Just Purchased a 1987 FJR 1200 FOR £600

[FJRCHUBSTER]

Was on Ebay last night and without thinking purchased a FJR12OO TX1  Travelled up to to Northhampton to collect it and rode it back through freezing fog down the M1 .
Firs thing i noticed was the front brake is terrible as an HGV rear end loomed up rather too quickly but a dollop of rear put things back in control.

The bike has a noisy cam chain im told these arent adjustable ? The speedo i think is at least 5mph fast either that or there were a lot of fast lorries on the M1 last night ?
She sounds lumpy on tick over . Took her for a MOT today as it was about to run out .......and bugger me she passed no advisories . She has been lowered i think and has the weirdest handling on bumpy roads that is bordering on the terrifying .

Not sure what to do with her there is a clacky sound in clutch release and engine is a tad vibey  . The MOT guy said he thought she ran well and that the cam chain noise is very common on these is that correct ? 75,000miles is on the clock im guessing a good service is probably needed .

All this aside i rather like the bike always fancied one and the simplicity of the aircooled engine is always a good thing me thinks i need some new front discs they are almost see through lol.


Whats the best oil  for the engine ?

Having owned an awful BMW K75 S im guessing these bikes are easier to work on ?


Any advice welcomed

MATT

[FJmonkey]

Welcome Matt, not to bust your chops but you are the proud new owner of an FJ1200, FJR is another bike that we don't talk about much here. There are lots of upgrades you can do and some for little cash that will make good improvements to braking and handling. However, if you start modifying then you will get hooked on something more addictive than Crack, Moditus. I started a few years ago and now my 86' has an FZR1000 front 17" wheel, Blue dot front calipers, Galfer like wave rotors, an RPM forkbrace, a GSXR 17" rear wheel, 89' forks with RPM valves, HID headlamp, Supertrapp slip-ons, rejetted carbs, spin-on oil filter adapter. The list of what's next is longer. You are gonna enjoy it here with your FJ.

[craigo]

Welcome Matt,

Yeah, the FJ is a noisy beast. You'll hear a lot of noise out of the cam chain, the valve train and the clutch, all normal. When at a stop, pull in the clutch lever and you'll notice the clutch quiet down. The bottom line is, if it runs well, it's all good. These are pretty hardy motorcycles and takes a lot of neglect to kill them.

The front brakes are another story. You'll need to get a set of forks, triple clamps and front wheel off an 89 or later and do the front brake mod. Look into the files section and you'll find all sorts of info on that as well as other mods to bring her up to 21st century standards.

Enjoy your new FJ and see you here in the funny papers,

CraigO

[FJmonkey]

Try HH pads and fresh brake fluid first. And you won't need to change the tripple clamps if you do the FZR1000 wheel.

[flips]

Hi Matt & Welcome 

I'm thinking you have an FJ1200 1TX.
The front end has the infamous anti dive setup.Alot of fj owners get rid of it in favour of a later front end and blue pot calipers.
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=659.msg4785#msg4785
Some better HH brake pads,braided stainless brake lines & some heavier fork oil would help.
Being an old air cooled engine,they are pretty noisey.The cam chain has a spring loaded automatic tensioner,The noise is more likely to be the starter drive chain.Your right about the speedo.Mines not the best either.
Early model fjs are vibey compared to later models that have different engine mounts.
A good carb clean & sync might be in order.
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=655.0
I will leave the oil question alone...can be a contentious issue here one the forum.
Get acquainted with the search feature up the rhs top of the page under the mono popping black fj.

Enjoy the forum & your new ride!

Cheers 

Jeff P

[racerman_27410]

welcome to the group!

  The FJ is kind of agricultural sounding but you will get used to it... its more than likely its the starter chain you are hearing the noise from slnce the FJ has an automatic cam chain tensioner..... there may be some wear on the cam chain guides but probably not enough to cause the kinds of noise i think you're hearing. Starter chain noise is very common.

I'm sure you are gonna love the bike!


KOokaloo!


Frank

[Dan Filetti]

Try HH pads and fresh brake fluid first. And you won't need to change the tripple clamps if you do the FZR1000 wheel.

This has been my experience as well.

Dan

[movenon]

Welcome ! Take a bit of time to get "zeroed" in to the sounds and feel. They are a great bike. Hang on for a fast ride .

[bushboy66]

hi, and welcome, as a new fj1200 owner myself i can only comment on the rough running issue, mine did the same, and it turns out the carbs are very picky about the settings, i stripped my carbs off and cleaned the jets out, then set the pilot air jets to factory settings and balanced them up. runs really smooth now. its a bit time consuming setting them up because the motor gets hot and you need to let it cool again, so plan on balancing your carbs three times to be sure, and you have to keep adjusting the idle speed too apparently, all i did was balance my carbs with the idle set to 1500-1600 rpm, let it cool and rebalance, then reset idle to 1100 rpm and check the balance. as for the rest, well its a solid old bus that is well behaved as long as you are, ham fisted throttle movements will have the back wheel spinning up in second with the front wheel aiming for the stars . had mine two weeks and ridden it through all this snow and ice, and i love it to bits, dare i say its a better bike than the thunderace i had before

[FJmonkey]

all i did was balance my carbs with the idle set to 1500-1600 rpm, let it cool and rebalance, then reset idle to 1100 rpm and check the balance.

Set up some fans and you can do it all in one shot, just keep the air moving. 

[baldy3853]

Welcome Matt, not to bust your chops but you are the proud new owner of an FJ1200, FJR is another bike that we don't talk about much here. There are lots of upgrades you can do and some for little cash that will make good improvements to braking and handling. However, if you start modifying then you will get hooked on something more addictive than Crack, Moditus. I started a few years ago and now my 86' has an FZR1000 front 17" wheel, Blue dot front calipers, Galfer like wave rotors, an RPM forkbrace, a GSXR 17" rear wheel, 89' forks with RPM valves, HID headlamp, Supertrapp slip-ons, rejetted carbs, spin-on oil filter adapter. The list of what's next is longer. You are gonna enjoy it here with your FJ.

LOL Monkey u mightn't but us that have graduated to the FJR the more refined think they are the ducks guts and no F@@@ing chain to lube  
Oh as a side light the Handsome Pom is there somewhere.... Andrew where are u he's a fountain of knowledge and may be able to help, he was here in the land of the convicts but was given a reprieve so went home to the old Dart
Lord Baldy

Oh and welcome to the nut house Matt lots of nutters here Monkey being the nuttiest of them all in his power ranger suit  

[dogtired]

Monkey being the nuttiest of them all in his power ranger suit  

[FJmonkey]

Monkey being the nuttiest of them all in his power ranger suit  

Vid removed to avoid duplication

Damn funny, I had better practice the Ranger Strut... But it looked more like a Happy Dance....

[baldy3853]

Monkey being the nuttiest of them all in his power ranger suit  

ROTFLMFAO yes  do remember Monkey doing something lir that last year around the pool @ Portaville 

[cyclenutk75]

Welcome, Matt.  Looks like all your issues have been addressed except for the speedo thing.  I put a GPS on top of my tank bag and checked the speed at (indicated on GPS) 25, 35, 45, etc. up to 75 mph.  It's a percentage difference thing.  At 25 on the GPS the speedo reads about 28.  By the time I got up to 75 GPS, the speedo was reading 83-84.  Pretty common thing with the FJ speedo, I believe.  Oh, braided brake lines, or even new rubber ones, would make a big improvement up front if the ones that are on there now are original.  If you do a search you'll probably find something about eliminating the anti dive from the brake line circuit to make the job simpler (cheaper).

Cheers, Brother.

GT