Bigwol

Carbs now balanced and idle mixture sorted, now well behaved.

Bought Left and Right Yamaha mirrors this year, last year they were unobtanium, and my RH mirror was driving me nuts (vibration and rattles), suddenly this summer, the genuine Yamaha mirrors became available through dealers at about £45 ea, so I bought a RH mirror. Transformation - no vibes no rattles and clear vision. So I bought the LH one to match - same thing - now both perfect, and (having experienced the 'Pattern Quality' LH mirror for 6 months) there's no contest, OEM beats cheap Chinese replica hands down. While I was at it, I took the RH mirror which rattled apart, and found out why it rattled! Genuine Yamaha, and the same age as the bike probably 25 Years old, behind the crazed discoloured mirror, I found 2 'pig iron' weights, rough bars of metal plus a lot of yellow dust. I suspect that originally (and for all I know in the replacements which work so well), the weights acted as mass dampers, embedded in an expanded foam, which then disintegrated over time leaving the weights free to bang about inside the mirror, adding to, not reducing the vibration! And yes - they were handed threads.

True, Dealer servicing was not always great. In the early 1980s, my brand new Kawasaki Z750E went into West Brom Kawasaki for a service (they are no longer in existence - probably for the best!), and came out rather less serviceable than when it went in! The drive chain tension had been adjusted, but the mechanic forgot to tighten the rear axle nut. I can tell you that discovering a loose rear axle when accelerating enthusiastically past traffic on the dual carriageway is an extremely interesting experience, and not one I would want to repeat.

Mine may have been subjected to slightly less arduous conditions due to the constant stream of oil leaking from the oil cooler adapter seals, all over the underside of the sump, main stand, and suspension! Seal now replaced, so I should probably look at the rear suspension this winter!

My XJ600 was cheap to buy, I bought it for £600 as a misbehaving 'won't run in the wet' kind of project, from someone who had paid the same money for it a year or so before, and spent a lot on it including a new stainless Motad exhaust, new(er) secondhand forks, and various sundry parts and then tried (and failed) to get it through the MOT. At this point the previous owner lost patience with his 'project', bought a running, MOT'd Honda VFR800 and offered me the two wheeled, MOT-less paperweight for what he originally bought it for. I like a challenge, but if I'd known just how much of a 25 year old, sound but poorly maintained motorcycle actually needs replacing to bring it up to scratch, I might not have taken it on. Looking at the bike now it seems worthwhile, but when you're in the middle of doing battle with the mis-firing cantankerous oil shedding, fork leaking, clutch dragging pile of japanese 'reliable engineering' - there are days when you wonder why you started trying to mend it in the first place. And don't get me started on the complete non-availablity of useful stuff like carb to airbox rubbers, and other parts Yamaha thoughtfully list as discontinued parts. I have certainly spent well over the original purchase price of the bike on parts alone, and that is with me providing the labour for the fun of it. I was very lucky that the basic bike was sound, and un-bodged, everything I have serviced has involved, strip and clean, and replacing seals or consumable parts, rather than dealing with previous owner inflicted damage. But I didn't know that when I started - it is truly a bit of a lottery,

Where in the site should I post a 'how to do it' on XJ600 forks?

Can post chapter and verse, I've done them twice in the last year, thanks to using dodgy non Yamaha seals last year, which proved to be a false economy! The genuine Yamaha seals were much easier to fit, and keep the fork oil in better!

My XJ600 was 25 this week, and celebrated by passing its MOT.

The biggest problem was the generic error message, which looked like somebody hadn't paid the bill. Then, on about Wednesday when the Forums came back there was no apology, or explanation - looked like nobody cared! But If I can help, let me know. Dave

Ooops! I'll start again Here's an imaginary picture of the unmentioned fork part <----- PIC ------> Better? :-)

You mean this unmentioned fork part?

My 1991 XJ600 has a cable speedo driven from the front wheel Wheel here - including gear assembly Fowlers parts for Pre Div XJ600 wheel Cables here (though Wemoto cable just as good and cheaper) Bars and Cable Clocks here (though either discontinued or prohibitively expensive - try a breaker) Meter Good luck in your quest

All tested - using Waze as the Android navigation app, for turn by turn voice navigation, worked perfectly. I switced on and the headset which immediately connected as it was recognised as previously paired with the phone, then ran my favourite navigation application Waze with the screen brightness turned down (no point having it bright - I wasn't going to see it anyway), with the phone placed back in my jacket pocket out of the weather, leaving the dimmed screen on. Despite being in my pocket, the GPS worked flawlessly, keeping up with my position and giving timely "at the next roundabout, take the third exit" type instructions. Volume more than adequate for the kind of speeds you make turns at, if slightly quiet for 70mph motorway speeds. All in all a very good £12 worth.

I never promised you a rose garden!

Got bored and while mooching around Android looking for cheapo Motorcycle helmet speakers, found a rechargeable, Stereo Headset with full Android and iPhone compatible Pairing with good reviews at £12. Here's a link Link to cheapo headset It looked like it might fit, so I bought one - after all, if it all went pear-shaped I would be down a bit over a tenner, if not . . . Here's the result We stab it with our steely knives, Then we smash it all to bits! (Apologies to Smash). It came apart pretty easily, the wires linking the speakers and battery across the headband were pretty tangled and were threaded through the plastic bits, so they would be replaced with better quality wires from a 99p USB cable pushing the cost up to £13 . . These bits are destined for the bin. Here are the bits we need - two speakers, the circuit board with Bluetooth, USB changing socket, amps switches etc, and the rechargeable battery (2hrs to charge, with 20hrs playback time - sounds reasonable) Only six wires to re-connect, Left Speaker + and -, Right Speaker + and -, and the battery + and -, not exactly rocket science! I love VLSI - all the hard stuff is in the chip . . Lop the USB cable into the right sort of length, and tidy up the wires with a bit of heatshrink. Nice new USB cable wired in, with all solder connections made and insulated where required - velcro on the back of the speakers, the battery and the circuit board - time to put the earmuffs back on and stuff it into the helmet That all went well, speakers velcroed to sides and battery and PCB located under the cheek padding with the cable running under the rear padding. All tidied away under the padding. - Time to test - fire the beast up and pair it with the Phone. We have ignition - all paired OK and works fine with reasonable volume - the only thing to do now is road test it, but it's definitely time for a beer, so that will have to wait for another day. Happy New Year to you all Dave