Copyright (c) 2008 GoodMotorcycles.com
My least enjoyable moment with the Yamaha XS1100 came when it fell over after I'd left it standing on the sidestand on some hot tarmac. The massive weight of the bike combined with the scorched earth effect of the summer sun on the tarmac meant that it gouged out a huge lump of the council's finest black stuff and fell on to the ground with an earth shattering crash. The layby was miles from anywhere and no other vehicles or people were in sight.
I weigh twelve stone and pride myself that I am able to come out of any fight still standing on two feet, but lifting nearly 600lbs of top heavy alloy and steel off the ground nearly proved my undoing. The only way I could achieve this remarkable feat was by clamping on the front brake and pivoting the incredible hulk on its front wheel. Once upright I managed to support it on firmer ground; actually achieving the stability of the centrestand was by then way beyond the capabilities of my knackered muscles.
Damage to the machine consisted of a bent handlebar, dented tank, wrecked indicators and crushed silencer. A quick caress of the starter button revealed that it was still able to rumble into life and settle down to a regular if raucous tickover. The bent bars meant that the low speed wobble was more prominent and it was even more awkward to swing through the country bends, but twenty miles later I was back home in one piece. Two hours work, use of various bits laying around and a big hammer, and the machine was back in proper running order.
You'd have to be blind not to see that the XS1100 is a big, heavy brute of a motorcycle. This was what initially attracted me to the machine, of all the big Japanese superbikes, the XS is surely the one that looks the most like a proper motorcycle. It is dominated by that chunk of DOHC alloy motor which is really just an enlarged XS550 four, sharing its two valve per cylinder operation and alternator mounted under the carbs.
The motor is the most impressive part of the machine. I bought my 1980 machine four years ago. It had only 12500 miles on the clock and full service history. During my ownership I have done 80,000 miles under a regime of internal neglect. As hard as it might seem to believe, all I've done is change the oil every 1500 miles and the odd oil filter swap. Even the carbs have stayed in balance.
True, these days, the top end is clattery and maximum speed has gone down by 10mph, but it still shifts well enough to scare the pants off the plastic missile brigade. That its 1100cc only produces 95hp will have some readers scoffing, I suspect, but that power figure hides the fact that the motor also knocks out huge gobs of torque.
In its way it's an extremely easy bike to ride fast - you just get it up to 30mph, whack it into top gear and hold on until 140mph is on the clock (130mph lately). Admittedly, very much beyond 120mph the design shows its age because enough vibration is transmitted to the rider's hands and feet to discourage continuous flat out riding......a reason why the motor's lasted so well.
Another reason why the motor's lasted for such a high mileage is, of course, the limitations of the chassis. The Yamaha might well look exactly like a proper motorcycle should but it certainly don't handle like one. No way! Let me quickly add by way of mitigation that it is still running on stock suspension. I did change the fork oil once but it made not one bit of difference so I never bothered again.
When I bought the bike the rear shocks were quite firm but jumped about a bit under heavy going and got delirious if I braked hard in a bumpy corner. Funnily enough, although the bike moves around all over the shop in a most disconcerting manner it does not stray so far off the chosen line as to suggest suicidal tendencies. The forks twist and dive under the heavy braking provided by the twin discs - heavy use of the brake in fast corners makes the bike sit up and want to go straight on.
Overall, though, I have ridden bikes that felt much less safe at 100mph speeds. I use mostly motorways and wide A roads so don't suffer as much as I could from the limitations of the XS's mass and chassis. At 70mph it feels rock solid, by 85mph a weave has intruded even on a smooth, straight road and by 100mph the weave feels like it's going to become a wobble but only does so if the bike happens to hit a deep bump.
Braking when the brakes are in good condition is superb. Unfortunately, the brakes are rarely in good condition and then they suffer from fade, wet weather delay and an on-off action that has quite often come close to making me do an intimate inspection of the road surface. The disc brakes on the Yam are crap! The calipers rot, the disc pads fall out before they are down to the metal, the discs crack.....I spend more time, money and effort running desperately around the breakers trying to find bits than I do on the whole of the rest of the bike. Fortunately, most of the parts are not unique to the XS1100, so availability is better than the rarity of the 1100 might suggest.
Running around town on the Yam is a breeze. Once 10mph is up the bike feels well balanced and does not require excessive muscle to throw between cars. True, it is a bit on the wide side and I occasionally get caught out when I try to follow in the path of some young hoodlum on a 125.
Having allowed the exhaust to decay into a straight through system, car drivers are very aware of the massive beast about to rip off the side of their car and more often than not actually wrench their vehicles out of my path. Similarly, incidents of cars rushing out of side turning under my front wheel have been minimal.
Traffic light GPs are great fun. The clutch is strong and does not object to being slipped or dropped rapidly. It's possible to get the front wheel way up in the air if 8000rpm are dialled in and the clutch dropped; I'm sure it would see off a Jumbo jet on acceleration and most spectators run for cover when they see that front wheel pawing the air, waggling around all over the place. Uncoordinated takes offs make the machine land with a back breaking wrench. Alternatively, it's possible to produce massive, tyre smoking wheelspin - a quick way to remove a worn out tyre!
Tyre and brake pad wear is terrible, as is fuel consumption - 35mpg on a good day, more usually 30mpg but an astonishingly bad 22mpg was once achieved on a flat out motorway blast. A contributory reason must be the riding position created by non standard high-rise bars which perch the rider in the perfect position to create the worst aerodynamics possible. 50 miles at 100mph creates arm and neck muscle cramp, although the seat is good for 500 miles in a day at more moderate velocities.
Each year I take the bike on a Continental tour of at least 3000 miles duration. The engine runs along faultlessly, the only limitation on the duration of the trip is the need to get back home before all the consumables wear out! The weight of the bike even saved it from being nicked by some French bastards. One of them ended trapped under the machine when the pair of them failed to lift it into the back of their van. I accidentally dropped the bike back on top of him when I was summoned to the scene.
I had a bit of trouble with the electrics but this was cured by buying a used generator and new regulator. Batteries only last for a year and the headlamp bulb has blown twice since I've had it. The main beam is just about adequate for 70mph but dip cuts off too sharply and has you peering hopefully over the bars trying to work out which way the road is going to go. Switches have never provided a moments disquiet so they must be okay.
The nicest thing about the Yamaha XS1100 is that I've never actually fallen off the beast. Its mass lets it sit securely on the road and there is enough feedback from the tyres to ensure that I have time to react to any life threatening situations. Apart from the exhaust, wheels and some decayed engine alloy, it still polishes up nicely; were I to sell it off I'd make a few hundred notes profit on the deal. But quite simply I love it; I may even give the old girl a proper service one of these days.
R.A.Hemmings
Return to Contents for XS fours
The state of the secondhand market over the past couple of years has been well weird. Some will insist that prices are rising fast as fewer and fewer new bike sales means that good used bikes are becoming very rare. Others suggest that because the cost of running anything bigger than 100cc is so horrendous (insurance, tyres, chains, fuel, servicing, etc., etc) that more and more people are giving up on motorcycling in disgust. Either a bicycle or used car taking the place of their motorcycling dreams.
Then there's the classic mob who so effectively ruined the British bike scene. Before the Great Depression took over, prices of some Japanese bikes were trying to assume classic proportions, although in reality, even back then, shifting some seventies or sixties Japanese iron at a high price was extremely hard going. These days it's just about impossible to sell old Japanese bikes for much money.
Which is where my XS1100 came in. I purchased this beast six months ago. A 1980 item with 22000 miles done, it was a bit tatty with the electrics in a very sad state (no working lights or horn, etc). I'd owned one of these brutes when they first came out, so knew what to expect, having done 30,000 miles of high speed madness and survived to tell the tale. When some bonzos had started talking up the dear old XS as some kind of classic, the last of the breed and all that crap, I wanted to tear the offending magazine in half. Pah! Some people demand thousands for them, I bought mine for a mere £450!
Even then it was a bit of a self indulgence as I had a perfectly good Kawasaki GPZ900 sitting in the garage. This road warrior was superior in almost every respect to the XS1100, save that it lacked the low speed grunt with which the Yam was endowed - the bloody great beast could be rolled off with a whiff of throttle from third gear if you had a mind to, despite the fact that it weighed nearer 600 than 500lbs!
It took a long weekend to sort out the XS1100. As this was the depth of winter I was thankful for my central heated workshop/garage (having built an extension to the house for a kitchen which just happened to abut the garage, so I managed to slip in a radiator before the wife had time to complain). The wiring was all rotted, the handlebars switches were shot but, luckily, the rectifier and alternator were still working okay. Shame the same couldn't be said about the corroded black object that I guessed was the battery.
I fitted some switches for the lights, dumped the indicators, used a car ignition switch (which also replaced the starter switch) and fitted a secondhand battery. I touched up the paint where necessary, paid the kid to shine up the chrome and alloy, and popped on an old BSA A10 silencer on to the decayed four into one exhaust system, the original silencer having fallen apart on the ride home. The resulting noise gave the XS an interesting exhaust note, which confused ancients on British iron as much as the plastic missile crowd.
My GPZ900 was in pristine shape, having rebuilt it from the frame up, so I intended to use the XS through the worst of the winter and keep the GPZ for happier times. The GPZ is not a light bike, but its steering is way ahead of the XS, so jumping from one machine to the other could be very disconcerting. As the XS always made its presence felt, I usually got caught out when leaping back on the GPZ, either putting too much effort into the steering or throwing myself over the bars when grabbing the front brake lever!
Any XS that has been around will have had some essential modifications - tightened up front forks, fork brace and aftermarket shocks - if they haven't, chances are they have been run off the road, especially after a few years wear gets to the suspension components. Ridden within reasonable limits, an XS thus modified is not that bad a handler - believe it or not! Certainly, shooting around town showed up few problems, the most pertinent being a bit of restraint on the throttle to stop the rear tyre churning itself to bits on take-offs.
Compared to the Kawasaki, you have to be very heavy handed with the controls - massive muscle to change direction and knuckle busting pressure on the front twin discs.....the front brake was so unpredictable in the wet that I was almost forced to use the GPZ, which would have nullified the whole point of buying the XS. When I took the front calipers out I found that there were no less than four different makes of pad present, all about to go down to the metal. I had to hand over nearly thirty notes for two sets to the local dealer, I could have knocked the smile off the smug, rip-off bastard but managed to restrain myself.
With proper pads, the feel of the brake was transformed, although it still needed a grip that would have a gorilla screaming to an animal rights organisation. In the wet there was a moment's lag but enough feedback to stop me locking up the wheel. An acceptable compromise was reached. The clutch was another heavy item which also had a habit of becoming very vicious after ten minutes of overheating in heavy traffic - the last thing I needed was a lurching power take up on a bike so powerful and heavy as the XS, but I eventually grew used to it.
Although I'd rewired the lights they were not very powerful and prone to blowing, so I had to spend a weekend going over all the wiring, adding some rubber mounts to the headlamp and sticking a capacitor across the bulb leads (to take care of any excessive voltage in the system). Not much better, the bulb still blew every 500 miles or so. Unlike the GPZ, which had car drivers cowering in obeisance, the main beam was useless for much more than 25mph down dark country lanes. With the precarious state of the electrical system I had no intention of fitting a more powerful bulb and I didn't think a Halogen set-up could take the vibes.
Apart from these minor quibbles, I've rather enjoyed hustling the big bruiser the 30 miles to work and back for the past six months. There's a mixture of heavy traffic, a fast bit of dual carriageway and some violent swervery. The traffic is blasted past in first or second gear at maximum revs, the engine making an unholy row which intimidates the cagers out of the way. I occasionally have to brake like mad and haul the bike into a narrow gap between cars when a bus or artic coming towards me refuses to give way. The XS squirms around a little but its just a matter of mind over matter to get it to do what you want.
The Yam will still growl up to 130mph on a bit of straight but the degree of secondary vibration is more than off-putting, it's bloody dangerous. I've had the footrest and the headlamp fall off as bolts have rattled loose. I'm old enough to have experienced British bikes and the almost religious expediency of having to tighten up bolts after each and every ride, but it's not something I wanted to get into with the Yamaha. Although the XS is never entirely smooth, keeping the beast below 95mph in top gear subdues the vibro-massage effect to a level that keeps the plot in one piece.
Rather shockingly, the XS is almost as stable at speed on a relatively smooth and straight road as the GPZ! The latter shakes its tail between 90 and 120mph before settling down again whereas the XS doesn't start to weave a little until 115mph is on the clock. Admittedly, the GPZ is running stock suspension and if the XS was in a similar state the Yam would be a real pig once past the ton.
On bumpy roads, all the old complaints about heavyweight Japanese fours are present, with lots of jumping about, squirming and wallowing. The GPZ is often 20 to 30mph faster through curves than the poor old XS, which can at times be a very frustrating bike to ride - you sit there in restrained agony knowing you've a bucketful of torque and power just a twist of the throttle away but scared shitless to hit on it, knowing that the chassis will throw you off as soon as the going gets tough. The tendency of the bike to run wide through corners does not help in the least.
Some times, though, I got in the mood and shed years of restraint and maturity, riding the XS on the throttle and the brakes, cutting a high speed dash through the worst bends the English countryside could throw at us. This involved ramming open the throttle in third or fourth, slamming on the brakes on the wrong side of the road, cutting through corners in the straightest line possible, all the time aware of the way the back tyre was skipping and hopping all over the place, and wondering which way the forks, all twisted up and down on their stops, were going to throw the bike next. It required ace reflexes, a weightlifter's muscular input and a body full of a massive overdose of adrenalin.
I used to be able to ride like that for hours and hours, these days thirty minutes reduces me to a shaking wreck, the combination of age and easy life (on the GPZ) having seen to that. I can do the same kind of speed on the GPZ with absurd ease, not needing to turn myself into some kind of wretched, mad, superman. One thing about having these two bikes, if I ever get bored with the sheer civility of the Kawasaki, an hour's fast riding on the Yamaha soon reveals how lucky I am to have the GPZ!
I have few qualms about thrashing the XS, the engine is one tough piece of alloy. The carbs keep going out of balance every 500 miles or so, but proved impossible to balance with a set of gauges....as soon as you started adjusting one it would put the others out. In the end I just gave up, they never seem to go way out. With just over 35000 miles on the clock now, I don't expect to have to do any serious work for another 50,000 miles. In that respect the GPZ900 has shown few advantages, despite the added benefit of watercooling.
I bought one of the original 1984 GPZ900s, two years ago. The engine boasted 58000 miles and was comprehensively worn out but still ran. The chassis was in much better shape as the bike had been a well maintained, garaged, one owner. It even had a shiny stainless steel four into two exhaust. I handed over £1100's worth of fifty pound notes for this creature after a lot of haggling, the original owner being rather distraught at the state his engine, which hadn't been thrashed, had reached. He swore he was never going to buy another Kawasaki again.
The engine was very noisy, smoking badly and had a fit of the shakes if I tried to rev beyond 5000rpm. I cautiously rode home, hand hovering over the clutch in case the motor decided to seize up on me. Early 900s had a whole catalogue of faults which included an engine that could run low on coolant without any warning (thus overheating and seizing), a poor oil supply to the cams and a camchain that could rattle with enough agony to impress a CX500 owner. Not to mention the infamous freezing carb affliction.
Dropping the engine was a relatively easy business as the backbone frame meant the chassis could be lifted away from the motor. Evidence of much work on the engine was found in the condition of the cylinder head bolts. One horror after another was revealed - cams with great big chunks missing from their lobes, pistons with shagged rings and large score marks, and a crank that rattled on what was left of its bearings.
To be honest, I had expected as much and had already located a much newer motor from a breaker, mine for £600. As it was out of a crashed bike with 15000 miles on the clock, I hoped that there would be a lot of longevity left in the unit. Fitting the engine back in the chassis went without incident, it was really a two man job but I managed it on my own. As the tank and panels were rather faded, I handed them over to a mate who blasted and painted them British Racing Green. With a bit of touching up, polishing and tidying I had a £1700 GPZ900 that looked as good as new!
First impressions were not too good. The front wheel flopped into low speed bends, the forks shuddered whenever I so much as touched the brake and the engine felt gutless at lower revs. Not what I had expected from a hot-shot superbike that had been praised no end in the glossies. Of course, the answer was easy, rev the motor beyond 6500rpm....then the scenery rushed past at an astonishing rate, the handling tightened up and the bike cruised along so solidly that it was dead easy to believe you were just galloping along at the legal limit when in fact you were a lot nearer the ton!
I didn't like the gearchange very much, though, not very precise and it took a while to know when the cogs had actually slid into position. Bopping along on my commuting route at a reasonable pace returned 52mpg, which was about 20mpg better than the XS later managed and as good as many a 250 twin! Hardcore riding could reduce that to around 40mpg, as could cruising along motorways at 120mph, something the bike did with an absurd ease, the combination of riding position and fairing cosseting the rider to a degree than would make a full touring rig Gold Wing owner sit up and take notice!
The only problem with such indulgence was that the Kawasaki tore through consumables like there was no tomorrow. Tyres were chewed up and finished in 3500 to 4000 miles, the chassis demanding a decent pair of Metz's with at least 2mm of tread left if suicidal tantrums were to be avoided. The brilliant braking with which the bike was endowed was only made possible by fitting pads of a constitution which was destroyed in 4000 to 5000 miles. An expensive O-ring chain was reduced to a really ragged state after 6000 miles, turning the transmission as crunchy as a twenty year old Honda four's.
The XS actually proved cheaper to run on consumables. The shaft drive eliminated all the messy and expensive chain business, it would remain stable fitted with a relatively cheap set of Avons that lasted about 6000 miles a pair and the pads lasted well over 10,000 miles. Only the fuel, never much better than 35mpg, gave pause for thought. Yes, I know, if I wanted a commuter I could buy a Honda C90 and bore myself to death with tales of its frugality, but I'm not that bloody old!
I've done about 23000 miles on the Kawasaki without any major problems, including a couple of European tours that clocked about 4000 miles a throw. The bike was ideal for blasting down German autobahns at about 140mph, even then the vibes were not too harsh, nothing compared with the buzz that the XS produces at similar revs. On newish tyres stability was fine at that kind of speed, but by the time they were down to about 3mm there's a slight weave that I just knew would turn into a wobble if I was ever silly enough to run the bike on, say, 1mm of tread.
I had to fit a new set of tyres when in Germany, where I was easily won over by the friendly, efficient service from the motorcycle dealer. I'd just rolled up on the GPZ and they did the job while I waited, including taking the wheels out themselves. I was even offered a test ride on a ZZR1100 if I wanted to come back the next day. A set of tyres and fitting worked out slightly cheaper than buying 'em mail order in the UK!
After these high speed excursions into Europe my conclusions were that the GPZ was a very versatile bike but its potential as a tourer was ruined by the need to keep supplying it with very expensive consumables. Rather than buying another big brute of a four, I should have looked for a 400 to 500 twin which would be cheap to run but still able to lope along at an adequate speed. Such rationality was ruined by the fact that once experienced, the heady rush of acceleration and power of a large four, it's very hard to settle for anything less!
So there you go. I'm quite happy with both my bikes. If times got seriously hard I could live with either. The used market is still in a state of confusion but the bottom line is if you are willing to buy a bike that needs some work there are still plenty of good bargains around. There are also lots of overpriced crap on offer, so as, always, it's let the buyer beware.
Mike Donaldson
Return to Contents for XS fours
In the madness of a pack of fast ridden Japanese fours strange things can happen. The XS had the speed of any of them, at least in a straight line. It would very occasionally let loose with some very heavy shaking of the bars. Not as bad as a Z900, one of which was a few yards in front. I was watching the back wheel weave about six inches each way. It had the kind of skinny back tyre that would be out of place on a plastic 125. But these were real bikes with real men at the controls.
That's what I told myself as I frantically hauled on the twin discs. The forks had such heavy duty springs that brake dive was minimal. The Z900 pilot up ahead, too close for comfort, was wrestling with his bars. I could almost smell the odour of excrement streaming off him. I'd seen one chap thrown right off a buckling old four. Somehow, the owner got his Z900 straightened out. We all motored on, 20mph slower than previously.
There were other factors that limited our forward progress in comparison to the plastic fantastic crowd. Although we all had flat bars and rear-sets as a matter of course, much above 90mph made it pain in the neck time. The XS was also prone to secondary vibes above 7500rpm, something it had in common with the other fours (especially when mileage was high and bits worn, as they inevitably were). More than 100 miles of fast touring led to dead fingers and tingling feet, which was kind of okay as we liked to take a break after that kind of mileage.
Even weirder stuff happened in the corners off the motorway. The big Kawasakis ran wide until they started to wobble, then they'd go any way you'd care to shake a stick at. I preferred to use the grunt of the XS to stay ahead of them, although it was as well not to allow their proximity to my numberplate to force me to hurl the XS into the bend at too great a speed. A whole list of minor chassis mods meant that the XS would hold a line better than most big fours. The only worrying aspect of throwing the Yam through bends, apart from the sheer weight of it, was that big bumps would sometimes show up the age of the frame by making it flex. There was the possibility that the wobble would turn wild, causing the whole instrument to turn into an imitator of the Z900's earlier horrors.
It didn't happen when the tyres weren't worn too badly, so I tended to ride according to their state. I've owned the XS for four years and I have to admit that it took about six months before I got the hang of riding it fast. It helped to ride in a pack, watching other owners wrestling their similar fours through wobbles and weaves, watching the sparks fly as they ground away stand prongs and footrests (not to mention knees when things went seriously wrong), gave me the courage to emulate them.
All I can say now, is that I rarely notice the near 600lbs of mass, even in town. The clutch and throttle were also relatively heavy in the beginning but they too have faded away into insignificance. The heavenly grunt of the DOHC engine more than makes up for its mass. Had not there been a bit of transmission lash at lower revs in taller gears, then I'm sure I could've growled off in fifth gear from 1000rpm. It's that intense.
Perhaps because there's no point, just an excess of vibes, in revving the motor hard, in the past 40,000 miles (67000 on the clock now) engine reliability has been rock solid. No problems, just loads of reliable running. I do have to service the brute every 1000 miles but electronic ignition, a set of vacuum gauges and easy access to the valves means it's no great hardship. I always feel very virtuous after doing a service, and the bike has responded well to such loving care.
Finish is a bit of a mixed bag. The engine alloy and wheels have needed minimal attention but two years ago I had to do a full respray on the chassis. British Racing Green and black give the big brute a classic appearance. I've kept to a stock exhaust system, despite their cost, because a mate had no end of trouble when he fitted a 4-1 to his XS1.1S. Paid a fortune in getting the carbs tuned properly only to hole a piston while in the South of France. The exhaust system lasts for about three years before giving in to the rust.
The only other major expense I've had was from whacking into the side of a car. Yes, the same old story of some half blind moron shooting out of his driveway liked he owned the whole world. The front wheel left such a dent in his flimsy door that most of the shock went straight into his side. It didn't help the front wheel or the forks, they were bent, cracked beyond sensible redemption. I'd caught my wedding tackle on the bars so had little compassion for the cager who, trapped in the car, was screaming in agony.
According to the insurance company, the XS was written off. After some coming and going they handed over £800 and the bike. I'd already found a decent front end, which, apart from anything else, had some new calipers - the ones on my bike were prone to seizing up a couple of times during the winter. I thought it was quite a good deal, and contemplated seeking out another auto to hit, until I went to renew my insurance.....
I'm now down to third party, which even at 32 is still extortionate. The massive weight of the Yamaha has the major benefit that no-one will try to lift it into the back of a van, about the only way they will overcome my two shackle locks and secret switches. Anyone who tries to use the main ignition switch will find the horn blaring away. What I really need is some way to send a high voltage shock through the machine into anyone who tries to nick it.
The last fast ride was in the company of a couple of CBR600 hoodlums. They are fast buggers and I had to really work at it to keep them in sight. It was okay on the straights, if only because their licences were already in danger of being confiscated, but on the A-road bends they would steam ahead however much muscle I put in. I took the bike over so far in one corner I had the back tyre hopping as the XS tried to pivot on the stand prong. Brown underwear time.
It sort of showed the age of the bike up, but I felt happy enough with the XS. Coming home the pace was much milder as the night was dark and a smattering of rain made the road treacherous. The XS chuffed away to itself as we rumbled along; I'd just stuck the bike in fifth, relaxed by the need to merely open and close the throttle to set my speed. The Honda riders were forced to play frantically on their gearboxes and brakes to keep the pace up. After a long day of hard riding I was sure I knew which one I preferred.
If you're a seven stone weakling I can see that the XS1100 will not be much use. But if you can adapt to the amount of muscle needed you'll be rewarded with a friendly bike that's amazingly reliable and easy to use. Prices vary greatly, from £500 to about £2500 but around £1500 will purchase a jolly nice ‘un that'll keep its value.
Donald Coulston
Return to Contents for XS fours
What can you say about the XS1100? Lots, as it happens. I bought a 70,000 mile job just over a year ago. Almost immediately, I did a 9000 mile tour in a month. All over Germany, France, Italy and Spain. I went for a big old bugger like the XS because my mates all had similar devices. Z1000, GS1000S and CB900. Hoary old beasts with modern spec brakes, tyres and suspension added.
Anyone who buys an XS1100 without a fork brace is probably buying off either an old codger who's never been over 70mph or something that's already been run off the road and hastily repaired. Mine had a hefty set of Suzuki GSX forks, modded with a fork brace and so stiff I thought I was on a Ducati. Rattle and roll time when the going got bumpy.
It made all the difference between persuading the reluctant beast around corners and finding myself bounced off the road. I'd actually thought about buying a new XS when they first came out and still have vivid nightmares about the test ride. I'd given the bitch a bit of stick coming out of a bend and a bump had left the forks waggling from side to side. The bars were wrenched out of my hands, the XS, more or less vertical, hurtling across the bend. Only the fact that the throttle had snapped shut stopped us from battering our way through a yard deep hedge.
The mechanic, who was riding behind to make sure I didn't do a runner, berated me for crashing their demo bike. The dealer tried to make me pay for the repairs, although to my eyes it was just a matter of a few scratches. Everything was pretty heftily built (apart from the bearings and bushes) and it was my left leg that had taken most of the damage when I'd stopped it flipping over. No mean feat with 550lbs trying to meet the earth.
It was my friends who persuaded me, some 13 years later, that a suitably modded XS1100 was quite safe. That, and the fact that for £950 there were few other ways of obtaining 95 horses. These are grunt engines, fantastic power coming in just off tickover and really grating muscles after 5000 revs. It's such a nice motor that it maintains its popularity in FJ1100 and 1200 guises despite still being a heavy old nutter.
The FJ's weigh a little less but the steering is much quicker than the XS which turns as slowly as a fully loaded artic. Slow speed worked convinced me that there wasn't sufficient air in the front tyre but, no, it was just made that way. The top heavy feel didn't go away until about 90mph was on the clock, when the back end, even with alloy arm and Koni-Dial-A-Rides, started to feel loose.
The bike felt incredibly dangerous when trying to run through small Continental towns with quaint cobblestone roads. The tyres were newish Phantoms but at low speeds they were slipping and sliding as if we were on black ice. Strangely, the CB900 rode straight through without a care in the world (on dubious Avons) and the Z1000 fell on its side (thanks to bald Metz's).
On that tour we were all overloaded. Being our first serious tour we'd taken everything we could thing of, only the fact that the kitchen sink was bolted down stopped us loading that as well. Consequently, the XS had two massive haversacks strapped down on the back and a voluminous tank bag on which I could rest my chin! This radically affected weight distribution but had no discernible effect on the performance, the bike still good for 140mph in the crazier moments.
I'd set the XS up with flat bars to complement the rear-sets and the envisaged high cruising speeds. For normal commuter chores through town I had some ape-hangers that gave much better leverage at low speeds but tried to turn me into a sail above 65mph. Between 90 and 100mph the XS burbled along quite adequately, but my mates preferred 120mph which caused massive secondary vibes and enough chassis movement to keep me awake.
An hour of that kind of abuse was more than enough for me, but such protestations were totally ignored. From their incoherent mutterings (I think my hearing was going or it might just be the residual shakes) I gathered they were determined to do a 1000 miles in a day. The XS, when thrashed, was turning in 35mpg, although it might manage 40mpg under mild cruising, in town it did less than 30mpg.
The only maintenance the bike had on that extended tour was an oil change every 3000 miles. The engine didn't seem to mind. The CB900, by contrast, was rattling and ticking away like a time bomb awaiting its chance to blow up in a big way, although it did make it back. That lack of fidelity with half the XS's mileage! The greatest piece of design on the XS was its shaft drive. I could look on with amusement as my friends furiously adjusted their chains every fuel stop. It's one of those things that you don't appreciate until experienced.
'Course, the shaft drive does whirl, grate and shake around when backing off the throttle in corners. The XS much prefers to be set up on its line, after some frenzied braking, and accelerated gently out of corners. That's the sensible way to ride a big old Japanese multi, but when your friends are adrenalin junkies with twitchy right wrists such sanity is soon submerged beneath the good old cut and thrust.
Having come from an eminently flickable GPz550 that blew its guts out at 82000 miles, the XS took a lot of adapting to. The easy way to master the brute would've been to go on a course of steroids and muscle building. However, I didn't think that even the joys of the XS were worth shrinking marital tackle and pinhead looks. The XS never loses its heavy feel and it always seems on the verge of falling off the edge of its tyres. I can actually feel the rear rubber distorting as the gobs of torque are fed in. After a year I've arms that Popeye would envy and a beer gut like an eight month pregnant woman! The latter from evening fuelling feasts to recover from the terror and trembling of burning off everything in sight. I didn't fall off, but had a near miss every day!
Wheelies were great fun but by 85000 miles I'd burnt out the clutch. The drum was cracked up and the plates were scorched earth material. Secondhand bits went in at minimal cost. Interestingly, the side cover had never been off before. I knew this because the original screws had corroded into the crankcase. They refused to come undone even when attacked with an impact driver and sledge-hammer. I did the usual trick of whacking my fingers with the hammer. A mixture of drilling and chisel work removed the screws, leaving ruined threads in the crankcases. New allen bolts smeared with Araldite worked better than I had any right to expect.
The other problem with this apparently simple job was that I'd had to take the 4-1 exhaust off. Disturbing this rust bucket caused it to crack up. Trying to weld rusted through metal completed the destruction process. The CB900 owner had a spare 4-1, which after a weekend's cutting and welding went straight on! I didn't even have to change the carburation.
Not surprisingly, after all that trauma I gave up doing wheelies. In this state the bike has run on relentlessly, albeit expensively in the consumption of tyres, pads, fuel and oil, until there's 102,000 miles done with no signs of imminent engine demise. That makes it tougher than the Z1000 which needs a camchain every 25000 miles and the CB900 which needs a complete rebuild at that kind of mileage.
For cheap kicks the XS1100 takes some beating. The engine's a bit brutal not civilised, the chassis will scare the hell out of you, and the grunt will blow your mind away. I love the old horror!
G.J.L.
Return to Contents for XS fours
I don't really know why I bought the big Yam. It was for sale just a street away and was cheap at £1500 for a 14000 miler. But it was a big, vicious, shaft driven thing that I could barely straddle and seemed to want to topple over all the time. Character building is, I think, the way to describe it. As in potty training! I had a go on it a few times over the years, always coming back out of breath, panting with the exertion and adrenaline. I don't know if I was more scared by the handling or exhilarated by the massive torque. One day, the latter overcame the former and I agreed to become the bike's new owner.
Despite being over a decade old, the mileage was low and the condition excellent. Most of this was down to the fact that it'd been only used in the summer months. The combination of 95 horses and 550lbs in a somewhat dodgy and unpredictable chassis added up to the kind of machine that was absolutely no fun on wet roads. The disc brakes were also diabolical in the wet. The previous owner was suffering from premature hair loss, surreal twitches and permanent vocal cord impairment. What had I let myself in for?
The first tentative rides went pretty well. I didn't fall off, maim any ped's or hit any other vehicles. The gearbox was less than impressive but there was so much grunt that I could get away with riding down to tickover in third and just using the throttle for the go-go juices. The back end shuffled around a bit but didn't seem to bite back with any ferocity.
On the fourth outing the fuel ran out. The motor went as dead as my brain, as I tried to recall what to do next. The momentum fought a losing battle against the mass, but I ploughed through the traffic with all the machoness of a Transit with bull-bars. Made it to the gutter in one piece. The motor coughed and spluttered whilst the reserve fuel fed into the carbs, then suddenly bellowed into life at 10,000 revs.
At that precise moment, when my eardrums had popped out of my head, a couple of plod popped up out of nowhere, wanted to know what we had here. Luckily, part of the deal with the XS was cheap classic bike insurance - though god knows on what basis, as it's a bit of a high speed deathtrap as far as I can see. It was taxed and MOT'd, as well. I handed over the doc's whilst they frowned in concentration, the act of reading a bit beyond their intelligence. They were mightily disappointed that all appeared in order, and my self-satisfied grin didn't help any...
They asked me if I was on drugs or was all the shaking just part of my normal degenerate lifestyle. I tried to explain that nearly being run down by half a dozen cages on a bike unruly enough to break my leg if I didn't watch what I was doing, might just have had an effect, as well as some tremulous secondary vibes. The next thing I knew, one of them had me spread-eagled against a wall whilst the other poked and pulled at the XS. Like a Dobberman instinctively obeying its master, the XS careered off its sidestand, trapping PC Plod under 550lbs of hot metal.
Of course, I burst out into hysterical laughter as his mate tried to lift the machine off him. Once we'd righted the Yam, the cop went into a foul mouth spiel about deadly assault on police officers carrying a minimum 20 year sentence. And if he every saw me on his beat again I was for it in a big way. Entirely unintentionally, I left the scene amid massive wheelspin and raucous noise, my attention distracted by another fit of laughter. I knew then that the Yam and I were going to be good mates.
The four cylinder engine showed its age only in the amount of tender loving care it demanded. Valves and carbs needed doing every 1500 miles, as did the oil. Also, every week I had to go over the bolts, which loosened off under the effects of the vibration, which rumbled sedately through the chassis at most revs, though the rider was insulated to a degree at 50 to 90mph in top gear.
The best place for the XS was on smooth motorways, where it could sit in the fast lane at 90 to 100mph, doing 25mpg and tearing through the rubber in 5000 miles. The power didn't run out until 125mph was on the clock, more from the way I was left out in the wind, half battered to death by the sheer violence of the gale, than from the mill running out of gee- gees. The previous owner reckoned he had seen 145mph on the clock, but I just don't have the muscle or courage for that kind of madness.
The XS has a bit of a reputation as a really foul handler but as long as the tyres had some tread and the road was smooth, there wasn't much to worry about. Failing these prerequisites then the bike could end up all over the place, shaking away like it wanted to spit me out of the seat and go for any other vehicles in the immediate vicinity.
It was dead easy to wheelspin coming out of corners, just on the excessive grunt available at the end of the throttle. This gave a distinct rubbery, hinged in the middle feel, but I wasn't actually thrown off or down the road. Perhaps because I always tended to back off when riding on curvy A-roads; country lanes, and the like, I tried to avoid like the plague.
This meant my times over long distances were not too impressive and it was a bit of a slug in town - too top heavy and wide to really make the grade. The fantastical acceleration was more of a problem than a blessing in traffic. I'd race down a clear stretch at an eyeball popping rate only to find that the disc brakes would fade when used in desperate mode, turning the steering all choppy and vague. I know, if I'd said to hell with it, just let the machine have its head, I would have been the fastest boy in town - before I got dead!
There were compensations. It was such a huge, ferocious brute that ped's were overawed and cagers tended to swerve out of the way (just as well as it was a slow turning beast at the best of times). Young girls swooned at the thought of a pillion ride, found the reality of the acceleration and vibration very exciting. I've actually had women fall all over me after a ten minute blast, and as I'm an ugly little f..ker it must be one of the most positive aspects of XS1100 ownership. Okay, extended exposure would probably do my balls in but for short distances it was kind of a hoot!
XS1100 engines are pretty tough given regular maintenance and oil, I did 7000 miles in two years without any worries on that score. The finish stayed good but as mentioned it was but rarely ridden in the rain. Consumables and fuel were ridiculous but mileage wasn't that high so it wasn't ruinous.
I sold the bike for £1875, which meant it had paid for itself. Unless you're a complete nutter, the kicks are a bit limited but it can be managed in a sane way and provides loads of street cred. Anyway, I bought a 145hp Vee-Max for four grand, which is really mad and bad.
Carl Jones