Road trip!

[dpotter58]

About a 7 hour road trip home from Pittsburgh was great, right up intill I tried down shifting at a red light and found my shifter had fallen off.

I give the bike a pretty thorough going over prepping for a trip but never thought to check that Lil bolt.
What's the craziest WTF thing to happen to you on one?

[speedlimit85]

Well...This one time.. I had all the oil come out of a broken hose to the aftermarket cooler. The rear wheel ceased and started to slide in its own oil. I pulled the clutch and got to the side of the highway.

[Schming]

My Son & I were heading to "Thunder in the Valley" Johnstown, PA a few years back. Night before we put new leather saddlebags on his Honda VT1100 Shadow. half way there out on an open stretch of Route 22 just cruisin' in the zone and he disappears. I got a good half mile veiw rearward, noone to be seen do a 180 asap and about a mile back he's off the side of the road beating the fire down with his leather jacket. His pipes get extremely hot and ignited the right bag and with the wind he never knew til a van pulled up along side and pointed it out. Got the fire out, raised the bag about an inch and made a makeshift bottom and on to the rally in the valley we rode.

[dpotter58]

I used to do Thunder all the time. I was there when they rolled the brand new 1600 Vmax out of the Yamaha demo trailer with a big dent in the side. Loved sitting there people watching. One memory i wish i could forget. There was a rather large, beauty challenged woman there with a shirt that said "well, it aint gonna lick itself"

[LAB3]

It was an interesting moment when my trailer hitch broke off and I was dragging the trailer behind me with just the chains holding it on the bike. With the sound it was making I though my transmission had taken a s"*t but luckily all I needed was a quick trip to a welding shop to get back on the road.

[LenB]

Winnipeg, Manitoba to Radium Hot Springs BC - May long weekend. '80 XS11G not that old at the time. Pulling out of a gas stop in Swift Current, Sask stuck in 5th with a pickup wire intermittent. Lots of not-too-high rpm clutch slipping to get going but could do highway cruising speeds OK. No need to have to downshift to pass thanks to the gobs of torque it produces. Motel in Medicine Hat, Alberta - laid bike on its side on an angle that would keep oil in the crankcase and proceeded to correct the shifting issues - I seem to remember it was the star washer on the end of the shift drum that somehow got bent out of shape. Fixed that and then did my best to convince the pickup wires to stay connected - probably with electrical tape. The rest of the trip went by without a hitch and had fun blasting the twisties in the Rockies playing tag with my buddy on his Z-1. Had bought the bike from a great dealer in Winnipeg (Northwest Cycle - long out of business now) and told them of my concerns when I got back and was quickly provided with all the parts (free) to fix the ignition concerns. That was over 40 years ago and my old friend keeps going and going and going.........

[DEEBS11]

Flat tire on the road.

[jetmechmarty]

What helps make trips memorable is overcoming adversity. There isn’t much adversity caused by an XS11. I once had a pickup coil wire failure. I can’t think of anything else going wrong out on the road. For me it has been about 100,000 miles of smooth sailing.

[Mathh]

I remember enlarging the stock fuel tank on my turbo XS from 24 to 36 liters in the 80's so I could do some decent miles on holidays. I was in a hurry because holidays to the south of France were approaching quickly. After welding was finally finished the tank had to be painted as well. Here a picture from the tank in the cutting proces. Final welding still to be done.



"Don't you dare to leave for holidays without getting fueled up to the top" was what I told my mate on his KZ1100ST who was joining me. Well.... after an hour of riding and having done almost 100 miles we had to stop In Belgium because I ran out of fuel.... duhhhh.... and my mate almost pissed himself laughing..... Because of the hectic I used the canister with the fuel that came out of the tank before cutting it up to fill it up. The rest was still standing in the canisters at home. I still have to listen to that story after all those years.

[bikerphil]

Not too long ago, me and my 2 friends were riding to the local Sunday biker meet up at the Cafe 27 down here in S. Florida. I'm riding my XS11 and they were on their XJ11's. I noticed that one of the bikes had dropped way behind so I went back to see what happened. It turned out that the #2 spark plug had shot out of the cylinder head due to stripped threads. He went looking around for the spark plug and found it on the other side of the road. Luckily the plug cap was still on the wire. He limped the bike about 5 more miles to the bike meet and boy it sounded funny running on 3 cylinders with no #2 plug. After breakfast, we ended up wrapping some tin foil around the spark plug threads and reinstalled it in the head. It made it back home 30 miles that way running on all four. It has since been repaired with a Helicoil and it is holding fine. The uneventful trips we most likely forget, but ones like this will always be remembered.

[LAB3]

Not too long ago, me and my 2 friends were riding to the local Sunday biker meet up at the Cafe 27 down here in S. Florida. I'm riding my XS11 and they were on their XJ11's. I noticed that one of the bikes had dropped way behind so I went back to see what happened. It turned out that the #2 spark plug had shot out of the cylinder head due to stripped threads.

After breakfast, we ended up wrapping some tin foil around the spark plug threads and reinstalled it in the head. It made it back home 30 miles that way running on all four.

In the 80's when I was a Harley goon the rear cylinder on my shovelhead did the same thing as I was engine braking while hitting an exit ramp on the interstate, it hit the back of my thigh but not hard enough to keep from losing control, that isn't today it didn't hurt. Being an HD guy I had a spare set of plugs in my saddle bags and some blue Loc-Tite. That kept it in place until I was able to get to where I could repair it a couple of months later. (Was on the road for job reasons)