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.
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.
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.
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.
You are right: the TR1 is the chaindriven one, the XV is the shaft driven version. If you're looking for another XV/TR1: Be sure the starter is allright. When it makes the sound that a jet crashing into a tincanfactory would make you're in for a new starter and they are expensive (at least in europe they are). This is one of the major things that go wrong on XV's a lot. I've got one, together with a friend of mine. We're doing some 'minor' modifications to it:
In the states the XV was a chain drive and the Virago was a shaft drive. There were lots of other differences as well since the Virago was more of a "Cruiser" style while the XV920 was more "standard".
I've always thought that if someone could figure out a way to rotate that rear head 180 degrees, you'd a have a really cool "Vincent-esque" Shaft drive bike.
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.
As I can see from this picture the carb is in the hight of the tank. I am just wondering how are you gonna get the gas to it. Are you guys planing on putting a fuel pump on it? It looks very good and I like it alot. Post some more pictures when you get a chance.
Thanx. We'll be using a fuel pump (we'll have to). But since his is a (s)low budget bike we'll first try if we can get it to run in this set up before we buy a pump. We've gotten a bit further since this pic, but I didn't have my camera with me. I'll post some more pics next week.
In the US the drive shaft was the Virago model XV920 and the chain drive was the XV920R, nicknamed the EURO. In Europe the XV920R was called the TR1 and had a better starter system. If you have starter problems, check to see if the starter has been shimmed, this was/is the best way to fix the crappy starter, or wack it with a small hammer
were there any frame differences between the 920's in the states? (like suspension geometry) or if a guy wanted to build up a sporty xv920 could he find a cheap virago, get a 920R tank and go from there?
Yes, there are differences. I investigated doing such a conversion last year on my virago. I ended up getting an XV920 instead. Some of the parts are just not interchangeable even though they look like they might be. The front and rear suspensions are both different. Odly, the Virago has far more adjustability than the XV920. The toughest thing to deal with is foot position. None of the hardware is interchangeable and there are no aftermarket parts that I could find. If you want an XV, you would do much better to wait till you find one and buy it.
do you recall what was different about the geometry? if i got one i'd be cutting it apart quite a bit, i'm fine with doing custom rearsets but messing with the fundamental design of the frame doesn't really tickle my fancy. this picture really opened my mind to the posibilities...
