Journey of my 79 XS1100F

[nzemke]

If you had asked me how I envisioned this bike when I first picked it up, I would have told you "Running, and with me on it". I purchased this bike for $400 in October of 2012. It had right at 20K miles, and hadn't ridden on the road in over 14 years. It had spent half its life sitting under a tarp on the side of a mountain. The last guy to own it had it given to him by the family of the original owner after he passed. So the last owner is an xs1100 nut and has two fully restored xs11 specials, and then my beast and a parts bike. Of which I acquired the xs1100f and its counter part, parts bike. As I have gone down this rabbit hole at times I figured to get it running enough to use as a down payment on a brand new bike. But I have put so much time and effort into this thing it feels like an extension of myself. I know every square inch of her and love working on her. This will be the first riding season where I can ride her the all the way through. I could post a million pictures of the different things I have done on her, but this post is about having a single place to have a collective chronicling of her progress.

The things I have done:

• Replaced the farring
• Went LED on the turn signals and brake light
• Modified the front fender from the parts bike to work as a rear fender
• Made the seat from fiberglass pan, to shaping the foam, to sewing my own seat cover.
• Changed the airbox over to Pods
• Completely kitted the carbs from the ground up.
• Re-shimmed
• Wrapped the blued pipes

Things I plan to do:

• Remove the side panels
• create a well house for the battery and electronics using fiberglass.
• "Clean up" The wiring and remove some excess. (this one all depends on if the wiring can't be hidden.)
• Replace the spark plug wires.
• Replace handlebars with the European cafe bars.
• Weld on the hoop bar for the back.
• Painting the tank
• Replacing the gauges with smaller and a single all in one.

So from now on instead of posting into the "what did you do today" I'll throw it in here and see where it goes. So from here this is how it looks.

And before you judge...Kermit has put over 14K miles riding with me on my last bike and hes there to stay!

[IanDMacDonald]

Sharp looking bike, with good-looking OEM exhaust! If you do get rid of the side panels, I'm sure there would be many fellow forum looking to buy them off you.

[Schming]

Nice job !!! These bikes look more period correct with the round headlight.

One suggestion, when it's time to do your "spark plug wires" splurge for the Dyna coils, your baby always needs trinkets

[nzemke]

Its not bad...but is not great either. I can't wait for the other tank to get finished up proper. I gained a good amount of respect today for people who make every blemish disappear when they strip/bondo/paint anything.

[IanDMacDonald]

Nice job !!! These bikes look more period correct with the round headlight.

Might look period correct, but a round headlight with square gauges, and those original bars looks kinda goofy. Steve helped me embrace the look of the square headlight. I like it now. Looks macho.

[nzemke]

Yeah I agree it still looks goofy I have new handle bars coming in this next week. And when I finally decided on the right round gauges it should cut down on the block look

[DiverRay]

And when I finally decided on the right round gauges it should cut down on the block look

XS11 special's will fit easily. Speedo's from almost any Yamaha will work, but the tach almost needs to be from an 11...

[jetmechmarty]

XS11 special's will fit easily. Speedo's from almost any Yamaha will work, but the tach almost needs to be from an 11...

Or just put a small electronic unit on there, like an Acewell. That big square console now looks very wrong.

[Wildkat]

Very cool and I look forward to future posts on your progress.

LOVE the Kermit!

[nzemke]

well it would seem my trust in this things was miss placed....as I attempted to shift into 1st the shifter kept going....and now the transmission makes a clacking noise as I moved the bike off the road...without holding in the shifter...so now it sits two miles from my house...and to make matters worse I went to get it the lights on my trailer decided that tonight was also their night quit working.... Not sure what I did...but the wife told me to just go buy a new motorcycle... but I have put so much time into this thing....

[DiverRay]

sounds like something loose under the shifter side cover. May not be bad at all. There is always hope...

[IanDMacDonald]

Could be anything under that right cover. Fortunately it'll probably take you five minutes to pull the cover and see the problem, and however long to fix it. No worries.

[nzemke]

Do I need to drain the oil? Or can I tip the lady on her side and poke around?

[IanDMacDonald]

Whoops. I meant left cover. Not sure about the oil. I know you don't have to on the right side, as the bike leans to the left on the side stand.

[TopCatGr58]

Do I need to drain the oil? Or can I tip the lady on her side and poke around?

There is a drain hole in the shift cover area engine case to allow the oil to drain back into the main sump pan. You can tilt the bike to the right a bit to allow as much to drain as possible, and then pull it up on the centerstand. Then you can pull the shift cover off and not loose much oil at all.

T.C.