New XJ650 Owner Here

Hi Everyone,

I bought a 1981 XJ650 from my good friend's father. He had it as his trainer bike. It only has 12000 miles on it.

Anyway, it hasn't been run a lot since he's moved onto bigger and better. He says the carb needs to be cleaned, and the fork seals need to be changed. I've had bikes before, but this will be the first bike that's over 10 years old.

What should I look out for and do before I put some more miles on it?

Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums and XJ's Dan!

XJ's are tough and reliable bikes - you'll be surprised. Having said that however, they are 26 years old and need some TLC.

Getting carbs cleaned at a shop is expensive. Learning to do them yourself is a much better choice, and very rewarding -- do a search here.

Fork seals are dead easy to do yourself - takes about an hour total.

Other things to look for - spongy front brake hose, stuck oil filter bolt, notorious fusebox (use search), and much more rarely but occasionally - a problem with 2nd gear, problems with the starter clutch - again, those two are pretty rare.

Make sure your tires & brakes are good, and get out an ride!

 

Woohoo! More local XJ's!

I think Altus covered it. You should talk to my brother.. lol He's a miracle worker. He borrowed my future bike from my dad that has the same problem (carbs) and it came back like it was brand new. Minus the dirt all over the bike.

Anyway, Good luck with the bike! Hope to see some of you guys sometime!

 

Great news in getting your XJ Dan, they are very special bikes. This site and a mechanics manual is all the information that you'll need to keep it running forever.

 

Welcome and salutations! First thing to do with your new bike is get the shop manual (they are inexpensive and readily available) and the XJCD available from a source linked to this site. You should find it at the top of the page on the XJ Chat page. Once these are in your hands, there is nothing you can't fix on these things.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. The bike arrives on Thursday. He hasn't run it in about a year and when he did take it out for a spin last year it was hesitating. He replaced the battery for me and also cleaned up the ingition system because he had some bad contacts at one point. He said before he got his harley, the bike was running great and started to hesitate only after sitting for a couple of months.

lots of guys from T.O. here I see. I'm actually north of Toronto, in Newmarket.