Sadness - 1985 XJ700 Maxim Part out - Wichita, KS

I took a chance on a Craigslist bike. I knew the bike had been laid down. Yesterday, I got all the wonky fenders and such off of it, put it up on the center stand, and took a good look at it, trying to decide what direction I wanted to take with the bike. Instead, I noticed that the frame is bent. Badly. It never even occurred to me to check although it's obvious now that I should have.

For me, I’m afraid this is a project-ender.

So it looks like I’ll be trying to sell it off as a parts bike. Let me know if you have any questions; I'll be happy to further examine and photograph whatever.

The saddest part to me is what a great community this has been in the very short time I've been here. Pics to follow.

 

The fenders and gas tank are off the bike, as are the carbs, but I have them.

 

I know for a fact that the jets will almost certainly need to be replaced, at a minimum, as they are mis-matched and a bit munged up.

 

...or you could get another 85/86 max and make it YOUR parts bike!

 

Maaaaaybe, but there aren't that many cheap project bikes coming up on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace around here. The odds of finding another matching bike seem pretty slim.

 

Yeah, this time of year, everybody is out riding, as opposed to selling their bikes. Once fall rolls around, people start to think about selling vs. storing, and the ads pick up again.

 

Shame your so far away. I have 2 700 frames with registration that are parts bikes.

 

2,700!?

 

2 x XJ700 frames.

 

Ohhhhh.... That makes more sense.

BTW, I just checked and the headlight works. So there's that.

 

But between what Toomanybikes has , and what I have, we're getting closer to 2700.....lol

 

My bad grammar or punctuation or whatever I don’t think Yamaha even imported 2700 Xj700n in 85.

2 Xj700n frames
I’ve owned more bikes in the last 40 years than I’ve owned pairs of underwear. Stopped counting after 400
Already at 7 and it’s only July

 

My understanding is that there were less airheads imported than the X, however now there are less X's than air heads. so, either way… If you have an 85 or 86 XJ 700 or XJ 750 Airhead or X, you have a desirable bike.

 

Just curious as to where the frame is bent. You can see the handlebars are bent in the above photos, but nothing jumps out as far as a bent frame. I guess I just want to be sure that a twisted triple tree or such was not the determining factor.

 

+1

 

There are three places on the front down tubes where the frame is visibly bent. If you look at the first two photos, you can see how far out of line the front forks are with the motor. It's embarrassing that I didn't notice it on site, but I never even thought about it and the bike was cocked over on the kickstand, and the tires were flat, so it didn't really look that odd to me at the time.