Progress

SINCE buying the XT 350 Yamaha a number of years ago, I have been working on her with each trip.  There has been the gearing issues, attempting to find a suitable combination that will work for me given the riding I do.  Lacking a transport vehicle to truck the dual purpose bike to distant destinations, I have to find a compromise between off road ability and highway cruising to get there.  It will never be a comfortable road bike, because it can't be that and a suitable stand up off road bike.  Then there is the issue of jetting.


The previous owner, during the times of emissions testing had experimented with engine leaning.  I have the bike worked out now so that most of the stumbles are gone and my only real issue is the occasional miss and  stall.  With no electric leg to instantly re-start, this can pose a problem on busy streets at a traffic light if the engine dies suddenly.  It's tall and the kick-starter is high up on the engine case.  This can be awkward for my 5'4" frame to deal with on pavement. Normally to start the engine, I prop the bike on it's side stand, stand on the left peg, and then kick the engine through. Off road the occasional stall is not so much of a problem, I usually have an uneven surface and can get a good handle on the lever to kick the engine over.


Late last season on one of my last rides, I'd made it nearly all the way across to the western outskirts of the city when I encountered some severe low speed running problems.  With each stall, I had a difficult time restarting the bike and once I did I headed for interstate 10, which was only about a mile distant and rode home gingerly.  It wasn't too bad on steady higher speeds but was frustrating at traffic lights where I had to keep the engine revving to fend off a stall.  I found upon inspection that the secondary carb to head rubber manifold was cracked clear thru.  Had this happened out in the boonies, there would have been no fix possible.  I could maybe have limped it back if I electric taped the manifold but there was no guarantee of that and without proper tools, highly unlikely.   

Yesterday I pulled the side covers, seat, tank, gear shifter and magneto case cover off, the spark plug out and the valve cover off.  I had brought my feeler gauges and valve adjusting tool to check the valve clearances.  If I needed shims, I would have to get on the Adventure and find a shop that carried them.  Fortunately, the valves were within specs and in 2 hours total, everything was buttoned back up and the engine was running.



During the afternoon, I started the task of working on the Honda Ascot.  It came over mostly as a rolling chassis with several boxes of parts.  I have an extra carburetor, air cleaner, controls and things that I have yet to sort through.  Late last year just prior to leaving, when I bought the bike, I had it running but poorly.  I took the carb apart and found the pilot jet clogged with no way to clear it so, I mounted the alternate carb.  Unfortunately, having neither work bench (using the patio as such) nor proper lighting and working on my knees (ouch) for the most part, I had inadvertently dropped the float retaining pin when I re assembled the carburetor and luckily found the pin as I was cleaning up the lawn furniture and closing up for the season.



I pulled the carb off, which in itself is rather time consuming, having to take pretty much the same stuff off as I did on the XT plus the air-box, I can see myself eventually rigging up a battery box (currently the battery sits in a recess molded into the air-box) and putting a pod filter on the bike.  When everything was bolted together the engine fired and ran pretty smoothly.  Don't really know when this bike was last used but the previous owner had bought it to strip into a 'tracker'.

 

Today I am going to find out what the brakes need, what parts I have to scrounge, and install those parts I have in the box, like a new drive chain.  (Non O-Ring whaah!!)  This will narrow down whether I can have this up and running before I leave.  Hopefully there are no mechanical issues, and it's simply a matter of replacement of missing or defective parts and bolting everything on.  I do have a small fly screen that came with the 350 and some cordura saddlebags from home.  With these light weight accessories, the bike will make a decent back road touring bike, and I have a better chance of  avoiding being run over for those occasional freeway romps.



The tires have plenty of tread and no apparent cracking, but I think if I can get things sorted and running to my satisfaction, I will put new skins on it as well.  I have been contemplating taking another ride down the Baja peninsula next year, and thought of course of riding the 350.  With more suitable gearing, and some spare time I could ride the Yamaha, speeds are not an issue riding Baja, where the typical paved road speed is 80kph,

but if I wanted to stick to the pavement, the 500 would be a fine ride and is light enough to handle some of the back road unpaved gravel roads, after all... it began its life as an XL/XR 500 dirt or dual purpose bike!