Another acquisition - XJ900F 1992

[Charlie G]

Looks like a fine bike Grimly!

[Grimly]

Looks like a fine bike Grimly!

I'm impressed at how it's been kept original - it was the owner's main bike transport for years, and he'd use it for work-related journeys when called on to visit city jobs, instead of his car, so I suppose he had to keep it presentable, same as a business car. Also went on many long European trips with it, which I read accounts of, here and there. Never thought I'd end up owning that bike, though.
I'm going to keep this one as reasonably original as I can, but with improvements here and there, as necessary.
A nice touch is the Givi Wingrack - now I'm on the lookout for matching luggage, as cheaply as possible. That automatically rules out new Givi boxes (phew, the price!), but there are lots of period Givi boxes around in good condition that match the age of the bike. The Givi system is quite good, but I've never bothered with or thought I needed it before now.

[Grimly]

Molished up a mount for a dimpled alloy suitcase, to match it to the Givi side rack mount. Found the perfect mounting plate material in the form of some engineering plastic from a local stockholder.



The tongue of the Givi bracket pokes through the mount plate and the case, and is secured by a spring snap-ring pin inside. Anybody trying to nick this will have to destroy it to get it off.





The width of the case is perfect - exactly the same as the tip of the bar.

Hammer for scale

Oh, and the 'engineering plastic' found in the kitchen place was a chopping board of 8mm thick HDPE...


One down; one to go, and I might make others up for at least one other bike. For this one, I need to find another dimpled case, as it's very tough construction, whereas the normal mainstream ally cases are composite (ally sheathed plywood) and not all that weatherproof.

[Grimly]

Took out the headlight to locate a connection point for a voltmeter and glad I did, for about half of the connections in there were sorely in need of a clean and re-set. The PO had kept the bike very standard, so no complaints there, but the march of time had led to the inevitable crop of connector resistances that were higher than they should be. Cleaned and gapped the plugs - unusually, it uses resistance plug caps and resistance plugs, so I'm unsure if it actually needs both. More investigation needed.

[Grimly]

One of these...

[Grimly]

Well, that was the oddest thing.
Fitted a new front tyre to the XJ, and took the opportunity to fit a set of fork gaiters. On dropping the second leg (LH) I tested it for springiness and it was a helluvalot stiffer than the RH one. Took them both apart, compared internals, put them back together and they're absolutely identical now.
I don't know what was going on there - possibly an air lock, leading to a load of trapped air under the oil, expressing itself by being an extra spring. I made sure to work each leg up and down after filling, to dispel any air this time around.

[wymple]

It's bloody amazing how many really nice bikes are being sold for next to nothing these days. You have a really nice bike.

[Grimly]

It's bloody amazing how many really nice bikes are being sold for next to nothing these days. You have a really nice bike.

Well, it's 23 years old, 108k miles and not actually worth a lot. Even allowing for inflation I only paid 50% more for either of the GSs when they were each a decade old, with considerably fewer miles on the first one, too. It seems to be a widespread thing - most bikes get used as recreational toys and high mileage scares buyers off, as 2 or 3k per annum is high for a lot of owners, and there seems to be a residual, repeated attitude that bikes somehow can't do high mileages. This hasn't been true since the 70s, and even before that, there were plenty of examples that disproved it. Of course, the majority of old bikes back then did have a reputation for falling apart and needing constant attention and most simply couldn't to around the clock once, let alone twice or thrice.

I scored well with this one though, as to my eyes it still looks modern and even though it was designed in the early 80s, it was still in production in the mid 90s and is one of the fairly timeless designs of the era. I'm just not taken with many of the current crop of praying mantises, for example.
Of course, if someone were to offer me an early 80s GS1100G for 200 quid, I'd take it with alacrity - the next best thing to that is find an 1100 engine for one of the 850s.

[Buffalo Bill]

About them old bikes, if you read questions and comments about them from young newbees, they ridicule bikes with carburetors because of their warm up period, and their low power (anything less than 120HP). Even the old guys here complain about carbs, and the mid 1980s tech period square headlights.
Mid 80s bikes seem to be the most undervalued period at this time.

[Grimly]

Nice run out on the XJ, riding it like I stole it on the return journey, to see if the rings might be encouraged to bed in a bit more. Inconclusive, as yet.
I'm making an oil fume seperator to fit on the line from the crankcase to the air box, as that's where it's mostly going to, I'm fairly sure. The bottom of the airbox is covered with a fine film of oil and today in traffic, I was surrounded by the unmistakeable whiff of oily fumes.
Pootling around at 70-ish, there's virtually no oil use; it's only when stretched a bit it starts to get burned off.
So, next steps - oil seperator and some 15W/40 diesel dino juice.

[Grimly]

Finally got around to junking the OEM mufflers and fitting the H-D Dyna mufflers.
They look quite good, to my eyes.
DSC_0002.jpg

[80GS850GBob]

"Took them both apart, compared internals, put them back together and they're absolutely identical now."
...does that year have the top fork pre-load adjusters on each leg?...my 84 FJ1100 had those. Just wondering if yours did and maybe one of them re-adjusted firmer?...IDK
Nice bike!

[Grimly]

Nope, nothing by way of adjustment at all. What's there is what you get and if it doesn't suit, you have to replace it.
It turns out the legs might be prone to pump-up, and to counter that I'll drill and tap for air valves, but not bother with extra air - just as a way of relieving pressure back to ambient.

[Grimly]

Oh, what joy; the addition of the H-D mufflers seemed to be a source of a slight unhappiness with the engine. Suspecting a slightly lean condition, and these engines run as lean as they can, the slightest change in the intake or exhaust tips them into more lean-ness. So, off with the tank, out with the gauges and set the carb airflows up. An immediate difference became apparent, as all the carbs started to work in unison. I'm still stymied by lack of the YICS tool, but a redneck solution is to insert a wooden dowel or even rags stuffed into the YICS tract. Might try that.
Once done, I'll raise the main needles a notch (or insert a washer, perhaps two) to achieve the same end. That's for tomorrow.

[Grimly]

Still no YICS or redneck engineering equivalent, but the simple attention of synching and using a Colortune improved things considerably.