White Hot: Upcycle hot rods the Yamaha XS1100

We don’t see many Yamaha XS1100s around these days, which is a shame—it was an absolute beast of a machine. It was often called the ‘XS 11,’ because it could run the quarter-mile in under 12 seconds, but its extended wheelbase made it more of a tourer than a sportbike. The unusually long air-cooled engine pumped out 95 hp, and although the handling was widely regarded as terrible, the XS1100 still made it into Cycle World magazine’s Ten Best Bikes of 1978 list. Johnny Nguyen of Upcycle has a soft spot for the XS1100, and he’s made this 1980-spec Craigslist...