I do like these big ugly feckers

Steptoe

Steptoe

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The Yamaha XS 1100.

Saw [URL="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170684387579&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1156"]THIS[/URL] on the bay. In that nice maroon and ivory colour.

I remember seeing a one parked up in the harbour in St tropez, big and all black with just the small letters XS11 on the tank. Looked the badgers gonads at the time.
Never did own one. I think the reality may be a bit different if i got one now, so i don't want to burst the bubble.


I used to think the john mocket designed fairing on the martini special edition used to look so cool - looks a bit :rolleyes: nowdays :D.
But ahead of his time with the inbuilt fairing spotlights. The typical GS owner would wet his self with excitement.

2q3u2ir.jpg
 
Never heard of them before but i like :thumb that is the second time i've read you mentioning the St. Tropez region sounds like you spent some time in this biking paradise ?
 
corsicandreamer said:
that is the second time i've read you mentioning the St. Tropez region sounds like you spent some time in this biking paradise ?
Click to expand...

Big group of us used to spend most of the summer in 1983/84/85 camping at Les Prairies de la Mer port grimaud.- and used to stop off there after the bol D Or at the ricard circuit every year to recover.
All the brit bikers in the area used to meet every night at the Trident bar in St maxim
 
I had one identical to that,and it never missed a beat apart from the tilt cut out going mad, and it had an alarm that suffered a hammer attack. Apart from that I think I done about 50k on it in 18 months.:thumb2
 
Praries hosts the euro harley bash each year and we alway have a ride down on the saturday night to watch the bands and grab a pizza but this year they had security and wanted 30 euros each to get in, so we went to the vietnamese restaurant at the end and gave it a miss.

Got to go next year though as a bunch of spanish bikers are coming up and my bro in law is one of them you being a bit of a harley man might fancy it ?
 
corsicandreamer said:
Praries hosts the euro harley bash each year and we alway have a ride down on the saturday night to watch the bands and grab a pizza but this year they had security and wanted 30 euros each to get in, so we went to the vietnamese restaurant at the end and gave it a miss.

Got to go next year though as a bunch of spanish bikers are coming up and my bro in law is one of them you being a bit of a harley man might fancy it ?
Click to expand...

Went 3 years ago , one hell of a bash, must be the biggest one in Europe. Some amazing hotties riding bikes too and Port Grimaud is a very nice place. :thumb
 
I like the look of those big numbers hanging from the exhaust, where can I get some for my bike? Do they come in different colours?
 
Steptoe said:
Big group of us used to spend most of the summer in 1983/84/85 camping at Les Prairies de la Mer port grimaud.- and used to stop off there after the bol D Or at the ricard circuit every year to recover.
All the brit bikers in the area used to meet every night at the Trident bar in St maxim
Click to expand...

I was there! Used to go to Bol at Ricard every year from 81 to 94.

I had one of them XS1100 or excess 1100 as they were known. Mine was a bit different...

Mine had a Russ Collins Turbo motor which cost £5,000 just for the engine in early 80's. Bored out to 1220cc with a huge Rayjay turbo charger which had horrendous turbo lag but monster power when it all came together. Original owner managed to ride it into a granite wall in Guernsey and kill himself as the handling was best described as "interesting". The handling in standard form was crap with spindly forks and narrow wheels that would look too small on a 125 today. With up to double the standard power output, it was difficult to have any accuracy of direction. I entered into the twisty sprint in Jersey but it ate gearboxes as often as spark plugs. I was offered it back to buy again recently but my wife was adamant that it is cursed and to keep away from it.

Great crazy memories of the 80's.:D
 
I've owned a few varients of the XS1100, 1.1, Midnight Special etc

Good solid/strong engine with an slighly iffy frame wrapped around it, good reliable shaft and final drive (bmw take note)

Frame can be improved with gussets and uprated suspension, 2nd gear is a little fragile, ignition coils are prone to failure when wet (replace with suzuki coils with separate leads) ignition pickup wires can fail.

Drag raced a very modified version for a couple of years 1600cc, chain drive conversion, even ran a reversed cylinder head for a while, valves are too small for serious power so i replaced the lot with some chunky items from Kawasaki and the shim over buckets get a bit iffy at high revs so I went kawa with those as well.
Still got the part piper part home made FI setup here, looks very crude now compared to the laptop set ups I see now, tuning used to mean a I needed to file a bit more off the throttle cam:D

Nice bikes, very solid:thumb2
 
Steptoe said:
The Yamaha XS 1100.

Saw [URL="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170684387579&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1156"]THIS[/URL] on the bay. In that nice maroon and ivory colour.

I remember seeing a one parked up in the harbour in St tropez, big and all black with just the small letters XS11 on the tank. Looked the badgers gonads at the time.
Never did own one. I think the reality may be a bit different if i got one now, so i don't want to burst the bubble.


I used to think the john mocket designed fairing on the martini special edition used to look so cool - looks a bit :rolleyes: nowdays :D.
But ahead of his time with the inbuilt fairing spotlights. The typical GS owner would wet his self with excitement.

2q3u2ir.jpg
Click to expand...

One of my neighbours has the exact same bike, except his seems to be devoid of an exhaust (later found it it has a straight through pipe, no baffles, no fuck all)and as this guy is a shift worker I get to hear his wonderful exhaust at around 4 AM on random days. Seems to go fairly well though, and it would be a very good non invasive earwax removal tool (probably).
 
xs

My mate has one sitting in his garage that he uses in the summer, never had a major problem with it. It goes really well, bit quicker than my 1150, comfy old thing and looks good in black. He says he's going to restore it this year but i doubt he'll get round to it and it only needs cosmetics anyway.
 
1100s - 1.1 midnight special - is the good looking one to get - i like them a lot.

All big yams had iffy 2nd gear problems around that era.

Yamaha-XS_1100_Sport-1981.jpg
 
There was one outside my house last week like that one.
Except the airbox covers etc were gold :cool:
 
their alleged appeal is utterly lost to me :confused:


ex GS1000 owner. a bike that would kick that things ugly ass from now to christmas :)
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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