Where the motors have gone

[fredintoon]

I was just at the Saskatoon Cruise Weekend auto display. This Sunday afternoon they closed off the downtown streets which are lined with some several hundreds of hotrods, vintage cars and other vehicles of interest for folks to wander round and admire.
Amongst which were two half-sized lil' deuce coupe looking single seat cars with XS1100 engines just visible under their hoods.
On inquiry I was told, that's a new racing car class, the engines are sealed stock and the frame specs are standardized. We have 65 of them in Alberta and we are trying to start a class here in Saskatchewan. So if you find the cost of an XS1100 engine at the breaker's yard has doubled recently, you now know what's causing it.
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[gaffer77]

bet theyre having a blast,ut that is evil keeping the xs from being on the road they should get and choose an orrible bike,still the xs is so tough that's what they want but flippin eck man other odds and sodds will be stolen as well as our poor bikes engines!!!!!!!

[John]

Are you sure they were XS engines? They have a class of racing here called legends cars. The are about 1/4 scale cars that look like 40's models and the are all powered by the FJ1100 & 1200. Never seen one with an XS engine. We have a very hard time find an FJ in the salvage yards around here. My wife rides an 84 FJ1100 (Dammit)

[fredintoon]

'orrible bike

Hi Gaffer,
but the XS11 IS a 'orrible bike. Admittedly there were none to beat it in it's day so long as it was going in a straight line but stops and corners were not it's strongpoint. The only reason we put up with the various cycle-part inadequacies is that it just happens to have a really great motor.
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[fredintoon]

Legend

Hi John,
doubtless you are right. The Hyper-Tonkas I saw were called "Legend".
All I could see of the motor was an extremely familiar looking cam cover and head which I assumed was from an XS1100.
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[graybird78]

legends

hello all.
motors of choice for racers around here is suzuki 1100. have good friend who races them and he uses suzuki motors exclusively.

[gaffer77]

the xs is not a horrible bike ,it look like a bike its got the power of a bike,its got presence ,what with all the traffic/speed cameras/loonies on the road and the price and technical stuff on new bikes the xs is a great bike and handles perfect if used even 20% above speed limits on any road ,i give mine a bit of a caneing but hey they should be used and preserved ,lots of bike these days are half the weight ,half the engine and the same output (bhp) these days but look you cant cruise on them takin it easy lookin cool like you get from an xs 11 sf you aint goin to get a better bike for youre money and like i say they do a good job if you want a missile that rides on rails then youre not truly xssesive we can all get a second bike and i will probably take this route not because of anything other than keeping my xs for the sun using it for work every day etc just halving its life span and leaving it in the rain for 8hrs a day while i work cant be good for it

[chevy45412001]

true that

yes in the begining legends did use xs motors,but as stated above most are strictly using suzzy motors now as there are many more lying around. That class of racing is SUPPOSED to be cost effective to alwo anybody to get into it. YEA RIGHT.Thats how i found out about oil coolers for our bikes ,i saw one on a legends car and asked the owner about it.All the shops i went to had no clue bout an oil cooler for my bike looked at me like i was crazy.

[gaffer77]

eh!!!! oil coolers quite common maybe uk spec if u aint got em over there, i know the specials aint cos i got an sf i bought the bottom adapter plate now lookin for the cooler element and pipes but biding my time often see them on ebay havnt tried to locate anywhere else or find out exactly which model etc they were fitted to but sure theyre a pretty standard and fairly common fitment on the e model or something