Hi, I'm new here....

Hi, my name's Mat, and this is my story of how I got into Yamaha XJ550s. Please bear with me, it's a bit of a long story.....

It all started in May when I passed my full motorbike test. Not long after this I happened to meet a guy who had a decrepit 1982 XJ550 he wanted rid of, so I took it off his hands.
Over the following months I tinkered with it a bit, but ultimately became disheartened and realized that I was probably out of my depth here, as it needed a whole lot of work including a tricky repair to the frame. A few friends and I did manage to get the engine running though...
Some time later I happened to be flicking through a bike magazine and I saw an advert for the bike I'm riding now, a 1984 model. It was so beautifully original and a good price, much less than it would have cost me to get the other one anywhere near as good.
It's an amazing bike, plenty of power to keep up with all my mates on their race reps, but still classic enough for my weird tastes. And now I find myself with two XJ550s and a whole bunch of spare parts......

There's a couple of bits I need for the 1984 bike including the pillion grab handles, and the front forks really need to be stiffened up. Can anyone offer some advice?
And also does anyone fancy making me an offer for some of the spares before I chuck them on a certain auction site?? I have a virtually complete XJ550 with running engine, an 20 year old but unused 4-into-1 Motad exhaust system, racks, brackets and other bits and pieces. Message me if you're interested...

And thank you for reading my story. Suffice to say I have been thoroughly converted!! I'll get some pictures up just as soon as I figure out how......

 

From what I understand about the forks, you may not need anything but a good fork oil change. Apparently it is rare for the springs to go soft. You can buy new ones, though.

Have you been to the "Supporting Vendor" portion of this site?

The guy, chacal, not only has about every part you may need, he also has about any information you may need.

Also, you can easily figure out what parts are the same on your two bikes. You may find that you don't want to get rid of the other one, because there are so many good parts on it.

 

Judging from the fact that you picked up an '84, and the XJ550s were only in the USA for the '81-'83 model years, I'm gonna hazard a guess that you're not in North America... so we need to talk in terms of the 550 Seca, correct? The rest of the world's XJ550s were the same as the "Seca" here, with rare exceptions.

Umm... no it's not. Actually, the stock fork springs in the 550 Secas weren't very good to begin with and they do get sagged out especially with a "full sized" rider aboard. Upgrading to a set of Progressive Suspension's springs is highly recommended.

Put your location in your profile and bike info in your sig to prevent confusion if you would...

 

Whoops...sorry. Maybe I should keep quiet when I haven't been around for awhile! Or is it just the 550s that have that problem?

 

Personally, I can only speak from experience for the 550s. I have seen other posts about sagged springs in the bigger bikes too.

The reason I "highly" recommended the upgrade is this: I took the 7000-mile springs out of my '83 550 Seca and used them in my '81, to replace its high-mileage trashed springs. The 7K springs measured within spec, the originals did not.

I installed new Progressive Suspension fork springs in the '83.

The difference in fork responsiveness is marked; riding the bikes back-to-back really points up the deficiencies in the stock springs, even reasonably new ones.

I plan to upgrade the other bike over the winter.

 

Post up some pics. I love the 550 Secas. More info on you and your bike would be helpful as Fitz said.

 

I'm located in the UK, and my bike is an original UK machine. It was just called an XJ550 here as far as I know, and I have no real clue as to the differences between these and the U.S. models. Hopefully the pictures loaded so you can see for yourself, the red bike is the '84 and the black bike is the '82 spares bike...
Thanks for the suggestions regarding the forks. I was going to change the oil as a matter of course anyway.

Oh by the way, did I mention this is my first 'big' bike!? my previous ride being a 125....