Virago or not

[Midnight Special]

we have a 1983 XV MK (midnight special) were the xv's sold in new zealand viragos or not, were looking at importing some parts and a friend is saying that our bike is not a virago so the parts are not correct due to the virago sticker on it , help please

[cowboy]

It dosn't look like a virago

[Waylander]

Yea that is a Virago. Just make sure you get the parts as close to the same year and model as possible cause they may be a bit different.

Couple of guys down your way on Viragos you could ask that might know a bit more than me though would be Virago and The_Preacher.

[T.W.R]

Not originally, the Virago was American market branding that became the norm. The early Virago 750 same shape as your Midnight special & the XV were import models. Parts are common across the board spec wise

[MidnightMike]

Midnight special eh? Must have named it after me.

[Midnight Special]

will do thanks for that

[Virago]

Hi Midnight Special, welcome to the site.

I'm not an expert on the earlier XV (Virago) models, but I can confirm that the Virago name was added later to the XV models, but they were still the same machine.

As Waylander says, you need to confirm year and model when getting parts.

It's good to have another Virago rider in the south!

[Wired1]

Yep that's an XV750 alright, and probably a 1000 by the look of it. You will be able to use any parts from either the XV750 or XV1000 shaft drive versions, the chain drive versions have a different output & swingarm etc. The cc rating is stamped on the side of the head at the base. If it is a US bike it could be a 700, 750, 900 or 1000 depending on the year of manufacture, they made this shape from '81 to '84 and at some point the americans tried to stem the flow of jap cruisers so they added taxes at the 750 and 1000 cc marks to stop these bike being sold. The clever Japs made new heads and slid them in under the cc rating for a couple of years before the US gave up!
Interestingly enough they originally made the XV as a road bike (the TR1 and a 750 version) but they were a flop so they redesigned them as a cruiser. There is a US version of the history on the www.viragotech.com website, this is also a good resource for parts manuals etc.

[T.W.R]

The Midnight Special is just a special edition logo,just through the use of the black paint work, black chrome, gold paint & lacquer coated chrome.
Started by the original Midnight Special XS1100.
There's XS1100, XS850, XV750, XV1000, & XJ650 Midnight Specials
more collectable than stock versions of these models, a few of the 1st XS1100 Midnights were rumoured to have used actual goldleaf .
The Virago that most know & a few here own, has twinshock rear-end.

[Motig]

Isnt it the custom version of the illfated XV1000. Dont think the Virago had a lot to do with it except maybe some engine parts.

[Rashika]

Nice to meet you Midnight special.
Very cool bike Might catch you around at some rally sometime

[Midnight Special]

Nice to meet you to Rashika I see you have owned an XV 750 before, easy for girls to reach the ground !! I cant seem to connect on the chat here any ideas ?

[Rashika]

Nice to meet you to Rashika I see you have owned an XV 750 before, easy for girls to reach the ground !! I cant seem to connect on the chat here any ideas ?

I've actually never used the chat application on here, usually just use MSN instead. I dont get much chance to talk during the week evenings cos i am studying at night...no time for play unfortunately... but only 6 months to go till that ends, yee-damn-haaa!
They are good bikes for the not so tall people... I used to take my sister on the back to a lot of rallys round the south island. Was nice to have the company... we used to have an intercom and sing to each other when we got bored or trying to stay awake!
I've kinda graduated since then to a damn hot bike, the Buell.... I LOVE it! As much as I loved the Virago (one of the best cruisers I reckon! tho there is so much more choice now), the Buell is just something amazing.
Have fun!

[Bonez]

we have a 1983 XV MK (midnight special) were the xv's sold in new zealand viragos or not, were looking at importing some parts and a friend is saying that our bike is not a virago so the parts are not correct due to the virago sticker on it , help please

Bit of XV history here- http://hem.passagen.se/xv750xv1000/x...viragohist.htm

And

http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global...0sp/index.html

Yes XV750s where sold new in NZ. I can remember reading the sales brouchure a freind had when they first went on sale.

[Wired1]

Did you see this post? http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=31714 nice example of a midnight special. The article mentions the gold leaf not being a plating process but paint. A good read anyway.