New '82 XS400 Maxim owner

[JaredK]

Hi everyone!

Just bought an 82 XS400 Maxim two weeks ago. Love it so far. The original owner had it sitting in a barn for about 25 years, and the p.o. cleaned it up and got it running again. It still has under 5000km on it!! This is my first bike, but I'm up for tinkering. The Maxim is a lot of fun to ride, and the fall colors don't hurt either.

First thing I did was swap out the handlebars. Put some clubmans on so I'm a bit more forward/lower. I'm used to road cycling so this was far more comfortable. It'll probably need new treads next season (I think they're still original, actually! ). I might try my hand at fiberglassing and make a new seat pan next year (go for the cafe look), but it doesn't look too shabby as is.

Enjoy the pics! I know I'll have questions when I start doing some work on it.

 

[willem]

wow that's a clean lookin maxim

If I were you I wouldn't start cutting the bike up, just keep it with changing out parts like the handlebars, so you can bring it back to its mint original state. A bike this clean shouldn't be messed with in my opinion. But in the end it's your bike of course

click

 

[JaredK]

I agree. If I were to try a new seat I think I'd make something that could just be swapped out with the original. That way I'd also be able to pop on the old seat if I want to take someone for a ride. I'm not interested in trying my hand at welding quite yet, and I don't want to cut this thing up.

For now I'll just enjoy it like it is for the rest of the season!

 

[willem]

Awesome. Looks like you have quite a nice scenery to ride through over there, and as long as you're careful for wet leaves on the road I can't see why you wouldn't ride it every day until snow comes enjoy

 

[xschris]

Welcome to the forum Very bike and with super low miles. I would keep it a original as possible. It will be a good investment for you down the road if you ever want to sell it. Once you start cutting you kill most of the bikes value

 

[Lou Ranger]

Wow, beauty - couldn't be nicer, unless it was red. Welcome to the Forum!

One thing to check before you do any higher speed runs is the age of the tires. Hopefully a PO who got it out of a barn after 25 years would have immediately discarded the tires - regardless of tread depth. But, if not, then a bike with under 5,000 kms could still have the original, barely worn 32 year old tires. That would not be safe though.

The DOT number on one side of each tire should have an extra slug with a 3 or a 4 digit number. They reveal the week and year of manufacture, e.g., 0908 means the 9th week of 2008. If it's only 3 digits then the tires were made before 2000 = too old for sure. Lots of folks won't ride on a tire older than 6. Probably, if tires haven't been left sitting all day, all summer in the sun, a bit older than 6 would be fine on a 400cc. bike.
But definitely not 32 years.