Thanks zVp. They weren't anything special....just good old straight bikes. If I had it to do over again.... I would never have put some of those goofy stickers on the gas tank. It was a pain in the ass to remove them, and I ended up painting the bike because of it...
I did all the work on both bikes, from regular brake jobs to fork tuning, to carburetor rebuilds.
My bike started off as a plain Yamaha XS 1100. I had the seat reupholstered, and added that little patch of crushed velvet on the back for the ladies. I added Dunlop touring tires, rebuilt all 4 carburetors, added new handlebars from a Yamaha Radian for quicker turning, and last but not least a new set of 4 into1 exhaust. It wasn't Vance & Hines, but it was a lot less expensive. I tinkered on that bike all the time, always trying to get a litle more out of it, and adding new grips or something. I even hard mounted & wired in a cigarette lighter so I could grab a smoke & not have to stop. I just slowed down to around 30 mph or so, and kept the cigarette in the palm of my hand so it wouldn't burn up so fast.
My Buddy's bike was in better shape cosmetically when he got it... but we still went with new handlebars like mine, new tires & brakes like mine, carb rebuild, and new exhaust. One thing I had to do with his was install a small luggage rack/backrest since he hauled his girl around a lot. She wouldn't ride without something behind her to make her feel safe. Now we didn't go with a factory accessory, but rather one that was cheap and had to be modified to fit. I also had to relocate the rear turn signals and their wiring so that the rack would fit, but it came out pretty good, and she was happy so it was worth it. I liked having to make women put their arms around me to hang on...so no luggage rack for my bike.
The fastest those bikes ever ran was one morning after I had spent all night doing carb rebuilds on Shawn's bike. I goofed and didn't mark all the vacuum lines, so when it came time to put back together I had a hell of a time trying to get it to run right...and I was damned if I was gonna take mine apart and risk two bikes not running. I finally got it right about 7am, and it sounded sweet, although our neighbors hates us for all those "sweet" sounds. I still had the seat off, so I just laid a folded towel on the frame, sat on it, and proceeded to take it for a test drive. My buddy rode along on my bike in case something went wrong. I got it out on a 4-5 mile stretch of US 190 headed east towards west Ft.Hood...rode to the WFH exit, and everything ran good. Now to open her up and see what she had.... His speedo was an older model than mine and showed 0-160 mph. Mine stopped at 85mph (but both bikes were within a couple mph of each other in top end). I tucked down onto the tank, and ran it for all she was worth. I got to within 1/2 mile of the city limits coming from the east when I had to back out of it, and get slowed down before I got a ticket I didn't want. Top end? 154mph at a little after 7am on a sunday morning... SWEET! Needless to say we never ran like that normally, but it made me respect those bikes all the more. It was nice to have that extra power to get out of a sticky spot when necessary too.
Anyway.... Thanks for the compliment on the bikes. I really miss riding a lot. I am really considering another motorcycle once I get my Tacoma paid for!
