What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Looks like Dan has been doing all the heavy lifting. All I did today was check & fill my battery then zip-tie the broken side panels back into place.

 

@Brhatweed I’m a glutton for punishment I guess. And there’s that nice 550 by you and a 900 just popped up in St. Cloud. Crap!!!

 

That XJ650RJ I picked up today is definitely a bit of a basket case - but there’s some good stuff that needed to be saved. Tank is a little crusty inside but solid. Carbs are serviceable. TCI was there, needs to be tested. At least those bits need to be saved from the scrapper.

 

Don't know what happened to the 550 that was down by the storage place, sold maybe? Spare change is a little hard to come by right now and my better half is keeping a close eye on them, I could really get into a 900 tho.

 

What did I do to my Yamaha the last couple weeks? Just rode it, maybe a total of 500 miles or so. No place in particular, just rambling around the corn fields, tying together what few curves there are in this part of IL.


Stopped to photograph this one because it had just been chip-sealed and the loose pea gravel made the corner No Fun At All.

I did a lot of thinking on these rides. It's been three years and 6000 miles since the XJ showed up in my garage, and I thought a lot about whether the bike is a keeper or whether it's time to join the ranks of CL (or FB Marketplace) optimists. On the one hand, the bike works mostly pretty well at this point--it starts easily, runs up to redline without any noticeable issues (though I can't say I have a lot of basis for comparison--a perfectly-set-up one might be a lot better for all I know), tracks straight, corners pretty well and even stops acceptably (especially by the standards of its day). Now that the pesky carb-overflow problem seems to have been fixed, I would trust it for a trip. On the other hand, it still doesn't want to idle (and I increasingly doubt I am enough of a Carb Whisperer to get it to), it shifts like a tractor despite multiple clutch adjustments, the FD leaks a bit, the seat is too low and generally terrible (though the "booster cushion" and Bead Rider make it tolerable), and the chassis still feels twitchy (though I think a bit of attention to the steering head and swingarm bearings are likely to help that).

As usual, I returned with no clear decision, which means I will not do anything irreversible. Besides, a quick check of FB Marketplace shows that I could not sell the bike for what I have already put into it.

July marks 50 years since I got my motorcycle license. How time flies! My first bike was an ill-tempered Kawasaki two-stroke triple (the 350cc one, or I might not be here today); my second, bought 49 years ago, was a KZ900. I bought that bike immediately after being sacked from my first post-college job, and spent pretty much the entire summer of 1977 riding it to both coasts. I have thought about celebrating the 50th anniversary of those trips by finding a KZ, but given that one in even remotely decent condition is close to ten grand, that idea died quickly. I suspect that if I want to re-create the feeling of being in my twenties, I'll have to do it on the Maxim. Which is not a bad bike--same inline-four, dual-cam, four-carb Universal Japanese Motorcycle as the KZ, but also equipped with tubeless wheels, shaft drive, and a frame that doesn't feel like it's made of rubber. Maybe I should paint it dark green, like my KZ was...

 

So yesterday I had new rubber mounted Bridgestone Battlax.

This is what the front looked like going in:



This is what the front looked like coming out - 12 total weights so 3 oz.



The rear is not as bad with eight weights (2 oz), but the white dot is 180 from the valve stem - and the weights closely follow. The story at cycle gear for the rear was the tire would not bead with the white dot at the valve stem where it should be, so procedure tells him to move the dot 180.

Should I accept these - all done at Cycle Gear?

 

@Rooster53 - seems quite excessive to me. If they couldn't rotate the tire to get it close without needing a ton of weight, then the tire is bad. Either way, I don't like it.

 

No that's a bad deal all around. Say all that weight comes off on the highway at 70 MPH? Things are going to get really rough. If it was me I'd take it back and say no lets first pull the tire and mark where the weights are then check the balance of the rim then remount the tire and see where the heavy spot is. When I had the rims of my 750 seca checked bare they were off exactly where the valve stems are and they were able to zero them out leaving me with a "clean slate". The new front required only an ounce at the 3 o'clock and we used a heavy sheet rubber that's used to seal coax connectors on the inside leaving nothing on the rim, the rear took two ounces at the stem and this was balanced using another nut & washer. At 100+ the bike is smooth with no worries about things flying off at speed, there are times when one *has* to crack the throttle to get away from a knucklehead and that gang of weights is a disaster waiting to happen. If they can't get it right push for a warranty because it's your butt that's on the line so don't back down.

 

Tank soup!

 

I smell electrolysis..........

 

And lots of it

 

It smells like.... teen spirit.