I've been looking on ebay / shows / autojumbles for silencers but not much chance I think. Re new repros, the Canadian price and the US price comes to about £210 but the Euro price is £300 which is why I've been waiting for the exchange rate to move. It has been but in the wrong direction :(

I do have silencers similar to the suggestions on the bike - see pic, but to my eye they look wrong and they are way too loud ( and make it sound like a Triumph :rofl::rofl:)

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...squick/XS3.jpg

Pigford - great looking bike - the new one that is! You could almost convert me :mchappy: I can understand your comments about your XS650 in the late 70's. Std Jap practice then was to come out with the fast but fragile version first with the detuned but more reliable (presumably for less warranty claims) a year or two later and thats what happened with the XS's. By the late 70's it was well outclassed. When I ride my 79 CBX back to back with the Yamaha you'd think it was 70yrs rather than 7 separating them, but at the start of the decade when the Brit industry was imploding the XS2 was pretty near the top of the pile.

It might have been the early fragile version but compared with what came out of the Triumph factory I'll take Jap fragile every time. OK, my 1970 H1 Kawa is miles quicker in a straight line but for a trip to Greece and back, two up, you'd have to have been mad or desperate to choose it. Where would you keep all the spark plugs for a start.

The Oil in Frame was in fact designed by Rob North. ( under contract to Umberslade)
You are right about the changes in the UK road system being a major factor (this is often not recognised) Also the appearance of cheap cars such as the mini and imp finally nailed it for the bigger bikes as cheap transport. Bikes would re-appear as a leisure product, not transport. It was cheaper to get a mini than a bike and sidecar in 1970 prices bonnie £333, Mini £540.

Pigford, when you say this do you mean you actually built it?
Pardon my naivety, but I have had a very compulsive feeling to create my own motorcycle and have a few questions such as did you fabricate all the major parts (fuel tank/chassis/swing arm) yourself?

Sorry for the hijack Dave :rofl: although its not too off topic.

Tommy, I got the bike part cobbled together off eBay :helpsmilie:

The chappy who sold it had owned it for years, but had lost interest. It was like this, but only roughly bolted together...

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g9...z1a/210309.jpg

It had no electrics or oil system. I stripped & checked the engine, re-wired it, got a mate to re-weld the monoshock mounts on & I shimmed the swingarm & made the chain run true with the wheel. Another good mate did the polishing and I got it shot blasted & powdercoated by Nick at Index :thumbup1:

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g9.../Framesarm.jpg

I refurbed the calipers & forks meself. The Tank & seat were part of the eBay deal - The Tank Shop, Aluminium Petrol Tanks For Motor Bikes :cool4:

As for the HI-JACK - :blushing: But Tommy started it :rolleyes2:

Nice one Pigford, great job :thumbup1: Nice pic of the frame itself, and great links. Hopefully my bro will teach me how to weld before christmas (or maybe for christmas) and I can start mucking about too.

Thanks for that. Hi-jack over!! :mchappy:

" The Oil in Frame was in fact designed by Rob North. ( under contract to Umberslade) "

And may he be forgiven for that !
Too tall in it's first incarnation , a filler cap in the wrong place [ see above pics] which meant that there was not enough oil in the tank .The filler cap should have been at the top ,near the sterring head .
The swing arm mountings flex and cause the frame backbone to crack and all the oil drips out .But at least Triumph carried on in their best tradition of producing bloody awful frames.

Ahhhhh, but the oil does warm the frame nicely and keep some essential body parts nice and warm :thumbup1: