What did you do to your bike today?

[Pat Kelly]

Replaced the starter in the 78.
Still on 2 wheels when not on 18 wheels.
Drove my 1,000,000th mile in a big truck last week, 5 miles east of Winslow, AZ. Did it in under 10 years.

[Wildkat]

Hey Pat!
Glad to you're still riding! Last I saw, you were looking to sell.

[arkladave]

Rode a few miles, blow out the dust. Glad I didn't have to bungee net the saddlebag cover. Woo-hoo. Going to have to find new coils soon, any moisture and I loose two cylinders.

[dbeardslee]

Rode a few miles, blow out the dust. Glad I didn't have to bungee net the saddlebag cover. Woo-hoo. Going to have to find new coils soon, any moisture and I loose two cylinders.

Might have some cracks in your high tension wires. If you get it running in a dark place you can mist some water on the wires and look for sparks arcing from the wires to the valve cover. If you see sparks you can graft new wires into the old coils to fix the problem. But they'll still be 15kv coils. Personally I like the 30kv Dynas. They make a HUGE difference.

[BA80]

Going to have to find new coils soon, any moisture and I loose two cylinders.

I had that issue for years and finally figured out it was the pick up coil wire connector behind the fuse panel. Filled that plug with dielectric grease and haven't had a problem since.

[madmax-im]

Dunflops again...

been riding today...its 88 degrees noticing the rear tire gets squirrley over groves in the road...that means the rear tire must be worn..cause when its new it dont do squirrley stuff...tire is 11 months old and only has 3570 miles on it...was not worth the $96 i paid for it...its a Dunflop...going back to Shinko 712($64 thru Amazon and MC Superstore)...i wont run a shinko up front tho' ...Pirelli has that covered...

[trbig]

That's probably all you'll get out of the 712 also, but it won't cost as much. I wouldn't be too hard on Dunlop though.. If that's a 404, you picked the worst one they make and surprised you got that many miles out of it.

[madmax-im]

yes its the 404...and I have run the 712 before...and yeah its a better bang for the buck...as it sits this tire isnt gonna last another month either way... I miss the days (80s -90s) when i could run with the metzler 880's front and rear and they were a great tire...this crap today ..well thats it...crap

[MaximPhil]

Replaced the starter in the 78.
Still on 2 wheels when not on 18 wheels.
Drove my 1,000,000th mile in a big truck last week, 5 miles east of Winslow, AZ. Did it in under 10 years.

Hi Pat,
You certainly have not been standing on any corners in Winslow or anywhere else.
I remember when you were embarking on your trucking career. Well done.
Congratulations on reaching that milestone.
Phil

[Wildkat]

Met another XSive!

John and I took our bikes (and a daughter) for BBQ this evening. The bikes didn't eat much. Anyway, as we were eating, a gentleman asked to sit down with us since we were riding XSes. Turns out he's owned an 80 Midnight and currently has a 79 he wants to get running when he digs it out of the garage.
We told him about the site, so maybe he'll join in....

[tomcos67]

Replaced the starter in the 78.
Still on 2 wheels when not on 18 wheels.
Drove my 1,000,000th mile in a big truck last week, 5 miles east of Winslow, AZ. Did it in under 10 years.

That's amazing all those miles on the road. With all those bad drivers, out there. Especially out west ..I thought I would like to drive for a living quickly found out I couldn't put up with it.It"s not easy.

[Rasputin]

Did up a 78E tube tire rim to do a tubeless function as per the site's resources and mounted a new rear tire on the 78E. Totally love the post Crazy Steve put up about how to modify a rim to do the tubeless duty. Just hope the brass fittings I bought are sort of equal in weight so the tire balances.

Used Dyna beads again with a lot less difficulty this time. Did most research ever on the site due to tube/tubeless rims. Front rims are very hard to find info about. It would appear that Crazy Steve's post is the only resource that is dependable on this.

Dynabeads are tough to get in and some bike shops charge more due to the mess they make when disassembling them, but that is because of the mess they make coming out of a tire.
Sold the 81MNS just wish I made some money on the deal, but the young fellow is a friend of mine and will love it. If not, Oh well cause he will still need advice etc from us all..
Rebuilt 3 different sets of carbs in the past week and am doing 2 more real soon. One set scares hell out of me as the dude I am doing them for actually assembled my 79SF. He is still a motorcycle mechanic today but he asked me to do a rebuild on his carbs.
Hating Ethanol fuel with every fibre of my being every single spring!

[Jimmyshifts]

Trouble figuring out wiring behind headlight

Hello all,

This is my first Post. hope I'm doing right. I have a ton of projects to do on my '78 XS1100. I got this bike a few years ago and it always ran strong but needed a few fixes. Today I wanted to knock out getting all the lights to come on when they should. I took the head light off and the wires are a mess. It seems there are a lot of unconnected wires which would explain my problem. But I can't seem to figure out what goes where and the only wiring charts I see are not much help(I am a novice). The back brake light lights up when the key is turned on but does not get brighter when either brake is used. It seems like there more male connectors then female connectors. I can only find one wire that if I connect a turn front turn signal to that turns it off and on, leaving the other one unable to light up. At least the headlight works fine since it is clipped into its own harness. I know that the solid red wire has constant power for accessories. But that doesn't help me get the turns signals, horn and back brake light working. The starter works fine. Does anyone have a good picture of what goes where? I'll try and attach a picture of mine. Thanks for all your help in advance!!!

http://s1360.photobucket.com/user/jimmyshifts/media/IMG_1050_zpscwqdh0ls.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[tcoop]

Went to get some spare keys made for my wife's XJ1100 got distracted on the way( Yard sale, carwash, getting things out of the shed...). 3 hours later I make it to the hardware store and I cant find the key anywhere. I retraced all my steps and the key is nowhere to be found.

Now I will need to take the helmet lock off and go to the locksmith and hope they can make some from that.

[Schming]

Here ya go

http://www.keys4urride.com/