drewpy

sounds like a dodgy earth, I've seen cars with thestop light coming on with the indicators, this is the light earthing through the stop light. just my 2 p's worth

I think its 15 years or older (insurance, vjmc etc). so....yes!

most ally was laquered, and the concensus was to leave bare and polish, as the laquer yellows with age. post a pic of the bike because i can't seem to google a yam dr 250 only a suzy!!

erm...tried the fuses? they could also be "furred up" so preventing power from reaching the front. If you have a multi tester go through each connector for power. Check all earthing points

check your petrol (gas) flow from the tap and then your float height in the carb

I use Millers classic semi-synthetic sport 20/50 in my xs400 £29 for 5 litres, but lasts 2k miles. They also do full synth for modern bikes

have you tried bridgestone BT45's?

not many colour accents, so i would go for silver unless you added more colour elsewhere and matched that in with the scheme.

I seem to remember this was discussed before in this forum. The SR was designed to have 12hp and therefore isn't economically tunable. Better to get a 2 stroke (pre '79 were unrestricted, i had a kh125)and tune them if you're after speed.

clearances close up as the valves recess into the head(wear). from what i belive the xj have bucket and shim,s which requires special tool to insert the shims and a micrometer to measure the shims. Personally i would let a bike shop do it.

have you tried here? http://www.yamahaspares.uk.com/index.html

I would contact a tyre manufacturer and ask them!

I chromed mine, don't try to get imperfections out let the chromers do it, as if the finish is not right they could blame you! here's mine

chain weekly and after rain use cables annually/3000miles i spray ACF (wd40 but better) on plastics (except side panels, rear seat and tank) carb bodies and any exposed alloy hinges etc annually steering bearings depends on tapered or original, usually 6000 miles

depends on your point of view, they are classics as in over 20yrs old, but how many do you see over there? if you can't remember seeing one then there's some kudos in owning one in your part of the world! mine always attracts attention where ever i park up.

I'll check mine in the winter strip down

I used silver hammerite on mine as it has rust inhibitors, must get most of the surface rust off though!!

its sohc, I've seen single disk and tls setups. I think they had pull back bars and other minor cosmetic differences. Bit of Yamarketing if you ask me!!

try here http://www.findyouroldmotor.com/

you could search the uk/ebay for parts or put a wanted ad in the forum! the german site is google translated and it works out at pidgen english but you get the gist of whats going on. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...hl%3Den%26lr%3D I also have the german ebay setup to email me for xs parts as they are avid xs400 fans and parts are cheaper there.

no problem running on unleaded as Yamaha designed for the american market which introduced unleaded circa 1970.

quick google brings up this; http://www.bikez.com/msgboard/msg.php?id=20490&type=bike looks like you up the main jet, or buy a malosi carb for £70. take out a cone in the exhaust and undo the tach to get to a rev limiter and cut the pink wire. Aparently these things can rev to 15000rpm (eek!) must admit they look good

or the rings are worn causing the crankcase pressure to rise forcing oil up.

had a look at a translated german site and it looks like you have to change the camshafts, intakes and CDI box.

on the sohc bikes the camshaft is different and they had extra fillet restricting the carb inlets which can be cut away. the carb jetting needs to be done after the mods to compensate for the extra air flow. possibly the same goes for your dohc model (45hp in uk)