How did you get here?

I ended up here pretty much like everyone else in the last several years - googled 1980 Yamaha XJ650G tachometer and here I was. Or maybe it was gas leak, I forget.
I had just bought a bike to ride when my s83 is cranky / dead / in the shop / etc...
Looked at a lot of different bikes, something about the XJ just reminded me of bikes from my childhood, and I am old enough to feel nostalgic about that.

 

I got here simply because it was meant to be. I'm the guy who is always a day late or a dollar short when a great deal comes along. Any of you who watch Craig's List for motorcycles will know what I mean.

At any rate, I've been watching Craig's List looking to pick up a Honda Rebel to replace a CBR250R that I'm thinking I will part with. As I'm scrolling through the listings I run across an 82 XJLJ, what a beautiful bike, and the price is right too. It had been listed for a long time so I expected the reply to be that the bike had sold. The seller replied that he still had the bike but was going to out of town for Thanksgiving and we could get together when he got back.

When he gets back we set up a meet and he says he's got lots of interest but I was first so I get first shot at the bike. I show up with a trailer and cash in hand. Not only does he have the bike, but he's got 2 boxes of parts, manuals, and magazines all related to the bike. He says he bought the bike back in 2012 from a collector and has had it in his heated storage for the past 10 years. It's got 6600 miles on it, starts, runs, idles, shifts, and stops.

I don't even haggle and had over the $2400 and he helps me load the bike and all the goodies onto the trailer and into the truck. I NEVER find deals like this, so I was simply meant to be here!

As you can imagine, a 40 year old bike that's been sitting needs a bit of TLC. Thanks to all who have pointed me in the right direction to get this bike back onto the road. I feel a little guilty putting miles on this bike, but I'm a rider not a collector!

 

Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on finding a nice bike. I had one for about 18 months, fewer miles but came to me with issues I managed to get sorted. A nice bike to ride but I decided I liked the naturally aspirated XJ650RJ better. You got a good to fair deal for sure. Mine sold for less than that but was more cosmetically challenged. Just have fun with it! Happy New Year!!

 

I was offered an XJ550 for £200 by a mate as a stop-gap for my son when he fell off his SV650, but it had been off the road with carbs off for 11 years, so needed a little more work than expected.... I came across thsi forum as everytime I googled something about it I found the answer was on this forum!
I have not ridden a bike for 35 years, but am currently going through the training and licencing process here in the UK to be able to ride it! When I did my Compulsary Basic Training I spent the morning wobbling around the cones on a Lexmoto 125, but they stuck me on a new XJ6 for the 2 hour road ride, that was quite a beast! (and scary as hell after 35 years!)
My plan is to ride the XJ as is for a while then buy a another bike so I can then strip it down and Cafe-Racer it, so expect this forum to be a goldmine of info

 

Hello... this is my first post, so I guess no photos for the time being...

How did I get here? Umm, because I came into possession of a 1980 XJ650 Maxim and the fine folks over at ADV rider (who also have a pretty long XJ thread) mentioned y'all.

But how did I come into possession of a Maxim? Well... no, I did not own an XJ Back In The Day, nor have I had an unmet desire to own one for the last forty years. It just sorta happened... this way:

Back in 1980, a group of us hung around at an accessory shop west of Chicago, and we'd stay after closing time on Friday nights to chew the fat and wash it down with a few beverages. One Friday (before the first tab was popped), one of the guys showed up on this chopperesque Yamaha and offered people a ride. So I took it for ten minutes or so. Seemed like a nice bike, a skinny 650 four. Odd name, "Maxim." Riding position wasn't bad (though I could do without the buckhorn bars), power was good. Brought the bike back and popped a tab (well, actually stuck a tapper into a gallon can of Dortmunder lager, because even back then I was a beer snob). Thought no more about the 650 Maxim for, oh, fifteen to twenty years.

Around 1996-7 or so, a friend of mine swapped a computer for an old bike that hadn't run for a while. You guessed it, a 650 Maxim. One fine Saturday afternoon, I dropped by while he was fooling around with the bike's rusted-out gas tank. Wanting something to do between sips, I pulled the gunky carburetors off and attacked them with a couple cans of spray Gumout. An hour (and a trip home to pick up a spare Harley tank), the Maxim roared to life and settled down to purr like a kitten. Nice.

And then... my friend got distracted and spent the next several years trying to fix the gas tank with various chemical potions. Without success. Eventually he bought a used tank, but by then the bike was buried underneath a pile of stuff worthy of "Hoarders."

Fast-forward to a month ago. I was reminiscing about a Honda 500 Four I had resurrected back in the '90s, after it sat for ten or so years. Said I kinda wish I hadn't sold that bike because it would be cool to have an old bike to toodle around on, maybe ride up to the Slimey Cruds Run in Wisconsin (where you're kinda out of place on a new bike). My friend was in the midst of a Marie Kondo attack, and immediately offered me the Yamaha. For free. Along with boxes of parts he'd picked up for it, including shiny, like-new fenders, blinkers, spare rear brake parts, footpegs, and so forth. So, a few days later I showed up with a U-haul and the Maxim was relocated to my garage.

I'd like to say it started right up after fresh gas and a carb cleaning, but in truth it's stuck in a bad place. But I will post about that in the Tech section.

I will post a picture when I've got enough seniority, but for now just imagine it... dirty but pretty good looking. Chromed carb hats are of course rusty. There's dirt (mostly settled dust). Tires are brand new in terms of wear, but since they're 19 years old (according to the date codes), they're going to get replaced just as soon as I commit to keeping the bike. Fenders have some rust, but as I said I have a nearly-new-looking spare set. Seat has one repair in the vinyl, otherwise OK and even feels comfortable. Biggest things it's going to need are a front master cylinder (there's a pit that makes it non-rebuildable) and mufflers (which don't look bad until you get down on the ground and look at the underside).

So there it is, a free bike. All I have to do is get it on the road. And make room for it between the Harley and the Himalayan. Cleaning out the garage might be the only thing more annoying than cleaning those four fussy little carburetors.

 

I'm about to get my hands on an '81 650 Maxim; found this place by purposefully looking for it. I own an Indian, and have helped my friends work on their other bikes as well. 4 years of doing that has taught me that every bike has it's own forum run by people who love those bikes, who have a treasure trove of information available for any job big or small.

 

Welcome aboard

 

I've been the owner of a 1980 XS1100G for about a year and a half and am trying to make my bike as "Bulletproof" as possible since I travel on it full time with no fixed address. I NEED a bike that won't let me down!

Had heard a rumor that the FJ1100 ignition system could replace the XS1100 ignition. The XS1100 uses a vacuum actuated advance mechanism which causes the wires on the pickup coils to flex. Needless to say 43 year old wires get brittle and break, you patch them up and keep going and hope for the best or spend anywhere from $500 up for an NOS unit or import a whole new setup for about that same price.

Looked into the FJ setup and the pickup plate and rotor thingy do indeed bolt right up to the end of the XS crank. However the price of the CDI (TCU, whatever) is astronomical since there where only a limited number to start with along with other XS owners grabbing them up when possible.

So I ended up getting a reasonably priced 1982 XJ1100 pickup plate, rotor and CDI and am going to attempt to make it work on my XS. I've not seen any posts on using the XJ setup on the XS but I can't see any reason why it WON'T work.

Looks like I've already been helped with the pinouts and appreciate how quickly my question on that was answered on this forum. It looks like I'll need to change the coils to the XJ spec, figure out how to get the tamper proof bolts out to remove the XS pickup coils plate and have absolutely everything I need hardware wise in place before doing it.

Since I have no permanent home this will more than likely happen at a campground somewhere a long way from even a basic hardware store, you have to have everything on hand before you start. It's a challenge, I'm quite used to it, it gives me something to do!