Any metal fatigue issues with the XS11?

[Hawkins]

At work I've had to deal with fatigue issues in components that, in hindsight, were not properly designed for fatigue, mostly due to limitations in understanding and analysis capabilities at the time of the design (10+ years ago).

Which of course has me wondering about the 30-year old machine which I regularly put into corners at high speeds.

Has anyone experienced or heard of any fatigue issues with the XS11? If there are, we might be able to collectively identify questionable details/welds and take preventative action like reinforcing, weld grinding, etc.

[Cobia]

Fatigue? or rust?

I've discovered that the machines that are typically set up on their sidestands and left out in the elements will collect water inside the frame around the sidestand hinge area and further back.
I had to get this frame member welded to close a 4" crack that was hidden by the exhaust. One sure fire way to detect this, or at least for me, is the lean angle when on the sidestand. Mine leaned way over, and that's because when on the stand, the section of pipe that was broken would bend in toward the center of the pipe!!! And very flexy too!!
Hope this helps.

[fredintoon]

- - - Has anyone experienced or heard of any fatigue issues with the XS11? If there are, we might be able to collectively identify questionable details/welds and take preventative action like reinforcing, weld grinding, etc.

Hi Hawk,
I'd reckon that as the XS11's frame is made from plain ol' mild steel it'll be pretty much fatigue free and the aluminum bits are kinda massive too.
If I were living on the Rock (or anywhere else close to the ocean) what I'd worry about would be the frame tubes rusting out from the inside.

[andreashweiss]

Seen some frames that had cracks from carrying to much weight on the luggage rack. Rear upper rails where fender and seat attach. Weak point. Have stripped down some badly crashed xs1100 bikes, hard front hits usually break welds around neck. Engines seem to hold up quite well. Have seen rear engine mount points cracked and pieces of alum missing and yet the engine case is not otherwise damaged. Have seen road rash totally grind off a left or right engine sidecover and whats inside to the point that ites almost melted together. But engine case is not broken or cracked. I agree old frame can have alot of road debris in it, There are ways for things to get into lower frame area, Check around centre/sidestand area for rust. The rust that seems to appear around swingarm cap area /swingarm is not ever to serious.

[marshall]

Can't remember if this was a recent post or something I dug up in a search, but someone's frame fractured at the tubes in front of the engine. He had a sidecar and it looked like he was going over some real bumpy terrain, so it's pretty far from your average situation. There's pictures on the thread, pretty scary stuff...