Most importantly I need to find a winter workspace for this bike, and that includes the engine. Right now, my workspace is in the basement, which gives me a good bit of room, but the stairs are narrow and turn and its very difficult to get large or heavy things down there safely.
Right now, my XS project consists of a no-title 81 XS11 special parts bike. It has a rebuilt engine thats 99% complete. Wiring harness, triple trees and steering stem(yay!), swingarm, final drive, and battery box. Thats pretty much it, and pretty much all I needed.
The engine should just need a refreshing and once over and everything else is coming from other bikes. Plus, I have a good, titled, bare frame for the final product, so I have a free frame to play with for fabrication testing and such.
For those who are not familiar with the XS1100, its Yamaha's standard/sport tourer from the late 70s/early 80s. 1100cc air cooled inline 4cyl. Here's a genereic google pic:
Here's my parts bike(sorry for small pic, Ill take/upload bigger/better later)
And the clean frame
Now on to the good stuff. Originally, I wanted to do a SSSA and chain drive conversion. The problem is, only one guy makes the conversion, and wont do a run until spring, and the cost is very high. So then I started pondering how to get a wider rear tire and still maintain the stock shaft drive. I am, after all, building this bike to be more comfortable for long rides than my FZR. Shaft drive is smoother and less maintenance intensive.
Plus there were some pretty big drawbacks to overcome still with the chain-drive conversion. Ive come across some interesting examples so far and come up with a solid plan for the rear end. I have gone ahead and started ordering the parts for the rear end. I will get to the wheel later.
The XS11 has a pretty short swingarm, a fairly steep steering angle, and a longish wheelbase compared to other sport tourers of the era. A lot of riders have found that deraking the front slightly, and extending the rear swingarm helps quite a bit with handling.
This is a heavy bike, so a low, manageable COG is important too. Ive decided to us a 03-05 FJR1300 swingarm. Unlike several other shaft drive swingarms, the pivot point does not span the width of the frame, like the Yamaha Vstar swingarms that some people have used. They had lots of interference problems with setups like that. I will need to fabricate a new mount for the left side of the swingarm pivot, but luckily, this has been done before, and I have a bike to use for reference.
The XS is originally a dual shock setup, so I will be converting to a monoshock as well, but Ill be putting it in the traditional location.
Supposedly most Yamaha final drives interchange, so I may be able to reuse my XS11 final drive with the FJR swingarm, I may need the FJR FD, but I will need the FJR driveshaft since the swingarm is 4” or so longer than the XS. The driveshaft splines mate up to the XS Ujoint, so that is one less part needed. It seems a lot of the shaft drive parts interchange between most Yamaha models. Its nice!
The stock XS usually runs a 130 or 140 tire, so making room for a wider tire requires spacing out the middle drive. This is where it is going to get tricky. I need a 30mm spacer machined(simple enough) and a extended middle drive shaft(tricky part). Ill probably have to have a new shaft machined. Luckily Ive got friends in the 4x4 axle shaft and drivetrain manufacturing industry and they make new splined shafts an stuff all day long. We will see how that pans out…
Note the aluminum spacer between the engine and the middle drive
Once I get the swingarm mounted and the driveshaft lined up, then comes the wheel selection. I have the option of using a stock FJR1300 wheel, which gives me a 180 or 190. But I don’t like the FJR wheel that much, it’s a straight 3 spoke, but split, and I really want forged 5 spokes this time around. One unique thing about the FJR final drive is that it uses a cush drive!
This cush drive matches R1 wheels! So I will eventually pick up a 04+ R1 rear wheel and run a 190 on it, shaft driven. I need to find the rotor diameters of the FJR and R1. I am hoping that the rotors are the same diameter and I can maintain the FJR caliper mount and caliper, but that is a matter for later down the road.
By using the R1 wheel on the FJR swingarm, I am perfectly set up to match a R1 front end(or 05+ R6 like Im bidding on now, something with radial brakes). If money allows this go-round, Im getting forks for this beast too. 07-08 R6 and R1 forks are scarily abundant and are going for about 500 for a complete front end, but that’s too much right now with the rear end parts too, so it will likely just be some fork tubes and triples for now. But radial calipers and MC are mandatory. I am also hoping to convert the XS to a hydraulic clutch and use a radial clutch MC as well. These are to be mounted to dirty bars I think
One other major decision I need to make is on the tank. I can use the stock XS11 tank, which is more flat top and bottom, and narrows a bit toward the seat. The other option is the XJ1100 tank. It is more downtuned at the rear from the side and looks more “chopperish.” I prefer the XJ tank, but Im not sure how a downturned tank will look with an upturned tail.
XS11
XJ11
For a tail, I was thinking a TZ solo tail or, I really like this YZF750 tail on this one. Note: This is a XS11 tank that has been added-to and oversized. This bike is also the primary inspiration for the swingarm setup. The rest of this bike is just insane! Turbo, DFI, etc. hehe.
Earlier version with different swingarm and FJR wheel
So, let's hear it. Opinions? I think this setup will be more feasible than a chain drive conversion, and I think its kinda neat putting a wider rear tire on a shaft driven bike. Its an interesting challenge. I will feel really pleased if I can actually mate a R1 wheel to a shaft drive too!
, make sure theyre parts I can use now.