Hey adventurers, I've had this XV for years waiting for some love. Just thought I'd throw up some pictures to show everyone the state of disrepair... I have all the parts in boxes, but have never made the time. Now with two kids, it won't be easy, but who said life was easy? I got this bike from a friend for free about 10 years ago. At the time it had been sitting outside with a tarp over it for about 7 years. I briefly got it to run, it smoked badly from one cylinder, then the carbs caught fire (not bad). :huh I took it apart and cleaned it up some, but it sat inside...now for years. Starter is toast. No spark last time I tried. I believe it is the #12 bike off the line. Time to do something with this thing. Just to ride it as a rat bike, it needs: Front brakes redone (they are stuck). Starter. Battery. Carb rebuild. Possibly new rings. Tires. New ignition (no sparky)? A seat of some sort. Anyway, I'd get rid of this thing but those bikes by Sepp Koch are just too sweet. Words of wisdom appreciated.
Well, get after it. At least it's inside now and the detoration has stopped.Try to get a picture in your head and work toward that.Doesn't have to be fancy just working and safe. I bought this pile from an inmate this year. He had no garage , so lots of weathered patina. No clear plan yet for this. I do play with this '81.
You can do it. With all the usual distractions of life remember to have something, and some time for yourself. This bike can be it. I'd start with the carb rebuilds and brakes. Take the calipers off, and soak them in Pine Sol, then rebuild them, it's not that difficult with a manual at hand, or a good website like the Virago forum. Decide what approach you'll take with the starter ( shim, rebuild, replace or upgrade ) and attend to that too. Unless it has a lot of miles it's unlikely that rings are needed, and the smoking was more likely related to sitting for so long. Some rings might be stuck and carboned up.
Someone may want to pick this up quickly: http://denver.craigslist.org/mcy/3116101962.html Abandoned by tenants and being sold for scrape by the house owner. Looks like an '81 XV920R
That's a nice looking bike, gunna try and get one of the XV1000 models that came to Australia, we didn't get the XV920 Any that are out here are imported overseas models!! Cheers Baza
Hey, don't call my ex-heap a pile. Having a neighbor's garage to park in the shade of is not nearly the same as having one of my own to park inside. I did actually rent a garage down the block for a year or so early on but it got broken into once and the bike was slightly damaged during the hamhanded battery theft. Surprisingly, it was never bothered while it was parked in my driveway. That's life in the city.
Sorry. I guess I didn't know heap was higher on the praise scale than pile. I'm glad I got your heap. Lots of good stuff there. I recently missed another complete bike that was on Craig's list for $350. Just too busy on the farm.
World Fastest XV920 ? <TABLE style="BORDER-SPACING: 0px; WIDTH: 100%" align=center><TBODY><TR><TD><!-- Begin Description -->Nitros injected XV-920R Yamaha Virago with Custom Trailer I am selling this for my uncle who recently suffered a stroke, I do not know much about the bike, other than its in the history books setting a course Speed Record at Bonneville Salt Flats. I called it a "Barn Find" since it has been stored in a dry garage for past 10 yrs. 920cc bored to 1000cc Chain driven This streamliner set a 1000cc APS-F speed record of 201.655 mph in November 1997. Local pickup only in Pasadena, California is required. This bike set a Bonneville Course Land Speed Record in class 1000 APSF speed record of 201.655 mph. Motor needs work, does not start, possible broken piston, needs a rebuild. Thousands of man hours spent on this unbelievable machine. Many spare parts included in purchase, Full fairing thats not included in the picture, Two spare Cylinders, Two spare Heads, Two spare Clutch assemblies, Two Small (approximately 12") nitros bottles, Two spare CrankShafts. One large Nitros bottle (standard size bottle about 5 feet high, about half full of Nitros) Wood work bench with Jig to hold bike still, Custom single axle hauling trailer. Picture on trailer was taken before bike was put in dry climate controlled storage for past few years. Local Pickup Only <!-- End Description --> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> I found this on E-bay. On sale now. Made the 200 MPH club . XV's are fast ,uh, hu.
A customer brought by his 920 bobber for some wiring work. Looks good. It sounds like he wants to sell it to fund another project, but i didn't ask what he wanted for it.
...thought you might enjoy these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_HLm6yFHY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi33f6r5t6I M.
The K&K welding XV 920 BOTT F-1 bike at Mid-Ohio in 1988. It was ridden to a podium finish by Britt Turkington.
I had posted some pictures of this bike I took at Texas World Speedway earlier in this thread. I couldn't remember the date that I took them but I think it had to be later than 1988, more likely 1990 but I could be wrong, that was a really long time ago. I met a guy earlier this year from Austin who knew "Lurch" intimately having ridden it back in the early 90's and said that he thought the bike was in pieces in his buddies garage in Austin but he never got back to me to verify. I really just wanted to pick the guys brain that built it, what was his motivation to use aluminum plate versus tubing. Thanks for the other pictures, nice to see someone else thought this was as cool as it was way back then. Later Travis
I've still got my 1982 XV920RJ that I bought as a leftover in 1984 for $1699 + tax. Let my son have it for a while and it got painted - not to happy about that. I replaced the crappy painted pieces with some original '81 red bodywork and had the bike completely gone over by my local Yamaha dealer last fall. The bike has over 50k on it and still sports the original chain. It now resides in my garage until the spring when it will be getting lots more attention than in the recent past. The bike has been to Alaska (from Ohio) and back, all over the mid-west and I took my road-racing course on it in 1990 - never dragged an exhaust pipe 'til that day! It's a great bike that will become my daily ride once again.
Great bike history ! Good that it's back with you again. I have 35,000 miles on my chain and am thinking of replaceing it as preventative maintainance. Are you going to continue with the original one ? For how long ? Getting 100,000 miles from it will be a good story, going 99,000 and haveing it punch through your cases will not.Do you feel lucky ?
My dad, bkbrkrbkr, sold me a 82' xv920 rh along with enough parts to build 2 bikes. The bike doesn't run and is currently in pieces. The plan is to first start the bike, after that strip it so I can work on restoring all the parts and adding my own custom look (heading in the café style). I'm glad dad showed me this thread though, there's done great information on here! Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
Dude, that's my old 920! I sold it to Kenneth a year ago. It served me well for 20+ years and I still miss it. Enjoy, and do a good job on it. I've sort of been dreading the day it would reappear in this thread.
