Newbie from Austin

Hey guys, just bought my first bike. It's an 82 xj650 secca i think. Pretty beat up up. It runs, but the starter is out. Paid 400 for her. Over all super excited! Ill get pics up when I have a moment to resize.

 

Welcome, CD. Another guy just joined from TX, and I mentioned he probably still has some great weather to ride.

Lately some of the posts have been about how to winterize. Not so much a texas issue.

I'm in CO so I can avoid most of that, but a lot of the members are way up north.

Hope you have some time for maintenance. It's fun, but every wrench crank is a minute NOT on a ride, and makes us all impatient to take the time to fix it right :wink:

 

Welcome, and as my namesake from Colorado mentioned please do take the time to make sure the bike's all up to scratch (specially brakes/bearings/tyres) before piling on the miles.

Sounds like you've got more of the year available to ride anyway where you are so no excuses for rushing! It's been said on here before, never trust the previous owner, it's not his ass on the line anymore!

You might find it easier to get pics to show if you load them onto photobucket & then copy/paste the IMG tags.

 

weird damage

 

Please tell me there are fuses down there not just wires joined together? 8O if the p/o bypassed/removed the fuse box then I'd pray you take the battery out right this minute & don't refit until there's correctly rated fuses fitted.

Also while the battery is off & you're waiting for your ATC fusebox to come it's a good excuse to go over all the safety bits like delaminating rear brakes, 30 year old rubber hoses & rotted tyres etc that may be an issue.

Apart from that, she looks reasonably complete if a bit tatty but a good clean, fluid/filter service, a coat of paint on the tank, grips & a new seat cover would go a long way to making things considerably more easy on the eye. Depending on how she runs it might be worth acquiring an airbox to get rid of those nasty pod filters too, I guess when you clean the carbs (note I said when, not if! :wink: ) you'll see if the p/o rejetted at all to suit the pods & pipe. But safety items first of all 8)

Welcome again, you're in the single best place you could have come to with this bike anyway so whatever questions/problems arise there'll be answers aplenty

 

rebuilt starter, now turns when i short the solenoid, but still not starting. My push to start switch is definitely in need of replacing. Some progress better than none.