Don't hate me

Well recently I got 2 Maxims and thanks to you guys and this great forum got them both up and running. The 83 was a cake walk, the 82 not so much but got 'er done. So now I'm looking for a different forum....wait I'm not leaving here, it's just that I picked up this other ride and don't know a lot about them but I can't stop riding this bike and need to know more. Can you guys steer me in the right direction. 1996 XV1100, 19000miles.

 

Dig the bike!!

Virago Tech Forum

They have quite a bit of stuff it appears... the forum section is well divided, looks like it could be of service.

I hang around here - I'm real disappointed with the VMax forums. This place seems mature and close... the VMax forum moderator's name is "Buster Hymen".... 'nuff said.

 

Nice bike!!

 

Thanks for the tip, looks like a good site. If it's half as good as here I'll be happy

 

p.s. Don't worry about any 'haters'...heck..I bounce around between 3 motorcycle forums!!! 8O
Guess that make me a forum wh*re

 

I would NEVER hate a Virago owner. Had one once and loved it. What a rocket and those external oil lines! I have never gotten tired of looking at those oil lines.

The LT forum is great, this one is awesome!

Loren

 

very nice acquisition! very impressive!

how much did you give for that?

 

3 months electric bill + 2months water bill + no grocerys for the next whole month.

 

about 1,000 then?

 

Virago!

Virago is Italian for: "Needs push to Start"

They're beautiful.
I had one and kept it Pimped-out and gleaming.
I upped the Main FUEL Jets a size and cruised all-over New England.
Virago's have a Material Defect.
The Virago Electric Starter was inadequately designed by a disgruntled Jap Engineer who lost everything after going through a particularly nasty divorce and went out to lunch, got stoned, came back to his drawing board after doing multiple Tube-clearing hits of sensimillia and guzzling the Bong water!
That Electric Starter was fupped-duct!

 

Too late.....I hate you. LOL!

 

Ricko, Your post reminded me of the one thing I just couldn't love about my Virago. The PO had drilled out the main jets which made it wicked fast! With the small tank size I got less than 100 miles on each tank full of gas.

Again, sure was fast!

 

I've had to work on one of those starters. What a b@stard design it is. Not fun at all.

 

I think the starter design on that bike is an upgraded version which proved to be less probamatic. The beer can sized part on the lower front of the engine is a solenoid used to force the starter gear into place before the starter motor is energized and which allows less of that horrible grinding.

I've got a friend that is currently rebuilding one and he says there are some decent options for auxiliary tanks which I think would even be a nice upgrade for the maxim.

PS Nice bike =p

 

It is a sweet looking ride. Personally, I don't hate you.

 

Nice bike,

Here's a word of advise from an ex Vstar 1100 owner (same engine as virago 1100). When you start the bike, use the choke very sparingly. Back it off as soon as it will idle without it. These bikes are very bad about fouling plugs at idle due to people leaving the choke on too long. The front plug is expecially bad about fouling.

Do NOT move the throttle while attempting to start it and allow it to warm up properly before attempting to increase the engine speed. These and all 750-up virago engines have poorly designed starters and starter drives. They were never corrected and are still an issue on brand new vstar 1100s. They have a really bad habit of backfiring and kicking back if you move the throttle while cranking or the engine is cold. When it kicks back it will break the starter clutch and bend the two long bolts that run through the starter. Once it happens you can change the starter, drive mechanism, etc and it still will never work right again. When you get a chance take a look at your starter and make sure the bolts that hold the starter together are perfectly straight.



The big lines on the engine are air tubes, part of yamaha's AIS (air induction system). They flow metered air into the exhaust ports in the head which helps lower exhaust temps and ignite unburnt fuel in the exhaust. While good in theory the system sucks in actuality. All it does is make the bike pop and crackle upon deceleration. I removed it on my vstar and plugged the ports in the head. Not only did it quit popping, it also ran better and pulled harder. IMO the engine looks much cleaner without them.