I need sympathy!

Which bike are you referring to? My Seca?

 

The XJ 900f Joshua they were referring too although all of the engines are well engineered.

 

Bike couriers have used a large variety of motorcycles, but yes, the XJ series, particularly the 650/750 were a fairly common site in most major UK city's, 80's/90's...well into the early 2000's...and yes, the XJ900F and later Diversions were popular too!!

I ran an XJ650, XJ750 and a Maxim 750......most of my XJ's went North of 120,000 miles (abused, maintained sparsely) until the dreaded shift fork/alternator chain guide breakup disease struck.....but once fixed, one of mine went on for another 120K.....for a total of 240,000 miles, still on the ORIGINAL driveshaft, albeit very clunky in 1st> 2nd......my others went to 140K, and the Maxim i sold on at 90K miles.....only my Kawasaki GT550's/750's came close, in reliability, although my chain drive GPz900R also hit 120,000 miles.......but not on the original chain!!

Other courier favorites were the Beemers.....especially the R90's,R100s but also the K 'brick' series, CX500's/650's and Vt500's.....occasionally you'd see a GT650 Suzuki shaft...one of my mates went round the clock.....twice!!

It wasn't unusual for bike (motorcycle) couriers to average anywhere from 50K miles a year, upto and beyond 100K......

 

Thanks for sharing. I wish I knew the exact mileage on my bike. It's definitely had a full life. Any chance you've heard of high mileage XJ550 Secas?

 

No...not specifically but it is a very similar/robust engine design.......

Mostly it was the shaft driven motorcycles that got (regularly) chosen as courier/dispatch bikes......not exclusively, but more than often.....

In fact there was a famous Manchester (UK) courier outfit that would ONLY hire shaft driven BMW riders......i was turned down, more than once, and proceeded to laugh my head off when I heard one of their riders BM's had 'expired' at a measly 90,000 miles......of course, i has to go round there, with my (then) 110,000 mile XJ750.......just to teach them a lesson.....like you do

 

Not sure, but the XJ550 was a bit different design in that it used a primary chain to drive the transmission instead of direct gears. This chain has a tendency to stretch and thereby eventually need replacing. I have a 30,000 mile 550 SECA with the tell tale symptom of a lumpy (irregular) idle sound. This is due to the hydraulic (uses engine's oil) tensioner which is not enough to off set the chain stretch at idle. At higher rpm the hydraulic pressure is strong enough for the tensioner to work more effectively. I am running my bike this way without issue. But I would guess this will limit the bikes overall service life.

 

Interesting you say that since I've heard Volvos are hard to work on too but very good cars nonetheless.

 

What limits service life is irreplaceable wear items. The primary chain is replaceable.

Unless you're using the thing to make money, in which case the limitation on service life includes R&R cost.

Take the machines running in the Motorcycle Cannonball as an example of how service life can be extended nearly indefinitely with due care.

 

K-moe they have a 1914 Harley Davidson in it. To be honest I have never heard of the Motorcycle Cannonball until now. Awesome keeping older machines servicable I like that.

 

If you're doing it right, an old bike costs as much as a new one. An old one allows you to trade some time for $$, and to make the payments without interest. Even the nicest old bike will have neglected servicing items.

BTW, I bought a new XS650 in 1983. I still have it and it's getting tired. At VYR, the guys behind me offered to wring out their clothes and put the oil back in my engine. Time for overhaul. I am my own dreaded PO!

 

Yikes! Get thee to an exorcist stat!

 

I know this post is a little old but I thought I'd update on changing the exhaust with that god forbid old one that was welded to the swing arm. In a nutshell, the new exhaust sounds awesome! I stumbled upon an Kerker 4 into 1 exhaust that literally says XJ on the muffler that a guy with a 550 parts bike sold to me for 65 bucks. The baffle inside was broken and I couldn't find a new one for it so I had a welder fix up the original in 10minutes. He didn't even charge me. Then my car mechanic cut off the old mufflers for free also!!! Note, bring your mechanic beers and sandwiches every once in a while. I bought some fiberglass wrap and wrapped the crap out of it and voila. The sound has a nice lower body bass sound that is just awesome. It is also waaaaaay lighter then what was on there. The original stock exhaust is HEAVY! I mean, like, really really heavy. I was also able to finally change the shocks and man this is a whole new bike!

Next: adjusting cam chain and valve job. Ugh! Almost there before this bike runs perfect.

Question: Can a lose cam chain and or bad valves affect the gas mileage? I still feel like I'm getting horrible gas mileage on it.

 

Yes