1980 Yamaha XS11 aka THE CHOSEN

With the XS1100, it wasn't a case of the kickstarter being bad. It was the fact that the electric start was so good that the kicker became unnecessary baggage.

I'm not sure it actually looks good on there. With pods, it will lean up against the right filter.

Yea, and its never getting full range of motion as it stops against the footpeg. Kinda irritating really as its very pleasing kicking these to life..
Sometime in the future i may have to solve that. Now its mostly getting it running for more than 15 minutes on the agenda for me..

The kickstarter idea is still a ways away unfortunately, but it'll always be in the back of my mind haha.

Sorry for the lack of updates, past few weeks have been crazy. Got a second job that leaves me with very lil free time atm, but it'll fund my expensive hobbies haha. But she hasn't been neglected, trust me. In fact, I'm getting pretty close to reassembly!

I got the harness off a few weeks ago, cleaned it up pretty nicely and patched up the wiring. It was rather easy. I was told by a friend that some of the fuses in the box were actually house fuses?! Idk if he's right or not, but seeing how the rest of the bike is, I wouldn't be surprised. I didn't wire the tail light (the blue wire spliced into itself) back into the fuse box, we'll see if that messes anything up down the line or not.

The gas tank is clean and free of most of it's rust. A light vinegar soaking for a day with a baking soda/water rinse got rid of around 90% of the rust inside, thankfully. What's left doesn't really concern me, it shouldn't be enough to wreck havoc hopefully. Petcocks still need to be disassembled and cleaned. So far so good.

My biggest problem, and what's holding me up still, are the carbs. Trying to remove the screws from the bracket that holds the carbs together, I pretty much stripped half of them out . Yes, I use JIS tools, but these screws just weren't budging. So I had to submerge all 4 together in a cooler (the only thing I had that was big enough to hold all 4), which now permanently smells like Pine-sol. Internally, everything was in good shape; the diaphragms, all the gets, the floats, etc. Float chamber gaskets were a lil on the dry side though, but I managed to peel 3 of the 4 off with no issue. When I got to the 4th one, it immediately ripped into pieces. So I'm waiting on a new set of gaskets to arrive, I ordered them last wednesday buuuuuuut they didn't ship until today for some reason.

I have enough spare change to get a decent AGM battery whenever I'm ready, which shouldn't be much longer! I'm excited/nervous to see if I can get any response from the bike when it's reassembled. Even more good news, after a bit of talking with the owner a few days ago, I am now the actual owner of the bike! Bad news, though, I have to have the bike out of the unit by the 24th (this sunday), and my living situation still isn't sorted out yet. Luckily, I was able to find a cheap storage unit with a different company not even half a block from the current facility.

Although, I'm gonna have to push it the whole way to it's new place...

Moving day was the 24th, and thankfully one of my friends with a truck had a day off so he could help me move it. Even all stripped down like it is, the thing still ways a ton haha.


Once we got the bike moved to the next facility, I gave myself the week to finish up what needed to be done. The petcocks needed cleaning and the new float bowl gaskets finally came in, so I could finish rebuilding the carbs.




The float bowls and carb tops got dirty/flash rusted after the saoking, so I took some steel wool and a bit of elbow grease to them. They look almost like new again after all that!

I finally had time to go back to the unit this past sunday, so I went out and got a decent AGM battery from Batteries Plus. Got the battery for $86 bucks + tax by using coupon (I'm cheap, I know!). Went back to the unit and got the wiring harness back on the bike. Hooked up the battery, said a little prayer, then turned the key to the ignition. By the powers that be, the gauge cluster lit up! Half the battle was now over, and I paraded around the storage facility like a giddy school girl. No shame in my game.

This caused me to get greedy. Yesterday, with the few hours between jobs (and eventually calling in, I hope my manager doesn't read this haha) I took the carbs and the gas tank back to the unit to slap back on the bike and try to get her to fire. After getting the fuel lines set up, which I realized after I cut them that they probably won't make it around the stock airbox when I reinstall it.


I poured gas into tank and tried my luck. Almost immediately, the right side petcock started leaking preeeetty badly, but I was determined. By the end of the night, I had drained my car battery, almost got locked inside the storage facility, filled my unit with gas, and watched my friend's truck completely smoke a Saturn Ion in a street race. Was it all worth it? Check out the video to see...

...but yes, it was totally worth it! 8)