Long time viewer. New member.

Hi everyone. I've been watching/reading over these forums for a little over two years. I recently moved into my own house and now I've finally got a garage to work on this thing...so I thought I'd better join. I've got an XJ550 bobber. My nifty father in law purchaced this for me simply because he wanted me to have a good time with him at Sturgis. It was definatly an experience.

Some things I want to start with on this bike:

1. Get this thing running! (Worked ok the entire Sturgis week luckily. We notice it was getting terrible gas mileage and would act strangely between 4,000-6,000 RPM.)

2. Clean up the wiring. I've noticed "minimum wiring diagrams" and am still debating on leaving all the wiring or to go the minimum route.

3. Remove engine and other components to repaint frame and remove unused mounting brackets and things of that nature.

4. Clean up engine and replace head-gasket seal. I believe the images show the leaking gasket.

But for the time being here's my bobber.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome, IMHO those bars are just plain unsafe. Wiz

 

Why might that be? I've ridden plenty of motorcycles and really enjoy these bars, but I guess that doesn't mean that they're safe haha.

 

Well, I recon I could twist them into a reef knot without breaking sweat.

 

Haha. I thought you were going to go somewhere else with that. That was actually my first concern with the bike. Thankfully they don't budge very much at all. Heavy steel I suppose.

 

Nice lookin bike! Your poor gas mileage and other problem are probably caused by the pod filters. You also need to check the valve clearances and adjust them as necessary. With the pods and the 4 into 1 exhaust, you probably have a carb jetting issue. There are some great write ups on here by Bigfitz on cleaning and adjusting the valves and carbs for the 550.