I own a 1997 XJ600 N since April and this forum helped me quite a bit when I was getting myself familiar with the bike - I really appreciate the time and effort you all put in this forum
I was looking to buy an older bike ('83) and build a cafe racer, but the guy backed out of the deal day before I was supposed to come for the bike. So I went searching the internet for the milionth time, browsing through already familiar bikes and then I came across a few minutes old ad - somebody in Germany was selling a XJ. It looked in great shape, well priced and "only" 6 hours away, so I gave up the cafe racer idea and next day went on a trip to Germany. After all, it's still a great bike to work on, although I can't imagine I would want to turn it into a cafe racer or a scrambler at any point as I originaly wanted.
I couldn't believe it was 22 years old when I saw it, the previous owner (second owner, the first one put around 5.000km on it and sold it) took really good care of it, cosmetic-wise. I took it for a test ride, everything seemed alright, the guy was super nice, showed me his garage and his 6 other bikes(biker family I guess
) and so thats how I became an XJ owner Only thing that needed to be fixed seemed to be a leaking fuel hose, possibly still original - somebody put in another fuel filter and routed the hose differently, so it was sitting on the engine and the heat cracked it. I was driving it like that for a short while and then I started digging in the bike more.
I had to remove the carbs since one was leaking when I started the bike after longer time and I wanted to have a look inside anyways... I will cover that in a different thread sometime since I have some technical questions. I also got new tires on, new battery, new chain & sprocket wheels, overhauled brakes & installed new braided brake lines (there were still OEM ones from '96...), thoroughly cleaned everything, polished panels and the fuel-tank, waxed it and some other minor fixes.
I am very satisfied with how my first bike buying experience went and even glad that the first guy backed out. I am also very happy that I found this community, I would probably struggle quite a bit in the beginning, so again a big thank you
Here is my favourite photo so far (I didn't take many since I keep dismantling the bike insted of riding
):