XV535 Virago - any foibles to look out for?

[Bob]

Just been down and bought a 1998 XV535 Virago (for Laura when her 33bhp restriction ends in a few weeks).

Fantastic example - only done 3,660 MILES since rolling off the showroom floor, utterly pristine without even the slightest sign of rust and a lovely, perky engine.

But now we're the owners of one... is there anything that needs to be looked after especially? Or any little quirks that anyone knows of?

A sign of how good the bike is, to me, has to be that they kept making it even after getting rid of the rest of the range and replacing it with the Dragstar... but even the best of bikes can have little niggles that need attending to.

So any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

[marty]

i've looked at a couple of these over the years - fantastic upgrade from a gn or similar. the only things i had ever heard about them was the starter not always playing the game (a common virago thing i understand), but they may have sorted that by '98, and the exhausts getting surface rust - especially if you're in a high humidity place.

what sort of quid was it? i looked at one in tauranga a while ago that was $7000!

[Holy Roller]

With shaft drives one needs to take apart the coupling between the shaft and diff each time a tyre is replaced and give a liberal coating of grease. If this is not done the splines will dry out and eventually strip themselves. I had a 86 model thrashed it for 5 yrs and all that went wrong was the drive shaft, would still have it if it weren't for a drunk.

[Waylander]

The starter clutch and idler gears are usually the problem as Marty said but they re-designed the in 98 so you should be clear of that.

[Bob]

Thanks for the words of advice. I'd been told that a dodgy starter could be a sign of the CDI failing (as opposed to a dodgy battery as a lot of people will say), so looks like the starter is the source of all possible evil.

On the XV250 Laura currently rides, we had probs with it draining the battery. Turned out the dealers hadn't connected the rectifier properly - I mentioned it, but they reckoned it couldn't be that.

So it ended up costing them 4 batteries until they put it on the bench... and found out I was right... we don't use that dealer any more...

[Bob]

what sort of quid was it? i looked at one in tauranga a while ago that was $7000!

£1,995 - about $5,150 more or less? For a bike with 3,500 miles (so about 5,250kms?) on the clock in perfect condition, I reckon that is a decent deal.

[marty]

that's pretty good - there's one here atm:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-35898807.htm