Yamaha xj 650 project

Well as i'm sure a few of you know a xj is not a spot bike. My task how ever is to make it one. here is the starting point






It is a cruiser no doupt about it.

After a little work this week and a new set of headlight brakets and some clubman bars i now have this






I'm working on the carbs now and hopefully i can get all 73 stock ponies running again.

nice, its looking better but ya gotta do something about those turn signals i can't wait to get my parts!

yeah i have been looking around and i found these
http://www.denniskirk.com/jsp/product_catalog/Product.jsp?skuId=&store=&catId=&productId=p210489&leafCatId=&mmyId=

I think i will use these alround. maybe rework the rear brake light as well.

Then i want to redo the seat so the passanger seat becomes a storage area. Maybe make it out of basalt or kevlar.

just thinking i might take the rear fender right off and mount the brake light under the loop behind the seat.

Frist thing is first i have to get it running again. Just finished rebuilding the carbs today. I had a weird issue were i was only running on cyl 1 and 3. I think maybe it is the 2 and 4 coil that went not sure, so i rebuilt the carbs just incase.

what di you order? you should have told me and we could have put our orders together to save the shipping.

oh yeah those turn signals! good choice, love the gay rainbow lens! just kidding it would actually look good! i was thinking of buying them they look cool. keep in mind that people say they can barley see mine which i don't like. anyways good choice. well i bought a integrated led clear lens tail light on ebay the retail value of one is $135 dollars i got mine from germany on ebay for $87 dollars with shipping! cool then i ordered custom made graphics the guy might make 2, 10 inch long LIME GREEN "cbr" decals and the rest of normal size, like the honda wings and f2 decals ECT. they are $28 shipped .... just to accent the bike even more, all less then one clear tail light, pretty cool although the shippment from germany will suck, at least i still got one part that i always wanted since i got the bike. wanna go for a ride on sunday?

Come on over Sunday 11 or so. I'm going to need some help with the bike, need to change the plugs and a few other things need to be put back on. Just got in from ajusting the timing chain and valves. If we can get it running we can head over to Moms house for dinner.

When you go to install those decals we should do a nice respray on the bike first, ie sand down and repaint.

alright that's a good idea!.

I got her running strong today, maybe a little to strong feels like the clutch might be slipping a little might need to be reajusted.

I also got my new mirrors in today and i'm going to install them tonight and take some pics.

cool waht did you do to get them running again?

Well after changing the plugs and rejetting the carbs starting all the carb ajustments from scratch it turns out.... well i think i ran out of gas

It took a little coaxing to get it started once i filled up the tank but now it is running way better then before.
here are some pics with the new mirror




I found these in a bin from my old BMW parts i might use them for head lights on the bike. make it look like the speed triple

haha the speed triple those would be cool but its not gonna look like the triple...sorry bottlecape.

hey i can dream. They also have angel eye rings that can be changed to green, blue or red, just like my tank

yeah, i like mine how the bulbs are blue, i finally painted my tank,and holy shit it was a bitch i also patched up the chip ect. looks better now however i tried using i empty can of primer, and it splattered paint every were so now everything i already painted needs to be painted again! oh well....anyways im gonna buy some decals now.

So a little update on my project.
I got a set of pod filters new carb floats, needles and seals.
I also scored some smaller black side marker lights.
That stuff should be here with in the week.

Now i just have to find a good set of sport bike slip ons
and a fairing i like

Been thinking about this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260382506309&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

cool, I'm thinking about getting a k&N air filter. not sure yet because it's $60.00 but i don't know?. i think rob before you get a fairing you should lower your front end of your bike, cause that fairing will look funny otherwise. that's just my opinion though! i have seen them with long front forks and it just looks kinda weird. most cafe bikes have shorter front forks with real low clip-ons, way below the triple clamp. hopefully you get your bike running soon me and dad might go on a ride this sunday.

Yeah i'm a bit scared to lower the front of the bike as i don't have much ground clearance as it is, any lower and i might scrape.

I think i might be able to get her running tomorrow. Give me a call i might need some help with the carbs.

wow I'm glad we got it running again! that was a great day for riding and man! did we see a ton of ugly paint jobs, sportbikes with flames? and yellow and purple paint jobs? hey if that's what there into i guess.

Well not to say i have a great paint job but some of those were really bad.

On my way home i was hit by a cluster of june bugs. I was so covered in the slime i had to pull over to clean my helmet, I couldn't see a thing.

My new signals should be here tomorrow.

Then i'm on to the exhaust.

that's cool, your bike is really turning around and the paint job is way more acceptable then yellow and purple or weird wavy decals. funny thing yesterday some of my friends at work saw me ride in and asked me if my bike is fun to ride, i said yes and then the question came that almost all my friends ask, "do you do wheelies"?....my response is, "not around cars or people". its a question asked all the time by people. but anyways not to get off topic here one of the kids at work asked, did you paint the green? and i said what? and then i said i bought the green decals, so he replied i think black and green go sooo well together. it was a great day for me.

got my new signals on last night, then tried to test them, They came on but wouldn't blink.

So i checked the blinker relay, the old relay is kind of a great idea. I works off a curent resistance constent. when the curent hits a point it cuts out then re connects the switch. then there is a switch on my clutch that drops the current lower that resets the system. The reason i couldn't get my new lights to work was because the new bulbs are a different wattage then the stock so the current draw was to much to cut the current through the relay.

I went to advance auto and picked up an electric relay switched a few wires around and presto my lights blink. but i did lose the reset function.

I also pulled the front fender, damm that thing weights like 10 lbs!
I also want to lower my fork this weekend.

I will post some picks after our ride tomorrow.

that's strange i never heard of a "curent resistance constent" did you mean, current resistance converter or maybe its something like Current-to-voltage converter you have? that's cool they work now though. oh yeah i remember the weight of those steel front fenders haha they do weigh like 10 pounds.

I ment current resistance constent. Man jump down a guys throat for forgetting an "R".

It means that the current traveling through the relay needs a constent resistance to to operate. It kind of works like a fuse on a spring. when the fuse blows the spring brings the two conectors back together and then the fuse blows again. If you change the wattage of the bulbs the current is changed and the relay doesn't work.

yeah, you told me a million times that ride today was boring i wish we would have had some twisties or something cause riding on a straight long road on a sport bike SUCKS? and dad kept braking through all the turns. but that lake area was nice, even though it had dog shit in every cubic inch enough complaints. i think a race track is going to be my only satisfaction.

we are having a car meet at the end of agust in letchworth state park There are some nice twistys out that way. really the on;y way your going to enjoy a twisty road in near the fingerlakes.

so i got my new signals on and removed a ton of other crap



I also tried to rise the fork legs and the handleing went to hell the bike looked better but at slow speeds it was way nose heavy.

I'm going to look into a upgraded fork and a smaller front wheel.

The next goal will be redoing the rear fender and maybe dive into the seat project. I have to watch my spending though as money is getting tight and i need some new windows for my house.

Man that looks great! It's certainly coming together as a cafe racer. Keep it up!