The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
Heather and I went on a motorcycle ride around the valley. We stopped briefly in the Soap Creek Valley for some photos and to wait for some rain to pass.
My antique Yamaha XS1100 was loving being woken up from its winter slumber.
Heather with the bike and her beloved “king and queen” seat with the tall banana back.
Me with my trusty old steed.
A few weeks ago I picked up a very nice low mileage Yamaha XS1100SF Special with all original paint and a King and Queen seat (banana seat). Heather and I had been watching it on Craigslist for a while. While she was gone back east, I surreptitiously picked it up and led her to believe that someone else had purchased it. Before she got back, I did a complete overhaul on the bike to get it road worthy, titled, registered, and plated in Oregon.
This is a gorgeous four cylinder inline engine. Yamaha basically taped on an extra cylinder compared to the XS850 like I already owned.
LOVE that seat.
Low miles.
The seat is ridiculous and awesome. I am fairly certain it has the original cover.
A comparison of the XS850 (on the right) and XS1100 (on the left). The biggest differences I have found are the much wider engine on the 1100, the bigger tail light on the 850, a slightly higher fork height on the 850, and different kick stand configurations with the XS1100 being almost vertical when on the kick stand. Otherwise, the two bikes are very similar.
I moved into a shop space with Drew and got an orange jump suit to work on the bike.
The XS1100 getting ready for its first test ride after a comprehensive overhaul.
Someday maybe I will put wave rotors on this and more modern brakes. Single piston brakes with solid disks don’t stop as well as I would like.
I wonder if I could modify the bike to get it to the speedometer’s top speed…
Ready for a ride.
Drew rode the XS850 while I rode the XS1100 up to a nice view point over Corvallis.
Ashley rode her Ninja 250 which is surprisingly large next to the XS1100. I can say that Heather was EXTREMELY surprised when I pulled up on the XS1100 to take her for a ride. The surprise was complete. Considering how much more power the XS1100 has compared to the XS850, she is very happy to be riding on the back of it.
Sunset over that gorgeous banana seat.
