1980 XS1100 Cafe Custom project

[FrankyRizzo702]

Well have been a big fan of cafe racers for some time. Finally found the right deal and jumped on it. Picked this up beginning of December 2013.

Started stripping and repurposing parts that took off of it. Went pretty fast and I have been pretty happy with it so far. Started out as a Midnight Special.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Started out stripping. Lost the airbox and a bunch of parts. Threw some low rise Renthal MX Bars on it.

Stripped down the wiring to just what I needed. Primed the tank.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

I had a shop next to my office make me up a pint of a burnt orange. I think it is a Ford color. Shot it myself in my garage and for what it's worth turned out not too shabby.

Painted the emblems and filled the Yamaha in matte black. I added a strip to the tank but later on put it over the fill cap and it looks much better.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Found some Jardines in Phoenix for $40. A friend picked them up on the way back from a trip. Mocked them up and had a good friend weld them up for me. Did a bang up job. Sounds really nice.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Picked up a Shorai lithium ion battery. Was a ton lighter and way smaller. Allowed me to run it up in the frame rails. re routed some of the electrical under the seat. Now to tackle the huge seat. I cut off the back where I wanted it. Then chopped the sides to the frame rails. "sculpted" the foam with a disk sander to the shape I wanted. Went pretty quick but holy hell what a mess. I missed it before but I ditched the back fender and made a new one out of the front fender. I got a small integrated brake run light online and mounted it on top of the fender.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Took the seat to a local guy here in Vegas and he did an awesome job of covering and accomplishing the style of seat I wanted.

I ditched the 250 Speedo I show on it and made a mount for the original one. Fits better and is a little bigger to help with proportions.


The things I want to do shortly:
Need front and rear brake lines. Can't seem to get the front ones to bleed right.
I have a 17" wheel in route so I can run Bridgestome Trail Wing tires on it.
Having the rear frame rail finished this weekend hopefully
Near future:
Rebuild engine and paint jugs and other parts black.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Why do you want to rebuild the engine?

Throw those shitty cheap pod filters in the trash. You will NEVER get the bike to run right with them.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Which ones should I grab?

I have a small leak and I have never done a motorcycle engine. I have qualified help that can help me. It is something for the future.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Do a search on pod filters on the forum, and you will get a lot of info about it. Most everyone uses K&N pod filters, but they are expensive. There are some cheaper ones that are OK. The ones you have are total shit. Not only do they not filter, but the flange blocks openings in the throat of your carbs, and you will never get it to run right.

Even with good pods, you have CV type carburetors, and they are difficult to tune properly for pods. That type of carb works better with an air box.

If you don't rejet for the pods, you WILL ruin your engine. Start with about 8 jet sizes larger for your main jet. Jets are in increments of 2.5, so that means the jet number will have to be about 20 points larger than the stock jet.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Thanks for the heads up. I did mount these on the existing venturies because I read that pods can block the jet. I have a shop locally that will be doing my jetting. He's been a little busy. I haven't ridden it much yet but I will keep it to a minimum.

 

[teazer]

Normally I would agree that pods and that general design of carb not being a good combination, but I have similar Mikuni BS series carbs on GT750 Suzuki with large UNI filters and the jetting wasn't hard to get right.

The carbs that are almost impossible to get close are Keihin CV carbs on some of their twins and 4s. Hitachi are impossible as well, but Mikuni can usually be made to work with good filters but not with cheap EMGOs.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Yeah, Mikunis aren't as bad. I hate the Hitachi carbs. I think they are junk.

I have done three Suzuki GS450's. One with K&N pods, one with cheap pods, and one with the airbox. The one with the airbox, I modified the airbox by removing the flame arrestor screen and the snorkel.

It was by far the best running of the three bikes, easily lofting the front wheel with a powershift into second. The other two bikes I got to run pretty well, but not perfect. I've also done a GS850 with K&N pods. Same carbs and jetting. The bike ran way better than it did stock, but still had a bit of surging at cruising speed. I've suggested the guy bring it back for a little more fine tuning, but he hasn't bothered, because it does run well, just not perfect.

 

[gijoe13844]

Those mikunis respond very well with velocity stacks. Uni foam added of course.

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

After seeing some great builds here I thought my front end was a little too high. So I swapped the MX bars I had for some clip ons and pushed my shock tubes up a little. Definitely liking the new stance on it.

17" rim came in yesterday. I think Ill grab a tire for it today.

 

[ApriliaBill]

These are heavy bikes, that like to wallow in the corners. Make sure the swing arm and steering bearings are in good shape, and get a fork brace on there a.s.a.p. You need to tame this beast and making sure everything is tight, will go a long way to making it a decent ride... Also I'd loop the rear. These bikes were in my opinion under framed. Again, anything you can do to tighten things up will make it a much more enjoyable ride. I've owned over a dozen XS bikes and the 1100 was a little squirrely, and it all pointed to weight and soft frame, skinny forks. They are capable of being monsters if set up right...

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

What do you mean by a fork brace?

 

[ApriliaBill]

you see where the front fender would mount??? Get a brace to go there...

 

[FrankyRizzo702]

Rgr That

 

[ApriliaBill]

Rgr That

Something like this http://www.fastfromthepast.com/catalog/25-0031pro.jpg

1100's are very large heavy bikes. You're building a really nice looking bike, but XS1100's are known to wallow under hard cornering. The factory didn't really plan for how heavy the 1100 engine was, so it gives the bike a "loose" feeling which gives you little to zero notice that it's giving up. You just find your ass on the ground. It takes very little to make these bikes "right" decent shocks / springs, making sure the bearings are good, and a fork brace even if you run a fender, makes a difference. The shorter handle bars help, and I've seen many with a damper. These bikes were fairly fast and can disrupt the front end under hard throttle. You look like you're going in the right direction shedding weight and getting the front down a bit. If you pay attention to detail, you'll have a bitchin bike.

 

[Fix]

http://tkat.com/forkbrace.html

I put one on my xs11, and it's a new bike.

Love these bikes.

Also, look into a stainless brake line upgrade. These are heavy, fast bikes and more stopping power is never amiss.