New XS Owner

[eagleflight]

Hello all
Well I purchased a 1980 XS1100 Special a couple of weeks ago and was very excited to see such a large following. This is my first "real" motorcycle (Ive been riding off road for a while). I live in the South Kansas City area and am looking forward to riding my new toy. I purchased a Windjammer SS fairing from a local guy and some lowers off Ebay as well as a set of Shoei hard side bags.

Im still a little overwhelmed by all the info on this site but I look forward to getting to know this site and how to better my XS.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Eagleflight,
Welcome. I take it from your upbeat post that yours is runing
We like pictures. I am interested to see what your bags look like.
If you open your profile and put your location and model of XS it will show up in all your posts. For future reference when you start asking questions

Phil

[DGXSER]

Welcome to the site!!! And welcome to the madness of XSiveness...ie..XS11 ownership!!

Lots of info here for sure. Highly recommend reading through the tech tips as your time permits, especially the ones on maintenance. Alot of great info, some of which contradicts or amends the manuals on the bike. In my opinion, follow the info on this site first, the manual can be "mistaken" about things or incomplete in its directions.

If you have not, you may want to take the MSF safety course. It is an excellent course and teaches alot of the things to watch out for that only come into play when you start sharing the road with the cages and texting cell phone idiots. You don't get those on the dirt roads!!

Most of all enjoy your ride, it'll bring miles of smiles!!!

[b.walker5]

All the XS11 Manuals you'll need are available from a member of this site here

[eagleflight]

Thanks everyone
I have so much to learn. My XS11 is running and running great, I ride it to work every day. I think I got my profile updated, Ill find out when I post this. Ill get some pictures up later today when I (hopefully) have the bags and fairing on.

Right now I really like the way my bike rides with the exception of highway speeds. It rides great but really likes the gas. I did notice that there is a recommendation of how to fix this, Ill take a look at that when it gets a little colder and Im not riding every day. I know I will eventually have a lot of things that Ill want to modify.

[DGXSER]

Joel, the biggest factor in milage on an XS11 no matter how well you tune it and all, is how hard you twist that right grip!

If you just cruise along at low RPM and let the bike slowly get up to speed like driving Dad's oldsmobile...then the milage goes up. If you take advantage of the bikes power and torque by truning that right grip up a bit...well...milage has an inverse reaction.

[eagleflight]

Well what a day. I spent most of the day putting on the saddle bags and so I only got about half way done with the Windjammer fairing. The picture below is the bike the way I got it with the bags added. By the way the Sprint fairing will be for sale as soon as I have the Windjammer on.

As far as running down the highway, it doesnt seem to matter how long I take to accellerate, by the time Im up to 70 Im doing 5000rpm. Is that normal for the highway?

One more question. In the picture below you can see a wet area below the bike. It seems to leak fuel from the air filter. It just started doing this yesterday (hadnt done it since I bought it three weeks ago). If I shut off the fuel overnight, it will run all day with no leak but if I leave the fuel on overnight it leaves the small spot of fuel. Any suggestions?

[eagleflight]

Well the picture didnt post. Hmm not sure why.

[lancelot455]

you need to upload pictures to photobucket first. Then by each image there will be 4 options. Click the img and copy and paste it here and the picture will show.

[cywelchjr]

Well what a day. I spent most of the day putting on the saddle bags and so I only got about half way done with the Windjammer fairing. The picture below is the bike the way I got it with the bags added. By the way the Sprint fairing will be for sale as soon as I have the Windjammer on.

As far as running down the highway, it doesnt seem to matter how long I take to accellerate, by the time Im up to 70 Im doing 5000rpm. Is that normal for the highway?

One more question. In the picture below you can see a wet area below the bike. It seems to leak fuel from the air filter. It just started doing this yesterday (hadnt done it since I bought it three weeks ago). If I shut off the fuel overnight, it will run all day with no leak but if I leave the fuel on overnight it leaves the small spot of fuel. Any suggestions?

5k is about right for 70. On the leak that means two things, the octy if still there is leaking and needs rebuilt, AND one or more of the carb needle valves is leaking, either because of something it the valve holding it open or because the valve is worn too much to seal, or because the o-ring that seals the seat into the carb is worn and letting gas seep around the valve. In any case, you need to fix BOTH problems, and if the needle valve is leaking that can cause the bike to run rich and get poor mileage. Now this is all relative is it's normal for these things to get less than 40 MPG on the highway (I get around 37 highway and around 30 in town).

Oh, if it's leaking gas out of the airbox check your oil level if it high it's probably from gas going into the crankcase. In either case, dip a stick into the oil and try to light it, if it lights easily there is gas in the oil. If this is the case DO NOT START THE ENGINE, you can ruin the bearings. If there is gas in the oil change the oil and fix the carbs before going any further, gas thinned oil is a rather poor lubricant.

[eagleflight]

Well I completed the front fairing today and it looks great. I dipped the oil (it wasnt high but I did anyway) and there was no gas. The gas leak seems to have stopped so not sure what was going on.

Im getting right at 38mpg so I guess Im not doing so bad. I still plan to have the carbs done anyway.

I uploaded the pictures to photobucket. Lets see if I can get them up here now.

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[natemoen]

Thats a pretty nice clean looking special you have there!

[CatatonicBug]

Very nice! Yep, 38mpg is right where it should be. You probably just had a sticky float causing that fuel leak. That's one thing the octy helps with. It only allows what is left in the lines to leak instead of emptying the tank on the driveway.

That back rest should slide forward to the driver position if you want it to. I keep mine pushed forward, and I really like the support it gives my back.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Joel,

Welcome and congrats on a great find! Contrary to your signature, even though it is painted black, it's not a midnight special, but a regular special, so it should be 1980SG not LG. The midnights had GOLD accents for all of the parts that are chrome, and you have a lot of extra chrome as well, timing cover, clutch, alt, and several others. The exhaust is also not stock, but looks good, and being a 4-1 will give you more performance in the upper rpm range, so 5K and above will/should really come on strong if/when you need it. However, they can cause a slight decrease in the lower rpm grunt/response, due to the way they scavange, etc. You have the stock airbox, and that can help the lower response and tuning even with the 4-1.

Also you have the OEM buckhorn handlebars. Some folks like them, some folks hate them. Depends on how your wrists feel after a lengthy ride. If you feel like they are being bent to much outwards, then you may want to look into getting some others with a better angle. We've found the early model Goldwings are close to the same reach, height, but have a better angle for the wrists. YMMV.

Unless you are willing to spend many hundreds of dollars, you won't want to have the carbs done, but do them yourself. Most modern mechs aren't too familiar with carbs vs. FI, etc.. For the price you would pay to have them done, you could purchase complete rebuild kits for both carbs and petcocks, the synching tools, cleaner, and still have lots of $$ leftover.

Have fun getting to know your machine and the folks here.