My new XJ600

[maintainright]

Hi all

just bought my first bike yesterday(Sat) its a 1992 XJ600 in red and is bloody mint

anyways I have a few questions which hopefully someone can give me some guidance on

1: The bike seems to take an age to warm up before it will happily sit with the choke in, I tend to give up after 5 mins and just go ride it, by the time I get to traffic lights etc its quite happy to just idle away. Is this just the way they are or is there something I should look into?

2: gearbox is quite tricky to get into neutral, on the move it happily goes up and down the box no probs, no false neutrals, no strange noises or any problems at all. It's just when I go to put it into neutral it seems quite reluctant sometimes. Again is this just the way they are or is this out of the norm?

guess I had less questions than i though

[jinxed]

Don't forget it's air cooled and the designers put some emphasis on venting heat from the engine, so it will take longer to warm up than a water cooled motor. I don't remember any specific gearbox problems with mine, though I've not ridden it in a long time. Maybe it needs adjustment? Checked the oil level?

I had a rack like your one on mine; they aren't suitable for a heavy load BTW. (Mine cracked where it bolts to the frame.) Keep an eye on it. Did you check underneath the front suspension gaitors? Always worth checking for pitting; this isn't a bug-bear with these models AFAIK; if the forks are covered, always worth checking on any bike with gaitors.

Looks like you have a nice clean one though! (Shiny, shiny and a nice colour!) I always thought these bikes had a fair amount of power (72bhp?) but were a bit on the heavy side. I moved mine recently and had obviously lost the knack of getting it on/off the main stand. Compared with my GPZ500S, the XJ was hard work!!

Out of interest, did you pick this up from a private sale and do you mind me asking what you paid for it? (Trying to figure out what mine is worth.)

[maintainright]

Hi jinxed thanks for the reply

cool, I wont worry about the warm up time , I was just a little intrigued by the way if its been running on full choke for 5 mins, if you put the choke in it will eventually putter out and die, must just take an age to get up to temp (especially in this weather)

I'll have to have a good read through the workshop manual that came with the bike and check the levels and work out how I would adjust the action on the selector lever ( I assume thats what you meant might need adjusted)

It's ok I didnt plan on putting anything on the rack anyway, might take it off actually when i start fiddling with her, need to ditch the foam grips aswell so I'm putting together a wee list of jobs to do. I didnt look under the gaiters, I know I should have but the bike had a full MOT, and is in about as good condition as 15 year old bikes get I think, I've seen year old bikes looking alot worse, this one really is mint condition apart from a wee scratch on the tank, a couple on the mirror edges and a tiny scratch on the left of the fairing. Fella I bought it off kept it in a little shed so that explains those. It's also been a summer dry use bike only

Yeah its not the lightest bike but compared to the gs500 I learned on its not that bad, but it feels a ton faster, just wish I had the weather now, not a fan of this cold wet windy weather and the nice greasy roads we have in Scotland

And yeah it was a private sale, £750 which I'm happy with, it's alot of bike for the money and nothing too scary for a novice, oh and it's a bloody good looking thing aswell.

[jinxed]

Hi jinxed thanks for the reply

cool, I wont worry about the warm up time , I was just a little intrigued by the way if its been running on full choke for 5 mins, if you put the choke in it will eventually putter out and die, must just take an age to get up to temp (especially in this weather)

I'll have to have a good read through the workshop manual that came with the bike and check the levels and work out how I would adjust the action on the selector lever ( I assume thats what you meant might need adjusted)

It's ok I didnt plan on putting anything on the rack anyway, might take it off actually when i start fiddling with her, need to ditch the foam grips aswell so I'm putting together a wee list of jobs to do. I didnt look under the gaiters, I know I should have but the bike had a full MOT, and is in about as good condition as 15 year old bikes get I think, I've seen year old bikes looking alot worse, this one really is mint condition apart from a wee scratch on the tank, a couple on the mirror edges and a tiny scratch on the left of the fairing. Fella I bought it off kept it in a little shed so that explains those. It's also been a summer dry use bike only

Yeah its not the lightest bike but compared to the gs500 I learned on its not that bad, but it feels a ton faster, just wish I had the weather now, not a fan of this cold wet windy weather and the nice greasy roads we have in Scotland

And yeah it was a private sale, £750 which I'm happy with, it's alot of bike for the money and nothing too scary for a novice, oh and it's a bloody good looking thing aswell.

When I was looking for a bike, I saw a few GS500s in such a poor state after only a few years. Then, we came upon the 2 year old XJ and I was sold. (I.e. back in 1993! Yours must have be made in their final year of production.)

The tyres are quite narrow for a bike of this power; the weight/power works well 2-up though. When I replaced the sprockets on mine, I managed to damage the bolts on the rear sprocket carrier and I had to drill them out. New ones from Yamaha weren't too cheap. The alloy parts corrode, presumably where the laquer gets scratched off.

A scottoiler is a good investment for a bike of this size BTW.

I don't envy you riding this beast in Scotland in the winter. I'll (hopefully) be using the SR125 when the weather gets colder; even the GPZ seems too heavy/unwieldy when the road temperature drops to 0degC. Mine did get to Scotland once on the way to NI one October; some fine roads you have up there for riding.

Ride safely & enjoy it. There aren't too many of these left now.

[maintainright]

Your making me feel better and better about this bike, came with a scottoiler and the alloy is all in tip top condition, including the laquer, forks etc all look brand new

if your ever up Loch Lommond way gimme a shout