NE0

I assume you're referring to your seat which is covered with leather?? and the moisture is coming through the cover and getting on the seat which is going white where its been in contact with the water? If that's the case, yeah unfortunately those waterproof covers are not that waterproof.....maybe shower proof at best. I used to cover mine at work in all weathers, keeps the majority off, but moisture gets though those seams eventually and drips on the bike, I used to cover the seat with a large polythene bag underneath the big cover and a light tension bungee to keep it in place. Worked for me keeping the seat dry. As regards to what products to put on it, well, on the one hand its tempting to put shoe/boot products on, but they're generally meant to be buffed and polished and thats not what you want on a bike seat, you'll be sliding all over the shop. If its genuine leather, you do need to 'feed it/conditioner" otherwise it dries out and cracks. Upholstery products for seats is what you need. I used to use LeatherHoney, but I doubt you can get any in the UK these days. I ended up using Jaguar car leather conditioner for cars/convertibles. it all does the same thing, nourishes and prolongs the leather and adds to its waterproofing ability, bearing in mind its just cow hide, and cows don't mind the rain.

Mervin to the rescue. 👍

Hi there Matt, Resurrecting a 10 year old thread is not seen as good forum behaviour , You really should consider starting a new thread for your problem even if it does relate to the same machine. I suggest commencing a new thread and one of the mods can delete these posts and lock this 10 year post as it never got resolved anyway.

..and Chrome hates water!! and Chrome today is nowhere near the quality it was back in the 50s~70's. Today its considered as "flash chrome", as in a quick flash application to make it look good. Back in its day is was dipped and chromed for longer so it had a thick layer of plating on it. not any more, its just a shiney surface dressing these days. Nonetheless, keeping it looking nice is down to the various non abrasive creams (Autosol) and elbow grease, and when its not being used a generous application of oil type products like ACF-50 to stop the damp getting through it. I've lots of experience being the owner of a Honda 400/4 with more chrome than paint!

If you've got the engine and frame numbers then you need to contact DVLA they will tell you which forms you'll need. It's unlikely but they may shed some light on the original registration....but i doubt it!

I just answered this same post in another section , which I'll delete. Welcome in Paul, I've got a '78 175MX. Although it wasn't registered until late 79. The earlier ones like mine have rounded swinging arm tubes, later squared off tubes are the more common ones seen today. I've got a catalogue of digital photos of my rebuild which may be of some help to you. It's not a dificult bike to restore, parts availability is still reasonable for bike thats over 40 years old.

Well RaySin, lets see.... Haynes or Clymer are the publishers of workshop manuals , unfortunately It doesn't look like they cover your bike......yet! That's not to say they won't in the future. So pdfs and USB versions of yamaha service manuals are probably all thats available at the moment. Ebay is worth keeping an eye on availability of anything, even if you don't want it!. As regards to Chains, they need to be kept oily, a dry chain will squeak and if it's squeaking you're creating wear! too much oil and it sprays all over the wheels and chrome, and too little it will squeak away. Get into a habit of putting it on, chain spray is probably your best bet, it's easy to do. Unfortunately an oily chain also attracts road dirt and sticks to it, causing grinding, you can't win.!!! Chains don't last forever, so it really is down to regular maintenance. It's worth noting that apart from a dry chain or oily chain, there is another condition that chains can get and that's clicking chains from stiff links, it might be only one link but it gives a unique sound. It also means you've not been doing your maintenance! Chains will often play up after wet weather! The other aspects of chains is that over time they stretch! so you need to move the wheel back a tad and still keep the wheel aligned!! Too slack a chain and it will clatter on the chain guard, or jump a cog!! Too tight and your gearbox and sprockets get put under too much tension leading to more wear!! it's ALL a delicate balancing act!! You'll love it!! As regards to filling her up, don't rely on the auto shut off from the nozzle. Bike tanks are not big so it doesn't take much to fill them up. The best advice regardless, is keep the fuel off the petrol tank otherwise your paintwork will suffer. Careful trigger control is the key and keeping an eye on just inside the tank would be my advice. And as you're a newbie, don't hesitate to pull off some of that blue roll all petrol stations have between pumps, and keep it handy to wipe off any spills or drips quickly. And finally, loud pipes... only you will love them. Everybody else older than you will think you're a nob. .....but we've all been nobs at least once!🤣 Enjoy...

Hi there, Half way down the page is a contact for your request.. https://www.yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/service-support/contact/

if you go for them let us all know if they are a suitable fit.

Hi Jebb, I got mine from wemoto along the road from where I live, They were a universal fit, trouble is I can't remember if it was these or not (it was years ago) The proper ones I think (according to a previous post) are 270mm long 30mm and 45mm so these are long enough but 34mm makes them 2mm wider all around at one end, depends if your spring clip can take up the slack. https://www.wemoto.com/parts/picture/of-43-300-bk or these might fit, a little shorter, but bear in mind they spend more time being compressed than they do get stretched to their full length!! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166469737379?hash=item26c25e9ba3:g:UocAAOSwGFVgbLJR&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwLYxo7duLoPTID%2FsFnRROkYXFb1nrHR9wEN%2FKrKwYtQj%2FlCk7oVUOblaDWfD2ILHkOJp4TCcr7p80GS%2Fpkly%2B%2FtjuGM1MX%2FRliXPiIdN6%2FNrjFzQS40wOughPn7qxM4iaSW%2FgYGewYdPgeBx2YEFjJs0UrWaEH45MD7bN3BVC9ZJp3co4h3yDYsihG4swUK4X91gREcAHZqL1YFL6HkTksyuC2Sdg52oD4NGeriBVxNqZwxgMOkQFapVeIO5b2QNnw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8CT1pyFYw

Very nice Baz, not much beats the feeling of a succesful restoration. Looking very nice indeed, very clean rebuild and work ethic, you can tell a lot about you from your photos. keep it up and enjoy riding. Well Done mate.

Both Snake and I are giving you the advice of what to look out for when you get to inspect the bike, not examining the photo for you! Afterall you did say...." before I go and see it in person I was wondering if there was anything in particular to look out for on these bikes" We were advising you on these things for you to look at when you get there. Good luck

Same as Snake really, but I will add, its already 20 years old so check out the rubber parts as they start to perish around this time (on cars too) The fork seal rubbers are always worth a look, check for oil or a slimey feeling on the chrome stanchions (above the seals) which might indicate they are going hard. Look for chrome pitting above the seals, as the stanchions slide through the fork seals , those little raised pits in the chrome, damage the fork seals causing leaks. Don't forget the tyres, it's likely that they are the original ones, they do tend to stay on a bike for a long time, but the side walls can crack, and that's now looked at in more detail on the new MOT's, along with the age of the tyre. (there's now a date stamped on the tyre on new rubber polo mints!) Consequently, go online to gov.uk* and check the MOT history for the reg and look for any advisories over recent years and see if they've been addressed. Hope that helps. Nice little bike that. (*I'm assuming you're in the UK although you may be anywhere in the World)

a warm welcome to you bud. As the others have said ride with care and treat everyone on the road as a complete idiot , that way if they do something unexpectedly, you won't be surprised!! Have great fun on those two wheels, look forward to hearing from you. As a reward , here on the site we have a badge system, the more votes you get progresses you up the ranking, its only for fun! nothing elitist!! you can even get on the leaderboard for post of the week, gold silver and bronze, so I'm going to start the ball rolling and like your posts etc. All the best NE0

Hi there wayne, welcome in, This recent previous post may help. https://yamahaclub.com/forums/topic/47943-mr/ At the bottom of the page is the link to the 9 number Vin, although to be fair it just confirms your first 3 digits are indeed a DT50. Generally the number indicates simply that its the number off the production line, but it doesn't tell you the year. There are some who may argue the first number is a code for the year and the remaining 4 number is the production, however the flaw there is that each model can only have up to 9999 bikes before it ceases production. As I've said previously , you might want to remove the number and replace it with X's in case some scrote wants to make use of your legit number.

Embedded link shows for me. Mind you, the title states "motorcycles" yet its only one! As with evrything there's never enough information to grasp what's going on. Is it about lane filtering? or are they after that particular person? Ahhh right, just clicked on the "comments" below and up came the original on Reddit, it would appear to be NYPD pulling over filtering bikes as its not legal there. ....bit bizarre that!

You're seriously hoping that TWINSHOCK is going to reply? He last visited the site in 2010 and his post about the luggage rack was in 2009. Good luck with that one bud!

Incidentally, it might not be wise to display your VIN in case some unscrupulous scrote decides to use it to clone another vehicle, given that there are bike thefts galore going on around the world!!! Just edit your VIN to be 1KT XXXXXX ( x= numbers) I appreciate they could randomally put any numbers that just happen to match, but yours are legite numbers registerd with DVLA. Just trying to protect you bud.

Generally, (before they introduced the modern VIN ) all the earlier vehicles (ALL makes of vehicles) the number following the designation matches the engine number and it's quite simply the number off the production line starting at 1 etc. Both my late 70's bikes are alll designation codes followed by production number. and looking at Snakes post the decoder mentioned at the bottom of the page confirms the designation letters. http://www.johnnystoybox.com/parts_cross-ref_3.htm pages 14 and 15 as regards to the remaining numbers and looking at that decoder (The 9 Digit Vin part, yours are 9 digit ones) in more detail I'm not fully convinced, although it states the 5th number or letter is the YEAR and the 6th being the FACTORY code , ok fair enough ............but then it spoils it by stating the last three numbers are the production numbers, that would imply they only make a maximum of 999 machines!

I put a new cheap chinese carb from ebay on my DT175MX back in 2015 and it's still going! I think i was a bit disappointed in its performance at the time, I think I thought being all new it might make a big difference to the original, but it didn't. It was no better or worse. But I never took it off!

The 1KT series is a TZR 250 from 1986. (according to wiki it states:- The parallel twin 2MA variant being the UK variant and the 1KT model being the domestic Japanese model. The 1WG series is a FZR400 late 80s early 90s. I wonder if the O in 1WGO is in fact a zero for the rest of the numbers ie. 1WG 01234. Also, if you're unsure, just type in : "Yamaha 1WG" or "Yamaha 1KT" into ebay to see the thousands of parts available for each of the designations.

Hi Alex, Somethings happened to the site, all the recent posts have gone and the pages have reverted back to an earlier date. I'm unable to PM you as that option is not available on my level of access. so i thought this was the best way to notify you, hope you read it.

Another option for you martin is to get yours repaired and your 31A-10 is listed here. https://uk.carmo-electronics.com/repair/ecu-tci-cdi-box/caru-ya-xj900f-spark-unit-tid14-37-58l-10-tid14-19-31a-10?___store=carmouk_store_en&___from_store=base_store_en ahhh, this might be of interest.... There is a company in Oz that lists a replacement for your TID14-19 (31A-10) https://www.ecureplacement.com.au/ecu-product/yamaha-xj900rk-seca-tid14-19-ecu-replacement/ and a different listing for the TID14-37 (58L-10) https://www.cdireplacement.com/cdi-products/yamaha-xj900-tid14-37-cdi-replacement/ However, they are both the same price and it may be the same unit? I note the model number listed 000.299.000 S120 45 is the same on both entries. I can see its not cheap, but it may be useful in finding one closer to home or an email to them might be useful to you.

hi there, I found the very same data on this website:- https://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/extra-tci-uniits.40084/page-2 which i assume you copied and pasted it from as its in the same format. You ask if there's any downside and can it harm? Well, reading the rest of the thread on the XJbikes forum, member K-Moe writes in to explain : ( copied and pasted across) The advance is telling you when the spark fires in degrees of crank rotation before TDC. Having the wrong advance curve will definitely affect how well the engine runs as spark advance is dependent on the valve timing of the engine. While it is possible to run with spark timing that is different than stock (sometimes it's preferable, depending on the engine), if you get too far off the engine will run very poorly. and it would appear that the advance curve is unknown for the 11857, therefore its also unknown how it would perform in place of the OEM 418. I'd venture to say without that information it would be one of those trial and error situations, i.e give it a go , it may or may not work. However, in view of there being two available, one for the XJ900RK and RL with a different one being listed for XJ900N etc implies there is likely a difference and you may well notice it when fitted. I also noted that on page 1 on the thread there was also a post on testing and repairing TCI units. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Hi Snake, I can't imagine this snowballing as so few post these days! You seem to be the exception bud!😀 Having said that at least with this post it's gone past "the no interest at all"! 😂 As regards to the AutoClave, we use them in hospitals to sterilize the instruments. They are big steam ovens and they are huge! if you're building one? it would have to be big enough to hold the largest part you want to make! and you'd have to generate enough constant steam for the curing process of carbon fibre! (sterilising instruments is a 2 hour cycle) I don't know the time you'd need for CF. ....then there's the plumbing!! ..........I can't imagine building a home one to be honest having said that...you tube is your friend and it looks like someone has done just that!!! If this is what you propose...then presumably you're considerably richer than me!!!😂 ...I'm thinking maybe is there a service which can produce CF parts from your design type place? You could design the part in 3D with Autocad and send it off to a company which would produce your bespoke design.... or They can design the part and produce the part. Either way it doesn't sound like a cheap service , hence why i guess you've been contemplating a DIY approach. I do know of someone that builds all sorts of things out of CF, including submarines ....but I haven't heard from him in a while! Which brings us back to Glasfibre and mould making , the obvious easy option! but also the tried and tested methods of custom car builders for the past 50 years! afterall ANY part can be fabricated using this method.