Well, it's not my old one. I bought mine brand new at Mullens Marine in Victoria. They never came with tassels lol. Gold plating was the thing and the black chrome was stock too.
Here in the UK this bike was known as the 1.1 sport, main difference just a small nose fairing and lower bars. Same colour and wheels and black chrome exhausts either side. They were rare as hell simply because they came out about the same time as the Suzuki Katana and Kawasaki GPZ1100. Always wanted one of these but could not find one anywhere after passing my test in 1985.
It smokes more than my 1982 Midnight Special did. It was an RX50, a 50cc 2 stroke that I bought new. Cool little bike. Your oil change video probably did a lot to help. Fresh pure gas, a carb going through should help too. Exhaust IS kind of ugly but sounds great, I could live with that.
Yes they are extremely fast . yes it is hard to bleed these brakes because of the set up . Just rebuild the brake calipers get the complete kit with new pistons in the calipers . If you change back to stock exhaust then you will have to bring the carbs back to stock . If done correctly they should have put a stage 1 jet kit from dyna jet in the bike along with an K&N air filter. That is the correct way to these bikes when you put on after market exhausts on them
You will need to take the carbs off... obviously... and give them a thorough cleaning. You never mentioned if or how long the bike sat up. Based on the brakes being so stiff it seems it has sat a while. The smoke doesn't look like oil and as you indicated you can't really tell. If the bike has sat up a while and if you have access to it... take some marvel mystery oil and put it in each cylinder. Allow it to sit in there a day or so then start the bike and let it burn off. The oil will loosen the rings and break down build up and will also help reseat them. Your compression is not bad though. 150 on all cylinders is very good. Based on that it could just be that you have one or two bad valve stem seals. Cleaning the carbs and making sure your float heights are set at 23mm with the float bowl gaskets removed while measuring will ensure the fuel levels are right and that you don't have any sticking floats. Once you have the carbs cleaned and float heights set right then you need to synch the carbs on the bike and double check your pilot mixture screw settings. When you shot the video you mentioned late in the video that you still had the choke on the last detent. If the bike won't idle after the bike gets up to temp without the detent .. or enrichener still engaged then you have a problem with the idle circuit which is the low rpm circuit in the carbs. When you go through the carbs you need to check the pilot mixture screw o rings. If they are hard or firm and not pliable they need to be replaced. Before messing with them lightly seat them by screwing them down clockwise while counting the number of turns while seating. Record that info on each carb. You will want to set them to that point after cleaning and rebuild. It will be a good starting point when you remount the carbs before fine tuning them. For more help I would strongly suggest that you join www.xs11.club. The site is free of charge and is a wealth of information on these bikes. You can ask what you want and the group is very cordial and helpful. We just enjoy seeing these fine old venerable bikes brought back to their original condition. There are many maintenance and modification tips listed in the maintenance section that you can freely browse. You will obviously need a set of synch gauges and I would recommend the Gunson Colortune to set the pilot mixture screws. If you go that route then ignore the recommended bunson blue color as these bikes are known to prefer just the first sign of orange when setting the screws. Good luck .... I own two 80 LG's and and 81 LH like the one you now have. Oh one other thing... if the rear master cylinder ends up having to be rebuilt you will need to check out xj4ever.com to acquire the rebuild kit. They are no longer available OEM or Aftermarket from any other source that I have found.
Thanks for this thoughtful reply! Since I made the video I have taken the carbs off and inspected/cleaned them. As you explained, all four idle jets were plugged. Once they were cleared of debris, everything was cleaned and re-assembled. The bike now idles off choke and revs freely. I'll tackle the brakes next and follow your advice if I need parts for the rear master cylinder. Thanks again!
the reason the exhaust is not original is because the black chrome pipes that came on it rusted very quickly and cost $800.00 back in early 80's...also the 4 into 1 weighs a third if not less than the stock pipes ...so a quick and cheap way to improve handling and speed
drive it as is for 30 miles , if the engine get more smokes this mean the rings is bad if the smocks stop this mean the engine was froze someone add oil to loose it that explained the Smell and the smoke color add thick oil and will stop smocking.
I only went down one click on the choke, at the time this video was taken it wouldn’t run off choke. It would stall immediately. I ended up removing the carburetors and all four idle jets were plugged. After a good cleaning the bike runs like a champ with no more smoke!
Well, it's not my old one. I bought mine brand new at Mullens Marine in Victoria. They never came with tassels lol. Gold plating was the thing and the black chrome was stock too.
I have a 1980 XS1100 Midnight Special and have owned it since 1987 .
And I may have to sell it due to a health issue .
Bad ass , my buddy bought this bike new back in the day , it was the hottest bike out at the time ,
Here in the UK this bike was known as the 1.1 sport, main difference just a small nose fairing and lower bars. Same colour and wheels and black chrome exhausts either side. They were rare as hell simply because they came out about the same time as the Suzuki Katana and Kawasaki GPZ1100. Always wanted one of these but could not find one anywhere after passing my test in 1985.
It smokes more than my 1982 Midnight Special did. It was an RX50, a 50cc 2 stroke that I bought new. Cool little bike. Your oil change video probably did a lot to help. Fresh pure gas, a carb going through should help too. Exhaust IS kind of ugly but sounds great, I could live with that.
Hell of a lot of bike for the money.
Yes they are extremely fast . yes it is hard to bleed these brakes because of the set up . Just rebuild the brake calipers get the complete kit with new pistons in the calipers . If you change back to stock exhaust then you will have to bring the carbs back to stock . If done correctly they should have put a stage 1 jet kit from dyna jet in the bike along with an K&N air filter. That is the correct way to these bikes when you put on after market exhausts on them
You will need to take the carbs off... obviously... and give them a thorough cleaning. You never mentioned if or how long the bike sat up. Based on the brakes being so stiff it seems it has sat a while. The smoke doesn't look like oil and as you indicated you can't really tell. If the bike has sat up a while and if you have access to it... take some marvel mystery oil and put it in each cylinder. Allow it to sit in there a day or so then start the bike and let it burn off. The oil will loosen the rings and break down build up and will also help reseat them. Your compression is not bad though. 150 on all cylinders is very good. Based on that it could just be that you have one or two bad valve stem seals. Cleaning the carbs and making sure your float heights are set at 23mm with the float bowl gaskets removed while measuring will ensure the fuel levels are right and that you don't have any sticking floats. Once you have the carbs cleaned and float heights set right then you need to synch the carbs on the bike and double check your pilot mixture screw settings. When you shot the video you mentioned late in the video that you still had the choke on the last detent. If the bike won't idle after the bike gets up to temp without the detent .. or enrichener still engaged then you have a problem with the idle circuit which is the low rpm circuit in the carbs. When you go through the carbs you need to check the pilot mixture screw o rings. If they are hard or firm and not pliable they need to be replaced. Before messing with them lightly seat them by screwing them down clockwise while counting the number of turns while seating. Record that info on each carb. You will want to set them to that point after cleaning and rebuild. It will be a good starting point when you remount the carbs before fine tuning them. For more help I would strongly suggest that you join www.xs11.club. The site is free of charge and is a wealth of information on these bikes. You can ask what you want and the group is very cordial and helpful. We just enjoy seeing these fine old venerable bikes brought back to their original condition. There are many maintenance and modification tips listed in the maintenance section that you can freely browse. You will obviously need a set of synch gauges and I would recommend the Gunson Colortune to set the pilot mixture screws. If you go that route then ignore the recommended bunson blue color as these bikes are known to prefer just the first sign of orange when setting the screws. Good luck .... I own two 80 LG's and and 81 LH like the one you now have. Oh one other thing... if the rear master cylinder ends up having to be rebuilt you will need to check out xj4ever.com to acquire the rebuild kit. They are no longer available OEM or Aftermarket from any other source that I have found.
Thanks for this thoughtful reply! Since I made the video I have taken the carbs off and inspected/cleaned them. As you explained, all four idle jets were plugged. Once they were cleared of debris, everything was cleaned and re-assembled. The bike now idles off choke and revs freely. I'll tackle the brakes next and follow your advice if I need parts for the rear master cylinder. Thanks again!
when you take the carbs off inspect the rubbers that hold it to the head stretch them and bend them ..they are prone to cracking and sucking air
Having 3 xs1100 …. I’m guessing it’s the carbs !
Careful with the Jupiter stand, it sits next to the exhaust and gets hot.
Ein super Bike.
the reason the exhaust is not original is because the black chrome pipes that came on it rusted very quickly and cost $800.00 back in early 80's...also the 4 into 1 weighs a third if not less than the stock pipes ...so a quick and cheap way to improve handling and speed
drive it as is for 30 miles , if the engine get more smokes this mean the rings is bad if the smocks stop this mean the engine was froze someone add oil to loose it that explained the Smell and the smoke color add thick oil and will stop smocking.
What date did you buy it ? May I ask .
. More than likely a carb synchronization will clear that up. 👍🇺🇸
What did you find as your smoky problem..???
pull muffler off, maybe a rat of garage roddent. that would also bog the throttle if restricting exhaust flow. good luck
You did not take the choke off?
Sorry didn't realize you took it off
I only went down one click on the choke, at the time this video was taken it wouldn’t run off choke. It would stall immediately. I ended up removing the carburetors and all four idle jets were plugged. After a good cleaning the bike runs like a champ with no more smoke!
@@vancouvercyclist so the smoke was just from the over rich condition from the choke setting?
i OWNED THE LAST MIDNIGHT SPECIAL EVER MADE 0000050 NUMBER 50 LAST ONE SENT TO CANADA