Can you hear/see any problems? Video of my xj650

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTJueV9m0Ec

Just got my bike out of the garage, where it has been for 3 months. I put it away last year after adding 3k+ miles to it's existing 5k. It started in a couple tries, with the choke, and warmed up.

At one point when I took it off the choke it would idle slow and it seems to be missing a few beats here and there, and a twist of the throttle would stop it from stalling. This happened a couple times while I inspected the bike, and disappeared once it got warmed up.

Once on the bike and putting some torque on the engine, it put out some smoke, white/blue from the exhaust, not too much, but never backfired or got funky. That want away within a mile. From then on it rode as well as I remember it riding (not great, but the thing did take me around the Great Lakes).

So, when done I thought I would take a video, with sound, of it, and see if anyone could ID any issues. I don't have any other bike friends nearby to help diagnose or even tell me if it sounds OK. The mechanic who did work on it previously said it sounds ok, but not great.

I'm making my way thru "the list", with an emphasis on the safety bits, and in the coming week am going to start the fusebox replacement, light upgrades, and a front brake rebuild.

I put the camera close to the bike to get the sound, and also so you could hear the different sounds from different parts of the engine. Imagine some coals getting ready on the grill and cold beers in our hand. 8^)

 

Couldn't tell much from the video, but it seems to run smoothly at idle. Sounds similar to mine, as far as I can tell.

These are known to be cold blooded. That is, they need to warm up to run best. You shouldn't need any choke once warmed up. When you ride, how's the throttle response through low-mid-upper ranges? Does it return to idle speed after you blip the throttle or does it hang at higher rpms? Do you know if the valve shim clearances have ever been checked? They are critical at your bikes mileage.

 

pbjman:
Yah, the pickup on that phone is just tiny little voice mic and it gets a bit overwhelmed, also loses alot of the high end.

Didn't take it up above about 4k rpm on this ride, in the city, but last I rode it on the open rode the throttle response was fine through all the ranges.

I just got all I need from Chacal to do the valve shim clearance check, and should knock that out in the next week. Nothing has been done to the engine since the original PO handed it over -- but mechanics have since replaced rear brake shoes, changed all the fluids, rebuilt fork seals and headset bearings, and new tires.