Philosophy of Motorcycle Restoration 101

Sigh... my biggest problem with the new bikes is they don't look like bikes. They look like space age metal monsters.... I love the look of the dual pipes peeking out of both ends of my XJ. As far as maintanence.... I think I am a little of both... they bike let me know..... the oil coming down out of the valve cover gasket, said I need to be replaced. However while I had the valve cover off. I checked all the shims. ordered 2 new ones to replace the out of spec ones, and finally sanded down and painted the valve cover. Not to mention doing a visual inspection. What I REALLY NEED is another bike. The only thing that sucks is anytime I work on the bike i have NOTHING to ride. Oh well the 83 is coming along.

 

Begin Rant:

I have to say, there are some very valid points here. My father in law gave me my XJ about 2 months ago. It is my first bike, and I don't have a license yet, but I have to agree; it is VERY thereputic.

I recently moved from southern Maine to south central PA and was unemployed for a month with no unemployment check to keep me going. So between the stress of looking for a job and going to tons of interviews, and realizing I would literally be taking a $10 an hour pay cut to move down here to better my family...there was my XJ!!

I have done small engine repair for about 6 years on turf industry equipment, but never on something I actually owned. I used to be afraid of 'turning that wrench' because I didn't want to make something worse. My last boss used to say, "You can't break something that's already broken." Basically, get your hands dirty and you might learn something.

When I first came to this forum there were posts everywhere about carbs problems, strange idles, sputtering at certain rpms, or engines just turning over and over (I've even had a post which addressed the latter), yet certain people never learn that the majority of these problems are caused at the root by dirty carbs even though probably 40% or more of the threads on this forum are all about carb cleaning. And how many of these people want someone else to do it for them at a shop or beg someone in the area to do it for them. NONSENSE I SAY!!! How can you ever take pride in your ride if you're not willing to ask questions, learn something new, and overcome these "endless problems" with the professional advise from the kind folk on this forum, for free!?

Thank you for all the guys on this forum who are willing to help a rookie cyclist like me and never bash guys like me down for asking the seemingly small and dumb questions!

Okay, end rant!

 

I also come down on both sides of this. Frankly I bought an XJ because the price was right and I wasn't certain I wanted to ride. If I decided I didn't like it then I didn't have a lot of money invested and I could unload the bike.

Well two things happened - I came to love riding and the bike itself. I can't see myself never getting another bike...but I also can't see myself ever getting rid of this one.

On the maintenance, I can barely find the time to do the necessary stuff and the discretionary...it has to wait. It's frustrating to try and start something knowing I might not get windows bigger than 2-3 hours at a time spaced over consecutive weekends. 2-3 hours, spread in chunks is really inefficient. As context, I repaired a 5 HP shredder/mulcher engine I have. Should have been a 6-8 hour job. It had to spread to 3 weekends 2 hours at a time. I really enjoy the maintenance, but just being able to "pick" at it is frustrating. And when something does break, it just has to sit until I can get to it. Or, (cringe) I have to pay someone to do it for me.

Okay, this just looks like venting. I'm going to stop before I have to go get some cheese to go with my whine.

 

The "time crunch" and resultant downtime thing is why I have always tried to have at least two operational bikes if at all possible. Everything always takes longer/costs more/is more involved than originally anticipated.

I suppose it wouldn't be necessary if I would just break down and buy a NEW bike; but I haven't found one yet that suits me (at least not that Yamaha will bring to the USA.)

 

I am fairly new here and I do spend some time reading. I was an owner operator and my wife knew my 88 Peterbilt was my mistress, monday through friday I drove it saturady, every saturady I worked on it. Feathers went with me in the truck and she rides with me nearly as often as I ride. My truck was never on a hook so I will put the same care into my ride and it will never be in the back of a pickup or on a flatbed tow truck. I like the ready to help attitude y'all have and someday I will also be able to answer question. Thanks everybody

 

Hank Hill - "I change my oil every 3000 miles or whenever I get bored, whichever comes first"

 

Shamelessly bumping my own thread because I'm seeing posts from a good half-dozen or so new XJ owners who need to go back to the first page and read my original rant, which should have included a link to this: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14581.html as a reality check but I'm not trying to discourage anybody.

I AM concerned that more than one of our "noobs" may not fully understand the need to do a bit more to a used bike than a used car, mainly for safety reasons.

If you're a newcomer, please read the original post in this thread and the one in the link above, and get busy! Start with your rear brake shoes.

(It'll be worth it.)

 

Thanks fitz, i stumbled on this thread and am glad i did, that said i am impatient and extreamly excited to have my ride riding.

I consider myself a little on the lucky side because mine came in boxes and parts with a non running motor(see my thread http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=26979.html) which forced me to take it almost all the way down to bare min to start cleaning and checking everything (along with some mods). life lesson learned even though my wife is a little fed up with the "Project" already.... You need to take your time with these!!

 

I have to confess that my favorite part of maintenance is to do a frame up restoration to as new. If every part is made to perform as new then the machine can be enjoyed without concern. It becomes a matter of routine maintenance. It is not expensive to do it this way if you have the knowledge. These old bikes are pretty simple when you get right down to it. Just a huge amount of elbow grease. You wanna talk therapeutic. As I begin to reassemble, the feeling of pride grows. It looks new and you know you are going to love it when you're done. And then the first time you start it.......well it doesn't get any better.
Again, per Fitz, no shortcuts!

 

Another shameless bump!

There're a whole lot of new folks on lately that really need to read this whole thread; not just my opening rant, but the whole thread.

Help you get your head around this.

 

Very true. When a POS car quits working all of a sudden you don't have to find out fun facts like "how much you can bleed through your palms" or "the weight to surface area ration of ground off body parts"

Fraps, well played. Mine cost me a hand-me-down pair of riding pants that were too big for me.

 

If we were playing Jeopardy, wouldn't the question be:

"When is a "free" motorcycle NOT free?"

 

No...the ANSWER would be "When is a "free" motorcycle NOT free?"

The question, which would be in either the "He Saw Me coming.." or the "Free Junk Removal" categories..would be

"He said I could have it. It ran fine last year and just needs some TLC."

8O
lol

 

TLC=Tons of Loose Cash? (or is it Total Loss of Composure? Total Lack of Constraint?)

 

You truly have to be committed to them. Everyone is apt to find issues they haven't encountered before. I wouldn't consider myself a Robert or Fitz, but I've come to see a fair amount of issues with these bikes.

There are several phases to these things, and Fitz mentions the most obvious, that is no matter how well preserved, it's going to need a thorough going through.....regardless.

The one phase that creeps on some is the maintenance phase....after you get it running right (and it can take some time) you are going to have to maintain it.....

 

show me a bike with 'problems',and i'll show u a bike with character.i love riding,and get as frustrated as the next rider at times when something goes wrong and i cant ride,but the sense of achievement when u fix it,just makes the rides more enjoyable.especially when its taken a while to find the 'problem'.even when nothing goes wrong,i still fiddle with settings sometimes,trying to keep her running sweet.for me its all part and parcel of the enjoyment of owning a bike.
i love to ride,but i love to tinker also.

 

True; and even done right, things will crop up from time to time plus there is always "regularly scheduled maintenance" once you get to ride it enough to actually whack some miles on. All of my bikes have "character" despite being largely reliable; some a tad more than others.

I originally wrote the the piece to address the "something's always going wrong" and "this bike is junk" frustrations often expressed by those who are not being methodical and thorough with their recommissioning attempts. The simple fact is, you can't just start riding a bike that's been "down" for a number of years or you will spend all your time "fighting" it, and get very little riding done. My post was for those who are getting frustrated by the fight; so that they know there IS a way to win.

I prefer turn-key reliability with scheduled maintenance. The only way to get there is to be thorough the first time through. Shortcuts can and will lead to frustration and having to do the same procedure multiple times.

So, for all you new XJ owners who are starting to get frustrated: go back and read the entire thread, along with everyone's comments.

Then take charge of your process.

 

Great post. I just wanted to add a hint on searching the site for information. I have found that the search engine on this site can be a bit hard to use and doesn't return the results you want or you have to search through 100 posts before you find the one that fits what you are looking for.

As an alternative you can use Google to search XJBikes.com. This gives you the flexibility to use Google's powerful search engine. To do this, go to Google.com and in the search box type Site:XJBikes.com your_search_string. Google will return all posts that have your search query.

I like to use the -keyword feature to refine my search. Adding -keyword to your search query will remove from the results any post that contains this keyword. For example, you are doing a search for the words "carb float", you can refine your search by typing "carb float -mikuna". This search will not return any posts with the word mikuna in it.

There are many other features to Google too, just check their advanced help.

 

Bumped this thread again because we have a WHOLE BUNCH of new owners who need to read through the whole thing.

TO ALL YOU "NEWBIES:" A 30-year old motorcycle is NOT the same as a 30-year old car!

When an '82 Chevy suffers a mechanical failure, you coast to the side of the road and get on the cell phone.

A similar mechanical failure on an '82 Yamaha at say, 50mph, can send you to the hospital or worse.

You can't just jump on a 30-year old bike and start riding it. Things need to be attended to FIRST.

Like the brakes.

Please go back and read the original post in this thread.

 

The previous owner of my bike told me the only thing he had done to it for the last 15 years was neglect it. This was fine by me, since tinkering with it was going to be a hobby; the only repair/ restoration/ maintenance that I could be sure of was whatever I did to it.

If I were ever to buy another used bike, no matter how shiny or despite claims by the previous owner, I would assume the same thing. caveat emptor.