nickyd curios stripped bike

[nickyd]

got a question for all u 11 heads.ilast year i completely stripped my bike down to bare essentials.i have only head,tail and brake light.kick starter only and i musta cut 50 wires out of her.can anyone tell me if this is ok.its been about a year i think it hasnt hurt anything but would love some expert opinions.i wired lights to ignition hots off switch.

[DGXSER]

My gut is that if its run for a year like this, it will keep doing so. I would look at load and fusing, you DO want fuses protecting circuits IMO.

[freak_leg]

got a question for all u 11 heads.ilast year i completely stripped my bike down to bare essentials.i have only head,tail and brake light.kick starter only and i musta cut 50 wires out of her.can anyone tell me if this is ok.its been about a year i think it hasnt hurt anything but would love some expert opinions.i wired lights to ignition hots off switch.

How hard are these things to kick start?? I've been thinking about putting the kick start lever on my bike but my theory is it takes a ton of juice to get the starter to kick the engine over, i can only imagine what it would do to my leg... As for only having the essentials, I'm with ya I've got head and tail lights gauges, and starter. So keep on rockin the way it is. I haven't stipped down the wire harness yet so I've still got miles of useless wire. Got any pictures of it?

[3Phase]

How hard are these things to kick start??

Not at all difficult; smooth as silk. Mine starts on the first or second kick down to 34F; usually on the first kick when hot.

So keep on rockin the way it is. ... Got any pictures of it?

+1 for what Tony said. If the magic purple smoke hasn't leaked out in a year of use and you included fuses in your minimalist wiring harness leave it alone and show us some pictures!

[nickyd]

How hard are these things to kick start?? I've been thinking about putting the kick start lever on my bike but my theory is it takes a ton of juice to get the starter to kick the engine over, i can only imagine what it would do to my leg... As for only having the essentials, I'm with ya I've got head and tail lights gauges, and starter. So keep on rockin the way it is. I haven't stipped down the wire harness yet so I've still got miles of useless wire. Got any pictures of it?

im only 165 lbs and 5/10 ,it aint nothing.really cool when u leave somewhere and people see u kick that big mother over too,screw push buttons,their for sissies!

[cywelchjr]

im only 165 lbs and 5/10 ,it aint nothing.really cool when u leave somewhere and people see u kick that big mother over too,screw push buttons,their for sissies!

Not necessarily, they are also for those who would have to split the cases of a perfectly good engine to add a kick starter. I very commonly kicked my XS400, but without splitting the cases this engine at least doesn't appear to have the parts that you have to split the cases to add.

[DGXSER]

Ive heard it both ways, but having recently taken one of these engines apart completely, I'd hate to see what it takes to get those starter gears in with out splitting the case.

As to kicking it, well, I appreciate modern conveniences. If I wanted all that exercise to go with my ride, I'd still be on my Schwinn!! That and , as powerful and torque as these things are, I'd hate to see what happens when it backfires in mid kick. "Hey Doc, what is the procedure to remove your knee cap from your right lung!!!"

[psycoreefer]

As to the original question, I'd look at adding fuses, but if its worked for a year its not going to give up anytime soon.

As for kicking, I kick mine over all the time now that I've got the lever installed. Kicks easy, usually starts on the 1st or 2nd kick. Really I had a 250cc quad that kicked a lot harder then my 11.

[fredintoon]

Tradition! (imagine background music from fiddler on the roof)

Not necessarily, they are also for those who would have to split the cases of a perfectly good engine to add a kick starter. I very commonly kicked my XS400, but without splitting the cases this engine at least doesn't appear to have the parts that you have to split the cases to add.

Hi Cy,
FWIW, the XS650 kept it's kickstarter until end of production in 1984. (mind you, they also kept the 4-stud leftside exhaust valve cover that was put in to hold the exhaust valve relief device they phased out in 1972)
Being a traditionalist, having a kickstarter on my SG would be neat. However, I'm also cheap so I don't want to expend the money on those extra parts. And did I mention being too lazy to do the necessary teardown and rebuild?
As to how easy it would be to kick the engine over, there's only one of those 275cc pistons hitting compression at any one time.
I'd suppose that the major effort on the kickstarter would be overcoming the inertia of the entire engine.

[LoHo]

I think the basic rules apply:

"If it has been working, it will keep working until it no longer works; then it won't work."

Feel free to quote me, gentlemen.

[Poprock]

"If it has been working, it will keep working until it no longer works; then it won't work."

Now there is some wisdom. Thank you for sharing that. XS11.com is an educational and inspirational web site. This one gets A+.

[cywelchjr]

Hi Cy,
FWIW, the XS650 kept it's kickstarter until end of production in 1984. (mind you, they also kept the 4-stud leftside exhaust valve cover that was put in to hold the exhaust valve relief device they phased out in 1972)
Being a traditionalist, having a kickstarter on my SG would be neat. However, I'm also cheap so I don't want to expend the money on those extra parts. And did I mention being too lazy to do the necessary teardown and rebuild?
As to how easy it would be to kick the engine over, there's only one of those 275cc pistons hitting compression at any one time.
I'd suppose that the major effort on the kickstarter would be overcoming the inertia of the entire engine.

Many of the same things occurred on the 400, although it had a much shorter run. However in addition, as my knees have gotten worse (apparently genetic as my mother has had bad knees for years and finally had to have surgery to replace the cartlidge), I find that I no longer have the desire to kick start the 400 either, so why would I want to kick over an engine with even larger pistons when it's got a perfectly good and reliable starter?

[nickyd]

fishnet paintjob

i wanna do the old snake skin fishnet paintjob on the old 79 xs1100 just wondering if anyone has done it?i read that your supposed to not let it dry all the way before you pull the fish net off.any comments on this???????

[fredintoon]

i wanna do the old snake skin fishnet paintjob on the old 79 xs1100 just wondering if anyone has done it?i read that your supposed to not let it dry all the way before you pull the fish net off.any comments on this???????

Hi Nicky,
hit the search button with "snakeskin paint" to see how TC did GodZillA.

[prometheus578]

This might be of help

Maybe it could be adapted to fit our bikes.