What can you say about the XS1100? Lots, as it happens. I bought a 70000 mile job just over a year ago. Almost immediately, I did a 9000 mile tour in a month. All over Germany, France, Italy and Spain. I went for a big old bugger like the XS because my mates all had similar devices - Z1000, GS1000S and CB900. Hoary old beasts with modern spec brakes, tyres and suspension added.
Anyone who buys an XS1100 without a fork brace is probably buying off either an old codger who's never been over 70mph or something that’s already been run off the road and hastily repaired. Mine had a hefty set of Suzuki GSX forks, modded with a fork brace and so stiff I thought I was on a Ducati. Rattle and roll time when the going got bumpy.
It made all the difference between persuading the reluctant beast around corners and finding myself bounced off the road. I'd actually thought about buying a new XS when they first came out and still have vivid nightmares about the test ride. I’d given the bitch a bit of stick coming out of a bend and a bump had left the forks waggling from side to side. The bars were wrenched out of my hands, the XS, more or less vertical, hurtling across the bend. Only the fact that the throttle had snapped shut stopped us from battering our way through a yard deep hedge.
The mechanic, who was riding behind to make sure I didn’t do a runner, berated me for crashing their demo bike. The dealer tried to make me pay for the repairs, although to my eyes it was just a matter of a few scratches. Everything was pretty heftily built (apart from the bearings and bushes) and it was my left leg that had taken most of the damage when it'd stopped it flipping over. No mean feat with 550lbs trying to meet the earth.
It was my friends who persuaded me, some 13 years later, that a suitably modded XS1100 was quite safe. That, and the fact that for £950 there were few other ways of obtaining 95 horses. These are grunt engines, fantastic power coming in just off tickover and really grating muscles after 5000 revs. It's such a nice motor that it maintains its popularity in FJ1100 and 1200 guises despite still being a heavy old nutter.
The FJs weigh a little less but the steering is much quicker than the XS which turns as slowly as a fully loaded artic. Slow speed worked convinced me that there wasn't sufficient air in the front tyre but, no, it was just made that way. The top heavy feel didn’t go away until about 90mph was on the clock, when the back end, even with alloy arm and Koni-Dial-ARides, started to feel loose.
The bike felt incredibly dangerous when trying to run through small Continental towns with quaint cobblestone roads. The tyres were newish Phantoms but at low speeds they were slipping and sliding as if we were on black ice. Strangely, the CB900 rode straight through without a care in the world (on dubious Avons) and the Z1000 fell on its side (thanks to bald Metz’s).
On that tour we were all overloaded. Being our first serious tour we'd taken everything we could thing of, only the fact that the kitchen sink was bolted down stopped us loading that as well. Consequently, the XS had two massive haversacks strapped down on the back and a voluminous tank bag on which I could rest my chin! This radically affected weight distribution but had no discernable effect on the performance, the bike still good for 140mph in the crazier moments.
I'd set the XS up with flat bars to complement the rear-sets and the envisaged high cruising speeds. For normal commuter chores through town I had some ape-hangers that gave much better leverage at low speeds but tried to turn me into a sail above 65mph. Between 90 and 100mph the XS burbled along quite adequately, but my mates preferred 120mph which caused massive secondary vibes and enough chassis movement to keep me awake.
An hour of that kind of abuse was more than enough for me, but such protestations were totally ignored. From their incoherent mutterings (I think my hearing was going or it might just be the residual shakes) I gathered they were determined to do a 1000 miles in a day. The XS, when thrashed, was turning in 35mpg, although it might manage 40mpg under mild cruising, in town it did less than 30mpg.
The only maintenance the bike had on that extended tour was an oil change every 3000 miles. The engine didn't seem to mind. The CB900, by contrast, was rattling and ticking away like a time bomb awaiting its chance to blow up in a big way, although it did make it back. That lack of fidelity with half the XS’s mileage! The greatest piece of design on the XS was its shaft drive. I could look on with amusement as my friends furiously adjusted their chains every fuel stop. It’s one of those things that you don't appreciate until experienced.
Of course, the shaft drive does whirl, grate and shake around when backing off the throttle in corners. The XS much prefers to be set up on its line, after some frenzied braking, and accelerated gently out of corners. That’s the sensible way to ride a big old Japanese multi, but when your friends are adrenalin junkies with twitchy right wrists such sanity is soon submerged beneath the good old cut and thrust.
Having come from an eminently flickable GPz550 that blew its guts out at 82000 miles, the XS took a lot of adapting to. The easy way to master the brute would've been to go on a course of steroids and muscle building. However, I didn’t think that even the joys of the XS were worth shrinking marital tackle and pinhead looks. The XS never loses its heavy feel and it always seems on the verge of falling off the edge of its tyres. I can actually feel the rear rubber distorting as the gobs of torque are fed in. After a year I've arms that Popeye would envy and a beer gut like an eight month pregnant woman! The latter from evening fuelling feasts to recover from the terror and trembling of burning off everything in sight. I didn’t fall off, but had a near miss every day!
Wheelies were great fun but by 85000 miles I'd burned out the clutch. The drum was cracked up and the plates were scorched earth material. Secondhand bits went in at minimal cost. Interestingly, the side cover had never been off before. I knew this because the original screws had corroded into the crankcase. They refused to come undone even when attacked with an impact driver and sledgehammer. I did the usual trick of whacking my fingers with the hammer. A mixture of drilling and chisel work removed the screws, leaving ruined threads in the crankcases. New allen bolts smeared with Araldite worked better than I had any right to expect.
The other problem with this apparently simple job was that I’d had to take the 4-1 exhaust off. Disturbing this rust bucket caused it to crack up. Trying to weld rusted through metal completed the destruction process. The CB900 owner had a spare 4-1, which after a weekend's cutting and welding went straight on! I didn't even have to change the carburation.
Not surprisingly, after all that trauma I gave up doing wheelies. In this state the bike has run on relentlessly, albeit expensively in the consumption of tyres, pads, fuel and oil, until there’s 102000 miles done with no signs of imminent engine demise. That makes it tougher than the Z1000 which needs a camchain every 25000 miles and the CB900 which needs a complete rebuild at that kind of mileage.
For cheap kicks the XS1100 takes some beating. The engine’s a bit brutal not civilised, the chassis will scare the hell out of you, and the grunt will blow your mind away. I love the old horror!
G.J.L.