XJ650 Turbo cutaway... eeek! LC2 brakes...

[JonW]

Ducking the 40+degC temps yesterday (yeah yeah stop moaning about your winter, you'll have summer soon enough lol) we headed to a local Sydney museum. Its a technology based place and has all sorts, old and new and occasionally some quite random as well.

Like all museums, they've way more exhibits than space and move them in and out and around quite a bit from storage and I guess get given all manner of things that people have finished with that its better to find a home for rather than scrap etc. Case in point is a famous exWW2 Catalina flying boat that opened up airmail from Aus to South America which was rotting for 10 years and then gifted to the museum in the 60s, restored in the 80s it has an amazing story and is a great exhibit and very impressive to see and read about.

Less exciting for the general populous perhaps as its probably not got a famous story (tho it may have, but none was quoted) is this... an XJ650 Turbo.

I guess Yamaha apprentices did this work (that was a bit of a tradition AFAIK back then) perhaps for the bike show and then maybe it sat in Yam's local HQ here showcasing the modern tech but eventually the became outclassed and it was just 'old' and was forgotten, languishing and gathering dust in a warehouse and probably destined for scrap when the place closed or an accountant decided to reduce the size of the warehouse (when realising the investment in parts of the local spares holding was weighing down the biz), yet was too cool for that and someone thought of a way to preserve it. Perhaps as good old Aussie engineers had done the work and that mean when it ended up being offered to the collection it was accepted or maybe the guy on the phone at the time just liked it. **

Whatever the story, I'm glad this happened, the bike is a weird footnote in history of course as we know and you rarely see them now. I suspect back then it became a slow seller and was stuck here, perhaps that's why it was chosen as the subject of a cut-away project... that or it was deemed to be high tech* and worth showing off... I guess we'll never know unless the story gets told. lol

Anyway... Ive no real idea, there was no card on the wall and so no info on this at all, I dont think there was anything to even say what it was, you just 'had to know' lol... in fact this was in the section where kids can twirl things and push buttons to learn about the physics how things work in a real world scenario. There was zero context to the bike, I guess it just looked cool being cut away and so someone thought it fitted the vibe for the room cos you could see inside it. I could have missed this, I never normally go in the kids room of a museum, I dont have kids lol. We just happened on it and cos of the way the place is set up we had to walk in there as they were setting up a new exhibition on the same floor and had barred the way round etc.

Anyway, I give you this... not an RD/RZ but has some of our bits in it... and also the same technology like those fork innards lol








* - high tech... hmm... the turbo is between the exhausts where the c/stand lives, so prob not cutaway or shown (unless it was on a stand separately when originally displayed?) and as for the rest of the bike... hmm... 'weird' wheels and brake disks from the XV550 are very 80s... but early ypvs brake calipers are a worry when the boost kicked in! 90bhp and 250+kgs... must have focused the mind LOL!

** - Edited... Ive found out some info... from here : collection.maas.museum/object/213058
Seems my thoughts of it being unloved for years were just artistic licence, it was gifted to the museum in 1983 from (i think) Yam Aus (the importer), but if you read that info from the museum it seems they dont really know much about it.

[arrdy350]

That's interesting to see a whole bike all cut up as a teaching example as I have only seen just engine's like it. 

[donkeychomp]

Blimey. The Popsicle has the same brakes lol.

Alex

[JonW]

Mar 7, 2023 22:38:32 GMT 1 donkeychomp said:

Blimey. The Popsicle has the same brakes lol.

Alex

She'll be right mate... they'll stop 250kg and 90bhp!

[abar121]

My father had an identical XJ650 Turbo from new, well a complete one anyway!

He bought it for motorway commuting as there were very few fully faired bikes at the time, aside from the odd BMW and Rickman courier special. It was shaft drive too, which helped back when chains stretched like elastic.

It was the first bike I went on the back of, aged around 10 I think. I remember the turbo did nothing until 6k and then it went well.

Also remember getting told off for revving it up after a ride, when he was letting the turbo cool down. Kids eh?

There was also a XJ750 version, sans turbo.

[veg]

I always liked all 4 of the turbo bikes, I’ve only ever rode one a gpz750, it was in for a service and I was allowed to have a go. 19yrs old what could go wrong. I was in awe and a little frightened of it as I got more comfortable I opened it up as a bus decided to brake just as it came in. V nearly rear ended that bus. Got back to the dealership pretending I was cool inside I was shaking.

[midlifecrisisrd]

Yep, had a Kwak turbo for a good few years

Same type of single piston calipers

80's handling, 80's brakes, 80's tyres - frightening

First bike I saw 150 on the clock

Easiest bike to make go faster. 50p for about 30 hp

Steve

[abar121]

Big boy turbo Kwak here: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334793085073

[veg]

Mar 21, 2023 18:57:54 GMT 1 midlifecrisisrd said:

Yep, had a Kwak turbo for a good few years

Same type of single piston calipers

80's handling, 80's brakes, 80's tyres - frightening

First bike I saw 150 on the clock

Easiest bike to make go faster. 50p for about 30 hp

Steve

I had a gpz750zx at 18 when I worked for a kwack dealer loved it but the brakes were crap it didn’t handle popping a turbo on it madness. My first 150 a zxr750h1 id just pdi’d our demo.