Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

M Is it Really an Overgrown Honda 350? The warm glow of the instrument lights leads you down the road to new adven tures. The lever nllnalinn hp.lnw the rloht har is the starter, brake ligh t. That h as to be ch anged. S om e acq uai n tances who do custom p ainting on bikes, w ere h ot to do a number on the XS·2. " Let's see , throw aw ay th e p lastic side covers with th e chro me u glies, a nice midnigh t blue." " Uh huh , get rid of the frill y stripes on the tank." "Sure is a nice looking engine." "N 0 seams on th e pip es either." UWretched welds." "The tum signals are ugly . " " But I be t the y wo rk wen an d don ' t blind y o u ." UWan t us to fix i t fo r you?" So, as y o u can see , the XS·2 is a natural for custo m work. Look aro un d you , lots o f p eople think so . Handling of th e hike hinged aro und one th ing, the tires. Tires supplied are a Dunlop rib up fro n t and a K 70 o n the rear . Both are of Japanese issue an d ne ither work very well. They mad e wh at seeme d to b e a b asically nice h andlin g b ike scary. Riding was a cons tan t gues sing game over break-away . Unless ridden very, very smoothly or with a pas senger, break -away always occurre d b efore an y thing would gr ound, They didn't give an imp ressive am oun t o f warning but would give a second ch ance. A most disturbing situation occu rred when co rn erin g hard in first gea r. If done carefully' the bike could be le an ed until the footrest touched but adh esio n was borderline an d getting th e gas ba ck on was reall y touchy. Becaus e th e 650 h as n o rubber dampers in th e rear hub (o r cl u tc h) th ere was a sligh t sn ap wh en ro lling th e throttle b ack o n. This was eno ugh to cause the rear end to "walk ou t" a foot or so . Scary. _ The rib up front did cause th e bike to point well . It went just where you wanted it to ,go. It ran amok in th e freeway gro ove s sligh t1y but the fri ction steerin g damper took care of mos t of it. T h a t d amp er, incid entally , was mandatory fo r an y aggressive rid ing as th e bike see me d to be too quick withou t it . Ridden a h air b elow "fas t" th e XS-2 was confi dence inspiring and Mama, it's cold outside, and " s a gain' home. Not the best place to pick up, but.... The Right Number Is Worth 17.86 Words The Bike Engine Qispl acement, b o re/s t ro ke Compression rati o Car buretio n Wheelbase Dry we ight Trans m issio n Fuel capacity Mileag e 2 cy lin de r, OHC four stroke 65 3cc, 75mm/74mm 8. 7/1 2/3 0 mm Mikunis 55.5 inches 4201bs . 5 speed , d n j l , up/2,3,4 ,5 3.9 gallo ns 39 MPG in 8 00 m iles ridden Costs Suggested Retail Headlight (seale d beam) Tailigh t lens Tailight bulb Clutch ca ble T u m indicator lens Points (2 sets) Clu tch lever respon sive. It did j us t what it was tol d and if y o u didn't tell it, it would usually do the right thing in spite of you. If and when y o u got in over yo u r head th e b rakes co uld save th e day. The dis c fro n t brake o n th e XS -2 was the b est brake I've ever used. It was p ower fu l and sen si tive and see me d to be reasonab ly Iigh t weigh t , Th ose are th e comp one nt pi eces of th e XS-2 wh ich d on ' t ad d up to the wh ole. Listin g them has caused me to question slightl y why I lik ed it . Bu t wh en I ride it home tonight I'll remember. I 'll be rid ing along on a bike that vibrates some, makes a little too much n oise (b u t nice noise) , isn't too co m fo rtab le to si t o n, and th e Il:UY on 15 1419 $8.40 $6.86 $ .65 154 .00 $. 79 $5.42 [ea] 152.9 0 the 750 seve n cy lin d er can blow me off. But none of those things will bother m e much . You see , I fin ally learned what big twin cy lin der motorcycl es are all about, and th e Yamaha helped me do it. Unlike its co mpetitio n, it doesn ' t leak; it vib rates le ss ; it is m ore c o m fo rtable ; it stops better; wh en all comp one nts are con sidere d , it is no doub t more reli able ; an d it costs less . T hose are hard-to-af fron t reasons for buyin g a 65 0 Yamaha in st ead of its co mp e ti ti o n . As far as wanting a large displacement vertical twin, don't knock it until y o u've tried , on e and gotten to know o ne. If you don't lik e it you can always call it th e " Excess Too." Dynam ic Photo ,by Ar t Friedman s w Z w .... U > U

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