On to the XJ's story:
I bought the bike in February of 2012 while still living in Oregon. The bike was in decent shape and before even buying it I had joined this site and saw what the bike could become. My biggest inspiration came from none other then Radare himself. I knew we would be moving back to Wisconsin (where I'm originally from) and buying a house with a garage to work on the bike. I took the rider safety class over a very cold weekend by Portland standards and passed with flying colors.
The Bike the day I took delivery of it:
All in all the bike was in pretty good shape and ran good at the time. I spent the next few weeks learning to ride and enjoying my remaining time in Oregon. I can honestly say I miss being out there quite a bit. The riding is much better and more diverse then the general flatness of Wisconsin. Would have been nice to stay out there and enjoy almost year round riding and trips to the coast and mountains but we needed to make the move back for my wife's job. Two weeks after buying the motorcycle and completing the coarse we learned that we were pregnant with our first child. So on top of new jobs, buying our first house and moving across the country we were also going to have our first baby. I guess if your gonna go, go all out. We moved at the end of April and settled in. I spent the summer un-packing, painting, and setting up the baby's room. I did get out a fair amount to enjoy the bike. By the end of July I ran into several problems with the bike that sidelined me for almost a month. First the fuel pump decided to go, then the forks where leaking and then I couldn't keep the bike running, carb problems. I got a new fuel pump, replaced the fork seals and removed and cleaned the carbs.
Found some "foreign" objects in the carbs as the likely culprit of my problems.
After a thorough cleaning and some adjustments I was back on the road again just in time to enjoy the last few months of riding before being buried in the snow. Once the cold and snow started to set in I set out to collect all the parts that I would need to complete a naked conversion. I decided it would be best to have all the parts before I actually started so I didn't get help up during the process. After a few months scouring ebay and craigslist I had my parts and the weather was starting to warm just enough for me to work in the garage without freezing solid.
Here's the bike before I started:
I set out removing all that I needed to be re-condition or re-painted. At one point the bike looked like this:
It took several months to complete everything and many days spent half tending to our little girl and the other half working on the bike. My wife wasn't thrilled about the amount of time I spent in the garage and basement "working" but it was a welcome change of pace since I had become a "stay-at-home" dad. After starting the tear down and rebuild on Feb 18th 2013 I finally wrapped things up on June 13th with a finished product that I was very pleased with. I knew when I bought the bike, that some where in it was the bike I had always pictured in my head.
Here it is:
LIST OF MODS:
-Buell M2 Cyclone Flyscreen - painted
-Honda Hornet Dual beam headlight
-Custom headlight ears and brackets
-T-bolt clamps to attach headlight bracket to forks
-Custom welded top triple (by greeny) painted
-Painted handle bars and bar ends
-Painted brake Master cylinder
-Painted clutch perch
-Painted and dent pulled tank
-Painted rear Plastics
-Painted front fender
-Painted fork lowers
-Painted wheels
-reconditioned and painted full exhaust
-Custom stripe down the bike
-New Yamaha Logo's for the tanks and rear center section
-Spraymaxx 2K clear all body parts
-FZ600 gauges reconditioned and Painted gauge rims
-Autometer 3-3/8 gauge cups
-Custom made center dash panel
-LED warning lights wired for dash
-Stem Captain Clock added to Dash
-High and low H7 bulbs wired for headlight
-Shorter blinker stocks from front put on the rear
-Center Stand added
-FZ6R rear shock installed
-'97+ rear sets Painted and Installed
-Bike Master Smooth Oval mirrors Installed
-Front Brakes Bleed
-New Fork seals
-Cleaned chain and sprocket
-New chain adjuster
Thanks again to this great site and all the help the members have provided me along the way!!!! I couldn't have done it without your help!!!!! Keep an eye out for more changes to come this spring, it should be better then ever. Happy riding!