Why did you buy an XJ?

So I got to thinking why did I buy an XJ out of the other bikes I've owned this is one of my favorite. I love to ride and wrench on it yes I keep it close to stock with a few upgrades. I prefer shaft drive and dual disk brakes and 4 cylinder my bike is very smooth running all done by ME . I do not take short cuts , if bolts need to be torqued that is what gets torqued , if a part is bad it gets replaced etc. I filled up not long ago a young guy asked what kind of bike that was? His expession said alot when I told him 1982 XJ750 Seca he replied it looks new said how do I keep something so old on the road, not sure if he refered to me or the bike. I just smiled said because I keep up on all the maintenance. These bike are affordable ,when properly maintained and tuned are fantastic . You used to see alot of Secas and Maxims now not so much at least in my area , I'd like to hear some thoughts from others why did you buy your bike? was it the price ?looks ? Or yearn to ride something from when you were younger?

 

I was attracted by the look of the Maxim. I was born in 75 so I grew up in the 80s. I think the Maxim style may be imprinted on my brain as the archetypal motorcycle. I find many of the new bikes to be too busy and plastic looking. The XJs have a simplicity to them. I don't like Harley's because I associate them with obnoxious noise and guys who like to play dress up. I think I like the straight 4 engine because I associate the V-Twin with Harley's. I also like the idea of having all the power of the 4 there between my legs. Which sound really gay now that I say it. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

I see an ad in Cycle Magazine. This furistic-looking 750cc motorcycle just broke a class record for the 1/4 mile on a stock bike. I was a pretty big fan of Pee-Wee Gleason at the time, and he was the rider. Had to have me one. Being 12 at the time I needed to wait a few years before getting mine (about 30 years as it turned out).

 

I wanted a bike that needed work so I would have something to do during the brutal northern New York winter. I like the looks of cruisers so I checked Craigslist and found mine for a reasonable 400 bucks. I offered 375 and he took it. Now I have a bike that I have completely went through that is older than me, and is almost as mechanically sound as a brand new bike, once I replace the clutch.

 

Got my 82 Seca 750 as payment for work I was doing on another motorcycle for a gentleman. I also have an 82 Virago 920 and an 04 Honda VTX 1300. Love both of those bikes and I haven't logged a lot of miles on the Seca yet because im just getting it complete after many mods and maintenance items but I am totally loving how it looks and feels in the few rides i've taken it for . I believe i'm happier with getting the bike as payment then actually getting cash in hand. I know i've spent a pretty penny doing the things i've done to it but the enjoyment of doing them and seeing how it's turned out is worth it to me. I've already had offers to buy it but i'm not sure it's going anywhere.

 

It was $500 less than the new Honda Shadow in 1985. I liked 4 cylinders and BIG savings because it had been on the showroom two years.

Obviously no regrets as I'm still riding it. I too get comments at gas stations. From old people 'nice bike,about 1980?' Youngsters just look at it.

 

My friends in my Diesel Technology Class suggested that I get a bike and at the time I had the money to do the required course and purchase one so I did.
Went on Craigslist for a couple of weeks didn't have enough for what I thought I wanted a r6 so glad I didn't get one.
Anyway I posted that I was looking for a bike and had 1300.00 to spend and with in an hour I got a text from a young guy 21 who had a xj700x so I googled it and then went to pick up the next day.
I got lucky basically he was the second owner.
Funny thing about 6 months later on the way to school I was stopped at a light when this guy comes running up from a taco truck and is eye balling the bike real hard and then he asked If I got the bike from a kid in Grants Pass and I replied yes. He was like hey that was mine and I bought in 1986. Small world, would of liked to talk with him more yet I had to be in class.
At the time I was actually thinking I got ripped off or played due to my inexperience.
In retrospect I am extremely pleased with the bike. Mainly because it is my first and I like the idea that I don't see any around other then mine.
Yes I to have people ask me what is it LOL.

 

I was working at a Chinchilla ranch when I was in my early 20's.
Went into the barn where the owner stored bales of woodshavings to refill the cages. The bales where stacked floor to the ceiling and many bales deep into the barn.
One day as I was removing more bales from the barn I broke into a hollow spot where this black and chrome beauty had been interned.
I was mesmerized. Not only because the last thing I expected to find was a motorcycle but it was mint.
I was currently riding a Kawasaki KZ400. I asked the boss about the bike and he said it was his, he used to ride it a ton. Turned the odometer over once but never rode it much anymore. Business, wife and kid took all his time.
He offered to sell it to me. Needless to say I jumped on the opporrunity.
I have had it ever since. Never been tempted to part with it.

 

I was searching Craigslist looking for an old Honda CB, saw the 85 700 Maxim, loved the look and went and bought it. Looking back I probably paid a couple of hundred too much, but I was lucky because it was bone stock, low mileage, with no damage. It took me a while to get everything up too snuff, but it's a great bike now.

 

Turned the odometer over once! Holy mother of miles. Is this in Kilometers or in imperial miles?
either way this is the first time I have heard or read that someone actually has turned over the odometer.
Very nice!
I have been asked by others how many miles do you usually get out of a motorcycle engine? My response is I guess as many as you can as long as you keep up on the maintenance. Just like any other engine.

 

I have personally turned it over twice myself.
Speedo cable just broke this summer and my odometer is reading 800km.
I used to commute to work 120km each way. So I put a lot of hwy miles on her.

I usually ride from April/May to September/October. So aprox 24000km a season. That would take 12.5 years to reach that milage and I have had the bike since around 1987.

However nobody ever believes me.

 

I really wasn't looking for a bike, she found me. My old boss was the original owner and he had a Harley for the last 6 years or so. He still would ride the Yamaha several times a season, change oil at the end of season, he said he did one long cruise on it up to Canada.

Anyhow, he was getting older, had hip surgery and asked me if I would mind riding the bike and changing the fluids in it to keep it 'fresh'. I took the MSF course, got the bike, started riding it, fell in love, found this web site . . . After one season I ask him, "So are you going to sell me this bike?", He said, let me think about a price. I do the blue book look up and figure (this was 8 years ago) that anywhere from $600-1,200 would be 'fair'. The next day he said, "How about a bottle of whiskey and you and your wife take me and the misses to that Thai restaurant you always talk about".
Sold! I got him a fancy Irish Whiskey in a wooden box that was over $100 and the Thai dinner for 4 was under that.

Probably invested an additional $800 on refurbishing stuff, keeping her pretty much stock. No regrets.

 

1000.00 km = 621.371192 miles
100000km=62,137 miles
If you have turned it over twice and the previous owner has turned it over once then you would have put on 186411.3576 miles give or take.
I am not questioning your miles since riding 240 km a day adds up quick.
My question is how many times have you had to rebuild the engine?
What beside tires and oil have you had to replace the most?
What broke ?

 

Only thing I have done on the bike is brakes, tires, exhaust, starter and oil changes.
Speedo and tach are pooched, on my to do list
Replaced the seat from ebay.
Thats it thats all.

 

I was actually looking for a 700 Nighthawk or 650 or 750 I did not care I just wanted to get back on a bike after a 4 year hiatus from riding. Cruising eBay found this beutiful Screaming Yellow ( matches my 71 VW) got it for 850$ .... I have more money tied up in it but it still less than than a "new" bike. In some ways it is new I so enjoy working on bikes . My bike has a little over 17k so it still has life left in it, I'm still happy I bought my bike and found this fantastic web site and xj4ever..☺

 

I was looking on the "C" list for winter projects. In the middle of WI winter I head to MN just after this past years really bad ice. Got to the place and good thing I have a 4X4 as the driveway is uphill and just packed snow that had been rained on and then froze. Took about three tries to get the trailer to the garage without it sliding into my car. Anyway I wanted to hear the bike turn over as I knew it was not running and being -15 or so out it would not have started anyway. PO blew the main fuse as he hooked up the jump wires wrong. That cost him $100 on the spot, he was cool with that and now I have my X. Joy to work one, well be sides the first time doing the valve shims

 

And some would say that Yamaha doesn't know how to build an engine Poohy on them.
Very nice to know that as long as I do the maintenance I am go to go!

 

I was actually looking for a CB900C.

I'm a huge fan of '80's bikes. Much is because it's what I know, but the overall asthetic appeals to me greatly. Sure, there's lots of really dead sexy new naked bikes (I'd give a nut for a XSR900!) but I definitely can't afford to buy a new bike.

I dislike plastic, and big ocean liner cruisers aren't for me. I owned a 82 Ironhead Sportster and loved it dearly(sadly it was stolen) but it was admittedly a POS. Terribly engineered machine. Beautiful and fun to ride, but garbage.

So, to bring this back on track. Lower cost, naked bikes, already loving 80's style bikes... I owned a cb900C in my youth and fell in love with shaft drive bikes then, so figured I'd get another. Whilst perusing Kijiji, I found this XJ750J. $1000, purportedly in great running order. I'd never seen one before, had no knowledge of XJ's at all, but 750cc I4, shaft drive, looked pretty?

I went to look. Engine was stone cold, it was below zero out with a foot of snow (up on a mountain in Canmore Alberta!) ... She started right up effortlessly. I threw a handful of cash at him and loaded 'er up.

And to be honest? While I loved my cb900, this is twice the bike it was. Much faster, massively more nimble. I could have saved a couple hundred getting a CB900C from a couple kms away, but I'm so damned glad I got this XJ.

 

Story goes that Harley engineering dept. bought an XJ to take apart the engine and see what makes it "tick" (so powerful and reliable), took it apart, measured things, etc. and then put it all back together and wrote a report to upper management saying "Yamaha has figured out how to mass-produce blueprinted, de-tuned race engines for the street use and we could never duplicate this at anything approaching a reasonable cost.....".

 

That would be a report I would like to see distributed through the internet.