Rider Magazine Yamaha xs1100 historical

[soccer4m]

Hey Xsessives, this months Rider magazine did a nice historical, detailed article on the Yamaha XS1100 this month, go to last couple of pages. Here is the link to this months online issue, hope it works
https://read.epgmediallc.com/i/1235046-may-2020

Ride on, Mike in Sun Diego,,,awaiting freedom from Corruptifornia Political Lockdown

[3Phase]

Decent Article

It worked for me, Mike, but it was tricky finding all the pages of the article.

[dbbrian]

Thanks for sharing Mike. I downloaded the PDF

Read the last page of the book first (pg 74) then go back to page 73

Brian

[thebottle]

The cylinders on the XS Eleven were canted forward a few de-grees to add a little weight to the front wheel, though that did not do much to inhibit the wheelie folk from lift-ing the front tire just about any time they wanted to.

So ya'll do wheelies on it?

I have lifted the front wheel momentarily many times on hard launches, but one time launched into a full wheelie and it scared the bejeezus out of me.

[Bonz]

Hey Xsessives, this months Rider magazine did a nice historical, detailed article on the Yamaha XS1100 this month, go to last couple of pages. Here is the link to this months online issue, hope it works
https://read.epgmediallc.com/i/1235046-may-2020

Ride on, Mike in Sun Diego,,,awaiting freedom from Corruptifornia Political Lockdown

In the May issue in that link, look at the letters... I made letter of the month.

[soccer4m]

Bonz is Famous!!

Pages 8,9 Letter of the Month for those that want to see Howards letter to the magazine about how motorcycles used to be much more useful in a variety of riding needs,,,,not niches like todays bikes,,,,which brings us to the review of the xs1100 at the back of the issue, anyway Congrats to the famous Bonz
Mike in Sun Diego

[3Phase]

So ya'll do wheelies on it?

I have lifted the front wheel momentarily many times on hard launches, but one time launched into a full wheelie and it scared the bejeezus out of me.

Are you out of your mind?

Wheelies are illegal and they're really dangerous and... and everyone knows you can't wheelie on a shafty anyway so I've never done one!


You can't do stoppies on an XS, either, so just forget about it.

Pages 8,9 Letter of the Month for those that want to see Howards letter to the magazine about how motorcycles used to be much more useful in a variety of riding needs,,,,not niches like todays bikes,,,,which brings us to the review of the xs1100 at the back of the issue, anyway Congrats to the famous Bonz
Mike in Sun Diego

Conga rats, Howard!

Mike, I stopped even looking at new bikes when the wannabe street racer Tupperware craze hit back in the early '80s.
They were half-fast bikes that looked sort of like race bikes but were totally impractical and didn't do anything well except create back and wrist problems.

Sometime in the 80s my ex-wife and I were riding back to the mountains after a weekend on the coast with friends and we got to watch a pack of Tupperware riders on the 5 South trying to pull off a long ride without crying. The were standing up from the crouch; climbing onto the seat; kicking out one leg; leaning side-to-side and so on. It was painful just to watch.

My 100% useful '81 KZ750 with its Vetter Match fairing was the last new bike for me until my Harley.

[thebottle]

In the May issue in that link, look at the letters... I made letter of the month.

Wow, really? That's impressive, didn't even look through the rest of the magazine, but I'm going to check those pages out now! Thanks!

Are you out of your mind?

Wheelies are illegal and they're really dangerous and... and everyone knows you can't wheelie on a shafty anyway so I've never done one!


You can't do stoppies on an XS, either, so just forget about it.

Wait, can you do a stoppie on it? For real? I just tried to look up "XS1100 stoppie" and couldn't find anything. I've seen XS1100 wheelie videos and drifting videos, but have people really stoppied this big beast?!?!?!

Trying to search for a stoppie video I came across this video which was really well produced and edited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-PkPXJrV0Q

Great video. Love telling people this was the fastest thing coming off an assembly line in 1980!

Conga rats, Howard!

Mike, I stopped even looking at new bikes when the wannabe street racer Tupperware craze hit back in the early '80s.
They were half-fast bikes that looked sort of like race bikes but were totally impractical and didn't do anything well except create back and wrist problems.

Sometime in the 80s my ex-wife and I were riding back to the mountains after a weekend on the coast with friends and we got to watch a pack of Tupperware riders on the 5 South trying to pull off a long ride without crying. The were standing up from the crouch; climbing onto the seat; kicking out one leg; leaning side-to-side and so on. It was painful just to watch.

My 100% useful '81 KZ750 with its Vetter Match fairing was the last new bike for me until my Harley.

What's a tupperware rider? I had a '86 Hurricane for my second bike and I feel like that falls into the category, . Didn't have it for long. Looked like a rocket, but had no power, and was uncomfortable to ride, . Sold that pretty fast, bought a mint '83 Goldwing and it was a dream in comparison. Probably had more power too, lmao.

[Bonz]

Tupperware Rider = plastic body work on sport bikes that became popular in that era. 1986 Hurricane fills the bill! That was a 600 right? It kept production cost lower because they didn't have to finish the metal work under the less expensive plastic bodywork.

Most incredible acceleration I've ever experienced was on my wife's uncle's Gen 2 V-MAX. Right behind it is a Rocket III I spent some time on when I would swap with my buddy.

I have posted about the V-Max here before however I am not kidding when I say I was at 30 miles per hour in second gear and went wfo and the speedo started counting by 20's. 50, 70, 90 in about a second and a half. Shift light comes on I hit 3rd gear, 100, 110 and rolled out... considering it's a dead stop to 100 in 6 seconds flat, that literally took about 3 seconds. That's the fastest I have ever been thrust forward by any land-bound conveyance, period.

[3Phase]

LOL! No, you can't do a stoppie on an XS!!, they're too heavy.
I had a video somewhere of me chirping and skidding the front tire with the brakes but nowhere near a stoppie.

Tupperware, yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like: the whole bike sealed in plastic so you spend hours taking it off and buttoning it back up just to check the oil or some something similar.

They usually have the hunched over Ricky Racer riding position, too.

[thebottle]

Tupperware Rider = plastic body work on sport bikes that became popular in that era. 1986 Hurricane fills the bill! That was a 600 right? It kept production cost lower because they didn't have to finish the metal work under the less expensive plastic bodywork.

Most incredible acceleration I've ever experienced was on my wife's uncle's Gen 2 V-MAX. Right behind it is a Rocket III I spent some time on when I would swap with my buddy.

I have posted about the V-Max here before however I am not kidding when I say I was at 30 miles per hour in second gear and went wfo and the speedo started counting by 20's. 50, 70, 90 in about a second and a half. Shift light comes on I hit 3rd gear, 100, 110 and rolled out... considering it's a dead stop to 100 in 6 seconds flat, that literally took about 3 seconds. That's the fastest I have ever been thrust forward by any land-bound conveyance, period.

What's wfo? Yep, that '86 Hurricane was definitely a tupperware rider then! Lmao. Looked fast, no power, was uncomfortable as all hell to ride it.

Wow on that V-Max though! The XS1100 is the fastest thing I've ridden, but that sounds crazy fast! I've often thought about a newer 1L sports bike, like a GSXR or CBR, and have talked myself out of it. Either I end up dead, or in jail, so I will stick with the XS1100, . One of my favorite memories with the XS1100 was when I was rolling stoplights, you know, timing them without putting my feet down through town, just minding my own business. Well, I notice this 0.5L sports bike in my mirror and as I'm rolling at this next stop light I see him in my rear quarter and hear him start winding it up. Well, we both let go, and I dropped at 5k rpms from a very slow roll, threw my weight on the bars to keep the front end down, and I'm beating him for a bit. I look over and he's in a wheelie 2' away from me, but I'm ahead, but I know I am about out and need to shift so I let go, and he blows by me, lol. I'm sure he was surprised how such an old machine kept up for so long... honestly I was too!

LOL! No, you can't do a stoppie on an XS!!, they're too heavy.
I had a video somewhere of me chirping and skidding the front tire with the brakes but nowhere near a stoppie.

So I'm gathering you tried to do a stoppie on it? Bejeezus, I would never dare it. You are crazy my man. Impressed.

[3Phase]

Trying to do stoppies on an XS without dumping the bike is exciting, uh, for certain values of exciting.

[Bonz]

Lol, WFO... Motorcycle speak for Wide Freaking Open. If you do wheelies inadvertently or otherwise on an XS1100, you know WFO... Haha! BTW, it's not freaking, it's the other word that isn't family approved.

[motoman]

LOL! No, you can't do a stoppie on an XS!!, they're too heavy.
I had a video somewhere of me chirping and skidding the front tire with the brakes but nowhere near a stoppie.

Tupperware, yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like: the whole bike sealed in plastic so you spend hours taking it off and buttoning it back up just to check the oil or some something similar.

They usually have the hunched over Ricky Racer riding position, too.

Well 3Phase, I,m sure you knew I'd take the 'bait'. Stoppies can be done on my Venturer, as I've done them a time or two.....sure puts a load on the upper arms to say the least. To add, front wheel coming off the ground on my Venturer is fairly easy, especially a speed shift to seond gear!.....and that's at my location here at 5,000ft.elev. At the local dragstrip here, it was way easy and way fun while twisting out low 13sec. times at 104 and 107mph at the big end on my Venturer. Alas, reasoning for doing that was to test out my tranny 'fix,' throwing speed shifts at ALL those first four gears.
With multiple runs, tranny worked as it did when I bought the bike new. I had, several decades ago spent a lot of time at the dragstrip racing my '64 Goat(GTO), but never a motorcycle. So aboard the Venturer was kind of a different experience, and did succeed in some good .40 reaction times.

[3Phase]

Yeah, Brant, my front brakes work better than OEM (SS brake lines) and will latch on and lock the wheel just fine but the quintessential 'stoppie' of stoppieness has never happened for me even at speed an my XS or XJ.

Here's what I think of a 'stoppie' along with the usual showoff stunta' games, facial expression and the possible Darwin Award that goes with it.