Last summer, I helped my friend Jack Baruth buy a ‘79 XS1100(F). The bike was located about an hour east of Indy so I went and checked it out and bought it on his behalf, fronting my own cash. It was hardly a risky thing to do, as I was already quite smitten with it and would hardly mind keeping it for myself. I went through the bike a bit for him and while I was test riding it, feeling the bullet train rush of that rubber-mounted 1100cc four wailing through the Kerker 4-1, I quickly understood that I had to have one too. By coincidence, a ‘78 XS1100E popped up in Ohio so Jack graciously went and bought that one for me, fronting his own cash. In a funny bit of horse trading, I ended up meeting Jack in Anderson Indiana at the house of a guy selling a XS1100 Midnight Special that Jack was buying. Jack had “my” ‘78 XS1100E on his trailer, I had his ‘79 XS1100F on mine, the whole adventure was written up by Jack here:
My ‘78 came to me painted a beautiful metallic green with factory looking pinstripes. It’s so well done I was convinced it was a factory paint job, but that didn’t make sense: all ‘78 XS1100s in the US were “Macho Maroon.” Some flaking paint near the leaking chinese fuel petcock (installed by the bozo Jack bought it from in Ohio) uncovered a bit of the original factory maroon paint. It also had some buckhorn bars installed, and a slightly crusty and VERY loud RC Engineering 4-1 exhaust. Overall condition was complete but a bit rough in terms of corrosion and some obvious tuning issues with the carbs. The vacuum lines were routed all wrong, and one was plugged with a wooden golf tee. The bike came with its original carburetors disassembled and jumbled up in a plastic bag, which left me guessing at what exactly was on the bike currently for carburetion.
I also actually *like* that it’s a rougher “rider” grade bike cosmetically, with non-original paint. Part of my motivation in ultimately selling my GS1100E was that it was such a clean original bike that I felt bad when I was bombing down gravel roads with my brother in PA last summer, grinding sand between the tank bag and beautiful original paint. No such worries with the XS11.
At this point I had my ‘81 GS1100E, the Bandit, and the XS1100. Ever since that first ride on Jack’s ‘79, I felt an immediate kinship with the XS11 that I never felt with the GS1100E. I realized it was muscle memory from riding my XS500 during my formative years. The seating position and the stock handlebar: it just felt right. The engine has this insane smoothness to it not found in the GS1100E, nor the newer Bandit for that matter. At the same time, the rest of the bike, from the heavier steering and less competent suspension, gives the XS11 more of a vintage feel. Credit to Suzuki, they gave those GS bikes such good frames and suspension that it doesn’t feel *THAT* far removed from more modern machinery. But for me, that just makes them feel a bit boring at times. Ever since I bought the Bandit, the GS1100 felt like it was left in its shadow. Separated by several decades, they nonetheless have a certain similar familial feel to them. The Bandit being blessed with more power and less weight, the GS1100 was being ridden less and less. But the XS1100 has its own niche. So, after a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to sell the GS1100E this spring.
Over the course of last winter and into the spring I chipped away at the XS11. After some trial and error and deep dives on the old (now defunct) XS11.net forum, I figured out that I had 1980 model carbs on the bike, which explained why it was running pig rich: the hack of a previous owner had jetted it as ‘78 carbs, which have a small but important difference in how the pilot jets are fed fuel.
Another important “aha” moment found by way of the forum gurus was fixing the coil pickup wires. They crack internally due to the motion of the ignition backing plate, as it is in constant motion from the vacuum advance mechanism (the few times one was used on a motorcycle). It’s amazing that the bikes run at all with that broken wire condition, but all it typically causes is an intermittent ragged stumble at 4000-5000rpm on acceleration that most people assume is carburation related.
The open race pipe bellow of the exhaust was solved by re-welding the baffle that had disintegrated inside of the muffler, and wrapping it in some fresh fiberglass packing. Still a nice tone, now with fewer funny looks from neighbors. At the moment, I just finished up installing some Galfer braided stainless steel brake lines on the front twin disc setup to solve the typical sponginess that 40+ year old rubber lines cause. The front brake lever feel is superb now. Spending $100 on a set of braided brake lines for an old bike has got to be about the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade you can make, short of replacing crusty 40 year old tires with fresh rubber. The ‘80 carbs on the bike still need some final tweaking to solve a minor high-throttle-low rpm stumble below 3k rpm but I’m really nit-picking at this point. The other issue that became apparent once the bike was running right and I was really starting to test it more thoroughly was some clutch slip. Wind her up past 6000rpm in third and she lets go. After some simple clutch adjustment didn’t solve the issue, I was worried this was an internal transmission issue. Hard-ridden XS11s are notorious for popping out of 2nd gear. But the fact that that 3rd gear re-engages as soon as you let off the throttle was a sign that it was just clutch slippage. sure enough, a set of EBC clutch plates and a set of Vesrah HD clutch springs solved the issue.
There’s weepage at the oil pan gasket that I will get around to, though possibly not until after this riding season. A full driveline lube job rounded out the repairs/maintenance to get it ready to ride. The bike came to me with a typical period clunky looking aftermarket luggage rack/sissy bar combo that most people toss right in the scrap. But for this bike’s intended use as a cool comfy vintage tourer and occasionally taking my wife out to dinner, it’s just the ticket. I’m looking forward to some real mile burning on this thing.
If I wasn’t already jazzed enough about my XS1100, I recently got ahold of a book called “XS Eleven Heaven” written by Bob Jones (RIP). Bob was a Yamaha dealer through the 70s and became absolutely infatuated with the XS1100, and wrote a whole book about them and his riding adventures on his 214k mile ‘78 outfitted with all the period touring gear. I highly recommend it to any motorcyclist, even if you don’t (currently) own an XS1100. Heck Bob sure makes a hard sell on these things!
I’ll leave you with an excerpt from Bob’s book:
“I don’t know about your wife, or even if you’re married, but both of my wives would bitch every time I wanted to go on a cross-country ride and leave them home - trying to make you feel guilty and ruin your trip. What’s the difference? If you take them along, they bitch then, too, and that will ruin your trip anyway. besides, the bike is a lot heavier two-up and even the gas mileage is a lot less. You can take the lesser of two evils and ride alone, like I do, and listen to all the static at one time when you return; or be single. Whatever pulls your trigger. I sure wouldn’t let a woman interfere with riding my XS Eleven though, whatever else I did.”
Never let a woman interfere with your enjoyment of an XS Eleven!
This is how all old-bike rebuilds should go. I wish my hands were as capable as yours.