80 XS11 Midnight Special chop/rebuild log

[CraigMel13]

Well, I picked this bike up with aprox 8k miles on it last spring. It has been collecting dust until this last week. Broke out the sawzall, grinder, welder, and here are some progress pics after aprox. 3 days of messing with it. At a stopping point for now till my seat, clip-ons and forward controls come in this coming week. Hope to post more pics next weekend with these parts installed.

http://1980xs1100lgchoprebuild.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

All comments/suggestions are encouraged and welcomed!

Craig

[BA80]

Another one bites the dust......................


It's YOUR bike......

[CraigMel13]

Yep, another stocker bites the dust to become a bitchin custom!

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Cool

Hey, you took a bike that was worth less then a down payment on a new cheap Toyota. you are having fun with your bike and your money, it is the American way, enjoy

Yep, another stocker bites the dust to become a bitchin custom!

[CraigMel13]

Hey, you took a bike that was worth less then a down payment on a new cheap Toyota. you are having fun with your bike and your money, it is the American way, enjoy

Thanks for the support man! I like to make stuff my "own" if you will....Anyone can go buy a nice Mustang, Camaro, Ducati, Harley etc. and just put miles on them......In the end though, they have a ride just like all the others out there. I am finding out this is quite a journey, and it has been very enjoyable up to this point.

[cywelchjr]

And made the bike worth a fraction of what it was worth in stock form. A plain 11 special I could see, but the midnights were made in very limited numbers, and in restored condition are worth a LOT more than normal specials, some have been known to sell for over $5000, and there are less of them every day. So yes it's your bike, and you have every right to do with it as you please, but don't cry when you find that many of us hate what you did do the second rarest version of the XS11, and not even a basket case, in which case we would have applauded the saving of a bike that would have been parted out anyways.

[fredintoon]

- - - yes it's your bike, and you have every right to do with it as you please, but don't cry when you find that many of us hate what you did - - -

Hi Cy,
hate? He's not worth hating. Perhaps a blend of disgust, pity and contempt.

[cywelchjr]

Hi Cy,
hate? He's not worth hating. Perhaps a blend of disgust, pity and contempt.

I don't hate him. I do hate what he did to an LG however that appears to have been almost complete before he cut it. Had he done that to one of the bikes like XS11Lover does then I would have been interested to see what he came up with, but beyond giving my opinion of my disgust (seeing as he asked for it) I'll not even be following the build because I don't need to raise my blood pressure, and I just get upset when I think about it.

[DGXSER]

First, yes, you are on a site with lots of folks who love this bike in its stock form. So, you will find more folks here will be frustrated with your chopping and modding the heck out of this one than you will folks who love it.

Honestly, very few ever sell for more than $2k no matter if they are MNS or Venturers, unless they are in very very sloce to mint condition if not mint. Yep, you are making it your bike, the way you want it. Enjoy and have fun with it, nothing like what I would do with one, but, thats all good. As long as you like it and enjoy riding it.

Now, what would be a shame is if your building it to be something unique and different and plan to sell it when your done. Because then you will find that very few people share your vision of what the bike should be and look like, and you will most likely never get your money back out of it. All to often the folks who spend hours laboring over transforming these into their version of a "work of art" seeem to feel the price of the bike just tripled because of all the love and beauty they bestowed upon it. And then they end up being for like the others that sit for sale for years until the owner decides they would rather sell off the parts that are left than sell their masterpiece for less than the $5k or more they are asking for it. Yeah, seen this happen more than a few times. Those are the ones that make you shake your head. Or even worse, the ones who get about as far as you are, then stop, and it sits for five years, and now they want to sell their "project" for someone else to finish.

Again, not taking away from what your doing, just hoping your one of the few who are really creating a bike they will love and enjoy rding for years to come. In that case, cut away, mod as you see fit, and enjoy the ride!!

[Pat Kelly]

I'm sorry that most on this site will have negative comments on your build. If you have lurked here for any length of time you will have already known this.

It looks like you are building it stout enough. The "bobber" look isn't my cup of tea but it's not my bike (I have my own LG).

On the bright side, the more XS's that become chopped might eventually make mine more valuable.

Build and ride your ride and ignore the haters.

[Pat Kelly]

BTW, why isn't anyone chastising Mathh for the modifications he's done to his bike? That's way beyond what CraigMel13 has done.

[TomB]

BTW, why isn't anyone chastising Mathh for the modifications he's done to his bike? That's way beyond what CraigMel13 has done.

Maybe coz Math isn't modifying his bike, he's building one of his own using XS parts that otherwise would never have been used on a bike, instead of taking a really good bike and chopping it up.

I've built a few bikes of my own over the years in a similar way to CraigMel is doing, only not hardtail ('Orrible bloody things ) but have taken wrecked parts that no-one else would dream of using coz they were badly damaged, and cut them up to weld and machine. The way I see it is they would never have been used but I brought another XS1100 back to the road that would never have been.

I would never cut up good parts/bikes.

Sorry Craig, you asked

[xs11lover]

8,000 miles? Even I wouldn't have hacked into that one. Are those bars going to be strong enough?

[Elevener]

Man, these bikes arent rare or people couldnt get them to cut up. Hell if after putting twice as much as I bought mine for I would be glad to get what I paid for it out of it.

Ya'll need to relax. I have seen post here bitchin cause someone makes a bike better but is worried about what the next owner may think, who cares? Its your friggin bike. At least someone is doing somthing with it, and midnites are an abomination anyway.

And $5000 for an XS? very rare indeed.

[foreda]

Depressed

I have been looking for a LG to restore for a while so it saddens me to know that one is being hacked.