Hi there,
Just figured out the layout of the forum and realised I'd posted in 'General Discussion' and not here, as I assume I was supposed to.
So, a quick rundown.
Young bloke by XS1100 standards, only 33. Pretty limited knowledge, but I'd like to rebuild my XS. I used to ride it round London when I lived in the UK, but now I'm back home in Brunswick. She sat around for 6 years, and with the exception of cruddy carbs, she looks like she's going to be a-okay. She was barely run in after a major rebuild when I left her in storage. Funny story about the rebuild...
I was heading out of London to ride to Manchester after I'd just bought her. I made a fuel stop, grabbed some tucker and went to get back on the road when not too long after, the bike started smoking and wouldn't turn over. I'd blown engines before and the smoke/and seeming lack of compression told me something along those lines was happening. I was 22 and didn't know anything about engines, so I called the guy out from the place I bought it. He felt bad that it had blown, and offered to rebuild it as part of the warranty. He had it for a bit, rebuilt it, tested it and gave me a call to come and pick it up. But when I got there he was furious. He'd popped the tank on and gone for a ride around the block and the bike 'blew up' again, only it wasn't 'blowing up' it was somehow sucking diesel into the engine, and by somehow I mean there was diesel in the tank because I put it there when I was on my 'food and fuel' stop, half-wasted on 'doctor's helpers' on the way out of London.
Anyway, I'd barely run it in when I had to return to Melbourne where I'm originally from. She sat around for 6 years at my ex's as I was in no state to look after myself, let alone import and look after a vintage motorcycle. Life went a little off the rails, which is an understatement and a whole other story, but suffice to say there were some enormous challenges over a few of those years and I'm very, very grateful to have be off drugs, have good health and happy to be an earning, functioning member of the community with a nice roof over my head. I'm also grateful to have been put in the position where I was forced to grow up and become an adult. I've watched most of the guys in my generation where I'm from kind of fall by the wayside a little bit, one by one kind of checking out of society at large. I've kind of done a 180 on that one and I'm back on board with it all. One interesting side effect of that is that I like to do things properly, and understand them. In short, I doubt I'll be putting diesel in her again.
Anyway, it was a dream to be able to have it together enough to be able to import her and pay for the bits and bobs she'll require, and that day has arrived. I'm going to have to do it slowly, but I am looking forward to learning how this machine works. My plan below is kind of what I'm looking at:
* Buy motorcycle lift
* Take the bike down to the frame/swingarm for respray
* Respray engine/gearbox
* Rebuild carbs
* Get tiny dent out of tank
* New switches/throttle/cables(braided)/oil cooler
* Rebuild with minimal electrics
That's basically it. I don't want to go too hard on the cafe racer thing, it's a little too popular and I'm a huge fan of how comfortable the seats are, and I kind of like the prop-shaft/big lights combination...makes it feel like a proper train or something. Haha...especially considering how XS1100's corner.
I'm on my own with this one. I don't have anyone to rely on but myself, and no friends who have any mechanical knowledge, so I hope you all don't mind that I might be asking some pretty basic questions.
:|
Well, that's my hello. Hahaha.
