FNG - gung ho and rarin' ta go

Hey everyone.

So many moons ago, when I was a teenager, I had a 1972 Yamaha DT250 that I rode the crap out of all over the place - farm fields, abandoned railroad tracks through the woods, and roads (totally illegal, that last part).

Gave the bike to a guy about 20 years ago in exchange for some work he did on my house. Been talking about getting a street bike ever since; my wife has been staunchly against the idea - she says she would actually prefer I went back to skydiving (yeah, I used to do that when I was young and indestructible), because she thinks street bikes are more dangerous than jumping out of airplanes.

Currently, I own a professional junk removal business - people pay us to carry out and haul away whatever they want to get rid of. Usually it's nasty old sofa and broken appliances and dead tube TVs, etc. Sometimes it's something good.

Last week, a guy called to tell me he had this old motorcycle he wanted to get rid of. He got it in January from a guy who had been riding it, but now it had some unspecified problem, and he was going to "make a project out of it." Some guy told him it would cost way more than the bike was worth to fix it, so he let it sit in his yard for several months, and now he was tired of it being there, so he wanted it gone.

It was clear that he was angling for me to pay him "scrap value", but I told him that's now how my business works - people pay us to haul junk away for them; I don't pay people for their old junk. But seeing as it would be about 600 lbs. of metal, with a fair amount of aluminum, I would haul it for free, in exchange for the scrap value of the bike. He agreed that was fair.

I expected to find a pile of loose parts in boxes and such.

What rolled off my truck on Friday was this:



Along with a box of a few extra/spare bits and pieces.

The tires are pretty much brand new.

I took a look at it and couldn't see anything obviously wrong - no connecting roads poking through the crankcase or obviously huge leaks or anything. I hooked up a battery charger and turned the engine over - it spun freely and sounded right, so it's not seized or anything. I'm confident and optimistic that I can get her running again.

So yeah - no way was I gonna scrap this!

I immediately did some research on line to find out more about my newly-acquired project/toy, and found this forum. I also found a couple of very sweet bobbers that had been made out of XJ650's - these two are my combined inspiration:





So yep - that's where I'm going.

A couple days ago, I went ahead and started pulling stuff off.

Here is how she sits currently:



Over the years, I've torn apart and rebuilt various machines and engines, but never one of these. I'll be having lots of questions - starting with where are the good places to get parts and materials?

Thanks! And looking forward to getting to know y'all.

P.S. - My name is Bill and I'm in Richmond, VA, in case anyone is in the area.

 

FYI, those pods + open headers are gonna be difficult. Nice find and welcome! There is a link in my signature that is a pretty complete list of proper XJ recomissioning. Enjoy!

 

Welcome. Check out the build that WICKIDSIX posted the other day. Very nice.
Pods and open exhaust are difficult, but not impossible. A lot of guys have done it. You should get it running first with the air box and mufflers so you can establish a baseline for performance. Get valve clearances in spec, get carbs squeaky clean, floats wet-set, sync and color-tune.
Once that's done, have at it, Dude. Post pics of your progress.

 

+1

 

My bike has the pods on it from the top pic. It came that way when I purchased it and the plugs aren't white from heat, just a nice tan color. Someone must have gone through these carbs 1st. It does look nice, but since mine is a bagger, looks aren't that important to me. Comfort and ridablity is what matter BTW it's white knuckle fast!

 

Yeah, I've been exchanging e-mails with the guy who built the one above with the red-striped rims and decal on the tank (his business is called "Bare Bone Rides"), and he gave me a lot of good info about putting new jets in the carbs to deal with the free-flowing exhaust and such.

I make zero guarantees about how much progress I'll make in any given period of time - this is one of many projects I have going on simultaneously, and I also have a business I'm trying to run, in only its second year, so I'm about as busy as a one-legged guy in an ass-kicking contest.

Thanks for the welcomes and any and all info you provide!

 

Solid advice. Don't discover too late that you've sunk a lot of time and effort into a mill with "issues." It happens way too often.

If you want to actually RIDE the bike, you'll need to get it running right, fix the brakes, etc., THEN start modifying.

Go at it backwards and you won't be riding it for a good long time.

 

Gotcha.

The exhaust was pretty well rotten - I gave it a wiggle and yank, and it pretty much crumbled right off the header pipes. So in order to get it back on, I'll have to fab up some kind of sleeves or something, or just use a wad of foil tape or something. But I figure I can get it back on there well enough to exert the stock backpressure required to make sure it runs right.

Next step for me is to tear down all the carbs, give them a good cleaning and get them, as I understand, "Zestfully" clean... then onward from there.

Pics will be posted in abundance, until someone screams "uncle".