Old member.... New XJ900s...

Hey guys - have been away from XJ World for quite a few years with a bunch of Suzuki and Kawas parked in the garage but finally went back to the trusty Diversion.

Picked her up yesterday - this one is a 2000 model which has been pretty well looked after - and pretty cheap as well.

I had a 97 model about 15 years ago and whilst I knew it was a great bike, I still had a bit of crotch rocket left in me at that time. Fast forward to now and its ticking all the boxes again....









Not too sure about these lights (I've yet to ride it at night) but the guy I bought it off said they are good things....so they might stay....



Pretty low K's for one of these....



Rides sweet....


Cheers fellas

 

Pretty bike! Well, done Sir.
Yes, those extra lights are funny looking but if mounted solidly without damaging the fairing or windshield they might be worth the funny looking.
Good Luck.
John

 

Always liked the Divvy....never quite caught on in Europe/UK, not like the first XJ9.......although some couriers did use them....never quite knew why, assume it was faster, and handled just a wee bit better ......

Wish I. could find one ( imported) over 'ere'!!

 

Sort makes one think of a Bugeye Sprite. A little bit.

 

They are actually a bit of a cult bike in Europe - every forum and FB group search I did came up pretty much all in Germany.

I've had a few old gen xj9's over the years and this thing is quite simply the next generation.

So this wasn't ever sold in the US? I thought they did for a year or two...... but maybe I'm thinking of the earlier one...

 

Germany maybe, but I dont remember them catching on quite like the older XJ series did, in the UK...I mean, I Did see a few couriers riding them, but not nearly as popular as the 'other' one, lol

The earlier XJ.......think both the 853 and the 898 might have been sold here in the US/Canada for about 2 years only....( I'm a Brit, expat, so not been here that long < 20 years)

 

Perhaps us Brits monickering it as the 'Divvy (Diversion 900) didn't do it any favours...typically divvy was UK slang, in the un-PC days, for a bit of an .....idiot, putting it politely, mate !!

 

Oh well - more fool them - they are stupidly cheap right now so I guess the only idiot would have been me if I didn't buy it

 

So I've been loving the Divi - except the front brakes had a squeak..... so here is an upgrade I just finished on the front brakes.

The Internet told me the R1/6/FJR blue spot calipers are a bolt on fit to the Divi front. The 01/02 R1's had gold spot calipers (essentially the same) - which are the ones I found locally.

This is the reason why the caliper swap made sense - pitted pistons would mean about $150 in refurbishment v $100 for two complete R1 calipers:



So, the magic of eBay had these turn up at my door within a few days:



Pads and all:


And ceramic pistons - so no more pitting:


No wear on the pad pin so probably off a low mileage bike:


Now another advantage here is the R1 caliper is about 340g lighter than the Divi ones.

R1:


Divi:


So, let's see if they bolt on....


Oh yes they do - pad area lines up beautifully as well.

So a quick bleed and here they are:


And bugger me they are magic! Heaps better stopping power .... lighter lever action.... just ACE!

 

That looks nice! Thanks for sharing and great pics. Love the gold look with your bike color.

 

OK so I thought I would play around with the ignition timing. Most bikes are timed quite conservatively with the idea being they will be able to run OK on any crap fuel that is available wherever you are on the planet. The reality is most fuels (over here at least) are pretty good and you can advance the timing to make the bike actually run better.

So, I could have bought one of these suckers off eBay for about $50:



But where's the fun it that? Also, I cant adjust it - it's fixed at 4 deg.

So, I opened up the cover here:



And discovered the backing plate is screwed in place with 2 screws (the black ones):



Which means I could slot the holes and rotate the plate which will adjust the timing.



So, first thing to do is to find a suitable spot to mark the current (stock) position timing:



This way if everything goes pear shaped you know where you started from...



Then take the pick-up off and remove the backing plate (that green shit is Mr Yamaha's thread locker)



Now scribe some degree marks on the plate in the direction you want to go (OK - it's not that tidy....):



Now drill two holes beside the existing mounting holes:



And file them out to create 2 slots:



So here it is back in the stock position:



And here it is advanced about 4 degrees:



Button it all up and we're done. Probably took about 30 minutes all up - and the benefits were immediately obvious. Started first hit, pulls much smoother through the low and mids and generally runs sweeter.

And it cost nothing to do.

 

Would love to hear about your real-world experiences with it.

 

Nice timing mod trick. May consider that on my 750X and do some experimenting.

As for the R1 calipers, I picked up a cheap low mile set as well that I installed when doing my FJR1300 front end swap.
They are super-lite, compared to the other standard type of calipers, and extremely happy with the braking performance on mine.

Tony

 

I had the advanced timing plate on my 03 ZRX1200r, sure helped from stock. Could try this on some of my other bikes....hmmm

 

Interesting. Would love to see some tests

 

I've only got access to a "seat of my pants" dyno, but it feels stronger under acceleration and throttle response is crisper.

I guess it's a bit like when you sync your carbs - you're not necessarily gaining a bunch of HP but the motor just runs sweeter.

 

And it starts easier, even with ignition advanced??.....interesting

have you done a plug chop......is it running leaner, or??

 

i tried that a few years ago on a 750
i think i only went 3 deg. didn't notice anything different so i put it back

 

I use a 4° advancer on my XJR and it works a treat. Immediate fire up, no hesitation off the mark.

 

So when I swapped out the calipers I had to twist the banjo 90 deg to bolt the lines onto the calipers.
It looked like this and to be honest I didn't trust it:

So I looked on eBay for braided lines. And I came across pit bike lines for real cheap. I measured them up and it looked like I found a winner. So, with a click of a mouse, these things turned up a few weeks later from China:

And they bolted up nicely (I took the red stuff off them):

Just had to fish around for a double banjo bolt and we are good to go:

Time will tell if they are up to the task, I suppose. But in my mind, they are better than the twisted rubber hose beforehand so I feel pretty confident.
Oh - and brakes work even better now so thumbs up.

 

Link??

 

To the brake lines?

Here they are:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Univers...m2379082648:g:O5sAAOSw3v5Ynlw4&frcectupt=true

It was under $20AUD for the pair.

Keep in mind these worked for me due to the length being correct - not sure if I just got lucky but you would be best advised to measure what length you need and search accordingly. These ones are pretty rigid and you wouldn't want too much excess line that you would have to bend around excessively.....or too little and have them stretched on fork extension.

 

Ta mate !

 

Thanks, you saved my some typing about the brake lines, opps, I guess I didn't. Plus you used the dual line set-up, it's the best way.
Cheers, 50gary

 

There was nothing wrong with the original split line set-up (except of course the twisting of the hoses at the caliper ends). Having steel line in the system is ultimately the best as it is not prone to expanding or deteriorating like a rubber hose is. However, there are other issues like vibration and flexing that can make steel lines fail over time. And the extra joins between steel and rubber just add to the complexity....

But the dual lines should at least make it easier to bleed if I ever encountered any dramas with that process.

 

I replaced the brake discs and would like to change the calipers as well, someone can tell me if the calipers of the MT 07 can fit the Diversion 900 S?

 

I have found these :