My first time on a XS1100 Special

[mstic2000]

I was living down in the Big D (Dallas) back in 1985 working for a Cement company driving a gravel truck. A fellow buddy I was working with had this 1980 XS1100 Special he wanted to sell. They just had their first kid and he was lookin to come up with some extra cash. He rode it to work every day and I thought, "that's a sharp looking bike." He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. (big mistake) Needless to say I excitedly said YES! I hopped on the back and off we went. We got out on highway 114 out of Lewisville Texas and he hit that 5th gear and off we went at 125mph! With me on the back holding on for dear life and NO helmet laws at the time! Well, we got back to the shop and I bought the bike. Racked up a lot of 140+ mph miles down E35 there in Dallas (the old stomping grounds) with that bike. Only had it for about a year and I moved back up to Michigan to go to college. Had the guy I bought it from sell if for me down there. Now I know I didn't realize what I had! Ok, so now it's your turn I'd like to hear some stories about your first time on a XS1100....

[madmax-im]

My first experience riding an XS11 didn't come until the late 90's...but in '83 I bought a new leftover model '82 XJ1100 Maxim.That was my first experience.I did not know what I had bought...other than the fact that is was 1100cc's and that it was callled a UJM(Universal Japanese Motorcycle)or a Standard and thatwas a thing of beauty...
I had no idea of the monster engine that lurked beneath me...I was just riding it like a normal bike...then one day I was on the interstate and I got a bit irritated with some guy tailgating me so I downshifted to 3rd and let the throttle rip to 6500 RPMs.I pegged the speedo in short order and was still pulling hard...by the time I look in the mirrors to see where the tailgater was....I was lonnnnnng gone...and he nevr caught up.But I was totally unprepared for the response I got from the bikes's performance...but I quickly adjusted...Although I was now aware of the beast within I still did not know what I had.Not until I joined this website last year did it become apparent to what I have..Yes have...as I still own this bike!Basically because I was a cheap b@$+@rd for many yrs..and would never get rid of anything...LOL.If it wasnt for this website I would not have the clarity of understanding of what these bikes are and how they work and also the community of XS/XJ owners with which I had also no prior awareness of.

[mstic2000]

LOL Now that's what I'm talk'n bout!

[egsols]

Just finishing high school/starting college a buddy's uncle took me for a spin on the back of his 80 or 81 special. Pulled it up to over 120 mph. Wow!.

I ended up working for him, installing siding/windows/trough. My car was written off after getting rear-ended so he said use the bike. I spent most of a year riding it back and forth to work.

6 or 7 years later in '88 I'm talking to a buddy and he's got a bike laying in the back of his pick up. Says its for sale..I ask what he wants....he says $200. I take it....under the mud and grass is a '79 special. I rebuilt it in under 2 months and rode it steady for 6 years. Then parked it after getting married (yesterday was my 12th anniversery) Started thinking about restoring it and found this site, but still didn't have the time to get to it.

Last May my bank manager tells me he has a client with a 79 special for sale. Tells me I MUST go look at it. I do, its real clean, guy only wants $600. I take it and that's what I'm riding today. The other '79 is still patiently awaiting a restore, which it will get eventually.

Like I've told many people, the bikes will never be for sale. To me they are worth much more than the market could ever offer.

[DiverRay]

My first XS110 was in September of 1977. I put the bike together from the crate, with ALL the "full Dress" items from Yamaha EXCEPT the box. When I had almost 1,000 miles on it, I tried to "see what it would do", as my last bike was a 750 K Honda.
Front end up in the air on every shift! First rear tire lasted 4,500 miles, and I learned about the "stock" brake pads and rain the hard way.(bike did NOT stop!!) I had three years of fun and adventure on that bike, before I sold it to support the Jensen Healy....

[mstic2000]

I was lookin for a XS when I found this XJ and after a few hundered miles on it, it's a keeper! I got rid of my first XS Special cuz I really didn't know what I had at the time. When I pick up my next 80 XS (soon) it'll be a keeper. If ya never ridin one you'll never know. Sure you got the Kawi 1000 and the suzy 1100 but yamee is a gift from God!

[trbig]

My first time on the Maxim was in Sept of '05 (I think). I'd never heard of an XS or an XJ. My boss basically raised a kid that was buddies with one of his sons. This kid wiped out a motorcycle showing off in the local college parking lot and killed himself. My boss's wife and apparently he decided he didn't need a motorcycle after that and decided to sell it. He'd only put 500 miles on it in two years anyway. So I went to take a look. After wrecking my last street bike pretty good and breaking some facial bones and road rashing myself up really bad, SWMBO put her foot down and told me I wouldn't have another street bike. That actually lasted @ 10 years, but I found myself hanging my head out of my work truck to feel the wind in my face and hair.. and decided SWMBO... mustn't ALWAYS be obeyed!

Now don't get all hostile on me.. but the XS has the classic 70's look. I have always liked the 80's styles Magnas and KZ's and this fit it to a "T". So when we finally got it started (Boss and I and it had been sitting) and I took it for it's test ride... I was pretty un-impressed to say the least. It just didn't have the OOMPH I was hoping for and it looked terrible with the aluminum all corroded and such. It also got a nice steady 16-17 mpg!

I took it for a longer ride hoping to clean the bugs out a bit. At 65mph, you had to downshift into 3rd and wind it up to keep from slowing down on a hill! lol. I rode it @ 400 miles with no improvement.. so I decided to look online for carb kits etc, and this frikkin same XS11.com crap kept filling up all the search engines every time I typed something. I was sick and tired of trying to find a site that didn't begin with XS11.com/..... So I decided to take a look, and to the sad luck for all of you here, I joined.

I got my carbs cleaned for the first time shortly after that and went to leave from the house. There is a hill leaving here and I ripped it back wide open in 2nd gear.... and went 3/4 of the way up the hill dogging and not gaining any speed. Just about the time I figured this is just what the bike does... something obviously broke loose and it went from @ 20hp to ALL of it like you'd hit the nitrous button! I'm not kidding.. I looked around because I thought someone had rear-ended me it was that abrubt!

It's been almost 3 years now. I just about gave up on it.. I've been through I think 4 motors and untold how many times taking them in and out... but this one has seemed like it's going to stick around a while. None of the other motors would even get enough miles on them to have to change the oil before something tore up, but this one has almost 9k on it since.. May I think? I still love the looks of the bike and the feel of the throttle. It won't hang with a current sport/cruiser power-wise.. but it's still a really enjoyable bike to ride. It's always nice when you run into someone who actually knows what it is and tells their "I remember when" story... unless you're in a hurry! lol.

Tod

[bigb9582]

mine was ruffly a 1 1/2 years ago. neighbor 2 houses down had a bike sitting in his back yard for the 4 years i lived here. one day i decided to ask him about it. he said "im moving and i need it out of my yard, ill take 100 bux for it", i offered him 50 because it had no title, its been sitting for 8 years out side uncovered he said, and because it was fully dressed and ugly lookin, sold he said.
dragged it into my yard, yanked the rusted out tank, cleaned the nasty carbs, strapped on a lawn mower tank full of gas, filled the dry rotten tubed tires, jumped it, and had it running about 45 min after dragging it home. blasted up and down the rode a few times with the 8 year old oil still in it !!. damn this thing hauls ass i thought. the next day i started to clean her up. i knew she was a keeper.
neighbor couldnt believe it would still run after sitting all that time.
best 50 bux i ever spent and im still riding it!! btw it was a 79f.
didnt know what i had till i seen another one on ebay, all i knew was it had a big friggen motor on it.

[Montreux_Blue]

Hey mstic2000, maybe I have your bike! Do you remember the last 4 digits of the vin? If it is mine, you would remember it very easily.

[TopCatGr58]

A long story!

I started riding bikes fairly early, Moped, Minibike, Indian 90, none of which were mine! Then found a 67 Yamaha 305 Twin 2 stroker, was in the shop more than out, but had plenty of power, throttle response. I had ridden my friends Honda 175 Enduro prior to that, and wasn't impressed....seemed very doggy, sluggish response, etc.!

When I graduated HighSchool in '76, got a BRAND NEW '74 YAMAHA TX500A twin 4 stroke, was very happy with it, plenty of pep and response for it and my size and experience. Took it with me to Japan when got stationed there in '81. A few months later I found this sleeper XS80SG-850 Triple...was made for Japan, bought it for $500.00, registered and rode it for 1.5 years there. I really liked that bike, it had a bit more vibration than the 500...but I liked it...felt like I was on a REAL MOTORCYCLE!

I've always liked the looks of the Harley Sportsters, and had looked into buying one thru the Navy Exchange system, but for $800 more that the asking price for an FLXR or some such, I could have got a Jeep CJ-7! Almost $8k! Too rich for my blood!

A fellow sailor had bought an 81SH when he first got there, just parked it in his little backyard on base, never registered it...a real PITA in JAPAN! Just fired it up every month, rode it around the yard a few laps. He had brought a Honda CV-500 with him also. He was getting ready to get transferred back in '83, not a very tall guy, wife, 2 kids, thought he'd kill himself back in the states, so sold it to me with 15 miles on the clock!!

Got it back to the states, registered, plated, tuned up at the dealers, and rode it around town easily to BREAK IT IN!
NO WOT runs, only up to 4K and no sustained rpms, etc.!! I could feel that it had power, but was actually disappointed in it's "feel", it DIDN'T vibrate anywhere like the 850 did, I felt like I was riding a high powered sewing machine!

Just had it broken in! Was on a run thru town, a section of multilane roads with several lights thru a shopping district. Was stopped at a light, just lightly revving it...I liked to rev it, and then I heard this VROOOM next to me, looked over and saw this Camaro with a kid at the wheel egging me on! I KNEW he was no match for a BIKE, CLUNKED it into 1st, light hit green, feathered the clutch at 5k rpm, then rapped it to 8k and shifted to 2nd, bringing the front wheel up in the process! Shut it down and waited at the next light for the Camaro to roll up, he didn't roll up too close!

After that, I THEN realized what I had, and have had it ever since!

T.C.

[Shuriken]

Upgraded from an XS650 to an 80g running very poorly. First though was, man, the big 11 feels like a big heavy Cadillac with an automatic transmission..... accelerates fast, brakes slow....

[Bigfoot]

I had a little Honda 185 twinstar that I bought as a basket case, rebuilt, and learned to ride on. It wasn't long until I outgrew that bike and was looking for something bigger. I mentioned this to my neighbor and he said his son had a bike sitting in the garage that he would sell for $200. He thought it was an 1100 but wasn't sure of anything else. I said "I'll take it." So I truly didn't know what I had. First gear was gone, brakes were seized, battery was shot, and carbs were a mess. Had my first ride on it a few weeks later. (all credit goes to this site in getting it running again.) Took me another year before I got up the nerve to tear into the carbs and actually get it running right. I have been hooked from the moment we muscled it off of the trailer and into the garage.

[tiredoffixing]

I had a yamaha 400 back in 79 and went to Florida. When I got back I wanted to get an xs1100, but I met my wife and she wasnt bike friendly so I sold the 400. After 23 years of being married she comes up to me one day and say she dosnt care if i get a bike. So I found a 750 Virago and continued to look for an 1100. I found one a year ago in may and drove the 700 miles to get it. It was a year long project and with a lot of help from this sight I got it running. Its been a long time waiting for what I wanted but its well worth it now that its runing.

[DJinNH]

I rode the 850 Special during my Jr. and Sr. years of high school back in '81, '82.

It wasn't until early this summer that I took my first ride on a 1100 Special I rebuilt over the Winter and Spring. Man, I love it...just not all the repairs I have had to stumble my way through but hey, it's all a learning experience.

I half-jokingly refer to my bikes as my mid-life crisis.

Don

[egsols]

I half-jokingly refer to my bikes as my mid-life crisis

29 year old mistress works for me