if you havent heard yet, xs650 performance information

BiffTirkle

some, maybe many of you have already read this. if not. here it is. all 4 emails i have received thus far in their entirety.

1st email

In three days there will be a groundbreaking XS650 performance announcement from Michael Morse at 650 Central! If you ever want to increase the power of your bike for hot street or vintage racing, it is <b>INCREDIBLY VALUABLE</b> information. This is info you and other
XS650 owners have always wanted and now it's finally available!

I hate spam as much as you. If you want to see the announcement,
you MUST complete the verification process below!

-----------------------------------------------------------
CONFIRM BY VISITING THE LINK BELOW:

clients.profollow.com/...xva23clr38

Click the link above to give us permission to send you
information. It's fast and easy! If you cannot click the
full URL above, please copy and paste it into your web
browser.

-----------------------------------------------------------
If you do not want to confirm, simply ignore this message.

Thank You,
ichael Morse
650Central.com

1114 NE 139th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98684, USA

2nd email

Russell

It's frustrating to hear about so many engine modification problems.

any of your have wanted to add some power to your XS650. Most of you ride on the street and having more "go" makes the bike more fun; some are racers looking to get in the winners circle.

Over the years with 650Central I've received dozens of calls - maybe even a hundred - from XS650 owners telling me their personal horror stories about modifying their engine and having a bad experience.

Each call is different. Maybe something in the engine breaks, other times it won't run right, or has less power than before the "modifications." It's a long list. The one thing that is the same in each story is that after a lot of time and money the caller got bad results.

The most troubling thing I hear over and over is how some so-called expert did this or recommended that and it is absolutely wrong for the XS650/750!

Even though I have a good knowledge of the engine there's no way
for me to talk with everyone. Like I said, its very frustrating.

Whether it is having a powerful and reliable street engine that gives you bragging rights among other XS650 riders, or vintage road racing like I've done in AHRMA, flat track or even drag racing, it can be incredibly aggravating, time consuming and expensive if your
engine modification effort has a bad result.

The reason I'm pumped up about sending you this email is because soon there will never again be a reason for anyone to build a poorly modified XS650/750 engine!

In the '70s our XS650/750 engines were competing at the absolutely highest levels in AMA flat track competition. With AMA championships at stake, Yamaha made a real commitment and spent a ton of money supporting both their factory rider - Kenny Roberts - and the best privateers. Top notch tuners, guys like C.R. Axtell, Harry Lillie, Jerry Branch, Mike Libby, Shell Thuet and Eddie Atkins, were involved and used every bit of tuning magic they possessed to develop the reliable power it took to compete against the factory Harley XR750s.

After countless failure and developmental dead ends, their hard work paid off and engine setups were created that put Roberts, Castro, Eklund, Pearson and many others in the winner's circle.

But, by 1980 it was over. The XS750 race engines - which, after all, started out as 45 rear wheel HP street engines - were at their limit and could no longer keep up. Development stopped and Yamaha moved its focus to road racing and eventually motocross.

As the premier engine builders, cam grinders and specialty vendors moved on to other challenges, the best pro level XS650/750 engines
were sold off by the top teams. In almost no time the knowledge
was lost.

The following years were not kind to the vast majority of these engines. Some were simply used up and parted out, others blown up, many were rebuilt by less skilled tuners and suffered accordingly, and of course, later tuners with far less talent made "modifications" that simply didn't work.

Tuners lost or threw away their notes, the best parts used up or tossed out, and the typical modified XS engine today is much less capable today than it was 30+ years ago.

On XS650 web sites, forums and chat rooms it is evident that a huge number of people are unsure about even basic engine modifications, i.e. pistons, cams, porting, exhaust, etc. These questions were not only answered three decades ago, they were optimized.

This loss of knowledge is the biggest problem with our situation today.

Now we get to the good part of this email: I recently found out that it IS available, and that's why I'm so pumped to send you this email!

Here's the story: For many years I have both supported racers in the AHRMA Sportsman 750 class and run my XS750 in the class. Many, if not most of the competitors ride XS650-based bikes. They are heavily modified and most of them run pretty well. But there has been one guy whose bike has ALWAYS been fast. Really fast AND reliable.

A few months ago I found out why. He has that information from the '70s! Two binders full! And some magical, unobtainium hardware
too: three fully modified, unmolested cylinder heads that came straight off Steve Eklund's and Scott Pearson's engines! No wonder his engines always run like jets. Of course, his engines are built to the "lost" '70s specs.

I explained my frustration to him and asked if he would be willing to share his data. We've been friends for years and I confess I really hounded him. After a LOT of discussion, he reluctantly agreed. The main reason it took so long to convince him was I told him you would not be happy with anything less than the whole picture. If we were going to do this he had to let his secrets out of the bag and not keep anything hidden.

I met with him at the recent AHRMA road race at Willow Springs (BTW, he was 2nd on Saturday and won on Sunday with his trusty and fast XS750) and what he is proposing to share with you is amazing.
There is no doubt in my mind he's opening up his entire book of secrets.

This information will be of incredible value to any XS650 owner who wants to increase the power of the engine in their street bike or racer!

He began racing XS650s in 1984 and is still winning. If you've read my story on my 650 Central website about the excellent adventure that is Turn 9 at Willow Springs, you've seen Craig Weeks' name before.

I have never seen another bike in the class pull away from
him on a straight, including mine. The bike is a rocket ship and has only had engine-related breakdowns two times in the past 20+ years. One of those was a vent failure (no actual engine damage),
and cam follower bolts coming loose (valves hit pistons).

In the next email you receive Craig will tell you about what he is planning to reveal. He also told me he wants to get some feedback from you so he includes the things you want to see in the package he is preparing for you.

ake sure you give him that feedback, because when this data becomes available it will change forever how XS650 engines are modified.

Best regards,

ichael "Mercury" Morse
650Central.com

1114 NE 139th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98684, USA

To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit: clients.profollow.com/...wszOwMrA==

3rd email

Russell

It's amazing to me how a particular motorcycle's look and sound is just ... perfect. We all have a slightly different version of the story, but each of us experienced some moment when we formed an emotional bond with the XS650. In my case, I watched Battle of the Twins XS650-based racers in the early '80s. They sounded great and had just the right look. In the summer of 1984 I found a gorgeous, fully tricked out XS750 road racer for sale. It was love at first sight. Money changed hands and the bike had a new home.

Not really having the knowledge about how to do an engine tear down and inspection, I just changed the plugs and oil ("Don't worry Craig," my friends said, "if it wasn't in good shape it wouldn't have been out on the track."), put on a new set of tires and headed for the track.

It was a complete disaster! Even though the bike had seemed OK riding it slowly up and down my street, it was very different on a racetrack. The engine surged, backfired going into corners with the throttle closed, missed at high RPM and eventually destroyed a piston after just a few awkward laps.

y efforts to fix the bike led me to a series of "experts." You may have had the same experience. The results were not just very bad; they were also expensive. Repairs were done poorly, so-called high performance modifications didn't really work, things broke and even fell off, I became frustrated and very quickly realized that poor advice and workmanship lurk around every corner. It turned out that most of these so-called high performance mechanics were just parts changers and really didn't have any in-depth knowledge of the XS650 engine.

Whether you ride on the street or racetrack, my dream was exactly the same as yours: I wanted a powerful, reliable XS. It didn't seem like this was too much to ask, but my experience revealed it to be a much bigger problem than I had expected.

I got lucky when I found noted tuner Harry Lillie who built AMA-winning XS750 engines for the flat track Yamahas of Steve Eklund and Scott Pearson in the '70s. He later built engines for the XR750s of Ricky Graham, among other notables. After hearing my tale of woe he agreed (out of sympathy, I am sure - kind of like feeding a hungry dog begging for scraps) to clean up the mess.

When I got the engine back, I couldn't believe the difference! It was perfect and nothing broke or stopped working. Incredible linear power all the way from low speed, partial throttle to WFO!

As time passed, Harry and I became friends and one day he spent several hours over lunch telling me all the details about how to properly build a high performance XS750. I took lots of notes. It all went into a binder. Subsequent years brought more information and a second binder began to fill.

What's really cool is that with a few changes these engines work perfectly
on the street.

Because Harry believed in maximizing the cylinder head's gas velocity, the engine also works great at low speed and partial throttle.
All it takes is lower compression, street-friendly valve timing, smaller carbs and a TT exhaust. So, I installed a softer cam, thicker copper head gasket for lower compression, 34MM carbs and added a small battery to operate the brake light. The "headlight" was just a shell. TT pipes, 64 - 65 horses at the rear wheel and 330 lbs. full of gas. It was perfect! Light, fast, tractable, huge midrange and fun. You would have loved that bike. Like we've all done, I sold it and now wish I hadn't.

Harry eventually retired and I bought all his remaining XS750 racing engine components, parts, some special tuning tools, records, etc.
That was over ten years ago and I still run the same basic engine set up, but with some modern touches that take advantage of new technology.

The tuners who really understood our XS engines are all gone.
Axtell, Libby, Branch, Lillie, Shell, etc. aren't involved any more. Whether modified for street or competition, our XS's require a lot of specialized knowledge to make them stay together and be user friendly when putting out almost twice as much power as stock. The number of people still around who actually know how to do this is
small and rapidly getting even smaller.

ore than one guy has shown up at the track with his new world beater XS and high hopes, but as the saying goes, "When the flag drops, the BS stops," and somehow they never perform as advertised ("With the parts we put in, this thing should really fly ... I can't understand what's wrong.") One guy proudly told me his engine builder said he would have about 90 pounds of torque with his new, welded up ports, 750 kit and all the other trick mods. More than a new Ducati 1098? Yeah, right. After all the money he spent on that "trick" head the bike was, unfortunately, both slow and a money pit.

This brings us up to the moment. I know about Michael's frustration with the lack of good information about properly modifying your XS engine. I'll tell you flat out, it took a lot of convincing before I was willing to share it with you (and by extension, my competitors). But, OK, enough of that. He talked me into it and the deal we made is that I share it all with you.

Besides the cylinder heads, what I have is detailed records of exactly how
the best AMA tuners built their extremely powerful and reliable XS650/750
engines. We're talking everything you need to know to build one of your own.
Components (cams, carbs, exhaust, ignition, pistons, rings, exhaust, etc.), porting, mechanical and tuning specs, clearances, lubricants, comparative dyno runs, combustion chamber measurements and details, jetting, timing, etc. Hundreds of pages of stuff.

It is enough information to take a stock engine and do everything necessary to make it a rocket on the street or competitive at the racetrack.

No experimentation, no guessing, no wrong turns. It will be right the first time.

Now I need some feedback. I have a huge amount of data that I've already begun to cull through and assemble, but I'm looking for input from you to help me decide exactly what goes into the package. I've put together a short three question survey for you.
It will only take you a couple of minutes to fill out. Paste this link on your browser:

clicks.profollow.com/y...Bp7WVvMcUw

I've begun the process, but there is still time to make changes. I will make every effort to include your input into the final package.

ichael and I will work as quickly as we can to get everything finalized for release. There are a lot of things still to be done. One of the most important (and difficult) is nailing down the
porting solution. I've spent more time on this than anything else.

I want to have this ready for you before the end of July. As this project progresses I'll keep you up to date, and I also have some cool bonus stuff I'm going to send you.

Best regards,

Craig Weeks
ctweeks @ aol.com

1114 NE 139th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98684, USA

To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit: clients.profollow.com/...wszOws7A==

4th email

Russell

Thanks to everyone for the xs650 survey feedback!

I am absolutely stunned by your response to my survey request. The emails just flooded into the inbox. I'm trying to sort out all the data so I can incorporate it into how I'm structuring and organizing the modification package. It's going to be a lot of work, so give me a little time. I'll have more information shortly as the project takes shape.

Since I have to organize all the data anyway, I'm also going to create a mini-report out of your survey responses and send it out to you so you can get an idea of how other XS650 owners responded.
I hope to have that out in a week or ten days.

Apparently, there is more interest in this material - and obtaining a
replica of the AMA race winning cylinder head from the '70s - than I anticipated, so I'm inviting you to tell other XS650 riders so they can get in on it.

If they send an email to 650performance @ profollow.com they will automatically
get the information. They don't have to write a message. When their email is
received they will automatically be sent to the place to verify their interest in
receiving the information.

Again, thanks for the great feedback. More soon.

Craig Weeks
ctweeks @ aol.com

1114 NE 139th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98684, USA

To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit: clients.profollow.com/...wszBwMbA==

that is all i will post of the emails i have received. i will not post further emails. as you can see from the last one, you can sign up and get the info first hand. i am merely passing this information on to those who have a desire for it. i do. i look forward to what will come of this. enjoy!!!

Russell

kingwj

New account??? I like Biff Tirkle.

Anyone know who Craig Weeks is? Googling shows a west coast ahrma road racer by that name.

BiffTirkle

thanks!, and i havent heard of craig weeks till michael morse mentioned him. but he is an ahrma racer. someone who knows how to tune an xs650 well from the sound of it. hopefully that will help out quite well with my project.

PixieXS

Have signed up, will be interesting to see what comes of it.

gantzcb

I've got a completed head in hand. Looks great, but I'm a long way off from getting it on the road.

What Happened to 650rider.com?

Yamaha xs650