new to the site and saying hello

Well I just bought my first bike, a 1985 XJ700 Maxim, and so far I love it. Does anyone have any cool ideas on what you can do to these or even some exhaust ideas to make it sound better because its alittle quiet for my taste. I added some pics of the bike and as you can see its in great shape.

 

Fisrt of all welcome to this great site. Second, that's a good looking XJ.

One of things I like about these bikes is that they are very strong but don't sound near as loud in low cruise as some bikes. I think that is an advantage and most people really aren't too impressed with a loud bike. That being said there are some exhaust options you can look at but I'd ride the bike for a while and get it tweaked out nice using the abundance of information on this site first.

 

Here's the best advice on that Exhaust quietness you should get used too.

Messing with the exhaust starts a viscous circle of making adjustments.
Re-jetting Carbs.
Tuning for Lean Mixtures.

Just leave them be until they need replacing ... concentrate on getting the bike running tip-top and you'll have so much fun with it like that you'll begin to enjoy the muffled sound that accentuates the Middle Gear Whine.

Yamaha ...
Shaft Drive ...
Nothing else like it!!!

 

ya i'm not looking to get new pipes since i don't mind the ones on it and not experienced enough to do any tweeking but i do know that the bike only has 9000 miles on it and it runs great other than a very fsint ticking noice but i was told all bikes do that but if anyone knows what it may be please let me know.

 

If it's Ticking loudly at low rpm and the Ticking gets a little faster as you increase the rpm's ... most likely, you're hearing the Cams opening and letting the valves close.

This is Normal.

Since it is a Double Cam Bike -- With the Cams Overhead ... you'll hear that noise no matter what adjusting gets done.

If the noise is loud or you hear Ticking louder than Normal ... you might have a loose valve. That's easily corrected by replacing the Valve Bucket Shim with a thicker one.

The only way to know is measure those Valve Clearances.
You need to Pull-off the Cam Cover and fit a Feeler Gauge between the Bottom of the Cam Lobe and the Top of the Shim to learn the value.

The whole process takes about an Hour and a half the first time you do it and you can lessen the time by doing the valves ... not in order 1, 2, 3 & 4 ... but, in firing order having to rotate the engine only twice to get all the values.