Longest time between registering and posting? 1982 XJ650

Just here to say hi and thanks for all the information that has been collected here. I'm at the start of my journey to get a bike running that last ran around 20 years ago. The previous owner...was me.

I bought this bike on Craigslist somewhere around 2001, for $800. I rode it for a season (or more?) and eventually let it sit neglected for too long. It no longer ran, and my brother offered to work on it to develop his skills. I let him take it, and it sat in his storage shed for a long time while he kind of worked on it, and kind of didn't have time for it. I also didn't have time (or skills) for it. Several years later I just accepted that I probably wouldn't see the bike again.

Apparently in 2008 I signed up for this forum (and here is my first post 17 years later). I didn't ride anything for several years, and then around 2016 I got back into riding. I now own a Yamaha FJR1300. I'm definitely not a mechanic, but I followed some YouTube tutorials and managed to do some basic maintenance on my FJR, like the valve check/adjustment.

Fast forward to today, and my brother is finally cleaning out his storage shed and wants to give me back this bike I barely remember.

On one hand, I don't really NEED this bike. My shed is cramped already and I love my FJR. On the other hand, I would love to get this running again just for bragging rights. My plan is that I'm not going to put a ton of money into it, and if it looks like a lost cause I'll just sell it for whatever I can get. But like the cliche "was running when parked", I actually know that it REALLY WAS running when parked! It's just been around 20 years since that.

So far:

• It was very difficult to push. We first thought it was just because the tires were flat. But I realized the front caliper was seized. It has now been removed from the rotor and I'll deal with that later.
• I ordered two new tires, just because I will be pushing it back and forth from storage to the workspace many times. The existing front tire was dry rotted and wouldn't hold air.
• I ordered the gaskets to do a valve check. My brother had the valve cover off already and the gasket is gone. I'm not sure what he did inside there. I'm hoping it is similar to a valve check on the FJR. All Yamahas are the same, right?
• The carbs were already off the bike. I ordered a rebuild kit and am kind of intimidated by the big pile of parts that arrived. Lots of YouTube and instructional posts are in my future.
• It has the pod air filters. They worked fine when the bike was running, but I've already seen enough stories about how difficult they are to work on. And hopefully the carb rebuild kit I got will bring me back to stock settings, so I guess I'm on the lookout for an air box now. I saw that the XJ750 air box is larger than the XJ650. With the difficulty in installing/removing them, would I be better of getting an XJ550 airbox? Or would that not provide enough air? Are there generic air boxes that will work?
• It has an aftermarket exhaust, foot pegs, and an ugly seat/sissy bar. Those are fine, for now. I'm not trying to restore it to it's original condition. I just want to get it running.

I guess next is checking to see if the engine is seized, see what I can do with the carbs, and then see if the bike will even try to start. Then I'll figure out where to go from there. This will be a very slow process, though. I'm keeping the bike at a friend's house, and may only have time to wrench for a few hours once every couple of weeks. I'm not in a hurry, though.

I've only dumped $330 into the bike so far ($225 of which was tires), so if it's not salvageable I won't be too upset. But since I know it ran in the past and it hasn't been out in the rain, I feel pretty good about it.



Ah, this felt like a therapy session!

 

Belated welcome...!

 

Not to worry. From the photo that looks well save-able. These bikes are very durable and forgiving. My 1980 650m Maxim, aka "Sweetness" had sat unused and untouched since 1984 until last Spring now she is Sweet. There is lots of help here so you are in good company.

 

I don't think other airboxes will fit right. The boot holes spacing will probably not line up with your carbs. Somebody else will probably chime in.

 

Indeed, you need the correct maxim air box, if you want everything to be easy. Bike looks a lot better than my Seca, which was £50 and came on a pallet, less front forks, wheel, fuel tank, side overs, plus the engine was seized, along with the clutch...