I know alot of people just come to this site for the great 'How-To's" and to get ideas for their XJ650 restoration projects but I wanted to direct you to another side of owning a Yamaha XJ650... riding! As the administrator of this blog you can guess that I'm pretty passionate about these bikes. I have a number of XJ650 and XJ750 Maxims and Secas in various states of repair or disrepair depending on how optimistic you are.

It wasn't really until last year that my hobby turned into a complete obsession. I opened my mouth a little too much over a few pints with my mates and I told them that I was going to build an XJ and ride it around the world. In my defense, it was after they spent a good half hour bad talking my bike. What could I do?

Being a man of my word I set to building a bike that would be reliable and eye catching. I had enough spare engines and frames kicking around to put something together and I had the most important thing... an impossible goal. When I began the task I didn't think I would get as carried away as I did but by the end of the build there wasn't a square inch of the bike that wasn't touched by me. The engine was stripped down and rebuilt, the frame was modified slightly and powder coated, the exhausts were ceramic coated, custom paint, and new panniers made out of 50mm ammo cans. I had booked passage to Germany and I planned on touring through Eastern Europe. My dates were firm and I was working on the bike right up to the final day before I flew it to Frankfurt. The rest is history...

I toured through the western part of Eastern Europe and visited Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia. I left my bike in Croatia and in 16 days I will be returning to continue my trek. This year it will be Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Poland. I know there are alot of people who tour the world by bike, but I think I'm the only one doing it on this particular bike.


If you want to follow me on my travels, or if you would like to read about last years trip I would really encourage you to go to my other blog Elvis On The Move and subscribe to the email feed or RSS feed. Some of the stories that come from the road are hilarious and others informative. I truly hope I see you over there.