What did you do to your Yamaha today?

How would that help?

 

I'm wondering the same thing...

 

Seat is higher and further back, pegs are further back. That's it.

 

Working to bend the front fender back.

Re aligning forks. What is torque spec of this bolt?

 

You shouldn't need to deal with that at all.

 

Without a front fender you'll be getting a lot of dirt kicking up in front of you that will end up on both your body and in your face. Forget about riding it in the rain without a face shield! "Bobbing" the fender to a shorter length is well worth considering.

 

Just a few pics of my SECA from this afternoon

 

That is what I was thinking plus the cross brace. I did end up clamping the fender in my old Black & Decker workmate bench and bent things back into shape. Its back on the bike.

Well, I loosened it cause that is what the video I watched said to do. Got things straightened out but need to torque this down fully. I don't think it was torqued down much cause it did not take much to loosen it.

 

Another hundred miles of mixed riding today and the clutch has gone from one extreme to another and slipping under power just after a shift. It's holding road power and when I do a full throttle pass but we're having a very breezy day and I'm not going to push it. Thinking I may do a full circle ride around Mille Lacs this weekend, no RVs to compete with.
Overall it's definitely more sport bike and far stiffer than my old Honda CBX and Kaw K1000 even with my 220 pounds of weight. Going to change the leaking cam cover gasket this afternoon and make another run, I'm just outside Ogilvie MN with plenty of long county roads and no one to really bother me, the fruitcakes come out once the ice is off the lakes.

 

My XS is probably not much different clutch wise from an XJ. If I don't get the adjustment screw for the cable inside the right cover set just right mine will do the same exact thing. If I need to tighten my cable up with the lever somewhere just beyond the point of having any slack and can't get rid of clutch drag then I know it's time to open it up and adjust it.

 

Difference I found though was my XS was sensitive to temperature cause of the metal rod and the aluminum case. A known issue. Solved that by a guy that sold an aluminum rod (that might need more frequent but EASY replacements).

 

I slacked up the cable some during my ride today and got a little play in it but the clutch will slip if I hit the throttle hard after backing off, the bike will make a 50 to 75 pass without flaring up but I don't want to burn it any more. Running Shell Rotalla-T diesel oil now so I'm thinking this is just old-fashioned 36K miles of wear.
Once I warm up some I will take a closer look at the service manual while I watch on of the Dirty Harry flix, kitties want some lap time. Friday is going to be cold but they're promising us highs in the upper 50 close to 60 by monday and I want to get more miles on the bike.
Overall it cruises well, speedometer is waaayyyyy off the mark and I got stopped for doing 86 when the needle was showing 65... thought it seemed a little fast. Going to fashion a mount for my Garmin Nuvi and a small 5V power supply to run it.

 

When you strip the clutch, check that all the steel plates are flat - if they're not, you cannot get a decent bite point setting. It's like you don't have enough travel in the clutch lever (or cable more correctly).

 

I found a really nice tank to replace my original. The paint is perfect with the only imperfection being cracks in the decals. I'll treat the inside for surface rust and leave it bare. I can hardly believe I was the only bidder!

 

Moved bike out of hibernation and put other seca in its spot. Hopped on and started it up dropped it and gear ....died, tried it again same cycled kick stand and all was good . Rode around the block it just did not pull like it should pulled into garage . The number four cylinder pipe was not hot pulled plug was not to bad , I have spares swapped in another plug problem solved . Since it snowed quite a bit Friday night and salt and sand everywhere elected to only go around a couple of blocks a few times . Felt great to ride but want to ease back into riding since my last ride was in October.

 

I did not winterize any of my bikes. Took the '78 XS650 and the '83 stock XJ650 out for 30 min rides.
'78 XS is kick start and electric start. I had been using just electric till today and decided I'll just use kick for now to build up better experience with it. It started today both times on first kick.
Both XS and XJ needs some warm up time. 46F when I took the ride today. '83XJ has not been out in almost a month. Took a while to get carbs wet enough to start.

 

The last time I had Maxie ('80 650 Maxim) out he came home with the speedometer screaming and the needle bouncing around crazily. Just before we pulled in to the house the bouncing needle snapped itself off. So. Clocks off and apart, the needle I put the tiniest drop of superglue on and stuck it back to the stub and reinforced with red shrink tubing that just fit over the needle. I had to stretch it a bit to get over the base of the stub. With it shrunk in place all seems well. A couple of drops of very fine, light oil and exercise with a q-tip and it seems quiet and working. So far so good. Oh, and while apart the cable got cleaned and lubed as well. Photo when I figure how to get it from my phone to the computer............

 

My speedometer drive was screaming so loud yesterday I could hear it over the engine, the needle was rock steady so I suspect the noise is from the input bushing itself but it's annoying regardless and will get a shot of weasel juice this afternoon when I change the oil. Going to a "lower" grade of conventional oil to address the clutch slip issue, it's not getting any worse and it only began when I went with Rotella triple protection synthetic. The plan is to tie the clutch lever in and allow some fresh oil to drool down into the pack using a small pump & hose and out the drain before dumping in the fresh charge. We're about to experience a 60+F day before another shot of cold tomorrow, drain plugs have been out all night on the center stand and they were opened hot after a few mins of idle. Parking for the night the fuel cock is closed and I allow it to idle the fuel out of the carb bowls pulling the enrichment at the end.
Overall I will say it's been quite the fun bike, it doesn't have the raw pull that the CBX had but I was a skinny kid back then who only saw the road a quarter mile at a time. The 750 seca has plenty of what it takes to firmly plant my fat @$$ in the seat and once the clutch issue is addressed I will go with a heavier hand, I've been very hesitant on the throttle going around the curves and thru the intersections not knowing where the slip threshold is so playing it safe for now. If I had to bitch about something it would be the gearing that puts the engine at a resonance around 65 MPH, I don't see an easy solution to this issue with the shaft drive.

 

Speedo Scream of Death:
See Hoggfiddles Post 61 and then my post 69
My '83 was test ridden when it was cold out and suspect the cold thinning up the gunky oil exacerbates the scream

https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/1983-xj650-maxim-bringing-back-to-life.131454/page-4

 

I blasted both the cable & speedo itself with some weasel juice this morning and it's been quiet all day. Also changed over to dino oil and that seems to have solved the clutch slipping but I didn't really get on it, got a cold front moving in for the next few days so things will have to wait.