I thought it was my lucky day. This old geezer, fag dangling out of his mouth, wheeled the early XJ900 into the sunshine. 20,000 miles but it looked like half that. I gawped at the immaculate condition. The machine whirred into well oiled life, a gentle vibration shaking through the 900cc four cylinder machine. I was only allowed a test ride on the pillion - when he hammered the throttle a bit the pegs shook with the secondary vibes.
It was just like my mate's 1994 model, in that respect. I'd had a few rides, been well impressed by the bike's performance and handling. I couldn't afford a newish one, hence my trip to see the other XJ. After the test ride and a cursory look over the chassis, I said I'd have it and handed over the asked for £700 before someone else turned up. I rode off full of mirth at the bargain I'd copped, wouldn't my mates be envious?
This was my first 100hp four. My previous mount was an ever so nice CB400F, which I'd hacked around on for two years and sold for twice what I'd originally paid. Nice bike but so boring. The XJ felt pretty brutal, then. Right from tickover there was a mix of torque and vibes that made me think the engine was a live, breathing thing. Hit 5000 revs, the exhaust deepened and the bars tried to snap out of my hands.
I almost screamed with fright as the tacho shot around to ten grand before I grappled with the gearbox to get up to third gear. It didn't wheelie, exactly, but the front end went very light then the bars went from lock to lock, the thing shaking its head furiously. Half forgotten stories of early XJ's having suicidal handling flitted through my brain as I found a tall gear and went all moderate on the throttle. No wonder the previous owner was bald with shaking hands!
The bike turned out to be fine up to about 85mph. Go beyond that, the front wobbles and the rear twin shocks prove wholly inadequate. The XJ had narrow, flat bars, not enough width to fight its 490lbs. I ignored all that on one stretch of motorway, wound the engine up through the gears until there was 140mph on the clock. Chickened out then!
The weave was horrific and the vibes tried to detach all the chassis parts! The little bikini fairing flapped in the wind, trying to tear itself off its brackets. Before all the XJ900 owners in the world write in full of spitting anger, I must add that my mate's newer XJ was perfectly competent in the bends (still a heavy lout, though) and was regularly cruised at an indicated 120mph.
Early XJ's are a different matter. The bikini fairing was claimed to be the culprit but even after I took it off it still handled like a three legged pig. So, I put it back on. With 20,000 miles on the clock I didn't believe that the chassis bearings were shot, but I changed them anyway. Wheel, steering stem and swinging arm bearings.
The back end weaves died down to a tolerable level and front end stability was good for 95 to 100mph, though I wouldn't have dared take my hands off the handlebars. Oddly, the XJ went into an even heavier speed wobble at 110mph than before. Frightening stuff but the bike responded to shutting the throttle. Okay as long as the back wheel didn't hit a bump when the shaft drive felt like it was trying to fall off.
Once or twice, I ended up on a bike with the back end unwinding itself and the front end close to snapping off. Character building, the UMG would probably call it but it left me shaken up and not stirred.
The forks were on the spindly side so I thought I'd go for a brace. Very clever, the increased rigidity made the forks stick, a heavy pattering motion resulted at speed. So I took that off and threw it at the local yobs who once tried to firebomb the house because I locked the bike away inside and they couldn't nick it.
It was at this point that I discovered the fork's anti-dive was playing up. The twin discs could be slammed on without fear of the tyre locking up, which was quite reassuring given the need to lose speed rapidly whenever corners turned up. But after about 600 miles, the forks started going into self-destruct mode and the tyre would suddenly squeal in a haze of smoking rubber.
Another friend had finally worn out his XJ900's motor at 134000 miles! He was breaking the venerable four for spares Did I want to buy his recently rebuilt front end, which included a new wheel, calipers and fork internals? Yes please. Later XJ's dumped the troublesome anti-dive. The forks went straight on, half an afternoon's work had the bike ready for the road.
Oh no, it was bloody worse than before. I came back home in a black mood. Checked it over again. Was the steering head a touch loose - tighten down the stem, try again. That was better, zoomed up to 110mph, smooth as a Featherbed (or how I imagine one would go), then into the weaves again, but on the mild side. Good enough not to worry about!
That was what I thought until I loaded the bike up for camping. I tried to equalize the mass between carrier and tank-bag but putting anything heavy out back brought back all the handling nastiness. Even going two-up made the front end nervous. Cruising was limited to about 80mph, which wasn't very inspiring on the motorway where various Fords and Vauxhalls tried to nudge me off the road.
The engine was only limited by the amount of vibration I could take. It was smoothest at 85 to 95mph in top, when it still had a nice wallop of power to whack it up the road. I never found out the top speed as the stability wasn't up to exploring the limits of the motor. 120mph cruising was within the capabilities of the motor but not the chassis.
XJ900 engines are renown for going around the clock with only the odd oil change and valve session, but I didn't much rate either the gearbox or the clutch, both too heavy going. Excessive use was likely to cause a sprained ankle and limp wrist, so it was just as well that for most of the time it was able to slog along in top. Again, my mate's newish model was fine, nice and sophisticated, apart from the clutch being on the firm side. Bad original design or just wear and neglect? Don't know!
It was probably too much to expect a twelve year old bike to be trouble free, however reasonable its mileage - up to 34000 miles after eighteen months of abuse on my part. A disintegrating exhaust, cracked rear wheel, slashed saddle, splintered sidepanel, loose switches and rear caliper seizure were moments of mild annoyance experienced along the way.
Finish was okay as long it was cleaned and polished twice a week. Neglect would have the paint going very dull and the alloy coming out in the usual white rash. Worth keeping the bike in good shape, because it's reflected in the price you can get for the machine. After I'd had my wicked way with the Yam, and couldn't get much further with it without risking a death sentence, I put it up for sale and was very happy to cop thirteen hundred notes from a guy down the street. He's still riding it and reckons it's brilliant!
All depends how fast you want to go. If you rarely go over the ton then it's probably a good buy, given the intrinsic toughness of the mill. If you want speed and handling then one of the hot 600's is more likely to suit, older examples of which are available for a reasonable two grand. The price with such tackle's the constant need to play games on the gearbox.
Me? Er, well, nothing like ignoring your own good advice, is there? I bought an XS1100 for £825. Peach of an engine in a wild and wobbly chassis but after training on the XJ (which was worse) no problem!
H.L.
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Riding the Lincolnshire backs roads on a fast bike such as the Yamaha XJ900 can be immense fun. The countryside is so flat that you can see for miles and miles and just open the bike up more and more. My XJ has a nice growl, down to the internals of the silencers dumping on the road a few months past and it was with a wide grin that I went for the top speed, which I knew lurked somewhere around 140mph on the speedo.
The bike has Konis out back, a fork brace and a set of Metz's on the wheels - much better than Avons, Dunlops and Michelins that I've tried in the past, although they are both down to the carcass in about 4000 miles. The XJ is decidedly old fashioned in its chassis, with conservative geometry and a plain Jane tubular frame. They work well enough up to about 80mph then a gradual deterioration in handling sets in.
The worst thing about the handling is that it's not very predictable. Sometimes the bike feels like it's running on rails at other times all sorts of insanity lets loose. If I arise early enough, I take the long way to work, 50 to 60 miles out of my way just for the exhilaration of it over the back roads. On the very same road and at the same kinds of speed the chassis can react in very different ways. Weird but true.
Back to my wide grin, there I was with 120mph up, a little bit of a weave out back and a touch of front fork patter as the road surface turned rough, when suddenly the gentlest of weaves turned into the most vicious of wobbles as the speedo hit 125mph. The bars were wrenched from my grip as they violently shook from stop to stop matched only in their greed for action by the back end which intimated that some rascal had obviously loosened off a couple of bolts.
It wasn't the first time this has happened. The solution was to take a deep breath and release my already precarious grip on the bars. The theory behind such an insane act is well known to all Speed Twin and Vincent owners (subtle dig at overpriced British classics) - if you keep hold of the bars you will push back against the direction the bars are moving causing the action to swing ever more violently, by releasing your grip you give the oscillations a chance to die down.
One, two, three more oscillations later, the bike had quietened down to its normal more or less stable self. I pulled over to the side of the road, leapt off, pulled my pants down and dumped a load on to a large clump of nettles. I kicked various bits of the chassis to see if any were indeed loose, but no apparent problems there so jumped back on - anyone late for work by just a minute was sacked on the spot.
The rest of the journey was without mishap, mainly because I kept the speedo the right side of the ton. It usually takes me a month or so to get my nerve back after a speed wobble - it really is a strange sensation to be sitting atop a huge mass of steel and alloy that is totally out of your control.
My mate also has an XJ900, despite riding it like a lunatic he has never experienced a speed wobble. There is a big difference in our weights, myself the proverbial eight stone weakling who gets sand kicked in his face and my friend the kind of 20 stone gorilla who even the police give free passage to. Perhaps the Yamaha has an evolutionary purpose hidden within it to sort the men from the boys...
My machine is a 1987 model bought from a mature owner who had spent a whole year carefully running it in and then found out he didn't like the way it handled on the stock Japanese tyres. One ride in the wet converted me to his point of view and a set of Michelins were bunged on. These did a lot to eradicate the slides but fast work in the dry meant monumental weaves from the shaft drive back end if you were imprudent enough to do more than 125mph.
Practising wheelspin and wheelie starts saw off that tyre in 2500 miles and burnt the clutch out with just 8000 miles on the clock. The only nearby dealer is one of the back street variety who quoted me fifty quid for the job and then swore blind he had said £250 when I went to collect the machine. He made it quite plain that the only way I was going to retrieve my pride and joy was by paying up. The alternative of beating the shit out of him was not possible as the downstairs part of his house was a kennel for the pitbull terriers he illegally bred.
Foolishly assuming that paying that much money out meant he must've done a good job, I immediately set out on a 200 mile thrash to visit a mate. Fifty miles down the road I became suddenly aware that an unusually large amount of heat was coming up from the engine. Pulling over revealed that a huge leak had sprung between the clutch cover and the engine because the bastard had used the old gasket. The leak had been so bad that it had emptied the engine of oil!
Pushing the bike for ten miles to the nearest garage did little for my temper. By the time we got back home the engine had consumed the contents of a five litre can of oil. I didn't even bother going back to the dealer, bought a new gasket and did the job myself. The engine shrugged off the experience and ran as well as ever.
Like the chassis the engine is very old fashioned. Aircooled with just two valves per cylinder it's a large lump of alloy which goes a long way to explaining the 500lbs plus mass with a full tank of fuel. It is virtually maintenance free, though, the carbs and valves (awkward shims) stay in adjustment for long periods and the electronic ignition is one of the more reliable around. The bike has 34,500 miles up now and apart from wrecking the clutch it's been free of problems.
The electrics and the brakes have not been so excellent. When the bike started cutting out in the wet it was traced to a duff coil, whilst part of the wiring loom had corroded away, resulting in light bulbs blowing all the time. The front light was not brilliant but was okay up to 70mph on unlit roads. The switches were rather good, though.
It was the brake calipers that really pissed me off. The brakes, in the dry, were strong with adequate feedback but the merest hint of rain led to the damn things seizing up. It's one thing when they go in the depths of winter or if the bike is laid up, but the chronic seizing of the Yamaha's discs was a blight on my ownership. I had an engineering friend modify them for me, I don't know what he did but combined with some Copaslip the problem went away, much to my relief.
When I fell off the bike due to spilt diesel, the fairing was all but ripped off. As I like the naked look, it didn't take much thought to deal with that problem by throwing it away. Amazing, the chassis felt transformed, most of the weaves disappeared and I haven't got close to a speed wobble since. The fairing never gave much protection, so I came out of that crash well ahead.
Running costs are not low. Its only good point on that front is the shaft drive which hasn't been touched since I acquired the bike. Tyres won't do better than 5000 miles even when the bike is ridden in the mildest mode. Fuel consumption can be atrocious when the engine is really caned - 25 to 35mpg! Ridden gently it'll do about 45mpg. Probably down to all the mass it has to carry.
It can be ridden fast through the swervery but it needs muscles - I have huge arm muscles now, out of all proportion to the rest of my skinny body. It's great as a motorway cruiser up to 90mph, beyond that secondary vibes become rather fierce - the motor never feels turbine smooth but it's best at 65 to 85mph. Town riding is okay once you are used to its weight and it feels very stable as soon as you get minimal momentum up. I can see why everyone raves about the race replicas but I can't see myself being able to afford a new bike for a long time, so I'll probably stick with the XJ for a couple more years.
Pete Westwead
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The history of my Yamaha is not typical. The guy I bought it off had worked in Oz and brought the machine back to the UK with him a year earlier.
Bikes are much cheaper there, even with shipping and customs taxes, he was able to save several hundred notes on the deal. The bike had twin rear shocks, shaft drive and 58000 kilometers on the clock. The engine rustled into life with a lovely whirr and was a lot faster than my previous GT750 Kawasaki. Having become used to shaft drive, my choice of replacement machine was limited if I wanted to maintain my civilised life.
Well pleased with my purchase, I proceeded to thrash the big Yamaha through chaotic London streets. Its high speed filtering abilities were aided by a relatively narrow engine width, the alternator being placed under the carbs, and the way the power flowed in from as low as 2000rpm right up to 9000rpm. Fantastic drags were just a throttle's twist away in second or third, although it would take serious clutch abuse to get into wheelie mode - not something recommended on shaft drive bikes unless you have a fetish for replacing universal joints.
In a matter of minutes I felt right at home on the Yamaha. It was a very forgiving bike to ride, not needing massive concentration to cut a dash through the High Street. Despite its capacity, it had a friendly, easy going nature that would quickly win advocates once they'd swung a leg over the machine.
That's not to say it was slow or boring, far from it! With any ten year old bike, though, there were a few things that had to be adapted to.
The twin disc brakes out front, backed up by a single rear, were a bit lacking in feel but powerful enough to lock up the front wheel if you put in too much pressure. For a 1982 machine, the calipers looked in good condition when I bunged in some new pads, but they did not take away the sponginess. The forks featured an anti-dive system that was hydraulically linked to the brake. This may have been fine when new, but harsh braking made the forks judder like the end was nigh. I put in some new hydraulic fluid and spent an hour bleeding the system. No difference.
I disconnected the anti-dive, but the forks were a bit on the soft side, so I pumped in some more air. The juddering disappeared, brake dive was acceptable but the forks felt a bit loose. The same kind of feeling was in evidence at the back end, the remote reservoir twin shocks were original fare and way past their best. A set of Konis for twenty notes from the breaker sorted that, although their stiffness did highlight a bit of chattering from the shaft drive when backing off the throttle.
It felt like there was a bit of wear in the shaft - changing gear under hard acceleration couldn't have been easier, but changing down and changing up on a dead throttle produced an ominous clanging noise from the box. Over time it became no better nor worse, so I learnt to ignore it - it was still a lot more pleasant than pissing about with chains. On a ten year old bike you can't expect everything to be as smooth and taut as a new 'un! With the chassis more or less sorted, I was encouraged to explore life outside the city. The bike was still able to cruise at any speed you wanted up to about 125mph, although to be honest I rarely did more than 95mph for any length of time.
Old XJ's have a bit of a reputation for being evil handlers but sub 100mph my bike was as stable as most across the frame fours. It preferred smooth roads to rough, the latter would have the wheels trying to shake themselves loose from the chassis but it rarely came close to heart attack country.
What the Yamaha does object to, though, is having the rack loaded with about ten stone's worth of building materials. Roaring off thus equipped, I thought to myself that the front end seemed a bit light but proceeded to blast up a short bit of dual carriageway. As soon as the speedo hit 70mph the front forks went into a frenzy of oscillations.
The whole bike wobbled across two lanes of carriageway. . . . cagers hit their horns and slammed on their brakes in fury. The XJ solved the problems, in an almost mystical manner, by throwing the two 50kg bags off the back of the bike. Must've taken years off the cagers' life, suddenly having the road littered with exploding sacks of cement.
After that little affair, I was very careful to watch weight distribution, preferring a huge tank bag for carrying stuff. Passengers didn't have an adverse effect on stability, although the relatively short seat meant that if they were not already intimate friends they soon ended up that way. The secondary vibes, by the way, had a very positive effect on young frails.
Its age showed in the amount of muscle it needed to throw through corners, although there was plenty of ground clearance, and in the frenzy of secondary vibes once the rev counter hit 6000 revs. The vibration was so strong that I tightened up all the engine bolts and let a local dealer set up the carbs, but it only made a slight improvement. Some ultra thick rubber on the pegs and bars helped to diminish the vibes.
Another indication that the chassis was only just capable of taking the machine's mass and power, was the way stability rapidly degenerated as tyres came near to the end of their natural life. To be fair to the hulk, on Avons life was a reasonable 8000 miles plus. With 1mm of tread left, the back tyre liked to skid off the road when leant over and the front would walk away from the machine given an ounce of encouragement. Yes, silly to ride on illegal tyres but the cost of running bikes, these days, is so horrendous that it couldn't be helped.
Another thing that could cause mayhem was forgetting to check the tyre pressures every week, they needed to be within 2psi to keep the chassis up to scratch. My biggest complaint against the bike was fuel economy, 35 to 40mpg. I suspected that there might have been a mismatch between the carburation and atmospheric conditions (compared to Oz) but there were no flat spots or hesitation in power delivery so I was loathe to play around with carb jets and the like. Even right after a dealer service (of carbs and valves) there was no discernible improvement in economy.
I was doing about 250 miles a week skipping through London traffic, giving the bike nothing more than a weekly clean and checking the oil level (changed every 2500 miles). The engine ran faultlessly for 9400 miles then started banging in the exhaust. One of the exhaust valves had tightened up but once the clearance was correctly set (by a dealer), the engine resumed its dependable nature. I hadn't even bothered to change the spark plugs let alone check any of its eight valves.
Perhaps because conditions are a lot kinder to metal in Oz, the overall state of the bike was much better than you'd expect for a ten year old machine. The engine alloy had none of the horrible white corrosion and even the wheels still cleaned up nicely. The bike had acquired a slightly noisy 4-1 exhaust somewhere along the line, which had a few dents that had turned rusty, although the downpipes were still nice and shiny.
Other problems? The non-standard front light is useless above 50mph out of town. The horn is a pathetic squeak. The indicator buttons sometimes don't work, although they are self cancelling. The flat bars hurt a little after an hour of slicing through town, although they are ideal for 90mph blasts. And the seat isn't comfortable for more than 75 miles. Nothing major, just a few minor quibbles.
As of writing this, I've done nearly 14, 500 miles on the bike with no signs of imminent engine demise, although the clutch has started to rattle a little. I have talked to a couple of owners who have done over 100,000 miles with nothing more than a new camchain and tensioner (55-65000 miles). Yamaha make tough engine, no doubt about that. There are lots of 900s on the market, some really nice nearly new ones. In many ways the XJ900 is superior to the current wave of retro bikes and well worth a look.
Simon Halliday