Win a few, lose a few

Well, I've been screwing around with a bunch of junk bikes now for a while, and meanwhile my friend bought an '81 XJ650 that I wanted, but couldn't afford. Anyway, we had to swap motors, do some wiring work, and it still needs some carb work, but it runs good. He's been drooling over my KZ305 and the XS650 for a while now, because he has some wierd thing against shaft-drive bikes. Anyway, I finally said I'd trade him the KZ305, the XS650, and the Venture for his XJ. I wasn't sure if he'd go for it or not, but I figured it was a fair trade. I have about the same amount in those three bikes as he does in the one. Well, he went for it!! I'll try to get some pics up later this afternoon.

It's a pretty decent looking bike, still needs some work, but I know what all is wrong with it. I need to figure out a couple of wiring gremlins (battery drain somewhere, and no brake light), fix a leak in the carbs, and get rid of his hacked up dropped headlight setup. Looks pretty mean with the dropped light, but the brackets don't work right, and I think I'll put the cafe fairing I have on it anyway.

The plans for the Midnight Max are still up in the air, but rest assured I'll be keeping it and fixing it up. I still have a few turbo setups rolling around in my head... :lol:

 

Whoops, meant to say '82, not '81. This one is an '82, but it has a non-YICS motor that we put in it...

 

Also forgot to mention that he's including his 650 turbo frame in with the deal. No title, and no parts to speak of other than the dual disc front end and sweet turbo wheels.

I also still have the XS850 for parts, so looks like I've got dual discs for both bikes!!! 8)

 

Great Joel, you should be that much closer to having a rideable bike then.
Hope to get up with you sometime soon for a ride.
If you need any of the tools I have let me know.

 

Thanks Richard! Yeah, I'll probably have to go through and sync these carbs again once I go through them, but when I have them apart I'll bench-sync them according to the XJ CD. Should I tune it with the colortune before syncing? I know it'll take some tweaking with the Mac 4-2 and pods...

 

Here's a few pics for ya. Overlook all the missing parts, the carbs are off and ready to be disassembled. Also, you can see how the dropped headlight is pointing up at the sky. :lol:







Here's the KZ305 and Venture that went to him in the trade, I don't have any pics of the XS650, but it's not much to look at anyway.





The Seca frame that is now mine:

 

Oh no ... what have you done - Damn ... that XS was worth some $$ ... I have one guy that will not stop talking about it ... last year he borrowed mine, rode it for like 2 weeks and decided it was too old - yea right ... then he bought my shadow 600. Used it for 3-4 months and now has some $$ and wants an XS. BTW I sold my XS in cherry shape to this other guy for like $750. He will not part with it, and a third guy who came to look at my GS - when I let on that I had an XS last year and that guy will not sell it (I have a KZ 440 and he thought it was an XS and was he disappointed) he wont stop pestering that guy who he didn't even know to sell it.
OK fine this is the XJ forum ... so I'll stop here ... but XS650's are cool cool cool. Oh yea they got shitty electrics ... but otherwise cool ...
BTW a stock XS650 will whip the Honda shadow 600's ass ... easy and give several other bikes a run for their $$$ Looks like sheite, sounds like sheite is falling apart, but runs like a tank.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in losing the XS, but there's still plenty of them out there, and this one was a serious basket case with no title. Been sitting outside with no cover for at least 10 years. Motor is locked up, forks are rusted, etc. I was planning on going through the motor and hopping it up a bit, and putting all sportbike suspension on it (inverted forks, monoshock rear, aluminum swingarm, 17" wheels, etc.) and make it sort of a track bike. Figured it'd be better than a sportbike since they're pretty tough, so you could drop it, pick it back up, spray on some paint, and keep going. :lol:

Pretty sure my wife wouldn't want me to have a track bike though anyway...

 

OK no title - In NC ... thats worthless. BTW if you ahve a title from another state that has 2-3 transfers allowed - like Virginia and SC but you have one of those that the onwer on the front sold it to A, and A sold to you and that's in the paperwork on the back ... you're shafted ... no way NC will let you title it. I had one ... and the DMV told me to find theowner and get it this and that - I said screw ya and sold it to someone in SC.
I have 1/2 a mind to move to SC just for that. The NC dmv morons are total jackasses.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Actually there's still a couple ways to go about it. I've done it a couple times already. Probably the most straight forward way to do it is to buy an insurance bond (about $75 usually), and go through the process through the DMV. They'll send an inspector out and make sure the bike is not stolen, and is in rideable condition, and issue you a title. Now, not sure if you can do it with bikes or not, but I've gotten mechanic's lien's on cars before, and it's a little bit more involved, but still not a HUGE deal, just time consuming. I ended up spending about $60 getting the title that way. Also, there's some title companies (haven't tried these, just heard about them) that can get you a title for $300 or so.

But I definetly agree, the DMV in NC is totally retarted.

 

Actually for a bike of that vintage their are companies that will do a title for $125. I dont have the links handy but I have them at home and will post tomorrow.

 

OK I think I'd love the links and heck if I can wiggle it in NC ... maybe that may be the best.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

Do you happen to know where the seat cover came from thats on your new baby?

 

Have no idea, it was like that from about 2 or 3 owners ago. But it looks awesome, way better than most of the seat covers I see for it. Might be a custom job done by a local upholstery shop...