Yamaha Diversion XJ900S

[hillsy]

Not really a 'project' as opposed to a new bike for me, but this is probably the best folder...

This one is a 2000 model which has been pretty well looked after - and pretty cheap as well....


I had a 97 model about 15 years ago and whilst I knew it was a great bike, I still had a bit of crotch rocket left in me at that time. Fast forward to now and its ticking a lot of boxes again....

Not too sure about these lights (I've yet to ride it at night) but the guy I bought it off said they are good things....

Pretty low K's for one of these....

Rides sweet....

 

[hillsy]

And here is an upgrade I did on the front brakes.


The Internet told me the R1/6/FJR blue spot calipers are a bolt on fit to the Divi front. The 01/02 R1's had gold spot calipers (essentially the same) - which are the ones I found locally.


This is the reason why the caliper swap made sense - pitted pistons would mean about $150 plus in refurbishment v $100 for two complete R1 calipers:

So, the magic of eBay made these suckers turn up at my door within a few days:

Pads and all:

And ceramic pistons - so no more pitting:

No wear on the pad pin so probably off a low mileage bike:

Now another advantage here is the R1 caliper is about 340g lighter than the Divi ones.


R1:

Divi:

So, let's see if they bolt on....

Oh yes they do - pad area lines up beautifully as well.


So a quick bleed and here they are:

And.....they are magic!

Heaps better stopping power .... lighter lever action.... just ACE!

 

[hillsy]

OK so I thought I would play around with the ignition timing. Most bikes are timed quite conservatively with the idea being they will be able to run OK on any crap fuel that is available wherever you are on the planet. The reality is most fuels (over here at least) are pretty good and you can advance the timing to make the bike actually run better.


So, I could have bought one of these suckers off eBay for about $50:

But where's the fun it that? Also, I cant adjust it - it's fixed at 4 deg.


So, I opened up the cover here:

And discovered the backing plate is screwed in place with 2 screws (the black ones):

Which means I could slot the holes and rotate the plate which will adjust the timing.






So, first thing to do is to find a suitable spot to mark the current (stock) position timing:

This way if everything goes pear shaped you know where you started from...






Then take the pick-up off and remove the backing plate (that green stuff is Mr Yamaha's thread locker)

Now scribe some degree marks on the plate in the direction you want to go (OK - it's not that tidy but you get the idea....):

Now drill two holes beside the existing mounting holes:

And file them out to create 2 slots:

So here it is back in the stock position:

And here it is advanced about 4 degrees:

Button it all up and we're done. Probably took about 30 minutes all up - and the benefits were immediately obvious. Started first hit, pulls much smoother through the low and mids and generally runs sweeter.


And it cost nothing to do.

 

[hillsy]

So when I swapped out the calipers I had to twist the banjo 90 deg to bolt the lines onto the calipers.


It looked like this and to be honest I didn't trust it:

So I looked on eBay for braided lines. And I came across pit bike lines for real cheap. I measured them up and it looked like I found a winner. So, with a click of a mouse, these things turned up a few weeks later from China:

And they bolted up nicely (I took the red stuff off them):

Just had to fish around for a double banjo bolt and we are good to go:

Time will tell if they are up to the task, I suppose. But in my mind, they are better than the twisted rubber hose beforehand so I feel pretty confident.


Oh - and brakes work even better now so thumbs up.

 

[Grimly]

Excellent.
I was wondering if the R1 calipers would fit the earlier XJ900F, but I've no real complaints about the standard set up.

 

[Guest]

Hold on a sec... you have an unfinished GS450 project but you got a Yammie instead and it's on the road? Sacrilege!

Haha I kid, nice work Hillsy! Looks like you're having plenty of fun and that's all that matters!