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Take the plug out, do you have compression? Take the head off is there a piston and what does it look like? Take the barrel off is there a con rod? You can work it out from there on your own I expect. No simple answer other than what AIRHEAD suggests, your just gonna have to get your hands dirty/oily. P.S. not taking the piss, this is just the wonderful world of motorcycling.

Might be your style of riding that does it, if your heavy on the throttle then you will get less mileage but 20 mpg more on your son in law's bike might mean that you need to adjust your carb settings, it might be running a bit rich and that would make your mileage worse as you use more for every mile you travel. Just a thought but what do you weigh? It could just be that your bigger than him so more weight to move means more petrol/gas to get it shifting, plus do you have a windshield or some other thing attached to your bike that he does not that could make a big difference to how the bike runs, just a thought really as with out a comparison just shooting wild as to what the problem if any might be.

HI Cyl, Some do offer insurance with new bikes but it's not always the cheapest deal, get a quote BEFORE you go and see what they can offer, if all else fails then try for a few freebees, helmet/gloves/boots/jacket anything you can swing out of it will be a bonus, so go in with the idea that your NOT going to buy unless there is a sweetener and make it plain that there are other dealers out there and see what he says, the worst that can happen is you end up with just a bike and that's what you went for anyway.

Ok I see what you mean now, I would suggest that you look for a second hand cluster or as I said before look for some thing off of another bike, if you go for another bike cluster you can make up a bracket to fit and then mount the new one onto the bracket that shoulkd give you loads of room to find one you like rather than pay 400 bills for something that is right but expensive. I would phone round your local breakers or use the net to see what's out there, I happen to have a full set of clocks for an XJ900 in my garage but as we are 3000 miles apart not a lot of good to you. So to recap make up a bracket that spans across the original holes/mounting points that has a 90 degree bend in it so you can drill it to fit anything you like the look of, then go find said clocks and connect them up. It might be an idea to ask your local Yammie dealer/mechanic what he/she would suggest as an alternative to the originals, he/she has probably seem all sorts of horrors that people have done to their bike and might be able to suggest an alternative, one thing you need to do is make sure the speedo cable thread that goes to the clocks will tighten up ie it has the same thread, as theres nothing worse than getting it all fitted to find that that damn things have different fittings. Hope some of that helps mate and perhaps you would let me know how you get on as it's always nice to find out if your ideas are great or total crap, ride safe. P.S. DON'T forget to do an intro, some will not talk to you till you do, they like to know who they are talking to.

MIne would be my old bonnie that I sold when I was young and stupid, my neighbour has a 750 bonnie in his garage that he's afraid of so I keep chipping away at him to sell it, living in hope, would not want to ride it just sit it in the living room and look at it! The wife would have a few words to say no doubt.

Running in is about NOT overstressing the engine, it has nothing to do with speed and has everything to do with being gentle with your engine so DON'T go flat out nor run it really slow in low gear let it run freely using gentle throttle and gear shifting and you should be fine in aboiut 250 miles, all my rebuilds have been treated this way and I have never had a problem, tell a lie my AJS used to eat crank pins cos it was badly designed but your bike is well made and can take it if you treat it right.

Hi Michael, welcome to the YOC, if you have any probs then bung it in the workshop section if it's just general chat then try the BAR. Nice little bike you have, heard lots of good things about them.

Your right of course that the wiring diagram only shows the 3 connectors and it probably will not matter what you use as long as it has the same voltage, but what happened to the original one? and why was it removed? Was it just to tidy up the front end that it was removed or some thing else? It might be an idea to look for an original part from a breaker near your self or even evilbay has some good bit's and bob's now and then that might fit, or better still if the originals are so expensive why not try one off a different Yammie that is cheaper, if your not concerned about looks then it should be an easy fix but if you want the bling factor then the more shiny it is the more it will cost. I see in your original post that it costs 400 dollars for the proper one that it should have so one off of any cheap yamm will almost certainly fit and work it's just as you say the red line warning that you will have to keep an eye on when riding. Take a photo of the instrument area and post it up, it might be that theres a bolt on cheap part that will drop straight in! What is the fixing for the present part ie does it sit on a mounting or is it just bolted to some where for convenience? Sorry to be so long winded about this but without a picture it's difficult to get a handle on what might work.

HI Bertie, Not sure if the forks your on about will fit but the only thing I do know is that the fork rake angle should not be changed, if the forks you want to use are longer or shorter than the present ones I would say that it not a good choice to put them in but if they are approx the same size give or take a few mils then it shouldn't be a major problem, if you put in really long forks for instance the rake will tend to tip the bike backwards ie towards the rear wheel whereas to short will tip it forward over the front wheel thus changing the dynamic of the bikes handling and putting extra strain on the fork yoke and steering head. Hope that makes some sort of sense and at least gives you a running start on what not to put in.

HI Roy and welcome,

Hi Murf, Welcome to the YOC, Theres a guy on here ANDYBUC who has one of your dream bikes, he has just posted about a vibration in the floorboards so he might be a good guy to PM and have a chat with. Look for XVS Yamaha floorboard vibration in yamaha customs section.

Welcome Andy, looks like you have found your new home, good luck finding your bike and with your CBT.

Hi, Might be an idea to get hold of a manual for it BEFORE you attach anything to the electrics, tachos are usually vehicle specific, so just bunging on the first shiny bit you like might be a bit of a mistake. check twice fit once is a good way to go. Oh and please do an intro (see above) it's just polite to say Hi first so we know who were talking to. Other than that Welcome to the YOC it's always nice to meet new people.

NO not at the same time it's not that big but he really bangs on about it.

Welcome Jerry, nice project bikes, should keep you busy for a few months, happy days happy thoughts, wish you lots of luck.

Hi Baggo, My neighbour swears by his ARGOS plastic green house, cost him about 30 quid and he can get most of the bike in it plus he uses it as a spray booth, talk about multi functional, always worth a look I suppose.

Thank you AIRHEAD as usual the font of all knowledge & a master of suspense.

HI Andy, Ok listened to your noise, seems a bit odd but just a suggestion it is probably/possibly air being forced back past the rings on the compression stroke, if you look at your vid it only happens when the piston is rising towards TDC and drops off immediatly you pass the compression stroke. Course it might be nothing like that but it's a suggestion not a diagnosis. Do a compression test to see if its got the right pressure. Hope that helps a bit.

There was another question the other week about removing the floor board thingys and replacing them with foot pegs, don't know what happend to it might be worth while having a search through the old message boards to see if that might be the way to go. It was someting about getting the bike to lean a bit further when cornering I think, I don't know much about them, do they scrape on the ground when you lean it hard over? This might solve 2 problems with one fix!

Funnily enough Matthew I was goiing to suggest just that about the bottle, had the same thing on my AJS many moons ago and found that if I ran it into a bottle when out and about as soon as I parked it it filled itself back up again, worked right up till the crank pin broke and sent the flywheels through the casing.

Try riding an OLD XJ750 for a couple of hundred miles THEN you will know all about vibratio!! :biglaugha:

Hi Jimmy, If I still had it I would not swap it, some twat sold it years ago (ME, what a DUMB ARSE) if only we could go back an give ourselves a clout round the ear when we were about to do something monumentally stupid!!! ARGHHHH! I'm upset now

There are some things you SHOULD NOT do when your 80, sticking your head between your legs and kissing your arse goodbye is one of them. :biglaugha:

Hi Andrew, murph4017 had a post up about this in 2008 would you believe! seems to be par for the bike from what I can remember he suggested wearing thicker soled boots? Seems a bit simplistic but if it worked for him give it a try.

Looked at your MR2 site that looks quite slick, really would make a nice addition to the site and help out with common probs. All you need to do now is get it set up (not going to hold my breath waiting tho). Have you asked ALEXASIGNO if it can be done? I think it's him who runs the site, or not maybe, someone must run it and be able to add or remove stuff! Embarrased to say I DO NOT KNOW who is responsible for the site and it's management, perhaps one of you could let me know?