Hello all,

Really great to find this forum. Just purchased an 85 FJ1100 after having looked for a good one for years.  It came from the second owner who rode it regularly kept it garaged for the last 25 years. Bike has 30k miles - he said he serviced it regularly and it's pretty stock and complete except for some aftermarket exhaust and custom paint.  From what I can see there are no leaks except for some fluid very slowly from the master cylinder around the clutch lever. Clutch and brake lines look good but the front pads seem ready to be changed.  It runs a little rough but starts up easily and is still pretty quick.  There also seems to be an idle issue where about half of the time in traffic the bike is idling at 2500rpm. Bringing it to s stop in gear kicks the idle back down to around 1200. I measured the mileage at about 25mpg over 100 miles which I figure is likely due to the tuning and idle issues. I'm getting ready to start digging in and educating myself so any suggestions from you guys would be appreciated. Right now I have and will be working with the Yamaha service manual.

This is my first foray into working on 4 stroke machines. Previous bikes are 84 Honda Nighthawk 450 (wrecked), 1975 Kawasaki KH 400 (sold), Qingqi QM200GY (left in China), 2 1975 Yamaha RD 350's (one stolen, one I still have). 

Really glad to be joining the community! Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge - have already read through a number of helpful posts.

David

NEWBIE HERE, BUT RIDING SINCE AGE 14, NOW 70 YEARS YOUNG. i JUST BOUGHT A 1993 fj1200A THAT IS VERY NICE AND COMPLETE WITH ONLY 15K MILES, BUT SITTING PARKED FOR 5 YEARS NOW. UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS PARKED WITH GAS IN THE TANK. I FIGURE AT A MINIMUM A TANK CLEANING, COMPLETE CARB CLEANING AND REBUILD, NEW FLUIDS, TIRES, BATTERY, PLUGS AND BRAKE PADS. HOW MUCH WORK IS INVOLVED IN PULLING THE CARBS? i'VE NEVERF OWNED A FAIRED BIKE BEFORE, SO I'M CONCERNED WITH THE LABOR OF FAIRING REMOVAL. ANYBODY HAVE AN EXTRA SWEVICE MANUAL THEY WOULD LIKE TO SELL ME? I LIVE NEAR SAN ANTONIO TEXAS, NEAR YEAR AROUND RIDING CONDITIONS HERE.

Though I've 'met' a few of you guys already in my "considering an FJ" thread (http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=17175.0, now that I've actually bought the bike, I though it would be time to introduce myself a little more formally...

I've been riding street bikes since my sixteenth birthday, 31 years ago, and it wasn't 'till I was 28 that I got a car license, so I racked a lot of miles early. Been through the MSF safety course twice (once to get my license, once to keep my wife company as she got hers. In that time, my major rides have been...
82 KZ550LTD (totaled by inattentive driver)
86 Yamaha 180 scooter (don't ask)
82 XZ500 Vision (Yamaha Vtwin, desperately under-rated bike. - sold to finance...)
83 VF750F Interceptor (sold)
86 KLR250 (sold)
68 CB350 (stolen, still cant figure out why though)
64 Ducati Monza (traded 'up' to...)
77 Ducati 500GTL (ugh. sold)
81/82 XT500 (stolen, wrecked, returned, fixed up, stolen again.)
86 CB700SC Nighthawk (sold)
82 XT550 (parted out)
00 GSF1200 Bandit (still have)
05 R1100S (lost in fire)
06 T100 Bonneville (lost in fire)
03 MZ Skorpion Tour (lost in fire)
91 Ninja 250 (fixed up, given to daughter)
and finally...
89 FJ1200

And there have been a lot of bikes bought just to flip, including...
91 Ninja 250 (fixed up, given to daughter)
6? Honda CA160
86/88 250 Rebel
8? Honda Hawk (actually lost money on that one)
83 XS650 Special(wish I'd kept)
82 GPz 550
Yam 850 triple (sold to a guy who stopped me *before* I even got it home. Literally rolled it off the back of my truck onto his)
87 600 Radian
78(?) CB400/4
and more that I cant recall on the spot. Most of those flips were done while I was in college

Now i'm a Mechanical Engineer, and own a small Automation/Machine Design shop outside Philadelphia. 3 kids, wife,dog, blah blah blah.

I've owned this FJ for four days now and I've already started replacing some of the heavy steel, under-stressed brackets etc with fabricated aluminum equivalents (i.e. exhaust pipe support that connects to the passenger foot peg). I'm a tinkerer at heart, but I also tend to appreciate stock machines more than massively customized bikes, so even though I have a full machine shop at my disposal, most changes to this bike will be smaller details, not wholesale changes. This winter I'm hoping to repaint the metallic blue/gold bike to the original '84 Red/silver - or as close as I can get considering the larger fairing etc.

That's more than enough about me, so... Hope to be around for a while, and perhaps meet up with some of you folks. And let me stress that I appreciate the help already given, and look forward to participating lots more as time permits!

Just picked up a 1990 FJ1200 last week. I'm in Bentonville Arkansas and have been riding for about 28 years. Previous bikes were Maxim, Radian, Helix, ZZR 600, CBRR 954 and an 87 Goldwing Aspencade.  The previous owner of this FJ1200 had fuel issues so he threw away the stock fuel pump and bought a knock off on ebay that leaks around the middle of it. Bought another one and had same problem, so he gave up. He cleaned the carbs, but it still ran rough, so I took the carbs apart and found two of the pilot jets were clogged. New fuel pump for this bike cost 9 million dollars, so I got a weird fuel pump from ebay that has the inlet on one side and outlet on the other instead of both on the front. Now the fuel pump is not leaking and the bike is running right, but there is fuel dumping out of the hose that comes from some kind of solenoid looking device under the carbs that has two hoses going into it from the carbs and one hose going out of it that is routed along with the float bowl drain lines. Not sure if it is supposed to be connected somewhere else, but I simply put it back where the last owner had it after he tried to rebuild the carbs. Sure would like a service manual for this thing so I can make sure everything is routed correctly. I attached pictures of all the aforementioned items. Any tips would be appreciated.

Hi all.
New to the forum. But not new to motorcycling, having ridden for around 30 years now. Bought my FJ1200 about 4 years ago and had pretty trouble free motoring with it, until now that is. Looks like the dreaded grommets are weeping. Was a mechanic for about 12 years so not exactly daunted by the job. My problem is, living in Scotland, I'll struggle for 24 rain free hours. Now own a small taxi company  . Enjoy gaming, reading, socialising (not an alcoholic, alcoholics go to meetings. I'm a drunk, I go to parties) spending time with my wife and of course motorcycling. Happy to ride in almost any weather except snow and ice. Recently had a tow ball fitted to the bike, wife has arthritis and it has made a big difference to her when we're away for weekends or longer trips requiring luggage. (see photo) Anyway that's a little about me. Will be posting in technical with a question or 2 about the grommets