Yamaha XS1100 - Better late than never

The Yamaha XS1100 was a late-comer to the superbike era in the Seventies. Bikes like the Suzuki GS1000, Honda CBX and Kawasaki Z1 had already made a name for themselves and Yamaha knew they needed something special to join the party. The media expected a 1,000cc engine, so Yamaha turned up the knob to 11. And introduced the 1,101cc XS1100 in 1978. It became the King of the quarter mile, with several magazines consistently posting sub 12-second times. It may not have been around for long, with productio