Neighbor traded up to a new Harley because of my XS

[Crazcnuk]

"If you break down on a trip, they have dealers all over the place and move you to the head of the line. "

When you build the least reliable bike on the road, you kind of need to do this.

[CatatonicBug]

He lost only one day and $2500 for an overhaul.

So, just becuse he broke down, he spent enough to buy 2 (at least) XS's, and still got the same POS back when he was done...

When you build the least reliable bike on the road, you kind of need to do this.

The nice thing about the XS is that usually, if you break down on the side of the road, it might take a few hours, but you can fix it right there on the side of the road with the tools in your toolkit...

[Crazcnuk]

I've been stuck, waiting for the 2008 UC to be fixed a couple of times. One day, he may have to wait for me.

[MindWebs]

The price is right

And with Our XS/XJ's..

You can Fix it yourself, usually for VERY little.
By the side of the road, with the help of a Smartphone and CH11 forum Guru's

Cost: 1 smartphone (which you had anyway)

or assuming you have the smartphone, you can probibly find a CH11 member neer by on your touring trip and brib with beer to come help fix your bike.

Cost: (phone) and BEER..

VS the alternitive, almost $30,000 dollars in bank payments..

I like my XS

[crazy steve]

"It's hard to believe but they list 54 mpg hiway on those big buggers"

I have two friends with Ultra-Classics, the 2008 one gets 50+ on our imp gallons, the 2009 gets in the low to mid 40s.
Not hard to beleive when you consider how little power they make with a 1500cc motor.

Power has nothing to do with it; it's the efficiency of the particular design at a given load. The XS motor makes lots of power, but it's not efficient, hence the poor fuel economy.

My Sportster delivered a consistant 60 mpg before I leaned on the motor; now, at 85 RWHP, it still knocks down 50+ with every tank, a number most XS riders can only dream of.....

And it's never stranded me either.....

'78E original owner

[barberad]

Quote...My Sportster delivered a consistant 60 mpg before I leaned on the motor; now, at 85 RWHP, it still knocks down 50+ with every tank, a number most XS riders can only dream of.....



Steve,
Are you getting that from an 883 with 1200 heads(85 RWHP)? why is it that the smaller harleys make more power?

[XScafe]

My XS will deliver 52mpg if I ride it like a Harley. If I ride it like it was meant to it gets in the low 30's. If I wanted to ride a couch I'd have bought(and still be making monthly payments) a Harley. I bought/built all of my bikes to run. I might breakdown and buy a V-Rod someday.

[CatatonicBug]

My XS will deliver 52mpg if I ride it like a Harley.

REALLY?? How is that? Can you give more details on what it means to "Ride it like a Harley"? It would be nice to know if I relly needed to save on gas for a short time...

[jetmechmarty]

50 mpg

Just find a long straight level road and cruise along at 40 mph. You should get nearly 50 mpg.

[Ivan]

My XS will get 52 miles per gallon if I drop it off a 52 mile high cliff with a gallon of gas.

As far as ride it like a Harley, you have to tie a brick to the fly wheel to get the "feel" of the harley. Then you unhook one of the coils, and advance the ignition so it lopes along. Put a #250 main jet on one of the remaining cylinders and a #85 on the other to get a nice "potato-potato-potato" sound out the exhaust. Remove the rear shocks and chain the swingarm all the way up so it sits so low you can't lean it over, and have the nice hard tail ride. Oh, you'll need to get some really nice chrome pieces too...

[Crazcnuk]

"Power has nothing to do with it; it's the efficiency of the particular design at a given load. The XS motor makes lots of power, but it's not efficient, hence the poor fuel economy."

Power is the whole point.

Efficiency is producing the most power from the least amount of fuel.

Most vehicles are designed for low power, and therefore may not be geared corrctly to take advantage of extra power if you make your engine more efficient.

The Harleys are 1500cc yet make far less hp than our xs11s. What they did was add a 2nd OD gear to put the engine in it's most efficient spot, but that doesn't make it really efficient. The design of the big v-twin alows it to have sufficient torque at low rpms to crusie comfortably.

The problem with the XS is that it is geared like a sport bike, because the inline 4 does not have low end tourque to spare and the efficiency range is fairly high in the rpm range. The xs relys on high rpm to make power. If we gear too high, we don't have the power at lower rpms to take advantage of the areas where we don't need power, but would rather be cruising at minimum rpms.

The fuel injection helps on the Hogs too.

[crazy steve]

Steve,
Are you getting that from an 883 with 1200 heads(85 RWHP)? why is it that the smaller harleys make more power?

You can't easily get any real power out of a 883 as the small bore prevents you from fitting decent-sized valves. If you want more poop in a 883, you need to go to the 1200 bore first. Mine was a stock 1200 to start with (and still is only a 1200) but I did big-valve S&S heads with 10.5 compression ratio, the largest cams you can install without machining the cam chest (266 duration, .555 lift) and opened up the exhaust and AC. From about 4k until I hit the rev limiter (6800) it pulls every bit as good as the XS does, probably better. Bottom end ain't so good though... get below 2k under much load and it bucks. Just a bit too much cam for low speed grunt...

It's not so much that the 'smaller' Harleys make 'more' power, it has more to do with the bore/stroke relationship (and the Sportsters are considerable lighter; at least 100 lbs less than the next-lightest model). All Harleys are 'undersquare' motors (stroke is bigger than the bore) and as the stroke gets longer, you lose high rpm potential (unless you don't mind replacing the crankpin often). The Big Twins get the big inches from really long strokes (some are over 5"!) so they make their power down low. Although there is a guy with a big-motor bagger and nitrous that has managed high-nine 1/4 mile times, but that's a rather extreme case. I suspect his engine longevity isn't the best.

Want lots of reliable power in a sleeper? Do a 'square' Sportster; bore out to the same number as the stroke (3 7/8") and get 1450cc. You have to bore the cases for the oversize cylinders, but with good heads and mild cams 100 RWHP is no problem at all and 120 isn't hard to get if you get just bit radical with the cams. Axtell (who makes the cylinders) has a fully-scienced 150 HP Sporty that turns mid-nines and is still street-legal. Put one of these in a lightweight Buell chassis and you can run with the big dogs...

Now, I'm not gonna tell you that any of these combos will make good touring bikes or that they're dirt cheap to build. For smoothness and/or gobbling a lot of distance fast, in my stable the choice will still be the XS. But for around town or in the twisties, Whoo Hooo!!

'78E original owner

[crazy steve]

Just find a long straight level road and cruise along at 40 mph. You should get nearly 50 mpg.

Ahhhh, that explains my crummy mileage. I live in western Washington. Long straight level roads are in short supply around here, and if you're doing 40 on it you'll get your a** ran over. Like I said, the BEST I ever got was 41....

'78E original owner

[trbig]

Like I said, the BEST I ever got was 41....

Make a run up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier.. just don't count your fuel mileage on the way up. Then pull in your clutch and coast back down... I bet you'll get great mileage AND have some of the best scenery to be had!

Yup.. just a little bit envious. I grew up in that area (Graham) and don't mind riding in the rain, so it would be great for me. Plus, I could pester the hell out of Prometheus over in Olympia.. lol. (Which.. just by showing up.. you would accomplish.)


Tod

[crazy steve]

Yup.. just a little bit envious. I grew up in that area (Graham) and don't mind riding in the rain, so it would be great for me. Plus, I could pester the hell out of Prometheus over in Olympia.. lol. (Which.. just by showing up.. you would accomplish.)


Tod

Yeah, no lack of good motorcycling roads here, although the traffic is getting pretty nasty in too many places and it appears the state gives drivers licenses to damn near anybody. I'm only about 8 miles from Eatonville as the crow flies, grew up in Puyallup (remember the Puyallup Drags?) so I know those roads fairly well.

If you've been gone from Graham for much time, you probably wouldn't recognise it. Meridian is 4 lanes well past Thun Field towards Graham (excuse me, 'Pierce Co Airport'), has apartments/strip malls/industrial parks on both sides of the road beyond the airport. It might be like that all the way to 220th by now as they were working on that last time I was that way. There's so much traffic out that way that a popular local bumper sticker reads 'Pray For Me... I Drive Meridian'. I stay away....

Even podunk Yelm is getting big; we've got six (count 'em! six!) traffic lights now and an evening rush hour through town. There was one three-way stop sign when I moved here. Progress......

'78E original owner