New to the site

Hey everyone! i just joined the forum today. i bought my first motorcycle, an 81 xj650 maxim in early spring of this year.

i went to go get my car out of a barn where i had it stored for the winter, and i saw a motorcycle sitting there, i liked the 70s and 80s japenese bike styles. i asked the guy about the bike and he said he bought it a few years back because he had one as a kid, and never really used it, so he wanted to sell it. he said he paid something like 300 for it. i said id buy it for 500, he said it ran but needed work. 35k miles. i should have said less then 500 but oh well. i went to go pick it up the next week with a trailer, and it wouldnt start. seemed like battery was dead. he said he just had it started, and tthe engine was warm. he tried to jump it but no luck, so we push started it and it ran fine, just wouldnt idle. took it home. on the way home one of the hold down straps broke and the bike fell over on the trailer, so my freind sat on the bike the rest of the way home. the battery read good voltage, and i tried jumping with no luck. i took the starter off and the brushes were non-existant and everything was black. well, i knew he lied about it just starting right at this point. i found a local yamaha dealer and boght the new brushes and o rings, cleaned up the rest of it, reinstalled the starter and it started. it would only idle with the enrichment lever on. i rode it for a few weeks, laying the bike down in the process haha (underestimated the speed and overestimated the grip of the front tire., on a crappy road service) but it was fun and i learned from it. haha. so i had 2 broken turn signal lenses, and the exhaust got bent. i rode the bike home and i was very very cold haha. so after that, i fixed the signal lenses. the tank started leaking, and i have a bunch of auto body stuff that was laying around and a mig, so i took the tank off emptied it and let it sit for a few days, tested for fumes, cut off the bottom pinch welds, welded on strips of steel in place and ground. did body work on the tank that was dented. and used caswell tank sealer to be safe. painted with some stuff i had laying around and good to go. next i dissasembled cleaned, and rebuilt carbs. bought a motion pro sync tool and synced, which solved most of my problems idling. used a gunson colortune to tune the idle mix (which i figured out could just as accuratly be done by just listening to the engine speed). sold the colortune. now the biuke runs great! altogether prob. spent around 700 bucks max , including the price of bike. also after a week or so i did all of the scheduled maintainance for 35k miles.

i am planning a 8k mile motorcycle trip very soon (i know the bike is kind of high miles, im still going) and today i went to check valve clearances, and needing a few shims, sent a pm to dave fox (hogfiddle) about the valve shim pool. waiting for a reply.

the forum seems to be very helpful so far!

i have one question about the forum use, are there any ways to keep track of the threads ive recently posted in, without searching the forum?

thanks and hello to everyone!

Chris

 

well, i found that window on the bottom of my "profile" page for viewing recent posts, so that works. but just introducing myself otherwise!

 

Welcome! Click on my account on the left of this post and all your posts are listed