jmartin1375

I acquired an 82 Maxim XJ650 about 3 months ago. Been riding like crazy since. Love this bike. Hit my first big hiccup. I have a hole in my right exhaust pipe. Very close to the back passenger peg but on the bottom of the pipe. The hole is about quarter sized and it has a crack that goes up the side of the pipe about 3". I doubt this is patch-able. It's not rideable. I tried. It sounds awesome but rides like sh*t. Feels like I'm out of gas. That being said, I need a cost effective replacement. My only dilemma is that this bike is in amazing shape. This small rust hole is the ONLY rust spot on the entire bike. The left pipe looks perfect. Granted, the inside of the pipes could be rusted out for all I know. So...the replacement pipe needs to be super clean and hopefully pretty cheap. The p/n off the pipe is YAMAHA 4H7-14721. Any help is appreciated. I'm also open to cost effective alternative exhaust or replicas. I imagine finding clean pipes that are 30+ years old will be quite a chore. Thanks in advance.

I'm a new rider. Picked up a 1982 Maxim (XJ650) for my first bike. I'm loving it and have picked it up quickly...riding that is. My question is, to those of your that have Maxims, what's the real gas mileage and tank size? My manual claims the tank will hold 3.4 gallons plus .9 gallons for reserve. I don't believe that one bit. So far, I've only been able to get about 100 miles before my bike concs out and I have to switch to reserve. When I fill it, it barely just barely will take 2.5 gallons. I think I'm going to run it dry in the next few days to see how long my reserve will last me. Any advice is appreciated.

So I recently picked up a 82 Maxim/XJ650. It had a bulb that was out on my rear right blinker when I got it. I replaced the bulb and went on my first ride tonight. Half way through the ride I noticed that when I'd hit my right turn signal, my front bulb would stay on solid and the back was out again. Guessing there might be a short someone or something along those lines. Fuses all look good. Not that bulbs are expensive but it's a waste to replace any more without fixing the issue at hand. Any advice is welcome. Thanks

So I figured it out. Sad to say but I had to open the choke up farther. I assumed that since I had been on the bike for an hour or so that it would be warm enough. Guess not. I opened the choke all the way and fired her up. Cranked the throttle a little bit and closed the choke and she was good to go.

I've been riding a Honda Ruckus for like 2 years now and finally decided to upgrade to a real bike. I heard a lot of great things about the XJ650/Maxim so I thought it would be a great starter bike. I've owned it for about 2 hours now and I find myself on the message boards already. Long story short, I spent about an hour riding in a parking lot learning the clutch and gears etc and just getting used to a 453 pound bike as opposed to my 193 pound scooter. Everything went well. I parked the bike and went to show it off to my neighbor and tried to fire her up and she won't start. Starter just clicks and check oil light flashes. It was a warm day here in VA...mid 80's. Maybe due to the low speeds and the fact that this bike is air cooled...I'm possibly looking at an overheat issue? I'm hoping that in an hour or two I can fire her back up and she'll run fine. It's my first bike so I'm really looking forward to the learning experience. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks in advance.