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Hey all,
As much as it breaks my heart, it is finally time to let go of my 1978 Yamaha American Turbo-Pack XS11 race-road-trophy bike. It has been discussed a few times over the years here on XS11.com, and is been under my care for most of the last 39 years.
It has a long and colorful story, and notable racing history. It goes something like this:
In 1978 while working as a mechanic at Cycle Springs Yamaha in Tarpon Springs Florida, a customer bought it new and set it up for touring; he dressed it with every option you could get - full Calafia fairing with lowers and a CycleSound, hard bags with tour pack and chrome bumper rails, backrest, king queen seat, crash bars, you name it. He spent a fortune. After a careful break-in and 1000 mile service, he promptly put it in the ditch; it barrel rolled, and completely destroyed all those nifty goodies. The wreck looked like a disaster.
We did the insurance estimate, and the accessories alone totaled it out. The customer scared himself and didn't want it, and the boss never looked at it too closely and just saw a brutal crash job, and no one wanted to buy it for salvage, so I did; for $500! The bike didn't hit anything solid, and merely went for a good tumble down an embankment - the forks weren't even bent.
The touring accessories took all the damage, and actually protected the naked bike quite well. The bars were bent, the tank had a couple shallow dents, and the front fender was crunched, but that was about it. I fixed the tank, repainted the bodywork, put on a set of low bars, and ended up with a super nice 1500 mile XS11 that wasn't even a year old for under $1K!
It was used as a commuter and weekend tourer (that king queen was quite comfortable), and 4 years and 25,000 miles later it was converted to a road-race bike. There are lots of race tracks and race organizations in Florida and Georgia, and I had been racing in the area starting in the late 70's on RD400's and SR500's very actively at Moroso in West Palm Beach, Gainsville, Sebring, Dade City, Roebling Road in Savannah, Road Atlanta, and Daytona. RD's and thumpers dominated their classes, but at Daytona, they were simply not fast enough to actually use the high-bank. And I wanted to see what actually using the high-bank was like; enter the Eleven.
The XS got a Kerker, velocity stacks, sticky tires, café bars, fork brace, steering dampener, a pair of YZ80 mono-shocks, and an XR750 style fiberglass seat. Daytona here we come! At the time, it was one of the faster four strokes out there, and would climb the banking like the big boys do. It tripped the on-track radar between 140 and 145 reliably, and only a couple other machines could stay with it flat out. It did quite well, especially with those 1 mile+ straightaways.
On July 4th 1985, we entered the Paul Revere 250 Mile Night Endurance Race at Daytona; the first endurance race ever run at Daytona after dark. Here is a YouTube/MotoWorld vid from that event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW60SLtuUx0
I started in position #26 in row seven, but its dark, so you will have to take my word for it. Well it was a cool night (for Florida), and the XS was running great! we had to run at least 2 riders with a required pit-stop, and I went out first.
On lap 97, running a solid 11th out of a field of 80 bikes, the old girl gave up; going WFO on the tri-oval banking with the speedo hovering just above 140, the motor locked up tight. Actually, 5th wheel-gear seized on the mainshaft and the transmission locked up, and broke the engine case taking the rest of the motor with it. As soon as the longest skid mark I ever left started (the one on the track, not the one in my leathers), I grabbed a hand full of clutch thinking I could coast to a stop, but the gearbox is directly connected to the driveshaft, so the 140mph skid was just beginning. Amazingly I didn't fall down, but held the 1/2 sideways slide until the bike stopped - in the middle of the entrance to turn #1, in the dark.
Now that was frightening! The rear wheel was still locked tight so I couldn't push the bike to the side of the track, and without lights on my body, running across the track while 60+ bikes were roaring past would have turned me into road pizza, so I had to wait for the corner crew to get enough people together to carry the bike off the track; it took 6 of us! Miraculously, no one was injured or killed, except the bike and my pride...
After assessing the damage, the motor was deemed destined to becoming Budweiser cans. The whole deal was a little disheartening, so the Eleven spent the next couple years in the corner, never to road race again. In the meantime, another customer, Jeffery Turbo, decided to sell his ATP equipped '79 Standard dedicated drag bike to buy some new diving equipment, so the first piece to the puzzle came home. Also that summer another XS11, an '80 Midnight Special, totaled wreck came in; the 10K mile motor from that bike came home shortly thereafter.
I pulled the Midnight top end to lap the valves and install a couple extra base gaskets to drop the compression, and the ATP drag-bike turbocharger had a new home in the old race bike. I never road raced it again, but couldn't help but take it to the digs on occasion. Without a wheelie bar, it would run in the 9's all day. It was street legal too, so I racked up another few thousand rounds terrorizing the local freeways before offing it.
I traded it to a guy for a Pontiac LeMans with a 500 cu. in. tricked-up Caddy motor; it was fun! I did miss the Eleven though, and about 10 years later I was flipping through the local Cycle Trader, and there the old beast was just as I sold it. The guy I traded it to was already in his 70's at the time (a true wild man), and sadly he died; his son was selling it to clean out his dad's garage. I hauled it home (again) shortly thereafter, and have owned it ever since.
The guy who died rode it about 4K miles while he had it, and when I got it back it ran well, but the turbo smoked. I pulled the RaJay F40 off about 10 years ago, and found a loose turbine bearing causing the smoking. Its a $35 bearing, but I never got around to buying one, and the bike has been little more than a 600 pound race trophy ever since.
It is still 100% complete and resurrectable, but will need plenty of attention to bring everything back to life. There is a partial parts bike to go with it, and several boxes of spares, gaskets, seals, instruments, electrics and hydraulics too; at least 1/2 a ton worth all together. I want $3500 for everything. Bring a truck. Guaranteed that after your first ride, you will be as happy as a puppy with two tails you bought it =). And just maybe, it'll make it back to me again - but please don't die.
PM, call or eMail Warren; 479-304-1216 (land line - no texts, sorry), or war_bar@hotmail.com. The bike is in Fayetteville Arkansas about 100 miles East of Tulsa.
Cheers,
Warren
As much as it breaks my heart, it is finally time to let go of my 1978 Yamaha American Turbo-Pack XS11 race-road-trophy bike. It has been discussed a few times over the years here on XS11.com, and is been under my care for most of the last 39 years.
It has a long and colorful story, and notable racing history. It goes something like this:
In 1978 while working as a mechanic at Cycle Springs Yamaha in Tarpon Springs Florida, a customer bought it new and set it up for touring; he dressed it with every option you could get - full Calafia fairing with lowers and a CycleSound, hard bags with tour pack and chrome bumper rails, backrest, king queen seat, crash bars, you name it. He spent a fortune. After a careful break-in and 1000 mile service, he promptly put it in the ditch; it barrel rolled, and completely destroyed all those nifty goodies. The wreck looked like a disaster.
We did the insurance estimate, and the accessories alone totaled it out. The customer scared himself and didn't want it, and the boss never looked at it too closely and just saw a brutal crash job, and no one wanted to buy it for salvage, so I did; for $500! The bike didn't hit anything solid, and merely went for a good tumble down an embankment - the forks weren't even bent.
The touring accessories took all the damage, and actually protected the naked bike quite well. The bars were bent, the tank had a couple shallow dents, and the front fender was crunched, but that was about it. I fixed the tank, repainted the bodywork, put on a set of low bars, and ended up with a super nice 1500 mile XS11 that wasn't even a year old for under $1K!
It was used as a commuter and weekend tourer (that king queen was quite comfortable), and 4 years and 25,000 miles later it was converted to a road-race bike. There are lots of race tracks and race organizations in Florida and Georgia, and I had been racing in the area starting in the late 70's on RD400's and SR500's very actively at Moroso in West Palm Beach, Gainsville, Sebring, Dade City, Roebling Road in Savannah, Road Atlanta, and Daytona. RD's and thumpers dominated their classes, but at Daytona, they were simply not fast enough to actually use the high-bank. And I wanted to see what actually using the high-bank was like; enter the Eleven.
The XS got a Kerker, velocity stacks, sticky tires, café bars, fork brace, steering dampener, a pair of YZ80 mono-shocks, and an XR750 style fiberglass seat. Daytona here we come! At the time, it was one of the faster four strokes out there, and would climb the banking like the big boys do. It tripped the on-track radar between 140 and 145 reliably, and only a couple other machines could stay with it flat out. It did quite well, especially with those 1 mile+ straightaways.
On July 4th 1985, we entered the Paul Revere 250 Mile Night Endurance Race at Daytona; the first endurance race ever run at Daytona after dark. Here is a YouTube/MotoWorld vid from that event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW60SLtuUx0
I started in position #26 in row seven, but its dark, so you will have to take my word for it. Well it was a cool night (for Florida), and the XS was running great! we had to run at least 2 riders with a required pit-stop, and I went out first.
On lap 97, running a solid 11th out of a field of 80 bikes, the old girl gave up; going WFO on the tri-oval banking with the speedo hovering just above 140, the motor locked up tight. Actually, 5th wheel-gear seized on the mainshaft and the transmission locked up, and broke the engine case taking the rest of the motor with it. As soon as the longest skid mark I ever left started (the one on the track, not the one in my leathers), I grabbed a hand full of clutch thinking I could coast to a stop, but the gearbox is directly connected to the driveshaft, so the 140mph skid was just beginning. Amazingly I didn't fall down, but held the 1/2 sideways slide until the bike stopped - in the middle of the entrance to turn #1, in the dark.
Now that was frightening! The rear wheel was still locked tight so I couldn't push the bike to the side of the track, and without lights on my body, running across the track while 60+ bikes were roaring past would have turned me into road pizza, so I had to wait for the corner crew to get enough people together to carry the bike off the track; it took 6 of us! Miraculously, no one was injured or killed, except the bike and my pride...
After assessing the damage, the motor was deemed destined to becoming Budweiser cans. The whole deal was a little disheartening, so the Eleven spent the next couple years in the corner, never to road race again. In the meantime, another customer, Jeffery Turbo, decided to sell his ATP equipped '79 Standard dedicated drag bike to buy some new diving equipment, so the first piece to the puzzle came home. Also that summer another XS11, an '80 Midnight Special, totaled wreck came in; the 10K mile motor from that bike came home shortly thereafter.
I pulled the Midnight top end to lap the valves and install a couple extra base gaskets to drop the compression, and the ATP drag-bike turbocharger had a new home in the old race bike. I never road raced it again, but couldn't help but take it to the digs on occasion. Without a wheelie bar, it would run in the 9's all day. It was street legal too, so I racked up another few thousand rounds terrorizing the local freeways before offing it.
I traded it to a guy for a Pontiac LeMans with a 500 cu. in. tricked-up Caddy motor; it was fun! I did miss the Eleven though, and about 10 years later I was flipping through the local Cycle Trader, and there the old beast was just as I sold it. The guy I traded it to was already in his 70's at the time (a true wild man), and sadly he died; his son was selling it to clean out his dad's garage. I hauled it home (again) shortly thereafter, and have owned it ever since.
The guy who died rode it about 4K miles while he had it, and when I got it back it ran well, but the turbo smoked. I pulled the RaJay F40 off about 10 years ago, and found a loose turbine bearing causing the smoking. Its a $35 bearing, but I never got around to buying one, and the bike has been little more than a 600 pound race trophy ever since.
It is still 100% complete and resurrectable, but will need plenty of attention to bring everything back to life. There is a partial parts bike to go with it, and several boxes of spares, gaskets, seals, instruments, electrics and hydraulics too; at least 1/2 a ton worth all together. I want $3500 for everything. Bring a truck. Guaranteed that after your first ride, you will be as happy as a puppy with two tails you bought it =). And just maybe, it'll make it back to me again - but please don't die.
PM, call or eMail Warren; 479-304-1216 (land line - no texts, sorry), or war_bar@hotmail.com. The bike is in Fayetteville Arkansas about 100 miles East of Tulsa.
Cheers,
Warren
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