ride video

[MartyA]

My XS11 takes twisties like the Dragon fairly well, at least I can keep up with TC.

I have Marathons front and rear and I like them a lot. I have had 4 or 5 softer Avons and didn't notice much difference when I switched to the Marathons. I do have heavy duty Progressive on the back which I believe makes all the difference, and 15 wt fork oil with Progressive springs in the front. I do like the wear of the of the Marathons, near 8,000 miles on them and not showing much wear.

The video is great, but it seems they are not going as fast as they could have, note for most of the video the 1200 is not too close to touching those big bags. And passing like they did looks worse on the video than in real life. If you follow the road a little right after they pass you can see some length of road is visible.

I'd like someone to follow me on my XS like that, film me for posterity, before I sell it. You might see a few sparks here and there...

[xs650mike]

Yeah, I suppose the Marathons are a good choice for a heavy bike like the XS11, they just didn't work well on my 650. Just re-watched the video and I notice that the Dragon is pretty smooth and the turns are not real tight...a good road for the XS11. A lot of the roads around here (especially the ones without much traffic) are pretty rough and even some of the smooth state routes have a lot of sudden change-up turns marked at 15-20-25 mph (of course nobody ever goes that slow, add at least 20 mph) and my SF doesn't behave at all well in these, I really need new rear shocks but don't know when I can afford 'em. My neighbor Hal Kenyon (yep the old dirt track racer, I'm a shameless name dropper) swears by Works Performance, says they're better and cheaper than Progressives. He's got custom made ones on both his Harleys. My front forks have new springs courtesy of the PO and since I dropped the air pressure from 17 psi down to 5 psi they work just great.

At the beginning of summer I was out for a cruise on my 400 up on Cobb Mtn. Rte. 175 (a road I know very well)and a couple of guys on GS BMWs came up from behind so I wicked it up to about 90%. They stayed with me for about 3 miles and then dropped back, I think they got tired of keeping that pace. I felt pretty smug about that, the XS400 is not a particularly fast bike and the SJ has drum brakes front and rear. SWMBO says it's the singer not the song.

[Pat Kelly]

I do miss my Honda CB400T2 (Hawk). That bike handles like it was on rails.

[MartyA]

Hey Mike, the Dragon twisties are fairly tight, it is just that those guys are pretty smooth and not going very fast. And you are right, ALL the roads in that area are smooth, and mostly there is no gravel in the curves!

At the rally this year at TWO circumstances did not allow me to get to the Dragon, I so wanted to test Ilene there. But I did manage to scrape the can twice at the end of Warwoman where there are a couple of low speed really tight twisties, near the end at Rt. 28.

[BLUEJEEPLAB]

Too bad the car was in the way. As cautious I am in my old age, I would have followed him all the way. There are bold bikers and old bikers, but there are NO OLD BOLD bikers!

[xs650mike]

I like to go fast but I absolutely will not pass cagers with a blind corner coming up. Neither do I charge blind corners. Last spring I made the mistake of breaking that rule by blitzing a blind right hander while trying to stay with one of my fast friends and ran into a pothole right on my line while the bike was still heeled way over. Upshot was I got way sideways but kept the throttle open and fortunately managed to recover though I could easily have highsided had the rear wheel suddenly grabbed. If I had been on the 1100 instead of the 400 I'd probably have just crashed into the house-sized boulder on the outside of the turn. Be careful out there!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Mike,

I, too, am cautious when passing, as you could see in the video I made of the 2003 VJMC Rally. Have you checked your PM's lately?? I sent you one several days ago, requesting your snail mail so I could send you a copy of it!?
T.C.

[desert1]

Rear wobbles

My 78 xs11 wobbles on short quick turns and it feels like the rear tire is flat or gettin flat but the pressure is OK.....on big turns sometimes the front end tends to drift a bit bag n forth......noticed a few posts back AMAC had rear end drift problems....guess maybe a few of us have; I have the TKAT fork brace buy the way.
Bruce at work

[MartyA]

Hey Mike,
Passing on a 'blind' corner is stoopid. What I did find now that I run an FZ-1 is that I need only a couple of inches to pass, so almost any short straight stretch of pavement is enough to get past a 10 MPH cage.

hey Bruce, see my earlier post, my Standard is rock solid in the curves. Good rear shocks are very important for the making the front end work. Might check for play and the grease in the steering head bearings, oil level in the forks, check your swingarm for any play. You too can scrape the pipes...

[xs650mike]

Originally posted by MartyA
Good rear shocks are very important for the making the front end work. Might check for play and the grease in the steering head bearings, oil level in the forks, check your swingarm for any play. You too can scrape the pipes...

Right you are Marty, sometimes what seems like a front end problem can be traced to the rear and vice versa.

BTW I have scraped the pipes on my 11 a couple of times but I didn't feel at all comfortable doing it, bike was surging up and down on the rear shocks which made the front end wag back and forth. Don't think there's much if any damping left though I'm going to try setting 'em firmer, they're now on the #2 damping setting. Wish Yamahas were like my Britbikes, the folding footpegs always touched down first, on my Yammies it's always something solid which can put you on your ass right now. Had a hairy 55 mph slide on my 650 from the centerstand bracket grounding hard in a right hander last year. Dunno why they bothered with folding pegs!

[MartyA]

Had the same problem, till I put those 12.5" Progressives heavy duty on the rear. Even with Sally on the back the pegs go first.

I have 3 very different bikes, and I find the rear shocks are so very important to enjoying the twisties.

MY XS you have heard about. It has a full Vetter and usually at rallies I have a big trunk or Sally on the back, don't have any problems keeping up with the other folks in the twisties. I think the rear shocks make all the difference.

My 91 Venture Royale has an aftermarket Progressive mono. It replaced the stock air adjustable one, I am sorry I did that. It rides fine, cannot go around ANY curve without scraping off some chrome on the back, and/or some pegs. The OEM air shock went bad, but when it was right I could run the pressure up an blast a lot of curves. When it finally went, wobble wobble wobble in any curve that needed attention. The aftermarket shock dropped the ride height about 2 inches and it can't go any higher thus all the scraping. But it is rock solid in the curves and I have surprised a few folks trying to keep up.

My FZ-1 (new June this year) rear shock is at max setting and long after the peg tits are scraping I still hit the can in the curves. It is too soft, so I will (hopefuly) be getting an aftermarket harder rear shock next year, and a much smaller diameter can.

Good tires, suspension as good as you can get it, tighten up anything that is loose, and enjoy!

[desert1]

bikemovies.com

Hours of bike videos at this site guys.

[GNEPIG]

.. this has got to be the baddest @ss crash vidio ever, the rider at the end of this movie must of had the hand of god on him
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/839/

[Bud Manley]

NUTS!!

[xs650mike]

You ain't kiddin' Bud, absolutely and totally nuts! Let's see...I make 240km/hr as 144mph. Did you notice that the guy passed a police car like it was standing still? Betcha those cops were royally pissed, not that they could do much about it!