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Well, I have decided, that I am about 95% sure I have to part with my XS Eleven....
She was a rough and dirty "yard job" (sat outside in someone's yard for years, not running, or licensed, and all but forgotten). When we met, I had bought her off a guy who used to run a really excellent salvage yard, but I am pretty sure alcoholism, and I suspect,a meth habit, has reduced him to a yard full of parts in the rain selling itself out of existance, for $600.
I was so into getting her that I actually ditched the car I drove there to ride her home (long story about that poor little car, that I will not go into). He had barely even bothered to make it roadworthy, and I was 2 hour ride from home when I left, but on the lot she ran ok, and had good rubber/brakes/electrics. She wasn't, and still isn't pretty, but was a "dresser" and my first bike bigger than 750cc. 10 miles from the "yard" she lost her headlight for the whole ride, and started losing a cylinder on the highway, but we managed to get home. I was really beginning to regret this impulse buy!
It took a nightmare of carb pulling to get the cyclinder that kept dropping back, but I did. Trouble was, that she was my only mode of transpo through most of out "love affair". The whole time I have owned her she has never gotten above 20MPG, but needing her on a daily basis, precluded ever getting the time to do her carbs properly. She was also high miles, having 55K on the clock the day I rode her into the sunset, and now she has 60, but the engine itself is quiet and smooth, and I really supect it's possible that the speedo had been changed out, considring the "tightness" of it's powerplant, but knowing how "bulletproof" the XS is, I would not be surprised if it is actually 60K, I did replace the speedo cable shortly after I bought it, but it worked the day I rode her off into the sunset.
Today I plan to start the carb work, and hope to have it running right in a week or two, or at least as well as possible short of replacing her long dead exhaust system. The headlight issue resolved itself (how I shall never know). Suffice to say, it was a miracle, and I suspect it was some weird ass phenomenon, like road vibration shaking the wiring up so much that a contact point with an intermittant problem got better.
Since I have owned her, she has developed a small problem with the start button, where sometimes you have to push it 20x times before it responds at all, and sometimes you just have to take out the trusty rusty scredriver in the saddlebag and arc the solenoid to get her going. Most of the time though, she will roll over on the first or second try, and choked, she fires easily, and strong. The hardbag tops, which barely latched when I bought her, and the hinges were long deceased on, blew off on the road many times last summer till both finally were irretreivably lost, so I drilled 4 tiny holes in the corners of the bottoms for drainage (I have no garage).
Bottom line, is that I am dirt poor, have no money to treat her such as she deserves, and I fell in love with another old project that was garaged, looks much nicer, has theoretically many fewer miles on it, and is more my preferred size. I'd love to keep the XS, or ideally both, but another Washington winter is here, and I need a car, but, since My Kawi 750 is such a great bike, gets great mileage, looks pretty, and runs like a new bike, I am 95% the XS is the one on the "chopping block".
While she was tempermental, loud, fast, and ugly, and drank gas like a crackwhore smokes rock, the mechanics of the engine itself were great, she had a lot of balls and was HELLA fun to ride. Didn't handle for ****, and is too tall because of the nice, almost perfect condition (no holes at all in the upholstry), Corbin seat, I do, and did love her. She is also top heavy because of the fairing and bags, but she's still one of the best bikes I have loved. The rubber is still nice, and I did put preseal in the tires, a pain at change time, but you will likely never get a flat till they need changed.
She was also 99.9% reliable, and only stranded me one time. That was just days after I got her before I got the carb/float needle issue resolved, when she puked so much gas, that the air cleaner caught fire. No biggee, as I got the fire out before any real damage was done.
So anyway, I did only pay $600, but though no money was ever spent on parts, save for spark plugs, a LOT of labor and love went into the carb issues, and I anticipate having the carbs completely done up right, before the sale, I am asking $800 (assuming the carbs can be done right before the sale, $600 if I can't). I will sell her ONLY to a loving home. Preferably as a restoration project, but as a "old beater" toy, or parts bike is OK too, just so long as she will not end up sitting, lonely heartbroken and dejected in some yard in the weather ever again. She is a class act, no matter how battered and abused she was, and she deserves better than that in her ripe old age. As I have stated, I am not 100% that I will sell, or how the carb job will go, but I am 96% sure, that I will sell, and that I will have her getting no less than 25/30MPG,at the time of the sale. I would also consider trade for a running beater car. She is licensed and could be ridden home, as is at this very moment. I will keep y'all posted, and post in the for sale forum, when./if she is ready. Should be a week at worst.
I'll miss her....
*sniff*
She was a rough and dirty "yard job" (sat outside in someone's yard for years, not running, or licensed, and all but forgotten). When we met, I had bought her off a guy who used to run a really excellent salvage yard, but I am pretty sure alcoholism, and I suspect,a meth habit, has reduced him to a yard full of parts in the rain selling itself out of existance, for $600.
I was so into getting her that I actually ditched the car I drove there to ride her home (long story about that poor little car, that I will not go into). He had barely even bothered to make it roadworthy, and I was 2 hour ride from home when I left, but on the lot she ran ok, and had good rubber/brakes/electrics. She wasn't, and still isn't pretty, but was a "dresser" and my first bike bigger than 750cc. 10 miles from the "yard" she lost her headlight for the whole ride, and started losing a cylinder on the highway, but we managed to get home. I was really beginning to regret this impulse buy!
It took a nightmare of carb pulling to get the cyclinder that kept dropping back, but I did. Trouble was, that she was my only mode of transpo through most of out "love affair". The whole time I have owned her she has never gotten above 20MPG, but needing her on a daily basis, precluded ever getting the time to do her carbs properly. She was also high miles, having 55K on the clock the day I rode her into the sunset, and now she has 60, but the engine itself is quiet and smooth, and I really supect it's possible that the speedo had been changed out, considring the "tightness" of it's powerplant, but knowing how "bulletproof" the XS is, I would not be surprised if it is actually 60K, I did replace the speedo cable shortly after I bought it, but it worked the day I rode her off into the sunset.
Today I plan to start the carb work, and hope to have it running right in a week or two, or at least as well as possible short of replacing her long dead exhaust system. The headlight issue resolved itself (how I shall never know). Suffice to say, it was a miracle, and I suspect it was some weird ass phenomenon, like road vibration shaking the wiring up so much that a contact point with an intermittant problem got better.
Since I have owned her, she has developed a small problem with the start button, where sometimes you have to push it 20x times before it responds at all, and sometimes you just have to take out the trusty rusty scredriver in the saddlebag and arc the solenoid to get her going. Most of the time though, she will roll over on the first or second try, and choked, she fires easily, and strong. The hardbag tops, which barely latched when I bought her, and the hinges were long deceased on, blew off on the road many times last summer till both finally were irretreivably lost, so I drilled 4 tiny holes in the corners of the bottoms for drainage (I have no garage).
Bottom line, is that I am dirt poor, have no money to treat her such as she deserves, and I fell in love with another old project that was garaged, looks much nicer, has theoretically many fewer miles on it, and is more my preferred size. I'd love to keep the XS, or ideally both, but another Washington winter is here, and I need a car, but, since My Kawi 750 is such a great bike, gets great mileage, looks pretty, and runs like a new bike, I am 95% the XS is the one on the "chopping block".
While she was tempermental, loud, fast, and ugly, and drank gas like a crackwhore smokes rock, the mechanics of the engine itself were great, she had a lot of balls and was HELLA fun to ride. Didn't handle for ****, and is too tall because of the nice, almost perfect condition (no holes at all in the upholstry), Corbin seat, I do, and did love her. She is also top heavy because of the fairing and bags, but she's still one of the best bikes I have loved. The rubber is still nice, and I did put preseal in the tires, a pain at change time, but you will likely never get a flat till they need changed.
She was also 99.9% reliable, and only stranded me one time. That was just days after I got her before I got the carb/float needle issue resolved, when she puked so much gas, that the air cleaner caught fire. No biggee, as I got the fire out before any real damage was done.
So anyway, I did only pay $600, but though no money was ever spent on parts, save for spark plugs, a LOT of labor and love went into the carb issues, and I anticipate having the carbs completely done up right, before the sale, I am asking $800 (assuming the carbs can be done right before the sale, $600 if I can't). I will sell her ONLY to a loving home. Preferably as a restoration project, but as a "old beater" toy, or parts bike is OK too, just so long as she will not end up sitting, lonely heartbroken and dejected in some yard in the weather ever again. She is a class act, no matter how battered and abused she was, and she deserves better than that in her ripe old age. As I have stated, I am not 100% that I will sell, or how the carb job will go, but I am 96% sure, that I will sell, and that I will have her getting no less than 25/30MPG,at the time of the sale. I would also consider trade for a running beater car. She is licensed and could be ridden home, as is at this very moment. I will keep y'all posted, and post in the for sale forum, when./if she is ready. Should be a week at worst.
I'll miss her....
*sniff*
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