I seem to have been bitten by the biking bug

[jamestnewsonr65]

After only riding for a year I seem to have accumulated a few bikes and cant wait to get started on the next project i've just bought. Think I was inspired at The Bike Shed show this year.

I managed to pick up a Yamaha xs250 which I know were not that good back in there day and have many a bad word said about on the internet. But I really like the shape of it, although it is in boxes at the moment, but the wheels, frame and engine are together.

Im looking to do the same type of thing with this as the R65 and do a ground up build replacing/restoring parts as I go and stripping anything not needed. Might try and integrate a Motogadget solid state into the build and do away with a lot of the wiring.

Does anyone have any experience of the xs range and know if parts are readily interchangeable? Mines a 79'.

Not too sure where all the bikes are going to live at the moment as the collection is growing. So far we have a Yamaha MT-07 (Commuter), BMW R65, Yamaha XS250 and a previous Yamaha XJ6.

Cheers for now.

[nhmaf]

I think it is always good to have a hobby or restoration project to fall back on - anything motorcycle related is good in my book, regardless of the brand/model!

[Tony Smith]

James, it's good to have a hobby.

I owned a Yamaha XS750 back in the day, obviously a very different machine but it has "family" styling.
 
I think that you may find the restoration of a 30 year old Japanese machine as somewhat more difficult proposition to a 30 year old BMW, simply put a hell of a lot of parts are simply no longer available, or are bloody hard to find.
 
To give an example. My Yamaha XT350 (well really 329cc, a story I may tell for laughs one day) needed new "rubber" inlet trumpets for its dual Teki carburettor (bastard of an idea that I hope is never, ever repeated, slide carb one side and CV the other). Said rubber inlets have been NLA for about 10 years.

I looked for alternatives without success. Although I did find a cheery person in the UK who has been making his own rubber trumpets for RD series machines for years, he very kindly sent me a great deal of material and spent some time on the telephone to me.

Just as I started to acquire the stuff to make my own I found a Yamaha shop in Nebraska that still had stock, albeit at $100 each please post. I paid in a heatbeat and the old girl once again ran well and with its usual hammer like reliability.

Other things cannot be had for love or money - suspension bushes (made my own from bronze), suspension link pivots - adapted later model TT to suit) etc etc.....

Lots of luck and have fun.

[montmil]

Might also suggest looking for a Yamaha forum that includes the XS series of bikes.

[Bengt_Phorqs]

I've had very good luck sourcing Yamaha parts from boats.net.  The first page looks like it's strictly a watercraft site, but click on Yamaha, then motorcycles and enter your model.  Many parts still available.

[Tony Smith]

D

I've had very good luck sourcing Yamaha parts from boats.net.  The first page looks like it's strictly a watercraft site, but click on Yamaha, then motorcycles and enter your model.  Many parts still available.
[/quote

Funny you mention them, I stumbled on them yesterday when looking for a replacement side-stand (yes after 31 years of sterling service I hopped off the thing at the supermarket on Saturday and the bike fell on me).

The break was on the weld joining the tubular part to the "U" section part. By the looks of it that was a fatigue fracture that was years in the making. Anyway as you say Boastnet has a wide range of pasrts and there price on a stand is excellent, sadly their freight rates to Oz mean it is cheaper to buy from a Sydnery online dealerr.