- Six sets of carbs. 750, Midnight, 1000, etc. I always developed holes in the diaphragms -- too much hot-rodding I guess
- Five electric start motors. Too much compression? Including a CB450 one that turned the wrong way -- I had to run the plate upside-down. The last starter is a four brush marine application that has lasted a quarter million miles.
- Six #2 starter throw-out gears -- again, too much compression? I then discovered that there's plenty of room to just turn them over and get twice the use.
- The same rear head gasket since new. The front blew at 100K miles. A 96mm bore cleans off the head gasket guard, but it doesn't seem tho affect anything.
- The same rubber gaskets since new. Cam chain tunnel, valve and cam caps. Just oiled them and put them back.
- Four exhausts including two stock and a MAC which lasted 250K.
- The same piston pins and clips. Never saw a need to replace them.
- Four sets of pistons and rings. Including some 1.0mm over 1000s that lasted through four cylinders until the rings wore out of spec. Stock until those, then since std 1000 stuff.
- Two sets of carb intake spigots. Stock until I discovered that I could run two 1000 (or possibly Midnight) rears. They were slotted on the off-side -- making assembly much easier -- and had o-rings instead of gaskets. They also had a single brass spigot for the vacuum petcocks. I could take off that ridiculous re-breather nonsense that ran off the front.
- The original exhaust gaskets. Pried out with small screw driver, sanded, and sprayed with copper sealer on the pipe side.
- Six sets of wheel bearings -- never had front and rear fail together.
I have a new-bought XV920RJ (chain-drive) that has 370K miles on it. In thirty years I have had:
- Run 41 and 49mm titanim valves, keepers, jam nuts and retainers
- 105mm bore, 10.5:1
- 81mm stroke; bolts from above 3mm sorter rods
- Single spark ignition magnetically triggered off the front cam.
- EFI with Speeduino boards programmed to handle it. Two XV1900 42mm throttle bodies - possibly bored larger.
- 1000 CFM centrifugal blower (up to 30psi boost); multiple inter-coolers; water-methanol injection.
- Multiple oil coolers
- XVS1100 left-side cover with all starter pieces -- with Yamaha fix-it kit.
- Intake ports straightened and splayed to accept EFI and to breath through modified frame from inter-cooler.
- ~.550" lift for 300 degrees with 112 degree lobe center separation (??).
- Multi-diameter exhaust headers dumping into a quiet collector with an engine-speed controlled butterfly valve to amplify low-end torque.
- Starter button controlled solenoids to lift both exhaust valves off of their seats for easier starting.
Upon some minor reflection, I've decided to go "all in" on the current build.
I'll explain later why I chose the pieces that I have. Meantime this will be a street/strip XV1400R. Easily converted to an LSR bike. If business picks up, I'll alternatively run a blower, 8.5:1 pistons, and cams that have very wide lobe centers and little to no overlap. Of course: inter-coolers, and methanol injection at max boost. This version will also go to the salt.