors.
Like I said I was planing on doing a cafe bike but as I was researching the XS500 I learned what a piece of crap it was. Apparently the XS500 was one of Yamaha's first ventures into the four stroke market and they over engineered the thing to a fault; multiple cams and levers where fewer would suffice. There are even two oil pumps, one to pump oil up and one to pump oil down for some reason (something all other manufacturers rely on gravity to accomplish). From what I've read it's pretty much a Rube Goldberg four stroke and there are not many around because they broke so easily. So here I am with one that's in (close to) perfect condition and runs like a top. I've looked online and there's none like it, it's not like the Honda CB750 that lasted forever and that everyone has, this thing is apparently extinct... but I have one.
My question is; is it valuable? Is it worth keeping this abomination of a bike just because it's "rare" to find one still around, that's still original, and still runs well?
Thanks!
