1982 XJ550 - lets make this thing cooler - thread
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:03 am
Just to recap:
Back in October 2012 I was finally able to get my motorcycle license. To make sure I could ride, I bought an old XJ600 pre-Diversion that needed 'some' work. In the end I did a lot of work on it. You can see what I did in the XJ600 project thread.
In the end, the XJ600 wasn't my ultimate bike. So, I sold it to make room for another bike. My Honda Transalp. Which, funnily enough, is a bike bought in the US that has made a trip across the ocean to end up here in the Netherlands. Read more about that in the Transalp project thread.
That was when I thought I would quit the XJ's and move on. But faith intervened. I came across a guy that wanted to sell his XJ550, but nobody wanted to have it. So, after a bit of emailing, I snapped it up for a song and took it home.
This thread starts at that email exchange and will hopefully evolve into a full project thread where I will get the XJ550 running (already did that) and modify it into something cool and different.
Stay tuned!
(Recap added 7 March 2014)
Ok, I might be back as an XJ rider sooner than we all expected. I talked to someone and one thing led to another, which means that I will hopefully be picking up a 1983 XJ550 on Saturday evening. It has had a service and a new rear tire, but runs like **** as the current owner switched to pod filters and never changed jets. So the cold start is terrible etc. Fork seals are shot and the bike was meant to be a winter bike, so it is not that much of a looker. I am thinking about turning this one into a cafe racer. But first I have to make some room in the garage.
Pics as the bike gets here...