Hopefully you guys can finally see Bones

[Athedra]

Will invest in one of those. Tx

[dbeardslee]

Benoni is in South Africa, right? I sent a message to Bikerphil who is in southern Florida. He's about as far north of the equator as you are south of it, so I figured the ambient air temps should be comparable. I don't know if he's ever checked the temp on his motor (I wouldn't doubt it though), so it should be interesting to see how he responds. Might give us better numbers to work with.

[Athedra]

Yes, Benoni South AFrica. Thanx. Might clear up a few issues for me.

[GARTHXS]

nice one

I think you have the same exhaust as me , they are extremely rare here in the US

[jmnjrpa]

If your headers are blueing then you are running too lean. Otherwise I am sure the temps are not hotter than in Texas. Most do not run the coolers here so you should be good.

[dbeardslee]

My experience has been that lean causes pipes to 'gold' - rich causes them to blue. Assuming you have single-wall pipes.

[Athedra]

I think you have the same exhaust as me , they are extremely rare here in the US

Cowley 4 into 1. We practically buy them at the corner shops. It's the micro titaniums that everyone wants and hardly find. The other one we have around here that is very popular is what they call the sausage. Makes a heck of a noise and boosts your bike with around 15Kw (Proven on the dyno). I like the extra KW, but not so sure if I can live with the noise from the sausage.

[Athedra]

If your headers are blueing then you are running too lean. Otherwise I am sure the temps are not hotter than in Texas. Most do not run the coolers here so you should be good.

Whole system is black high temp coted, so dont see any blueing on the headers.

[jmnjrpa]

That's good. The coating will do a better job of keeping the engine cool than the available oil coolers.

[Athedra]

Think I found my problem and it is running to lean.

Had a look at the new Echlin Racing cones. In my searching for K&N's, I saw the same set I have on my bike on there. Nice of them to advertise that you might have to up your jets with 25% to prevent running lean.

When I fitted my cones, I never re-jetted the carbs. Now at least know what needs to be done to get things going again, and also runs cooler.

Will be alot cheaper re-jetting the carbs than fitting a split Oil cooler system

[dbeardslee]

By cones I assume you mean pods (in americanese ). I had to go one jet size bigger on my mains when I installed my pods. You'll get a bit more punch out of the motor too.

[fredintoon]

- - - Would love to get me a side car, but here in SA, I have a better chance of walking into a Yamaha store and buy a original rear wheel needle bearing of the shelve than finding a side car for mine. - - -

Hi Athedra,
the SCT sidecar site has at least one SA member so sidecars must be available even if they are hard to find.
But no, you won't find one that'll straight drop onto an XS11.
Once you find a sidecar there's the attachment & alignment problems to be dealt with.
See my "why I drive a sidecar" string to see what an amateur bungler can do in that regard.
BTW, SA is a "drive on the left" country? If so your XS11's 4 into 1 system leaves your bike's left side way more open to a subframe installation than my bike's right side was.

[dbeardslee]

Phil got back to me, and this is what he had to say -

"Hey DB, I used to run the ol' BBQ grill thermometer in the cooling fins on the top of the head. On a 95F day, stuck in traffic, I'd get 400+. Normal running while moving would be about 250-300. When it would get to 400, the idle speed would start decreasing. I don't run any oil cooler. Never checked the header pipe temp though."

I hope that helps, and thanks Phil.

[b.walker5]

AHA, will note the divisor down, thanks.

She is a beauty. Would love to get me a side car, but here in SA, I have a better chance of walking into a Yamaha store and buy a original rear wheel needle bearing of the shelve than finding a side car for mine.

Yes also dont know if it is normal temperature wise. I also cant find reference as to what temperatures they should be running on. I will look into the possible lean running during the week, and if it stil does that, and she is jetted correctly, then I will look into fitting a split oil cooler system just incase.

Here on a cool day we have a temperature of about 26 degrees celcius, and on a hot day we hit 26 degrees by 10am and it can run up to 32 and higher. We have very high temperatures over here, and that is why I always ended up with heat seizes on the two strokes. Don't want a heat seize with this one.

The thing that switched us over to the XS1100SF is the wiring. The wiring I have on this one corresponds with the SF. It's all still under heavy investigation, since my paperwork originally told me it is a '81 XS1100H. Engine and VIN corresponds, and according to that it is a '79 XS1100 standard, but the wiring corresponds with the SF. Confusion over this little bike, but am sure that in the end we will solve this riddle.

Square gauges, square headlight, front wheel axle at the bottom of the forks, tanks side covers, rear cover are all standard bits, and the fork angle suggests a standard frame as well. Specials (SF, SG, etc have round dials and headlight, leading axle forks, different tank, side covers and rear cover. Lack of ventilated disks and steel grab rail definately date it pre 1980.

[CatatonicBug]

Heat on the legs is totally normal. To be honest, unless you're doing a lot of really slow, stop-and-go riding, the air flowing over the engine should be plenty to cool it down. Yamaha tried using different jets on the inner cylinders so they would run cooler than the outer ones, but it's been determined that this practice really made no difference. Just keep it moving, and you'll probably not need the oil cooler.