What did you do to your Yamaha today?

Don't forget to level front to back.

 

Replaced the clutch friction & steels today, plates that came out were still in good condition and totally flat but the friction plates are quite hard and glazed. No forbidden glitter or guide chunks in the oil so it was an easy R & R but the ride will have to wait for tomorrow, picked up almost two inches of rain over the weekend and today is cold & snotty.

 

Check ride today with the front wheel off the road in 1st and at the fork stops in 2nd gear, oh yeah I'm a satisfied customer.

 

So today it was step the main jets down to #124's and take it for a long-ish ride to Anoka which is about 65 miles south. While at a gas station I was approached by an older guy who asked straight out "How is it treating you"? I looked up from filling the tank and said it was coming along quite well and he said that he was the original owner of the bike so we got to talking for a while. Very nice guy to say the least, he had to give up riding because of a pinched nerve that wouldn't allow his left foot to move up for the gear change but I let him circle around the lot in 1st for old times sake. It was clear just how attached he was to the bike but was happy to see it in good hands, I'm doing my best anyway. After his short ride he gave me the original set of keys from his keychain and his address.
Clearly our meeting today was not by chance.

 

Of late, having adjusted the valves, replaced the rotor, and got the forks to not leak for the time being, I have been working on ergonomic improvements. I've mentioned before that the Maxim's "cruiser" ergos don't work for my 34" inseam and fake hip. For a while I have been riding around with a "booster seat" (a stack of stiff closed-cell foam) strapped to the seat, until I felt like I've gotten it right. And on Monday morning, I walked out to the curb and found my neighbor had thrown away a couple vinyl-covered recliners. Cool. I sliced 2-foot-square sheets of vinyl from the backs of the chairs, politely asked my wife to stitch them together into a single sheet, and got to work...


Original seat cover. Really in nice condition but for one repaired scuff.


Foam, also in pretty good shape.


The "booster," resting on top of the seat foam. I did not glue it to the seat foam, in case I someday sell the bike to somebody who wants to restore the stock "cruiser" seat profile.


An extra layer of rebonded foam to smooth out the edges. This stuff was glued to the "booster," but not to the original seat foam. Ductape holds things together, sort of, but was removed before covering.

For some reason I didn't photograph the next step, which was to stitch the cover. It was not elegant. I tacked the vinyl, inside-out, to the seat pan. Then I hand-sewed darts in the corners. Flipped the whole thing right-side-out, painted some sealer into the seams, and stapled the cover to the pan. I had an electric staple gun, but it wasn't really up to vinyl over an oddly shaped plastic pan; it's more intended for cloth furniture upholstery being stapled to wood. So there was much cursing and a lot of discarded, bent staples. But I eventually finished the job:


Nobody's going to give it a "best in show" award, but my tush says it's pretty good.

Another "more legroom" project can just barely be seen in the above photo: the lowered footpegs. Here's a better shot:



I had a spare set of both rider and passenger pegs, and so I assembled these from the parts. Flipped the passenger-peg mount (a steel U channel) upside down, trimmed it a bit with the grinder, and welded it to the stub (basically just the casting) of the rider peg. This lowers the footpeg by about 1.5 inches, which is makes my psoas tendon a lot happier when I have to put my foot down at a stop (or, more precisely, pick it up again).

Lowering the shifter pedal (two splines, I think) was no problem. Lowering the rear brake pedal was a bit more of a problem. Lots of fiddling with the stops and adjusters, and it's still not quite where I would like it.



I would like the pedal to be higher, but at the moment it just barely clears the bottom of the footpeg mount. Having a spare pedal, I might try heating up this one and bending it. Or, for the short term at least, I might just put a block on top of it to lift it a half-inch or so. Right now it gets more than a little awkward to push the brake pedal down far enough to do much.

The last thing I did to my Yamaha this week was install a small Puig windshield.



It's a two-point mount and I was worried it might rotate backward, but it has a small screw hole in the mounting. This is supposed to sit above the headlight mounting ear, but of course that doesn't quite fit so I drilled a couple small holes and installed some self-tapping sheet metal screws. The windshield works pretty well, not well enough for me to ride with face shield open but enough to make the bike more comfortable on chilly mornings. Most important, I took it on a 90-mile shakedown ride today in winds that were 20 mph sustained gusting to over 30, and it didn't affect the bike's stability any.

At this point, between the ergonomic upgrades and the mechanical stuff I've done (valve adjustment, front brake disc, etc.), I think the bike is in good enough shape for its first overnight trip to a place relatively far from home. This weekend, I'm planning to ride up to the Slimy Cruds Cafe Racer Tour in Pine Bluff and Leland, Wisconsin. It should be about 400 miles over two days. I've put more than 1500 miles on the bike since bringing it home, and it's brought me home every time, so I think it's ready for the trip. I hope...

 

I don't see why not, so far I've done roughly the same miles on my SECA and never gave a thought to a problem on the road. I'm curious tho regarding your seat & foot rest mods; how is the Maxim different than the SECA? I'm 5-10 and don't have any real issues with the ergonomics of the bike or hitting the ground with my feet flat on the stock seat, I do get the occasional hip cramps that make for a miserable ride but they're not from the bike. Actually I've had COVID three times now and omicron once over the past four years and now suffer from the long-haul which includes some collosal muscle cramps, there are days I simply can't ride no matter how hard I try.

I really like the little windscreen and would like to find a something similar for my SECA. Straight up those are some sweet mods that get two thumbs up.

 

Excellent!

For some reason the final product seat cover pics aren’t showing (for me at least).

Nice work though!

 

@ScottFree Very nice work making the bike fit you. Its easy to get stuck on "Well this isn't stock!" but these bikes aren't museum pieces and if a custom modification makes it a better bike for YOU it is the right thing to do.

Good report on the windshield. I think that upward curve at the tip help a lot. I wish somebody that made one of the larger windshields offered one with the swoop at the top. The most effective screen I've ridden with was stock on a Triumph. It was small, but had the curve and blocked the wind amazingly well. I really like how that Puig looks on yours.

 

Could somebody sanity check my placement of this rubber ring? It's been way too long since I took these forks apart. '81 XJ750 Seca

 

Yes that is the correct position.

 

Also come up and does anybody know what threads these are? I've clearly been using the wrong bolts in them. Top of steering yolk where the cover connects under the badge cap on a Seca.

 

Not sure but a thread gauge is worth getting so you can measure the gauge of fixings.



I think the bolts are M6.

 

I think I remember a while back someone posting Yamaha part number decoding - so in your case this would be a 6 mm 25mm long. I couldn't find the post and not sure about the pitch, but probably 1 mm.

 

I have a gauge but with them being chewed up a bit, I didn't know how reliable it would be.

Thx.

 

Yes!

 

Y’all are the best.

 

hunted down, and repaired fuel leak.
o rings at fuel rail tee.
back on the road.

 

Last night in the motel parking lot I learned the Maxim’s ignition switch has two fork lock positions, one of which turns on the tail light. Luckily my neighbor noticed this and pointed it out before it sat on all night and drained the battery. I vaguely remember one of my other Japanese bikes having such a “feature.” I think it was some kind of European parking thing.

 

I discovered this only after my battery had died...

 

Been there, done that back in 1995 (luckily not since). Just warned my friend about that with a new-to-him KZ1000 police bike (Early 2000s) when I noticed the extra key position.