From death comes ideas...

[JWSanders]

Had nothing to do after a Dr's appt. today, so I figured I'd go ahead and dismantle the parts bike. Gave the impact driver quite a workout. It's pretty amazing how fast you can take one down. Nothing left on the frame but wheels and a motor, and the empty bars. Took less than 3 hours. Now I just gotta decide what to keep and what to sell.

After I got done I looked at the motor, then looked at a big pile of 2" square tube steel I have laying in the storage room, and had an epiphany. What a great motor it would make for the offroad/dune buggy type ATV I was thinking of making out of all that steel. It seems like it would be relatively easy to adapt the shaft drive to an axle of some sort. Lower the rear end gearing to give it more torque and such.

I'm kinda curious as to how much weight that it could pull and still be somewhat quick. I wonder how the tranny would hold up, as well. It's got more power than a VW bug motor, which is what I had always planned to use. I was thinking a smallish frame, kinda like an Odyssey, but big enough for 2 adults to squeeze in. Rear mounted engine, if possible. Big fat 4-wheeler tires, etc. Probably around 1000 lbs before the riders get in.

What do ya'll think?

[btchalice]

i think you're insane
but isnt that what makes life great.

[81xsproject]

I think it sounds awesome. I wonder how the 11 would pull withover 2x the weight, though. Then again 4 wheeler tires aren't as tall so you'd get some torque back there.

[rover]

This engine/transmission would be an excellent candidate for your project. Do you plan to use an automotive type rear differential drive? If so, remember that this engine output rotates in the opposite direction as an auto engine. I had planned something similar, and have a Toyota Tercel rear axle from the old four wheel drive car. I planned to shorten one side, and the inside part can be rotated 180 degrees and put back in the housing, after the back sheetmetal pan has been pounded out so that it is the same as the other side. If you use some other axle, you may find that the center part only installs in one position, then you will have to turn the whole assy up side down, or mount it with the drive facing the rear, and the engine behind that. The gear ratio is not too much different than the XS rear drive, somewhere near 3 to 1. If you use tires the same size as the XS rear, then the forward speed would be close to that of the motorcylce. Rear wheels and tires of about half the diameter of the XS rear tire would be close to ideal. I had considered building a trike, but have a lot of details to work out. If you wish to do this, PM me, and maybe we can share our ideas and each of us can gain some knowledge about projects of this sort.

[trbig]

If it hasn't already been done, I would suggest the 1st and 2nd gear fix BEFORE installation. All that extra weight going into the gears... if it doesn't have a problem now, my bet is that it will! I agree with you that it should be pretty easy to get the shaft matched up to a rear end. I remember riding Odessy's as a kid... and they were a blast with considerably less HP than what these bikes have. Good luck and keep us posted.

[dntemp_ca]

Surfing the net, I've seen the odd post about throwing an XS11 engine into a cart or sprint car. I also caught the end of a TV show awhile back, where Jesse James had a group of school kids build a little sprint car based around a Yamaha in-line 4 cyl motorcycle engine. I don't think it was an XS engine, but was definately Yamaha. Once they got the tuning and drive alignment right, it went like stink! I wish I could get my XS throttle response to be as instantaneous as they did....it sounded like 0-5000 rpm in a second! Anyway, have fun if you do it...and post pics!!

[Yamaniac]

Reverse Rotation Axles

not that I know squat about them, but I have read a little about them in off road mags, ie. Peterson's 4wheel and Off Road

[JWSanders]

While poking around tonight I came across this:



That's pretty much exactly what I'm looking to make, but that one's $21000.00 price tag is wayyyy too high.

It's called a Ridge Runner. Their low end is in the $17,000 range. They cannibalize a polaris quad to make their buggy.

The biggest one of those is only an 800, so I'm pretty sure about the 1100 motor being a whopper for this. The tubing I have is 2 inch square, so I think I could feel comfortable making it a little bigger. Seeing that gives me all kinds of ideas, and raises a few more questions, as well. Can an XS motor handle being jostled around, or not being completely level all the time? Thinking about the carbs, I wonder how well they could handle it. I wonder how much airflow the engine would need to keep cool, too.

That's a good idea about doing the gear fixes beforehand. I'm sure it'd put a strain on them.

Right now, I'd be looking at starting this maybe next spring. This year is mostly going to be devoted to riding and getting my bike finished the rest of the way, and getting another one possibly. I've had my eye on a local XS400 for a while now, and I think I may finally make the guy an offer. I really need to get a garage built, too.

I'd design it in Autocad first, already have a rough frame worked out. The key will be finding all the suspension parts on the cheap.

[xs650mike]

Talk to Trikerneil

Hey Wes, contact Trikerneil. He's been through the XS11 driveline to differential thing on his trike. http://www.trikenest.freeserve.co.uk/

[Trikerneil]

Always happy to help where I can