XS1100 vs xj1100 questions

[KA1J]

Hello,

My first post here. I own an 82 XJ650 Maxim and have been looking for a larger bike to take on interstate trips. I've done a fair amount of rehab on the Maxim and don't mind twisting wrenches rather than going to a shop with it.

I've been looking for a XJ1100 maxim but most all I've found are modified & I prefer to keep the parts as reasonably original as I can. I have though found several XS1100s around that are reasonably intact. I was hoping to find a newer bike rather than an older one but perhaps the XS would be a reliable and excellent choice.

It looks like the XS11 and the XJ11 are very much the same. I'm sure there are differences but if someone could point me to what they are I'd appreciate it. If there are any major caveats to the XS11 I'd appreciate knowing that.

There's one I found in apparently good condition going for $800 and that sounds like a pretty good price if the XS11 is not one where finding parts is like finding unobtanimum. The tranny on this one is supposed to be in "excellent shape" It's a three hour ride to look at it so I'd like to be forewarned before I go looking blindly.

Thanks for any pointers & suggestions.

Gary

[DGXSER]

Hi Gary,

Well, there are many differences between the XS and the XJ. I am not 100% familiar with them all, but I know there was a recent thread where this was discusses. Primarily the differences are in the cosmetic stuff, the two share alot of things in the drive train.

As to what to look for in an XS, well, there is a post in the FAQ section titled "What to look for in a neglected XS". There is also a post recently, if you look through stuff from the last week, that discussed the most common ailments of an XS11. The big hitters are the pickup coil wires, easily fixed, but a pain to diagnose sometimes; Fuse box, the old glass fuses and their holders just do not hold up over 30 years, again, a pretty simple fix and a member here sells a really nice replacement as a pass through or close to it price; The tranny is a known problem, but then again, the fix is not terribly tough and well documented in a not to pricey option. Typical stuff like cleaning fuel system and electrical connectors, those kind of things are pretty routine.

Anyway, checkout the FAQ. Other benefit to the XS is almost all the parts can be found in decent quantities to keep the prices reasonable. The XJ was a one year model in the USA, so they can be tough to find and hard to find parts to as well. But they did incorporate some of the more technological items like neutral start switch, kickstand switch, and such.

[natemoen]

I also dont know all the differences but I would say it will most likely be MUCH easier to find an xs1100 and its parts than an xj1100. the XJ was only in the US in 82 (I think it ran till 84 in other countries) and the XS was from 78 to 81. So XS's will be more common when your searching for a bike. Like DG said there has been a couple of recent threads that talked about this, do an search and you might find it, or maybe someone can give ya a link to it.

[crazy steve]

...It looks like the XS11 and the XJ11 are very much the same. I'm sure there are differences but if someone could point me to what they are I'd appreciate it. If there are any major caveats to the XS11 I'd appreciate knowing that...

As far as 'caveats', the XS probably has fewer than the XJ. As both Don and Nate said, the motors/trans/final drive parts pretty much all interchange, but there is some mechanical differences you have to pay attention to. In terms of parts availability, the 'standard' model will be the easiest to find parts for (particularly new replacement parts), with the other models being rated (from best to worst) as the 'special', the 'midnight specials', then the XJ. The XJ has a number of oddball parts; nearly all the cosmetic parts (tank, sidecovers, seat) are XJ-specific, as well as the carbs, alternator, and ignition system. The XJ also uses it's own air filter which is no longer available. The specials, midnights, and XJ all use variations on a weird braking system that Yamaha tried, and the '81 midnights and XJ used a 'linked' system (rear and one front caliper tied together) that parts are hard to find for.

None of these things are insurmountable if you're not overly concerned with originality. If you find a nice, complete, running example of any of them, keeping it going shouldn't be an issue. Missing parts? Well, depending on the model, some bits are tough to find, so be aware...

[cywelchjr]

As far as 'caveats', the XS probably has fewer than the XJ. As both Don and Nate said, the motors/trans/final drive parts pretty much all interchange, but there is some mechanical differences you have to pay attention to. In terms of parts availability, the 'standard' model will be the easiest to find parts for (particularly new replacement parts), with the other models being rated (from best to worst) as the 'special', the 'midnight specials', then the XJ. The XJ has a number of oddball parts; nearly all the cosmetic parts (tank, sidecovers, seat) are XJ-specific, as well as the carbs, alternator, and ignition system. The XJ also uses it's own air filter which is no longer available. The specials, midnights, and XJ all use variations on a weird braking system that Yamaha tried, and the '81 midnights and XJ used a 'linked' system (rear and one front caliper tied together) that parts are hard to find for.

None of these things are insurmountable if you're not overly concerned with originality. If you find a nice, complete, running example of any of them, keeping it going shouldn't be an issue. Missing parts? Well, depending on the model, some bits are tough to find, so be aware...

Actually I have found it harder to find standard parts than special parts. Most of the parts I find tend to be for specials, especially when dealing with the stuff that is different on the 80 models vs the 79 and earlier standards. Finding a standard tank can seem like an effort in futility, and when you find them they are REALLY proud of them, even when they have really bad rust problems.

[crazy steve]

Actually I have found it harder to find standard parts than special parts...

None of the various models escapes the 'hard to find parts' problem altogether; the square 'standard' headlights are also hard to find for some reason. But by and large, if you need certain replacement parts such as brake bits or lenses, the standard has a slightly deeper parts well as you can get new reproductions more readily. Just try to get a new front caliper piston for anything other than a standard...

Personally, the biggest drawback to the non standard XS's IMO is those weird front forks/brakes.

[cywelchjr]

None of the various models escapes the 'hard to find parts' problem altogether; the square 'standard' headlights are also hard to find for some reason. But by and large, if you need certain replacement parts such as brake bits or lenses, the standard has a slightly deeper parts well as you can get new reproductions more readily. Just try to get a new front caliper piston for anything other than a standard...

Personally, the biggest drawback to the non standard XS's IMO is those weird front forks/brakes.

Ok, there may be more repro parts for some of the standard parts, but AFAIK there were more specials made, which means more parts. Just try to find an 80 or 81 standard seat, or even seat cover. Lots of special stuff, but nothing for the 80-81 standards. No sidecovers for any of them for the most part, and stuff like that. I think the only saving grace for the standard is that many of the parts in the brakes are shared with many other models, where the special has it's own "special" brakes and again, AFAIK was the only model to use them. Lets face it, there are not a ton of parts for any of these bikes, but standards (except for the repro parts that are shared by other models) have a smaller parts pool. I've been looking for a GOOD standard tank for over a year. All the ones I have found seriously need a liner in them, and are more than I paid for BOTH my engines, and I don't want a liner, I'd rather have to make my own custom tank than have one with a liner.

[DGXSER]

Honestly, I recently bought a severly bastardized SH and brought it mostly back to stock. I can tell you that if your trying to find certain things like side covers, seats, headlight buckets, or exhaust for any model your going to have a tough time, and expect to shell out more money than you ever would have anticipated. All of these things are easily damaged in any kind of lay down. If you don't want to scavenge Ebay or sites like this for parts, stay away from any 30 year old bikes.

The concept here is the XS versus XJ, and strictly from a production standpoint, the XJ has a much more limited parts pool.

[crazy steve]

I can tell you that if you're trying to find certain things like side covers, seats, headlight buckets, or exhaust for any model your going to have a tough time, and expect to shell out more money than you ever would have anticipated...

That is a true story...

I will point out that the XJ has one small advantage over the XS; as has been mentioned, exhausts for any of these are very hard to find (particularly OEM), but the XJ does have separate mufflers. All the XS models have 'one piece' exhausts (outside cylinders to the mufflers is one piece) while the XJ doesn't. So fitting aftermarket mufflers (if needed) is easier on an XJ...

[KA1J]

Thank you all so much for your replies!

I'm not an experienced mechanic but I've replaced the brakes, rebuilt the front forks, replaced 5 valve shims, with help replaced the steering bearings with rollers, rebuilt the starter and completely rebuilt the carb & synced & colortuned my 82 XJ650 Maxim. But... I've only worked on this one bike in the last 30 years and it turns out there's a whole lot of parts available for the XJ series. I don't know that this is at all true for the XS series, Like most manufacturers surely do, I'm guessing the parts are different between the XJ & XS versions so the supply pool for the XJ series probably isn't much good for a retro-fit. Just guessing...

I've looked at the different bikes that seem affordable and look to be nice cruisers and I know a larger XJ that is as intact as my Maxim would be a marvelous bike. It seems like the XS is very much that. The only thing I don't want is a bike that is unreliable, difficult to find affordable replacement parts for and becomes a parts bike. If it is mechanically intact when I'm finished restoring it and only requires regular maintenance to be reliable on interstate trips, I'm happy. Reliability is the key I need for a cruiser.

Again, thank you all for your thoughts.

Gary

[natemoen]

The smaller XJ's are much much more plentiful than then xj1100. Like I said before the XJ 1100 was only produced for the US for the 82 model year. It could be possible that some of the parts from the smaller xj's can be used on the xj11 but that I do not know. The xs11 was in the us for 4 years and I do know that quite a few of the smaller xs parts do interchange with the xs11. Once you get am xs/xj fixed up and dialed in they are VERY reliable. There are several members that have well over 100,000 miles on their bikes and they are still going strong.

[crazy steve]

If you find a nice XJ, there's no reason not to buy it. The only 'maintanance item' that is impossible to find for it appears to be the air filter. Long discontinued by Yamaha, and no one has reported finding an aftermarket source. But there is a tech tip on how to 'rebuild' an OEM filter with K&N filtering media... do a forum search to find that.

As far as reliability, there's virtually no difference between an XS and a XJ. The XJ has a few extra/different electrical 'bells and whistles', so if you have wiring issues (common on all these vintage Yamahas) there's a few more things to check but that's pretty much it.

[yamtom]

xj parts bikes

Hi,

There is a guy near Detroit that advertised on CL lately, a bunch of new xj parts, and three parts bikes , one or two of which was xj, the other/s was an xs 1100. This is a recent ad, and I talked to him on the phone. Here is the ad and phone number if anyone wants it. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I have been collecting Yamaha XS and XJ 1100 motorcycles for several years. There are so many NEW parts still in the original packages it would take too long to list them. Enough NEW parts to restore one motorcycle. Enough used parts and frames to make two complete bikes with many parts left over. That is 3 complete motorcycles. I just want to sell the whole package together. (586)242-8124 Between 8 am and 7 pm.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I dont know this guy and have no financial interest in the deal. He told me that he wants 1800 for the works.

[KA1J]

Thanks again for the information.

I was prepared to buy the XS11 yesterday but the seller kept giving me only bits of information about the bike and while the photos were good, his one line replies in bold type would not answer the basic questions like mileage and when/where to meet him that I needed to know before driving 140 miles on a Snipe Hunt. My gut told me even if the bike were in decent condition, it was not treated well and would be problematic. An old proverb says "As it starts, so shall it end". This being the example; too many difficulties so I backed out.

But... I found a newly listed 82 XJ1100 in pretty good overall shape with 29K miles on it for $200 more than the XS so I drove down yesterday and bought it!

The only mods I can see to it is the exhaust was replaced with a 4:1 and possibly because of obstruction, the center stand was removed and not replaced. Only the kick stand remains. The tool kit is missing and apparently there is a dipstick in the tool kit? that measures the middle gear and rear oil. There's sandy soil around here and I often use the center stand on the XJ650 so it would be nice not to have to carry a metal plate (crushed beer can) to rest the kickstand on when I park.

The oil window is in a different place than on the XJ650 and on the 650, you can know the engine oil level is correct if when you lean the bike on the kickstand, the oil level reaches the top of the window. Not sure of an alternate method of checking oil levels on the 1100.

the exhaust pipes are all solid but rusty though the collector and the muffler are well chromed. and the seat needs upholstered as it's pretty well beat.

I actually prefer the flatter seat of the XS1100, I am a musician and use instrument cases with knapsack straps to piggyback them as I drive. With the higher seat, they will stick up higher and add more wind resistance.

Any suggestions for a window that will fit and if the kickstand is universal between the XJ & XS lines?

Also, I'm not sure there's much of a difference between the pair of 2:1 exhaust vs the 4:1 and its apparently tuned headers that this now has. If all's essentially the same and parted out ones from the XS11 line will fit, it would be nice to get some non rusted exhausts and replace that center stand.

It definitely needs to have a tune-up. I have a Colortune and Carbtune for syncing the carbs so this winter I'll check the shims and rebuild the carbs. I'll move the Dyna coils from the XJ650J to the XJ11 this weekend. I'll do a sync at the same time.

This will be a fun winter project!

Gary

[CatatonicBug]

Congrats on the find! There is no "alternate" method for checking the oil in the 1100's. Without the centerstand, you just have to hold it level while looking at it from the side. the XJ tends to like to have the oil at the top of the window anyway, since the oil sensor is a "level" sensor and not a pressure sensor like the XS's.

The sidestands are not the same between the XS/XJ. They are even different between the Specials and Standards to allow for the difference in rear wheel size. Using a 4-1 exhaust is not uncommon, as finding a replacement OEM system or a quality 4-2 system is VERY difficult.

You mentioned a "Window" that will fit? Are you referring to a windshield? If that is the case, there are several options. National Cycle makes a PlexistarII and a PlexifairingIII that work well, but you have to get the special mounting kit that will allow for the square handlebars.

Good luck, and post some pictures so we can all enjoy your new toy!