An XS Odyssey and props to MadMike!

Heck of a guy I tell ya! :clapping: :clapping: Gives a super nice ride to an almost complete stranger for nothing more than a "Thank you sir!" :yahoo:

I guess I should toss in a bit of back story:

Not long ago, while starring at paintings in the Haggen museum in Stockton, Mike asked me if I wanted a project bike. He knows I have the ability to pull off whatever repairs are necessary on a 30 yr old scoot. He rattled off some incomprehensible (to me anyway) model name and said it was a cruiser. About all I caught at the time was Yamaha cruiser in need of repair. Mike told me it popped out of first, and needed some fork work since the accident. I had a picture of a Suzuki Boulevard style cruiser in my mind, and wondered if I wanted to take on such a project. I'm not a big fan of the boulevard style cruisers mind you. A few days later I dropped him an email about it and he shot off a pic of a beautiful old scoot! I love the old Gold wing style scoots! The incomprehensible numbers started to sink in. It's a 1979 XS1100 Special in extremely nice condition for a 30 year old scoot!

The pic Mike sent. The XS is the one in front



Yea, you know I'd sport that in a heartbeat B) I love that old iron!

We picked a day and I loaded up the Jeep with a U-Haul and headed up to Mikes place. I expected to see a bike with fairly heavy front end damage, obvious bent fork, rashed fairing, etc. since he said he went over the bars in a crash. What I found was a gem in the rough! I think Mike may have over exaggerated the damage to the bike. Of course I took my camera along to record the day, but wouldn't ya know it? I forgot a memory card so cell phone pics only :dribble:

Loaded up and ready to head to it's new home



Mike had all sorts of spare bits for the XS and loaded up the Jeep! Lower fairings for the Vetter, spare shield, oils, manuals, filters, gaskets, just about anything that ever came off or went on the XS! Very impressive collection I might add! We took care of all the paperwork, and as he hands me the paperwork says "Happy Birthday" B) We spent awhile reminiscing about the old iron as the day wore on.



Finlay home with it's new sibling (now that I have a memory card in my camera again the pics are better )



I love a good project, and couldn't wait to jump right in with both feet! Since I know the transmission needs work, I've opted to do that first and flip the bike on it's back to get access to the gears that I need to repair. I've been following a lot of this on the XS forum since Mike gave me the XS, and according to them, this is the easiest way to do it.

Tear down begins



Ready to flip



I left the case savers on the left side intentionally to protect the motor and exhaust as I flipped the bike. I also turned the handle bars down to protect all of the controls.



I used industrial gym mats to protect the bike as I flipped it.



Alex inspects my work. It was a lot easier than I thought to flip this bike onto it's back, even solo!



And this is how it sits now. From here I'll pull the lower end apart to access the gears and repair whatever needs fixxin



I'll post up here with occasional follow-ups.

And the Odyssey begins!

Thanks Mike!! :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping:

Cool! Looking forward to future updates!

Man, that looks great! If you've found the XS Site, you'll get great advice over there. Strange that it pops out of first, I remember guys having trouble with second. The XS is easy to work on, not so easy to take fast through the curves and less easy to stop quickly, but.... it is an easy bike to love.

Have fun! I'd suggest an upgraded universal/aftermarket front brake cyl & SS lines. You can get rebuild kits for the front calipers. Also progressive springs in front to eliminate the air preload system, and either have your rear shocks revalved or get progressives for the rear too. THere is also a modern style fork brace available for the XS, was custom made by one of the board members, but not sure if that is still available. I'm sure Mike told you but trying to ride an XS fast is a very unique experience. Oh, be sure to check out and test the vaccum spark advance behind the left case cover.... I kid you not the only motorcycle with a vaccum advanced ignition. This is the main performance reducing problem on these XS's, the hose comes off, or diaphram leaks. One MAJOR think with the XS is its weak alternator........... That was the main thing (plus it being at 100K miles) that made me switch over to the Concours in 96-97.

Youre going to love this coolaide ;-) Congrats!!

Hmmm I didn't read through the posts but I did hear a transmission problem? 2nd gear?

Oh course you have heard of https://www.xs11.com/forum/ Lots of helpful people there!

Fun story!!

Very much looking forward to the updates!

Let me know when you're ready to tackle a 1979 KZ1300?

Oh, and Silent, at least put a blankie on the old girl, she's kind of embarrassed showing her underbelly to the world! :lol:

Very interesting...brings back fond memories.

Bulldog9 said:

Strange that it pops out of first, I remember guys having trouble with second.

Click to expand...

Mike said first, so that's my first target. I'm planning on undercutting the dogs in both 1st and second, and pull a couple other tricks from the XS11 forum to strengthen the tranny. Rough plan of attack is to get the bike safe and running proper, then possible upgrades. Since the brake lines are 30 years old, I can see a set of custom SS lines in the bikes future B)

Tranny - Pop out of first

Valves - Might as well check em since I'm hear and the valve cover gasket seeps a little

Carbs - Need a good cleaning, parts as needed

Fuel system - There's checking in the fuel lines, might as well replace em. - Fix the vacuum fuel shutoff

Forks - Need a full rebuild and straightening

Brakes - Starting from scratch might be an option, I'll know more once I dig into them

Anything else I feel it needs

Let me know when you're ready to tackle a 1979 KZ1300?

Click to expand...

Gonna drive me :crazy: Don! lol I think I'm gonna have to Finnish off this one before I think about taking on another 'project' bike B)

Cool, Ray. And how about that Mikey? You get a nice project, he gets back half his garage! Hope everything goes nice and smooth.

SacramentoMike said:

Cool, Ray. And how about that Mikey? You get a nice project, he gets back half his garage!

Click to expand...

And he gets his motorcycle lift back, too! Now maybe I can finish the work on the KLR.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy, Ray. Have fun with the project. BTW, you're going to love that bike and people's reactions to it.

The bug bit me last night, I pulled the clutch cover, clutch, shifter cover, and tranny gears out last night, and they look repairable. She's torn down about as far as she needs to be. Next step is to attack the gears with a dremel, then the longer process of putting her back together. I did take a lot of photos while disassembling, just to make sure I put everything back exactly where it came from. Everything is bagged and tagged to keep things separate as well. I'll try and upload updated photo's tonight and post up a couple here.

I covered her nakedness just for you Don!

Good to see that you have some help...

Silent said:

Alex inspects my work.

Click to expand...

Time for an update.

I finally pulled out the drive Axel shaft and all of the associated gears that need to be repaired



Leaving a rather empty hole. You can see the bearing that the axle shaft rides in.



You can see how the shift forks 'fell in' in such a way to make it easy to pull the gears out. This is the main reason I just turned the bike over rather than working from underneath. This also made it a lot easier to put the gears back in after!



Then I covered her up and headed inside to do the actual work on the gears. Just for you Don!



The gear grinding was rather simple and straight forward. I'm guessing the voodoo black magic that scares most people off is in the 'not knowing'

These were the dogs and slots that were making the bike jump out of first





At the suggestion of the XS11 forum, I also back cut the 2nd gear slots and dogs. They have a tendency to fail as well



I've already reinstalled the axle shaft and gears, oil pump, shifter assembly and cover, clutch assembly and covers and just holding on the tranny pan gasket. Once that comes in and is installed, I can roll the beast back onto her wheels and get to some serious fixing!

Have fun with this project Ray, I know u will~

Thanks for sharing it with me too.

:clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping:

I'm glad the repair hasn't taken many hard. As I told you, I didn't abuse it and drove it softly once the problem arose. Good job, Ray!

Are you going to name her "Phoenix"?

madmike2 said:

:clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo: :clapping:
I'm glad the repair hasn't taken many hard. As I told you, I didn't abuse it and drove it softly once the problem arose. Good job, Ray!

Are you going to name her "Phoenix"?

Click to expand...

The gears looked alot better than I expected them to look. You did good Mike B)

Haven't thought of a name, I don't usually name my machines. Wouldn't want her to burst into flames or anything tho

Wow. So, simply undercutting will resolve the problem? Enough meat left on the dogs to still allow for full engagement? Just wondering.

Kinda cool you could get to everything without having to pull engine from frame then split cases..

dcarver said:

Wow. So, simply undercutting will resolve the problem? Enough meat left on the dogs to still allow for full engagement? Just wondering.Kinda cool you could get to everything without having to pull engine from frame then split cases..

Click to expand...

Yup. With flat cut gears, as things wear they tend to push apart from the extreme pressure the gear dogs encounter. By undercutting the gears, they don't go in and out quite as smooth (wich is why they use straight dogs to begin with) but once engaged, they pull together tighter under preasure instead of tending to push part. There wasn't a great amount of material removed, and I'm quite confedent there is a lot more material than is needed for the application. This is something they use to do decades ago to fix the same problem in other manual transmissions.

Time for another update:

Tranny pan is back on, as are both side covers. The bikes even back on it's wheels as it should be! Now the task of putting her back together and fiddling to make all the bits work in conjunction with each other

After a few weeks of procrastinating, and staring at a lonely carb rack upon my work bench, I finally got the gumption to get to work again. I pulled the float bowls off and found out why it was pumping fuel out of the air box. As suspected, there was gummed up float stuck in the open position. After much cussing and fiddling, I finally managed to get the carb rack and air box back in a couple days ago. Tonight, I dumped in fresh oil and fuel, and she fired right up! Even ran decent considering it wasn't hitting on #2! Can't wait to hear her purr as I already know she can

I think I'm going to have to replace the battery to continue testing as the one that was in the bike is rather weak, and not really up to the task anymore. Once I've got her running well, I can turn my attention twards the braking system. The brakes are in dire need of a going thru and some new stainless steel brake lines couldn't hurt either B)