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Hey everyone I am going to get into riding this summer and I have a friend who will sell me his 1985 yamaha maxim 700 for a really good price. Is this generally a good first bike?

well....I know it hasn't been 24 hours since my last post on here, but I'm kind of surprised that no one has said anything.

Would have replied earlier, but don't know much about those bikes... lol Anyway, I have heard good things about them, not too many bad things. Also, the weekend is slow here, those that can are out riding, and most of us either access the site from work or when we get home from work.
Wrider

Here are some stats:

http://www.motorbikes.be/en/Yamaha_XJ_7 ... _1985.aspx

86HP and 45lbs of torque.

A Suzuki SV650 has about 70HP and 47lbs of torque. That Maxim 700 is a bit much for a beginner in my opinion. Others will tell you it is perfectly fine and manageable for a beginner.

Up to you, but I'd start with something more tame.

hey man
i started out w/ an 85 Honda CB650SC
nice standard motorcycle...i liked it and it held up well.
i think most asian bikes from that time period really set the platform for the bikes of today.
I was pleased w/ mine and slowly learned some of the basics of mechanics.
I see lots of 80's bikes (metrics) still on the road...good luck

before you buy any bike sit down and think long and hard how much time ur going to spend riding a bike, where and how far you wanta ride, what speeds are you expecting to ride and what bikes ur friends own, if ur going to ride with them or not. Buy the right bike that matches what you expect the bike to do. An example: If I wanted to buy an old 1985 Yamaha, 700cc, I wouldn't plan a long ride 200 miles from home, or I wouldn't wanta ride it with friends that own a R1 or a VTX1300, but it would make a great bike to ride back and forth to work for 10 miles on a light traveled 2 lane road, or a great 2 hour ride thru some back farm roads. Also check the insurance rates before you buy any bike.

If it's anything like my friends 85 Magna you'll be fine. With 40,000 miles it still runs like new and we take yearly trips between 1500 and 3000 miles. When he bought it, it had been in storage for 4 years. Carb rebuild, tuneup, fork seals and tires and it has been good ever since.

hmm...thanks for the input, I was talking to my friend that has the bike he says he was looking at the manual that came with the bike and it says that it is a 1985 Yamaha Maxim 750.... I looked on the internet and I couldn't find specs or even any evidence that yamaha even made a 750 maxim that year, all I can find are 700's. If anyone has any info on this it would be greatly appreciated.
Anyways, a little background on the bike. My friend bought it two years ago from a friend of his dad, it had been in storage for years, he is a mechanic and works on stuff like this so he gave it a major tuneup and all that stuff.
Now, two years later he is going to upgrade to a sport bike.
The Maxim is in super-excellent condition it has new seats, the chrome is in great shape, and it only has 5,000 original miles on it. He bought it for 1200 and worked on it and now he will give me a deal on it cause we are good pals, only 700.
The people I am going to be riding with are just friends 2-3 friends from school and we will all be riding older bikes, one of my friends has a 1975 honda and another has an older kawasaki, early 80's I believe. We all graduate this year and are taking MSF in May.
Yet another question, we were thinking about riding up to Canada and staying at a friends cabin for a few days... the ride would be about 550 miles. So about 10-12 hours of riding, we would split it into a two day ride. But anywho that's just a little something we would be hoping to do later in the summer. Our bikes are going to be our main source of transportation in the summer...would an extremely long ride like this be a very bad idea for beginners for riders with 2 or 3 months of experience? My friend and I will probably put on 1 or 2 hours a day for those 2 to 3 months before we thought about making the ride.
I'm getting ahead of myself here....but anywho I am really excited about riding this summer...i can't wait.

neonjoe123 wrote: ... we were thinking about riding up to Canada and staying at a friends cabin for a few days... the ride would be about 550 miles. So about 10-12 hours of riding, we would split it into a two day ride. But anywho that's just a little something we would be hoping to do later in the summer. Our bikes are going to be our main source of transportation in the summer... My friend and I will probably put on 1 or 2 hours a day for those 2 to 3 months before we thought about making the ride.

Do it. Some people will offer suggestions; use them as a guide. If anyone tells you not to do it, please ignore them...

Sounds like a great idea...keep it up!

Hey.
My first bike is an '89 honda, and I've had a lot of fun with it. I think you can't go too wrong, especially as you know something of the history of the bike.
While you're waiting for the summer, if you can get your hands on "proficient motorcycling", and the sequel ( both by David Hough) you will find some good tips that will help with how you approach the ride you are planning.
Good luck and have fun out there.