1981 Yamaha XS1100 Uberbike-Project Juggernaut

I just ran across this forum today and this place is great, so I thought I would show off my latest project.

I started in November with only a untitled parts bike(engine, frame, swingarm, electrical) and a titled frame. This is my progress to date.

I was originally planning on starting on this later this summer, but I decided to go ahead and get started competing in a build-off on another forum. So Im trying to build a complete bike by May 26th. It should be a lot of fun, and I am surprisingly ahead of schedule an on budget. So here's what Ive been playing with.

Juggernaut
1981 Yamaha XS1100SH

The plan:
'02 Hayabusa forks and rear shock
Carbon fiber fender
03 FJR1300 swingarm/final drive/rear wheel
Monoshock conversion
Ducati Monster carbon fiber fairing w/ 7" round HID headlight
Dual stainless exhust
ZX-14 radial brake and clutch MC's with hydro clutch conversion
Tail still undecided
Lots of custom work and badassery

When I started in November, I had a untitled frame, engine, and wiring harness as well as a clean titled frame.






Started modifying the good frame



FJR1300 swingarm pivot axle, machined and rethreaded to fit the XS frame.












Headlight mounted with Ducati headlight bracket




Stainless mufflers, debadged. The midpipes and header will be chromed before the end of the build.



Thats as far as I have made it since officially beginning the build on Nov 25th. My front fairing should arrive friday, and I should have the fabrication and welding done for the swingarm pivot mount and the monoshock conversion in the next 2 weeks or so. I get a little done everyday. I should be receiving my custom upper triple tree and hydro clutch slave cylinder mount from my machinist soon. Once I get those, we get to start on the most complicated part of the whole build-spacing the middle drive outwards 30mm. Putting a 190 rear tire on a shaft driven bike that originally ran a 130 is a difficult task, but not impossible.

So let me know what you think, I lke feedback. This bike will be my highway cruiser. Should be a lot more comfortable than my FZR for long trips but I think it is still going to me one mean mother once its out on the highway.

:

This should be SICK

Wow... Theres a few of these killer hybrid/mish mash/what ever you call it bikes showing up on here. Yours is AWESOME so far. I cant imagine what your budget is... Ill be watching this for sure, and stealing every good idea I see at that.

VonYinzer said:

Wow... Theres a few of these killer hybrid/mish mash/what ever you call it bikes showing up on here. Yours is AWESOME so far. I cant imagine what your budget is... Ill be watching this for sure, and stealing every good idea I see at that.

Click to expand...

$2500 total is the budget, not counting shipping or consumables. That includes the purchase of the frames and engine.

Ive got a running cost tally here:

http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27100

This just became my favorite build! I am gathering inspiration for a vintage fighter that is also shaft drive, so I will be watching this closely. Looks great! Keep it up.

I've wondered about the FJ rear end for some time now. I've got several xs850s and had an XS11. I've been planning on a chain conversion but I do like that FJ setup. How straightforward will it be? Does it line up to the engine properly or will there be gymnastics involved?

Swagger said:

I've wondered about the FJ rear end for some time now. I've got several xs850s and had an XS11. I've been planning on a chain conversion but I do like that FJ setup. How straightforward will it be? Does it line up to the engine properly or will there be gymnastics involved?

Click to expand...

Its a FJR swingarm, not a FJ, big difference. The swingarm itself does not need much to line up properly. I havent messed with the 850s before, but its a tight fit inside the 1100 frame. A little light grinding on the frame pivot mounts and modifying the spacer washer on the pivot plus the left side pivot mount fabricated of course is all thats needed to mount it. Then there's the shock mounting, but there are different ways to do that. Mounting the swingarm is the easy part. The middle drive has to be spaced out 30mm, so I need a spacer plate as well as a new, extended middle drive input shaft. Ive already got the ball rolling on all that though. Its going to take a while, which is why the parts are already at my machinists now.

MrFreeze5 said:

Its a FJR swingarm, not a FJ, big difference.

Click to expand...

Sorry, typo on myend.....FJR most certainly...in fact I've got one here in front of me getting some light work. No worries, I knew what you meant but somewhere between my brain and my keyboard something got miswired! Ha!
Gotcha....I was wondering about the outdrive spacing .Was hoping it was a slam dunk....I'd be rocking that setup on my 850 next-friggin-week. Still worth looking into though, as I understand it the 1100 swingarm in a bolt in to the 850 though I have no personal experience with it. As such the same mods should net an FJR rear end on an 8fiddy too. Most cool.
I'll be watching this one develope!

Swagger said:

Sorry, typo on myend.....FJR most certainly...in fact I've got one here in front of me getting some light work. No worries, I knew what you meant but somewhere between my brain and my keyboard something got miswired! Ha!
Gotcha....I was wondering about the outdrive spacing .Was hoping it was a slam dunk....I'd be rocking that setup on my 850 next-friggin-week. Still worth looking into though, as I understand it the 1100 swingarm in a bolt in to the 850 though I have no personal experience with it. As such the same mods should net an FJR rear end on an 8fiddy too. Most cool.
I'll be watching this one develope!

Click to expand...

If the swingarms interchacnge, then it should be a viable swap for the 850 as well. I imagine the middle drive is a bit different, but Im not sure on that. I am new to whole XS world and am learning as I go. It would be a whole lot easier if I started with a complete bike instead of piece by piece, but thats how I like it. It gives me an excuse to buy the parts I want, and not have to deal with a bunch of crap I dont need leftover. I do plan on picking up at least one complete XS1100 over the winter, running or not. Ive got my eye on a few on CL that are only a few hundred.

If it were a slam dunk, straightforward swap, I wouldnt do it. I was going to do a chaindrive conversion and a single sided swingarm, but I wouldnt be able to get my hands on the chaindrive until late spring, and that did not fit my timetable at all since Im on a deadline here. I originally intended to carry this project in a more chopperish direction at first too, but that quickly changed once I got started building it. It looks kinda like an oversized sportbike now, which I like. But what I also like is that it doesnt quite fit as a sportbike, a tourer, a cafe racer, or a fighter. It is still a classis superbike, but it is so much more now, hence the Uberbike moniker.

I will have to have a spacer like this made:



the spacer is already taken care of and is quite the piece with correct guide and seal surfaces.

It should look like this installed:


(not my bike, but it was the intitial inspiration for the FJR setup after I found out how long the chaindrive would take)

And I have to get a new shaft made like this.

AHHHHH... sweetness overload! I agree with the whole uberbike thing... I love the look of a massive aircooled 4cyl. MOdern watercooled motors just have a hard time looking as good as a centerpiece there in the frame. This thing will def be unique.

dakine_surf said:

AHHHHH... sweetness overload! I agree with the whole uberbike thing... I love the look of a massive aircooled 4cyl. MOdern watercooled motors just have a hard time looking as good as a centerpiece there in the frame. This thing will def be unique.

Click to expand...

I agree. And this is intended to be my highway ride, so simplicity and reliability is important. A 30 year old air cooled engine is hard to kill so long as its well maintained. This engine's weakness is the electrical system, which I will hopefully greatly improve. Air cooled means less parts and less to go wrong. And a big finned 1100 4 cyle does stand out. But DAMN its heavy. Its difficult for 2 people to move around. My watercooled 600 in my FZR I can carry by myself anywhere I need to.

Another thing I really like about this engine is its Yamahas first four stroke 4cyl. Its essentially the grandfather of all Yamahas 4cyl bikes to come after. Throw in a XJ and a R1 and Ill have over 30 years of the major progression of that Yamaha engine in my collection.

After I finish this project, I was thinking I wanted to build an old Yam enduro, like the XT550 into a motard inspired street monster. That was yesterday. Today I found this forum. Instead of an enduro, Im thinking I might want something a little bigger and build a tracker. But I shouldnt be thinking about other projects right now. Im on a deadline

Love them motors, not much top end but massive torque from idle.

PJ

Hey Freeze,
Glad to see another XS11er made it over here. I have been watching your build over there for awhile. This site is a little more in tune to what I do, not quite as purist as over there, but it is all good! Keep it up!

t71ford said:

Hey Freeze,
Glad to see another XS11er made it over here. I have been watching your build over there for awhile. This site is a little more in tune to what I do, not quite as purist as over there, but it is all good! Keep it up!

Click to expand...

Lots of good info over there, but I just dont fit in in that crowd. I am a customizer by nature, and the purists reactions are interesting. And Im dont care to see more political talk than tech on a motorcycle forum.

Roger that^^^

MrFreeze5 said:

Another thing I really like about this engine is its Yamahas first four stroke 4cyl. Its essentially the grandfather of all Yamahas 4cyl bikes to come after. Throw in a XJ and a R1 and Ill have over 30 years of the major progression of that Yamaha engine in my collection.

Click to expand...

Yep... I have 2 XJ seca's and I love em. An xs11 is probably in the future as well. And I know what you mean about the purists on some sites. I had some guy get all butthurt because I wanted to lighten my seca... he asked me why I was trying to make a bike something it isn't, to which I asked him if his mother denied him the tit when he was a baby. Not the same case here at DTT, as a whole most people here like to see builds that challenge what was thought possible and strive to be unique.

I am stoked to see this little bump in people taking on vintage fighter builds. I know this is a cafe site and these big, heavy bikes aren't exactly true to the cafe mold, but they definitely have earned their place in motorcycle history. Plus the old small bike from the 60's and 70 are starting to get expensive, even for beaters. Early 80's 4cyl bike are becoming cheaper and cheaper, just like the old honda cb's and yamaha xs's of yesteryear.

Agree with everything posted above, and love the build. Sometimes you've just got to do what you want, and bugger everyone else! Hell, My GS850 is a heavy SOB but I'm making it a cafe for my highway ride as well.

Good luck with the build, looks like you've got a good handle on it. Give 'em hell

Cheers - boingk

I need a copy of photoshop so bad.

I was playing around with some pics today trying to finalize my tail plans. Im about 95% Im still going with the Duc mono tail in the tasty CF flavor. But I wanted to see how it would look and what kind of exhaust setup I want to do. I took a stock duc tail and threw it on there and played with some muffler placements with my badass MS paint skills. I have dual stainless cans, I want to angle them upwards and inline with the pipe as much as possible like a RC51 and tilted slightly inward at the tips like a TLR1000. My can drawing isnt to scale, but it kinda gives you an idea of what the end product should look like. I think it will look pretty sweet!



Or there is always the possibility of undertail cans. The tail is already set up for it.

MrFreeze5 said:

I need a copy of photoshop so bad.

I was playing around with some pics today trying to finalize my tail plans. Im about 95% Im still going with the Duc mono tail in the tasty CF flavor. But I wanted to see how it would look and what kind of exhaust setup I want to do. I took a stock duc tail and threw it on there and played with some muffler placements with my badass MS paint skills. I have dual stainless cans, I want to angle them upwards and inline with the pipe as much as possible like a RC51 and tilted slightly inward at the tips like a TLR1000. My can drawing isnt to scale, but it kinda gives you an idea of what the end product should look like. I think it will look pretty sweet!

Or there is always the possibility of undertail cans. The tail is already set up for it.

Click to expand...

Get a copy of GIMP, its almost as good as photoshop and better in a couple of places from what I've heard ( I don't do photo editing so havent learned to use it, still using Photoshop 4 from 1998, only use that to add comments to pics) :
It also has one major advantage over Photoshop, its a free download ;D

PJ