Holy Hannah! I'm back!

It's been a mighty long time. Here it is, ladies and gents, my 1985 Yamaha Maxim XJ700. It's not an X, but it's pretty darned close.

I bought this bike from a fellow in Frankenmuth, MI, home of Bronner's Christmas Store and a bunch of German folks. You can call 1-800-fun-town and learn all about it. (Seriously. 1-800-fun-town.) The bike was pretty dirty when I first went to see it, and it had a lot of similarities to the X. In fact, when he first posted the bike on Craigslist, I thought for sure it WAS an X! I jumped on it right away. A friend of mine drove me to Frankenberry so that I could drive the bike back home.

When I arrived, the bike was on a charger. Not the best image to be presented with, to be sure, but I thought, "Okay, a new battery, not a big deal." The bike obviously sat in his garage over the winter, and hadn't seen the clean side of a sponge in I don't know how long. And what the hell? A HD windscreen jerry-rigged to the handlebars! ON a Yamaha! The nerve!

On closer inspection, I noticed the 5Valve chrome covers were gone, there was no radiator, no temp gauge... hey! This isn't an X! Plus, the biggest giveaway of all... YICS. So, I resigned myself to pass on this little bike. The guy wanted $900 for it. He claimed that the bike was serviced every spring, the head gasket had recently been changed, and the carbs recently cleaned. I offered him $700. Where's the pride in ownership? Couldn't you have at least cleaned the dead bugs off the windscreen? He countered with $800 and I said, "Sold."

I took it for a quick test ride. I had to keep the bike running, because once off, the bike needed a jump to start again. Acceleration was whoooeeee! Brakes worked fine, all lights, yadda yadda... yes, TCLOCS was observed.

So, handing over my hard earned cash, I jumped on the bike (after attaching my bike plate) and rode off into the sunset. The bike had a full tank of gas (probably low octane, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt). My back up driver pulled out, and I followed close behind. We had set up a complex system of hand signals (mainly, my waving like a madman if I needed him to pull over, as well as frantically switching my hi-lo beams in a random fashion) and he promised to monitor me closely.

We made it 72 miles before the old red-eye started glowing, so I waved to my friend, and we took the next exit. I knew I had to shut off the bike to open the tank, but my trusty friend was there with jumper cables to give me a boost. It took several attempts, but finally we were on the road again.

I made it home with little trouble, and by then, it was getting dark... but not so dark I couldn't ogle the bike for a while. I started cleaning it right away (picture above is post clean).

The engine is going to take a while to get shiny, as I am experimenting with the best solvents to use (a combo of low grit sandpaper, degreaser and rubbing compound) which is taking FoReVeR.
But, it's coming along nicely. The dirt has been removed, and the bike is almost to my standards of clean. Oh, I took that Harley Windscreen off and cleaned up the handlebars. If you're in the market for a used windscreen, check your local landfill. That's where HD accessories hastily rigged to a Yamaha belong.

The next day, I removed the air filter (looked like the original) and replaced it with a leftover from my X. The battery was bought, filled and installed, then tested. You'll be happy to know, the bike started pretty much right away. I cleaned out the dead bugs in the battery box... who knew it was an insect mauseleum? Wiped everything down so if the clean police show up and demand to check under my seat, I'll have nothing to worry about.

The bike came with the original Yamaha tool set! Yay! I used these to remove the spark plugs. They look a little lean, but nothing a carb tune can't fix. I plan to do that soon. Just as soon as I replace the caps and boots for the plugs. I think the resistance is high. I need a YICS tool. The plans to build one are on the net. I just need to download it and get to buildin'. I'm also ordering the newest XJCD set.

Here's a short video of the bike shortly after the battery installation. Adjusted the accelerator
so it's idling at 1050rpms (app.) More stuff to come.

Oh yeah. That damned windscreen is still attached. I removed it shortly after this video was taken.