New Canadian Member

[Ruffneck5656]

Hello! I am a new member to the forum! I bought my 1979 XS1100 back in March and have been slowly tinkering away with it to make it road worth again. I bought it basically as a barn find. It was missing all the lights, seat has had many modifications over the years making any repairs impossible, ran on 3 cylinders (at least it ran), missing the centre stand and came with a terrible aftermarket exhaust that needs to be removed whenever I need to do oil changes. Bike seems to be a project someone started and then lost interest in.

Fast forward to today! Ive located a near mint condition seat, replaced all the lights with LEDs, cleaned and rebuilt the carbs, located a centre stand and have been able to have it on the road for brief periods of time. Its not 100% but its getting close. All the maintenance has been brought back up, bled the brakes (Already had new pads), new throttle cable, someone put new rubber front and back on it and never rode it (Still has the nubs), and im pretty sure the shaft oil has also been replaced (Still need to confirm but it looks good).

I still need to do the front fork seals, find a proper exhaust and figure out why it runs from what I can tell lean. Its lazy until about 4000RPM and then it wants to really go. The bike also REALLY likes to backfire when decelerating. So lots to do! I'm sure Ill be around with questions!

[JeffH]

Glad to hear you picked up an XS11 project. Welcome to the Forum.
Nice you have it good enough to be on the road already. Great FUN after you get things all sorted out.
Keep us Posted.

Jeff

[DiverRay]

Welcome!
The running problem may be a bad leak with the intake rubbers. They can leak at the head and cause problems. Do a search on carb rebuilds and problems to get some ideas on what to look for. An easy way to know is spray a little carb cleaner around each manifold as it's running, and look for an increase in RPM's.

[Ccitis]

Cool, welcome... I too am Canadian... on the west coast.

[Rasputin]

Quite a few Canadians on here. I am in Lacombe Alberta. We don't seem to post as much because our riding season is so much shorter than down south but we enjoy the heck out of them. Bonus is our bikes generally have less mileage at this age

[LenB]

Greetings from Winnipeg! Enjoying this hot weather to get out and ride my '80G. 97,500 km and still going strong! Spotted a '78 or '79 standard the other day (had a tail behind the seat) all painted up metal flake red with a flat black 4 into1 just purring along. Was on my pedal-type 2-wheeler or I would have hunted him down. They're (we're) still out there !

[Ccitis]

Quite a few Canadians on here. I am in Lacombe Alberta. We don't seem to post as much because our riding season is so much shorter than down south but we enjoy the heck out of them. Bonus is our bikes generally have less mileage at this age

Just ticked over 34000 kms on mine last night

[Ruffneck5656]

Great to see therr are so many Canadian members! My bike is showing around 40500kms and I believe it. I don't think this one has rolled over.

I think Ive worked out what the running issue is. Someone before me made a mess of the carbs unfortunately and really messed up the fuel air mixture screws. I haven't had a lot of time to eliminate all the laziness but it no longer back fires when I ride. So I think I should have that sorted out soon.

[Ruffneck5656]

Update on the bike! It has been a little over a year since I have joined the forum.

The bike is running well. I haven't had a chanced to play with the carbs much as I have been busy redoing the entire exhaust. I was able to track down some original headers for the bike however the back half was long since cut off. I put on a clamp set of side dump exhaust from Emgo, nothing fancy but they do the trick. I have also wrapped the original pipes and they look pretty sweet. With the exhaust I was able to re-attach the centre stand permanently. No more on and off for oil changes and I have much easier access to the oil filter, the whole exhaust no longer needs to come off for oil changes. I haven't had as much time to work on the bike this year and the wildfire smoke doesn't help either. I'm hoping the excessive backfiring is fixed because it sure sounds nice when it runs.

New issue: With the new exhaust being a bit bigger than the factory, the rear brake pedal no longer goes all the way down. It is stopped by the new pipe. I can't find any spaces that will work or even any new brake pedals that will fit this bike. I can take it to a machine shop to be bent but I really don't want to mangle an original part that is in such good shape. I would rather buy an aftermarket and replace or find some way to push out the pedal about a half inch safely. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

To do: Rebuild the front suspension and sync the carbs. Bike just looks like a really great running garage princess until the brake pedal issue is resolved.

[DEEBS11]

I bent mine out slightly to clear my aftermarket pipe with no issues. The pedals are very easy to find.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/23585015767...Bk9SR7qB9dD_ZQ


https://www.ebay.com/itm/11389368717...Bk9SR7yB9dD_ZQ

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17316657706...Bk9SR76B9dD_ZQ


https://www.ebay.com/itm/37197649467...Bk9SR76B9dD_ZQ

[DEEBS11]

Bend at these points to re align the pedal.