richiedan40

so , before I upload some pictures of this boufante haired eighties glam queen ! let me tell you what I found , first the good bits....it was all there......that's it.......oh and the chain and sprockets were new......ish. A strip was now inevitable , the ale fuelled promise of " well itll probably need a tune up and a damn good clean " was as near to the truth as the princess Diana post mortem ! on a stand it went , well four bits of scaffolding and a piece of wood , front and rear wheels off , calipers , forks out , fairing off ( Yamaha must have invented the "fairing self removal system " ) then came a hot pressure wash to remove the wax oil.....and all the paint ! The trip to Ireland could now surely only be done on LSD. Both the fork stations resembled rat tail files , the tank had been shot with a 12 bore full of rusty screws , the exhaust pipes had been glued to the head with shetlands industrial strength porridge , there was a mice nest in the air box ( that is not a joke ) and all four carbs must have been running on tank lining and rust particles , tight sods these jocks you know ! so there you have it , another heart ache project that soft lad here is going to pump all his hard earned cash into.....if only bikes could talk " youre looking a bit rough lately XJ " " eye , I dream of ending up at Richies place where money is no object even on an old piece of sh%te like me " its starting to go together now with its rebuilt forks , new hard chrome stantions , bushes , seals and dusties. the calipers have been stripped cleaned and painted gloss black and so has the swinging arm , couldnt live with that " not been painted look " the wheels look lovely in their new paint and the discs cleaned up surprisingly well in my wifes pedal bin full of caustic soda.I fired it up the other day to balance the carbs , it run ok considering its got the cheapest nastiest 4 into 1 system this side of utter Pradesh . Now heres my question , if you can help guys , its done 30 000 miles and its got a rumble from the bottom , mind you so have I after anight out on the ale , this rumble come rattle disappears when you pull the clutch in.... would I be right in presuming its the clutch basket bearing and if so where can I get one ? cheers guys , pics coming soon and more stories of woe.

Hello guys , and thanks for the welcome let me tell you a bit about this bike. Ive always been a bit of a Brit bike man , mainly BSA,s,not because I didn't like Japanese stuff , I did , a BSA was always easier to work with ,mechanically they were good , my mate did 100 000 miles on his A10 , same engine. they sounded nicer to me and not wanting to go into warp drive at every traffic light they suited me , yes I did get fed up of pushing an A65 lightening home from work , but that really wasn't BSA,s fault , it was joe lucas.....prince of eternal darkness. Then I had this prang in the ninetees.....put me off bikes for a bit. so lets jump forward to april 2014 , and in a local pub in holywell N Wales myself and my good friend Alan , who incidentally originates from the Shetland isles , have sunk a few and started to talk sh........silly ! "now ive got that bonnie , I reckon we should do a tour of Ireland.....says Al "on what , says I , I havnt got a bloody bike ! " well what about that BSA then ? " its in the pipe line" " well so,s my pint so get em in ! when the laughter died down , we laugh at fruit when were avin a few ! , Al offered to give me his old XJ600 , he hadn't ridden it for ten years and it was in the Shetland islands for god sake , let me take care of the travel, he said, you can take care of the rest. So a week later it arrived on a palet in a sorry state , itd been covetred from head to foot in wax oil to preserve it , enbarmed more like ! I thought I,d get it going first to see what the mechanics were like before spending any money , it seemed ok.... sort of.....I mean it would only run between 4 and 8 thousand rpm , and it took half an hour to start.....but it didn't smoke or leak any oil...happy days ...or so I thought

hello everyone , I,m brand new to this club and also brand new to jap bikes , well of this size anyhow , past my test way back on a superdream ! my name is Richie , I live in N Wales and have always ridden BSA,s ive had a gold star , a b44 two a65,s and a bantam. But after an accident in the 90,s I left bikes alone , until my good friend bought a bonnie and gave me this 1989 xj600 so we could go to Ireland touring. it arrived in a sorry state and although its not worth much ive been restoring it with love and care. ive got some photos which I,ll post later , I,ll be blatently honest I know nothing of these bikes and ive joined this club in the hope that I,ll get some help and maybe be able to offer some general advice , I,m an engineer by trade. some one out there may find some time for my restoration progress report ! they may have had one and have some stories to tell. if anybody is interested and can offer some technical help I,d be very grateful , thanks , Richie D