Time to quit lurking and become a member of the community. I just recently bought a 2001 XJ600 as my first bike and stumbled on the forum googling for who knows what, possibly front brake master cylinder cover screw specs. So yeah, after 10 years of sitting on my license with no bike, i was finally able to buy her this autumn during the end of season price drop. Just to get a few hundred km in and store her for winter which i'm in the process of doing at the moment. It's massively frustrating, but at least i have something to look forward to come spring, eh...
I would guess (first bike and all, not much experience) that she's in reasonably good condition for a 17 year old bike. Maybe the upside to our snowy winters is that bikes aren't ridden during winter and most of them spend half of every year in a garage. Still there's plenty of small stuff to do.
A photo:
Future plans:
1) Over winter, refresh and update all my riding gear. I'm still using the stuff i scrounged together for taking my tests almost 10 years ago.
2) She's taken some kind of strange hit to the left end of the swingarm. The end plate needs replacing and there's a bit of welding to do on the very end of the swingarm. If anyone within reasonable postage cost of me has an end plate going spare, i'm all ears
3) Lots of small bits to replace and tidy up.
4) Valve clearances need checking at the start of next season.
So, see you all on the forums and if you live somewhere with winter, we can get through this together!