yamaha xs650 brat style upper shock mounts

But to say that it was a just ‘copy’ does not do the machine justice. Yamahas XS 650 was obviously heavily influenced by the British bikes of its time. Overall not too much to complain about on a bike that was already seventeen years old. The chrome was starting to pit and a little oil was seeping from the head gasket. Manufactured in 1969, the bike was ageing well. An XS1 in original condition right down to the front drum brake and fading two toned paint scheme. In conversation with its owner I quickly learnt that I was looking at the first four stroke motor cycle that Yamaha had produced.

On either side of its long slim tank it proudly identified itself as a ‘Yamaha’. The bike had a classic look, but it definitely wasn’t English. It burbled as the rider rolled off the throttle and coasted to a bowser.Īt idle its front wheel pounded the pavement. On a trip like this, at a servo outside Stawell, I heard the unmistakable rumble of a classic parallel twin. The fact that they could ride an Italian machine over one hour from home qualified them to trouble shoot for the SEC. These blokes had changed more globes and relays than a janitor in Vegas. And what about the ‘electric set!’ The blokes who rode Ducatis and Guzzi’s. Then there were the hard core blokes who saw no need to replace engine seals as long as servos sold oil by the quart.

Or the girl and the guy travelling around oz on an old CB 750 with everything they owned okky strapped to it. While waiting, it was hard not to chat with the bloke on the Z9 who’d just pulled up beside you. Before junk food chain stores dominated our nomadic diet there were road house diners offering exactly the same food, you just had to wait a little longer for it. New roads, new towns, new people! But always there were others on bikes doing exactly what we were doing. Actually knowing where you were heading seemed to spoil the adventure. We were young and the destination didn’t really matter. We’d take a brief look at the sky and head to the clear patch on the horizon. Every Saturday morning, rain hail or shine I’d meet up with a mate. If you were like me they were spent on a motorcycle. Published: 08 January 2008 Updated: 19 November 2014įor all of us there seems to be a golden era in our youth when our pay packets were bigger than our debts.Ī period when the demands on our time were pretty much limited to the hours per day it took to earn a wage.

Yamaha xs650 brat style upper shock mounts