AUTHOR’S NOTE: For a year or more, I’ve wanted to build a low budget British-style “Café Racer” because it looked like fun, and I’ve always liked that style. A couple of weeks ago, I dragged home the rattiest, nastiest, most bedraggled piece of… Anyway, it was an old ’81 Yamaha XS 1100, and it was pretty humble. Less than two weeks later, it’s about done, and here are the results, before and after. I only have about $400 in it, including the price of the bike! Oh, yeah… It WAS fun and it’s Scary fast.
What do ya get when ya cross-breed old Japanese technology with old British looks? Nawww, not John an’ Yoko; ya get a cheepo “Café Racer” that looks like the ‘60s, an’ rides like the ‘80s. Let me tell ya, nostalgia ain’t what it used ta be!!
For quite a while, I’ve wanted ta build a café racer, but the old Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons, and the like are too damn pricey for this ol’ road mutt, so I did what any unscrupulous wretch would do, an’ took advantage of somebody else’s bad luck. Here in Madtown, ya got ta have current registration an’ a driver’s license, an’ if ya don’t, they haul whatever dog you’re drivin’ to the pound. 
I called the tow yards, found an old 1981 Yamaha XS 1100 for the princely sum of $300, an’ hauled it home. It ran okay, but it was the ugliest, most pathetic excuse for two wheeled transportation you’ve ever seen. The luggage rack was part of a shoppin’ cart, an’ had a car battery in a “Little Oscar” lunch pail strapped on the back with wire run down to the fuse box. Acid had leaked down, rusted everything metal, an’ ate everything plastic. I know you’re askin’ yourself why the hell did ya buy it, then, ya idiot? Well, I bought it because it was cheap, an’ a challenge. And because I could.
I started by strippin’ off over 100 pounds of crap that it obviously didn’t need, an’ just left the engine an’ drive train in the rollin’ chassis. I cut the rear frame horns an’ signals off, an’ tossed them an’ the old backrest, tail light, an’ mufflers in the scrap heap along with the center stand an’ rear foot pegs. I cleaned the pipes up an’ welded on a set of shorty mufflers, like the ones from Mr. Lucky’s Bandit is using on Danny’s SX project build. I had these layin’ around since the ‘70s, then shot ‘em with black header paint. 
I was gonna make a fiberglass tail section for it, but used half of the old back fender instead, an’ fabbed a steel seat pan onto it. I pressure washed the engine an’ detailed it with Duplicolor wheel paint that’s tough as a hockey puck, an’ cleaned the varnish outta the float bowls. I stripped the stock tank to bare metal, and repaired the cracks in the side covers, then painted the whole thing with two-stage urethane I had left over from another build.
Yeah, that’s a tombstone taillight alright. It was off a Panhead I had a few years back. The only new stuff I used was the handlebars, grips, an’ those cute little Lockhart turn signals. When all’s said an done, I’m in it about $400, including the price of the bike. Now all I’ve gotta do is put it on Craig’s List, an’ go drag another one home!
–Buckshot
