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First XJ600 project

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:27 am
by alexxj600
Good morning all,

Just to introduce myself, I'm Alex, nice to meet you all.

After passing my test about a year ago, I decided to move on from my little Suzuki DRZ125 and found a nice 1999 XJ600N. It was just the right size, it was shiny and red and it was within budget, score!

So, after riding it the 30 miles home, I was very very excited, took it into work the next morning to show it off to all my colleagues (who are also bike people) and everyone was amazed at the great condition she was in, 17 years old, yet only 19,000 miles on the clock and absolutely no rust to speak off, great!
Of course, on my way home came the first problem. I got backed into by a white van in a stationary queue at a traffic light. Don't ask me why the guy thought that reversing while in a queue was a good idea or how he didn't see me, but it happened, I tried to get out his way, it didn't work, so I had to let the bike drop and get myself out the way (arms waving in the air shouting at the guy behind the wheel). Thankfully, the bike wasn't even scratched, but once we'd picked it back up, it wouldn't turn over. I pushed it out the way, waited a few minutes to let it drain, tried again, no luck. Got a colleague to come help me and we got her started again and so the saga started. A new battery, and starter motor later (and being stranded on the side of the road and picked up 5(!!!) times) later and the problem was fixed. I celebrated that by taking her a nice long run along the west coast of Scotland on a very rare sunny day, made it almost all the way back home, and about 2 miles before my house in the middle of the motorway, I try to shift down from 6th gear, as traffic was getting heavier and slower and I only find air. After trying to shift a few more times and not finding my shifter I look down to see it hanging an inch off the road. Shit.... So I took the next exit (not mine) with my hand holding the clutch in half the way, as I was now going pretty slowly and parked her on the side of the road once I hit a queue for a traffic light. Some very nice pedestrians helped me get her on the pavement by them lifting the rear wheel while I steered and after almost getting her towed and over an hour frantic googling and thinking what the hell I could do to try to fix this, I had a very MacGyver Idea, using a hairband and a stick of wood from the side of the road, I managed to get it back down to 2nd gear, which allowed me to very slowly and with my hazard warning lights on all the way, make my way home and to my garage. A few spare parts later all was well again, she got new tires as well and the brake callipers stripped and cleaned (she squeaked a lot when braking) she was ready for her MOT, which she passed with flying colours.

There are a few more bits and pieces I changed on her, or I should say the previous owner had changed and I'm putting right again, such as new indicators, proper mirrors and OEM footpegs, fitted a Scottoiler, as the chain was incredibly dirty, but my actual project at the moment is the tank.

When I got her she had a little dent in the tank. It wasn't bad, the previous owner had put a sticker over it, which pretty much hid it, but this bothered me, so I took the sticker off (which took a few pint chips with it) and tried to get the dent out. Since I don't have any real equipment, this sometimes looked pretty comical (at least according to my colleagues) when I tried anything from a toiler plunger to hot water and cold air, to a crowbar and hammer on the inside, but the dent was in such an awkward place that that didn't work and short of buying actual (expensive) dent removal equipment or paying someone a lot of money to get it out, there wasn't anything else left to do but use filler to hide it. Oh and btw, did I mention I'm very tight, so no chance am I paying someone else to do a job I can do myself (more or less well). So I get some sandpaper, filled the dent, and tried to cover it with touch up paint. As I'm sure you can all imagine, it turned out looking pretty crap. So now (a few months later) I've finally gotten around to getting the proper paint in aerosol cans and I'm in the process of re-spraying the whole tank.

That is pretty much all there is to say at this point, I look forward to following all your stories on here!

Alex