Lightest XS1100

[crazy steve]

Not easily, and you'd lose the air assist.

You could close the 'balance' holes in the tubes with a spot weld (the fork tube is too thin to tap/seal at that point), but the fill point for the air is also incorporated into the balance tube, so you'd lose that. The fork caps have the adjustable dampers knob, so no drilling them for an air inlet.

And being unable to add air, you'd have to increase the fork oil amount (reduce the air volume in the fork) to compensate for the lack of air pressure. But that will only partially 'fix' the problem; the air-assist forks use softer springs, depending on the air pressure to make up the difference, so a swap to higher-rate springs will be needed.

There is one possible way to install XJ forks onto Special trees without moving the ignition switch or major mods to the forks. Close the OEM holes on the tubes, then drill new ones right above the lower tree. Slide the balance tube down, then shorten the headlight ears. I think you'd have to rework the headlight adjustment bracket a bit, but that might work. I will note one thing here; the existing balance tube holes are located in a 'dry' area (above the fork oil upper level), this will put the holes into a 'wet' area and leaks are a possibility.

You can swap either LH or XJ lowers onto the 'regular' Special forks as the internal machining is the same. The XJ forks have that 'indexing' screw for their dampers, you can shorten that, and they use a different seal/dust cover from the Special forks. All the other Special internal bits will fit...

[BA80]

JAT..........would special caps fit on there and give it individual air inlets?

[crazy steve]

Yes, they would. But you'd lose the ability to adjust the dampers, and worse yet they could now 'adjust' themselves as the detents that locate them are in the caps.

While the XJ forks look a lot like the Special forks (and are just a variation of them), there's enough differences it's more like the difference between Special and standard forks...

[BA80]

How much different are the XJ forks to reseal than XS forks? Anything special a person should watch?

I've been asked to help reseal some but all I've ever done is XS

[crazy steve]

Really not much different. You've got the 'balance tube', but that just slides on the fork tubes and is sealed with o-rings. Most of the differences are covered here: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37399

The adjustable dampers is the big difference and you just need to pay attention when reassembling. One difference when disassembling is the drain screw. On the Special forks, that's all it is. On the XJ forks, it does double-duty as it's not only the drain screw, but it also 'indexes' the dampers to the fork lowers. This is also the only way to prevent the damper from turning if it's bolt comes out hard, so if you drain the forks via the drain screw, reinstall it before trying to pull the dampers. If the damper bolts do come out hard, make sure you haven't bent the end of the drain screw.

One other thing I'd highly recommend is to pull the top tree. You can leave the lower on the bike, but trying to slide the forks up through the headlight ears and the balance tube fittings with the top tree installed runs the risk of damaging the balance tube o-rings.

Most of these parts only fit one way, the only thing that needs to be 'lined up' is the orientation of the assembled fork tube/cap (with it's adjuster) to the arrow on the top tree so that the detents coincide with the holes in the damper.