High-Mileage Classics: Glenn Gerein's Rare 1984 Yamaha XJ750RLs

Reader Contribution by Glenn Gerein
Published on September 20, 2011
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One of Glenn Gerein’s rare 1984 Yamaha XJ750RLs.

Yamaha only made 887 of these 1984 Yamaha XJ750RL motorcycles; 601 came to Canada and the rest went to Australia.

It is almost identical to the Yamaha XJ900RK that was sold in the U.S. in 1983 and 1984, but it has the smaller engine, a frame-mounted fairing and no anti-dive forks. Other than that, all parts are interchangeable. They even share the same factory shop manual.

I have two, one set up with a sidecar so depending on my mood or the weather I can have a bit of variety in my riding style. The solo bike has 86,000km on the clock, which works out to about 54,000 miles. I originally bought it as a parts bike because it had an almost new set of factory exhaust pipes that are no longer available. The engine had issues but everything else was intact, so I decided to bring it back to life two winters ago. I had another engine kicking around that I had soda blasted and repainted along with the frame. I left all the body panels with the faded patina, rebuilt the carbs and the brake systems, redid the front forks, installed new wheel bearings and tires, and wired in a new fuse box.

The old girl runs like a champ. These are great bikes, with two valves per cylinder, double overhead cams, four carbs and shaft drive. They are simple to work on and everything is easy to get at. Most mechanical parts are readily available, but finding original body parts is getting harder.

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