Hello all

[RJFort]

Hi everyone,

My name is Rich. Just bought a "brand new" 1979 XS11 special. I am looking forward to working on this machine. I am hoping to share progress and learn a few things from you. I am located in Bristol CT in case there happens to be people from here on this forum. I don't know how you all feel about chops or if you are XS purists. I plan on chopping this bike and bobbing it. If anyone has had any experience doing anything like this it would be cool to hear from you and learn about some of your experiences. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Talk to yo uall later.

[BA80]

Welcome to the site RJ. I think you'll find that for the better part most here are purists. There are a few who have done some really nice customs though.

These bikes are getting to be fewer every day and once they're gone they're gone so most of us want to see them restored rather than, excuse the phrase, bastardized. But, it IS your bike.

BTW, any good stock parts you might remove let us know because there's usually someone who can use them.

[DGXSER]

Welcome RJ!!

It is a mixed bag here. Some are strictly restore it types, some like me enjoy resurecting the used and abused though I tend to go with stock setup, and there is a group who chop and bob them here as well.

If you use the search function in the blue line toward the top of the page, and enter bobber, or chop, chopper I am sure you will find more threads pop up than you want to read. There are more than a few pretty nicely done bobber/chopper bikes with their process pretty thoroughly documented on her. A member who goes by Da-Bubble did one a while back that I thought was pretty cool.

[ddragon63]

I've never understood the desire to chop or bob a classic Jap bike.... Each to their own I guess. I've seen alot of late model Virago's done. I guess when you've been around a model of motorcycle since birth your views on it can get jaded a little.... Regardless its your bike so enjoy your project. And like previous stated and old "new" parts you remove and don't plan on using you can offer up @ a fair price in the "for sale" section. I'm sure a member could use them

Welcome to the site. Enjoy your "new" 33 year old bike If you dig you can find pictures of everyones bikes on here and decide which AVE you would like to explore. I've seen guys do drag bars on the specials and give them that "cafe" look. If I had one to do from scratch I would probably explore that AVE. so I'm not a total "purest"... Heres a picture of my 79 special that is just a few months newer than me. Still in the family

[Gearsnd]

good on ya for deciding to revive and old xs. whatever shape it takes when you are done it is still an xs at heart.

[tom clisham]

Welcome!

to the site. More info here that you'll ever be able to use. A lot of it's even good!

Your exhausts will probably pay for brand new sexier pipes, a lot are looking for original exhausts in good shape. And so and so on.

PLEASE remember that cafes & bobbers look really cool with no front fender, BUT, the front fender IS your fork brace, & barely adequate as stock. If you ditch the fender, you MUST replace it with a good aftermarket fork brace.

[crazy steve]

Welcome, and I'll beat up on you a bit about chopping...

You've got what appears to be a remarkably well-preserved bike, with all the hard-to-find parts still there. This is also a 'first', being the desireable first-year Special model and fairly rare in the condition yours is in. Some of those parts would difficult and expensive to replace. So if you're looking to make the bike more eye-catching, a nicely turned out stocker will draw more attention that a hacked-up bike almost every time. And if you ever wanted to sell it, be worth a hell of a lot more. As far as modifing the bike for anything other than appearance, don't; Yamaha did a very good job on these in terms of 'tuning' them, and almost any affordable mods you can make these days will at best only equal the factory combination (unless you can find any of the even-rarer 'vintage' performance parts that were once available for these), and many won't, with tuning issues to boot. This is particularly true of exhaust mods; the factory mufflers can't be beat with anything commonly available these days.

Don't get the idea I'm anti-chopper/bobber; I'm not. Many of the bikes seen here aren't in all that good a condition when the new owner gets them, and sometimes that can be the easiest path to getting one roadworthy rather than trying to track down missing bits. But when somebody turns up one as nice as yours looks to be, it's a shame to see a 'survivor' go under the knife...

[motoman]

[QUOTE= But when somebody turns up one as nice as yours looks to be, it's a shame to see a 'survivor' go under the knife...[/QUOTE]

See that someone spent some time and thought doing the tank and side-cover lettering design. No longer having the badges, that IS a very nice lettering combo! Have obviously seen hundreds of XS's and never seen one with the lettering like that. All left like that and rest of bike including motor cleaned up, would definitely be "one of a kind" as far as the lettering!

[fredintoon]

Wotcher mate, 'ow bist?
(that's in the original Bristolian,{a debased dialect of 17th Century Quaker English} from my home town of Bristol, England.
FYI, here's my rant:-
Why stop at hardtailing, go all the way! Rake the frame; fit stretched girder forks; remove the front brake; install a tiny little gas tank with a US flag painted on it, wear white leathers; smoke dope and pretend you are Peter Fonda!
Really, though, so long as you keep (or even enhance) the front brakes and the rear suspension, it's OK by me.

[RJFort]

Thanks

Thank you to all of you welcoming me. It is in great shape (for its age). I do not know if it starts. The guy had it stored under a tarp, under his porch. He stored it 2 years ago. He said it ran when he put it away, but has not tried starting it since. The paint looks nice in pics, but when you look in person it is worn and the lettering was all done by hand, not really great. I am very happy with the bike however. I am sorry if I offend some of yo uwith my intentions for the bike. I am personally not attached to this particular model. I have been wanting to build bobber and this has all the elements I was looking for. I originally wanted a 650 or a cb of some sort, but this came along and the price was perfect. He was asking $500 obo. He took $250 and said just get this thing out of here. I have the feeling he would have trashed it if I had not come along. I also plan on building a bare bones stripped cafe at some point as well. Just so you all know, I do not take anything negative towards my intentions personally. I respect everyones intentions. I do promise however that when I do start my chop that I will not cut corners and plan on doing everything correctly and tastefully (in my opinion). Thanks again for your responses. I look forward to more in the future. Take care all.

[jetmechmarty]

Here are what I call nicely modified Specials:



They don't get much nicer!

This one is nicely executed:

[xs11lover]

Hello Rich, I'm the Bastard they were talking about.
I have a feeling you'll show it more love than it has seen for many years. Any of the xs heads around here will agree, a bike that gets loved and run is better than one that sits under a porch and rots, even if it's a ...gasp... bobber/chopper. The factory exhaust is a keeper...much as I'd like to trick you into selling it to me, you won't find anything better than the stock double walled 4 into 2's. If you take them off, hold onto them like gold, because they are.
A nice bobber is worth just as much as a restored xs11. If you had a super clean original, original with low miles, i'd say don't touch it.
The thing with a bobber is that it's hard to not make it look silly, so do it up right and spend a bunch of time on it. Look at it, think and then think some more. It will take $ and more time than most will admit to do it right. The world doesn't need another white trash neon ape hanger. I can say that because I am.
Personally, I like a bobber that looks like it came from a factory.
Best of luck with your build.
Just remeber one leads to two, three, four or more. I've owned about twenty over the years. I wish I still had this one. It came to me as a 78 bagger like the pic, only in worse shape.


Seliing off the stock parts on ebay did fund alot of the ideas I've had.

[jetmechmarty]

I'm the Bastard they were talking about.

Garrett,

I like your bikes. They don't look like hack jobs. Most importantly, you have retained a rear suspension. From the photo, it looks like you paid attention to detail to make the bike look "finished".

[mack]

Well informed

Sorry i've been away for a while guy's, minor surgery turned out to be not sooo much. just getting so I can sit for a bit. Anyway I probably would have passed for a couple days but am compelled to respond before it's too late. After seeing the condition of that bike I'd hate to see it cut to pieces. I'm neither for or against, but man that bike is in good shape. Please take some time and see what all the options are before you start. If you still want to cut one up choose a hopeless barn find for a couple hundred, not one that is close to factory.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Welcome Rich

Welcome, I am glad to hear you are going to customize your bike, It looks nice. When you start fixing her up, please PM me for my address and shipping money for any and all OEM parts you take off, especialy that exaust system, that would look like crap on a chopper

Hi everyone,

My name is Rich. Just bought a "brand new" 1979 XS11 special. I am looking forward to working on this machine. I am hoping to share progress and learn a few things from you. I am located in Bristol CT in case there happens to be people from here on this forum. I don't know how you all feel about chops or if you are XS purists. I plan on chopping this bike and bobbing it. If anyone has had any experience doing anything like this it would be cool to hear from you and learn about some of your experiences. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Talk to yo uall later.