Yamaha XV920

[nedodjija]

I am looking to buy XV920 Yamaha. I am going to check the compression and other good things that need to be checked. I whish I had the manual. If I order one online it will be here in a week or so. Does anyone know of an online manual for this bike?
Another question is does anyone have this bike and what their experiences are with the bike? Thanks.

[MNellis]

Originally Posted by nedodjija

I am looking to buy XV920 Yamaha. I am going to check the compression and other good things that need to be checked. I whish I had the manual. If I order one online it will be here in a week or so. Does anyone know of an online manual for this bike?
Another question is does anyone have this bike and what their experiences are with the bike? Thanks.

I had one back in the mid 80's and put about 10,000 miles on it. It came with a Vetter fairing which taxed the front suspension quite a bit. The front brakes were just marginal, especially with the fairing.

After a short time I took the fairing off and it was a much nice bike to ride.

The seat was just about the most uncomfortable thing I've ever ridden on. I would highly recommend an after market saddle. I did a couple of week long trips from Portland, OR to Big Sky Country and Southern California and the trip was miserable anytime the roads straightened out. The taper of the seat is very narrow near the tank and the slop of the seat made it tough to keep yourself pushed back in the "meat" of the seat. My buddy had a 550 Vision and we used to have arguments about which seat was most uncomfortable.

Without the fairing the bike handled well enough if you didn't try to do more than just some spirited riding. I was a budding young road racer back then and tried to keep up with VFR750 one day in the hills around Gresham, OR and wasn't doing to bad until we got to a long downhill winding section and the brakes were no match for the conditions.

The enclosed chain drive works fabulous, requiring very few chain adjustments. I don't know how many miles were on the chain but other than an occassional adjustment I never replaced it or had to mess with it.

The motor ran great with lots of low end. The only problem I had was with the electric starter. It is a common problem with them and had something to do with the shim stack setup. Expect starter problems if it hasn't already been addressed.

It would be a fun bike to get and restore as long as the seat was changed.

Are you looking at a red one? Great color.

[refractor]

Make sure that the carbs work. The Hitachi's are pretty much obsolete. You can buy kits for them but the kits don't include some pretty important parts, like diaphragms.

I have a slightly newer 700 model and had to come up with an adaption. I used a regular Mikuni slide throttle carb. Not easy still working on it. But heck I can still ride my bike.

The countershaft sprocket has a unique pattern and uses a 630 chain.

Can be a good bike but leave room and time in your budget for making it work.

[bk brkr baker]

I bought one last year at a swap meet. I always liked them ,but never had the need . This one became mine because the price was right. It had been running ,but had some issues so I didn't get to hear before the buy.
Scince then I've put about 4000 miles on it and really have enjoyed it. It now has 22,000 miles on and is still on the origanal chain.
I have a cross country trip planned on this bike after a few mods. I'm going to get it ready for gravel roads that lie between Ky. and Washington state. Sort of a Y-Strom. It's much to large to ever be a dirt bike, but that's not the intention anyway.
As a street ride ,its smooth and has nice sound. But it's heavy and will never be a Ducati. A fun ride and I hope you get a good one.

[KAdriver]

Not mine but saw this at an event, should have taken more pics
the work was very clean: less= more.

[Oilboiler]

go here: http://www.tr1.de/ and click on TR1

also: http://www.viragotech.com/

[nedodjija]

Well I went last night to look at the bike and I was dissapointed. The guy had entire transmition ripped apart. I asked him why he did it and he said "The bike sat for a year and the pistonts got seased." I taught 'Bull Crap'. They won't sease for a year of seatting. So I looked at the bike and the tank was all banged up. I decided to walk away.
Thanks for the inputs thaugh. They seem line nice bikes. I assume that Virago is the shaft driven one and the other bike is chain driven. Love the look.

[JohnG.]

Originally Posted by bk brkr baker

I bought one last year at a swap meet. I always liked them ,but never had the need . This one became mine because the price was right. It had been running ,but had some issues so I didn't get to hear before the buy.
Scince then I've put about 4000 miles on it and really have enjoyed it. It now has 22,000 miles on and is still on the origanal chain.
I have a cross country trip planned on this bike after a few mods. I'm going to get it ready for gravel roads that lie between Ky. and Washington state. Sort of a Y-Strom. It's much to large to ever be a dirt bike, but that's not the intention anyway.
As a street ride ,its smooth and has nice sound. But it's heavy and will never be a Ducati. A fun ride and I hope you get a good one.

Friend has a 1000 similiar to this...cant get the starter to engage
Thoughts?

[bk brkr baker]

Originally Posted by JohnG.

Friend has a 1000 similiar to this...cant get the starter to engage
Thoughts?

The most common problem with these bike is the starter .
The bike I bought had already been uprated before I got it. My friend Mike who was a dealership mechanic back then said my whole starter had been replaced.
It still sounds like it's grinding rocks , but it has always started the bike in the 11,000 miles I've put on it.
Red Rocket replaced his starter with one from a later model Virago with good results.
The other fix involves shims . I'm sure the info is out there.

[JohnG.]

YUP,I modified my search and...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIE3P...eature=related
thx,we're on the case...

[Elbow]

I am currently working on an 81 XV920. I traded a Virago 920 that I got out of a dumpster for it. I am not so interested in selling it, as I have been working on it a while and expect to have it on the road this weekend. I want a chance to get to know her... The chain drive model is the way to go. Cruisers suck. Mine is quick and handles much more lightly than I expected especially since the cafe racer bars went on. the carbs on these bikes are the key. Diaphrams are available. They are a pain in general. But once you get them running they go.

These is a guy in eastern Tennessee who posts one every so often on ebay. It looks to be in great shape and he told me he'd take $2k for it. You might check the ebay history and see if you can find him.

Look on Viragotech http://www.viragotech.com/ for online tech info and manuels.

[Sniper X]

When those first came out, my boss at the Yamaha Shop in Seaside cal bought one. She spent about four months and a grand on it trying to make it cool and fast, the cool part worked. It was pretty fast, but in an old Ducati way, and I don't mean 900SS. More like a Pantah.

[nanno]

Originally Posted by Sniper X

When those first came out, my boss at the Yamaha Shop in Seaside cal bought one. She spent about four months and a grand on it trying to make it cool and fast, the cool part worked. It was pretty fast, but in an old Ducati way, and I don't mean 900SS. More like a Pantah.

I think the XV-models were the most missunderstood motorcycles Yamaha ever built, they are perfect tourers, but not sporty at all. Once you get your head round that, they are a bit like the best bits of a (twin) SR500 and a MZ 250.

I.e.: Lot's of torque and very little maintenance.

Wonder if they would have switched to single carb, if the XV would have been more successful in the long run.

Cheers
Greg

[ctune80]

Originally Posted by nanno

I think the XV-models were the most missunderstood motorcycles Yamaha ever built, they are perfect tourers, but not sporty at all. Once you get your head round that, they are a bit like the best bits of a (twin) SR500 and a MZ 250.

I.e.: Lot's of torque and very little maintenance.

Wonder if they would have switched to single carb, if the XV would have been more successful in the long run.

Cheers
Greg

I just bought a XV920RJ that I am going to clean up and get going again.
Hope to modify the suspenion and brakes a bit but keep the original charachter of the bike.

Gotta agree with most of the previous comments. The XV was a bike that people in the US did not seem to understand.
Performance bikes were the rage at the time and a Euro Sport Tourer seemed like an odd concept here. ( Won't go 150mph?
What good is it!)

I fell in love with this bike and the 650 Seca when they were announced, but could only afford one. So I flipped a coin
and bought a new XJ650RJ. Still have it and love it, but I have always wondered what I missed by not getting the XV.

Should find out soon!

Regarding the "not fast" statement above, yeah it's pretty true for the stocker or a mildly modified bike, but look up the
story online about Kevin Schwantz racing a modified XV920R (named Lurch) at the Laguna Seca AMA superbike race
in the early 80's. The only bikes that qualified in front of him were HRC VF750 Interceptors. This was Kevins first Pro race.
The bike broke but it raised some eyebrows!

[nanno]

Originally Posted by ctune80

Regarding the "not fast" statement above, yeah it's pretty true for the stocker or a mildly modified bike, but look up the
story online about Kevin Schwantz racing a modified XV920R (named Lurch) at the Laguna Seca AMA superbike race
in the early 80's. The only bikes that qualified in front of him were HRC VF750 Interceptors. This was Kevins first Pro race.
The bike broke but it raised some eyebrows!

Absolutely agree with you, there's a guy in Germany by the name of Sepp Koch, who is racing his highly tuned TR1-Engine in a modified featherbed frame against some old Z1000s, GS1000s, BMW R100S in a racing series called grab the flag and let's just put it this way, it's not a hopeless fight after all...

So, yes, they can be made to perform quite nicely, but in fully stock trim, they're slugs, even compared to a BMW R100 or a big V-Twin Guzzi of the same era.

But hey... it seems, we both know better...

Cheers,
Greg

P.S.: My other bike is a KZ1000J... it is very hard to go slow on that one, so it gives a nice contrast!