My XJ650 and myself

Hi, new guy here.

I'm Fredrik, and I live in Norway.
I'm currently studying for a bachelor in robotics at the University of Oslo, while also working as a student recruiter.

I'm from a small town called toensberg (tønsberg), you might have seen it mentioned in the Captain America and the Thor movie.
I've been a good kid for the most part of my 22 years. Going to school, working, the usual stuff.
At 18 i took my drivers license for car and motorcycle (restricted), passed both on my birthday. I've had a bike since I was 16, although only a 125ccm honda. Traded up for a rare 1992 Cagiva Mito a year I was working. Rebuilt the entire bike as it needed some love. It went from semi-naked to the much more pleasing all covered up with fairings.
Been driving bikes since i was 16.

In 2012, my father bought his first bike, this side of the millenia. which was a 1987 XJ900. Here's the fun part, it's registered to me, as a convient way of building up insurance bonus, as my car is registered to my father. The bike was a good bargain, and the previous owner, an australian fellow, had maintained the bike the bike very well, and kept records of everything, even tire changes.
October, 2013, I got my first real bike, seeing as I had puffed around on the Mito for quite a while. That bike is now the reason why i hang out here.

I present to you, my 1982 XJ650RJ Seca from Norway


It has probably seen better days, but for the price, it was okay.
Previous owner mounted pod filters and had them tuned professionaly
4-1 stainless steel exhaust
The elusive Giuliari cafe-style seat.
changed front fender
altered tail light (resembling honda nsr 125 tail light)
steel braided brake lines.
Bike also came with an original krauser luggage rack and hardcases, which had been taken of.
The previous owner also had a massacered xj650 on the side, which i got for free with the bike. the engine actually runs, believe it or not.
You can barely see it behind the front wheen of the bike.
I've got a few spare parts for it, so I don't have to exhaust myself looking for parts, as they are hard to come by.

As it sits now the bike has 59K km on the clock.
I'm planning on altering the bike with the following:
- lower the front to accomodate clip-ons on top of the tripple tree
- rearsets from a yamaha r1
- get the giuliari seat rebuilt, as it was all cracked underneath
- new brake and clutch levers that fit the clip-ons
- progressive fork springs

Altering back to original will probably take me a couple of hours, but I'd like to have the freedom to choose whether I ride a stock XJ650 or a cafe-ish one.

Things that are to be done before altering
- blast the frame, and repaint it.
- blast and repaint basically every bit that has rust on it also
- fix a fuel tank dent
- final drive overhaul (will be done in springtime)
- check valves (will be done in springtime)

the bike is a weekend away from getting blasted as i only need to remove the front and the engine to get started on blasting the frame.

Pods, carbs and horn has been removed lately

Mito can be seen in the background.

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself, and my plans.
Looking forward to learn a lot from all the experienced people here.

-Fredrik

 

Welcome aboard Fredrik I'll be watching with interest.
Is that your Dads XJ900 behind and in front of your bike?
Is it the faired version or the naked?

 

Welcome! Keep us updated on your progress!

 

Yup. It sure is.
It's only front fairing, no exhaust pipe/front engine fairing. I guess you could call it semi naked.

Right now I'm in Spain on vacation with a bunch of friends.
I'll see if I can make some pictures of my dad's bike appear here when i'm back home in Norway

Also got a packet for the build when I left, so I'll be sure to get you all some updates

Peace out
-Fredr1kh

 

when you raise the tubes to get the clip-ons to work your changing the geometry quite a bit and loose some ground clearance, might need to shorten the side stand too.
nice bike

 

Nice ride, I have a silver XJ650, check out the link to the pic in my signature.

Looks great in red. You have a true classic there.
You can order the 4 set CD of Seca 650 info.
Here are some good links:
http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/class ... -seca.aspx

http://www.ridermagazine.com/style/vint ... -1982.htm/

http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/XJ650.htm

 

Hey everyone, back from vacation.
wonderful weather, nice waves for surfing, and enough wind for kiting.

On to the good stuff.
The package from before the vacation contained my new adjustable brake and clutch levers in black and red.
Got a bit ahead of myself and forgot to take pictures while unboxing, sorry about that.

Levers mounted to my clipons, and grips.


Also got a fuel petcock rebuild kit, because my petcock is leaking,
And some spark plug wire holders, in red anodized aluminum.
Also got another rather unexpected package today.

could it be?

Yes, I think it is.

My new front forks, in very good condition.
No nicks, bruises or rust on the slider area, which is good.
They are a tad dirty, but nothing more than good old hard work won't remove.

Still waiting for the rearsets though.

And for those wanting to see more of my dads XJ900, here it is
(If you wanna get real technical about it, it's actually mine, because of the papers are signed for by me, and also insurance is.)


Ca 96000 km on the clock


Hoping to pull the engine from the frame tomorrow, so I can start blasting it.
Also discovered that there is a small crack in the tube of the frame just in front of the side stand, will probably clean and weld that before I go on with the rest of the frame.

 

Hey guys,

I suddenly realised i bolted on this thread, so I thought I'd give a go at updating it to where it's at today.

Got the entire frame sandblasted by a professional, that also ended up painting it.

Most of the parts finished

A mockup of the steering


Had to clean up my ignition lock after my half assed attempt at sandblasting


After a little sweating I was finally able to get the motor into the frame again.
As you can see in the picture the original mockup i made of the handles are still on.




And we are nearing completion

Some of you might have noticed that the position of the handles changed to sit above the triple tree.
The mounts have been grinded to account for the sloping of the triple tree up towards the original handle mount.
Got my front forks serviced, and with new progressive springs from wilbers, and the bike handles way better than before. no more bottoming out the forks
The slightly changed geometry of the bike due to the lowered triple tree makes it literally "bounce" to where you want it in city traffic.
I'm sitting on a set of blinkers that will replace the slightly horrible LED-ones that are currently connected. The LED ones are tied in with extra resistors under the seat. The rear light (double round ones) is not an original and probably comes from a honda (NSR125) or something, but in my opinion looks way better than the original square one ever did.

All dressed up and ready for an adventure.



Riding with the big boys


For those of you who'd like to put a face to the name

Me, dressed in a traditional Norwegian outfit called bunad

As an added bonus I'll throw in a picture of my hometown (panorama)


And for those that actually read this far here's an extra bonus.

Spoiler

Got my hands on an 1982(can't remember exactly of the top of my head) XJ650RJ with original aftermarkets fairings and footrests sold in Germany. The fairing will fit a multiple of models from the 80's according to the documentation for it.

I'm currently in the process of changing the cylinder head gasket due to an oil leak and then replacing the rear springs of it, since i freaking can't find anyone that knows anything about the or if they're serviceable or not.

Shocks in question: Corte&Cosso shocks

 

Nicely done.

 

I can't see all the pics for some reason but it looks great in the one I can. That seat really makes the bike.

 

I only see two of the bike and one of the man in the most recent update (6th, 7th, and last pic).

 

I'm glad I got the bike pics and not the pic of a man. LOL.

 

Seems that i have an issue with the images, I'll try to fix it as soon as possible

EDIT: It seems i can't edit the post (I might be missing something, but the edit button is gone). I have a shared album with a bit more photos here https://goo.gl/photos/ydHoL4KsWxsEEqkXA

 

As a non-paying member you only have a limited time in which to edit your posts.

I see that you went so far as to disassemble and refurbish the final drive. That's not usually needed, but it's really nice that you went that deep into the project to get it right.

As for the photos: the problem is not on your end; Google had not been a forum-friendly photo host lately.

BTW my great-uncle Ole would appreciate your clothing if he were alive to see it

 

I actually had a leak from it, so I pulled it apart to see why.

When I first start working, I have this craving to pull everything apart and put it back together.
Going to change back to the original air filter again though, because right now there's something missing in the top end, and I think the original filter might rectify that.

I have considered trying to do an EFI conversion, but it would cost me an arm and a leg to get the parts together since the Norwegian krona is super low compared to what it was a year ago.
Theoretically, if I do the conversion, any of you think it will improve mileage?

I'm really tempted to try to just remake that post a bit up since now the photos are shared so anyone can view them, opinions?