Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

Hit or miss homage? We’ve devoted a few pages this month to yet another retro-remake of one of our favourite core classics. You will see more than a hint of Z1 in the latest 2018 offering from Kawasaki. Their Z900RS has a similar tank shape, duck-tail, four-cylinder 900-ish cc motor and even colour schemes to really ram home the fact that they are now playing off the back of one of their best-loved machines. Of course, that’s about where it ends. The forks are inverted, the shock is a single, not twin, the headlights are LED and the motor is finned to look air-cooled but is – in fact – anything but. But… the motor is pokey, the brakes work and the fun is as real as it ever was…

TRAILS OF THE UNEXPECTED? In recent years there has been a massive increase in the popularity of the adventure bike. Without even riding one (they’re not my thing) it’s easy to see why they are in demand. The rugged off-road looks are often only really skin deep, but who cares! Honda went one step further when they dusted off the Africa Twin moniker and put the name, at least, back in their range. What happens in one part of the market often creates a few ripples elsewhere. The sales of new adventure bikes now make up more of the new registrations than the other sectors (race-reps included) and perhaps that explains why retro adventure bikes are in fashion. The proof of this lies in the prices of bikes from the…

The 25th anniversary Blade book is out! By the time you have this mighty organ in your hands, the celebration of 25 years of the Honda Fireblade bookazine should just (or very soon) be out! We can’t say much other than it has the full story of this legendary motorcycle from the first model in 1992 to the latest 2017 machine. Written by Bertie Simmonds, it tracks the birth, development, tech and racing history of this marvellous machine. ■ If you want to buy a copy, go to www.classicmagazines.co.uk/fireblade…

SCOOPERMAN! The sunny side of the classic world, with the VJMC’s Steve Cooper www.vjmc.com ❙ 01324 410519 There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the classic motorcycle world is changing and not necessarily for the better. At the risk of sounding even older than I am, there’s a new generation of aspiring classic owners who are skewing the pitch for all of us. And perhaps a little worryingly, it’s not simply confined to the young pups either… apologies if you’re under 40 years old and reading this! We are now seeing our world blighted by a small segment who believe that everything should be available instantaneously. While you and I know that classic bikes emphatically do not work to modern diktats, these ‘instant delivery junkies’ genuinely seem to believe that…

Prize winner Super Suzukis! What an absolute treat to have December 2017’s magazine arrive in my letterbox this morning: two XN85s on the cover and both were looking immaculate! I’ve had three of these over the years, one back in the day (C259 UKV – where are you now?) and two that I sold last year (after losing storage space). One was ridden regularly, the other a complete bike I imported from Hungary, a bit of a rebuild project. If there are any XN85 owners out there, please ask to join the Facebook group ‘XN85 Turbo Owners’ that I started a few years ago. The group was started to connect owners of these rare and often overlooked factory turbos so we could exchange ideas/parts to keep these old ladies on…

The way we were… SPECIAL We love getting your nostalgic snaps of you back in the day with your steed spread ! . And we’ve had so many Yamaha RD/LC ones we figured we’d do a special. So come on X7 owners, Zed owners, etc… pull your fingers out! Either send to me at bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk  or via our vibrant Facebook page. C’mon! We've teamed up with The Hobby Company (www.hobbyco.net) which distributes Tamiya plastic motorcycle kits in the UK to give our favourite restoration one of its amazing motorcycles in miniature. So, send in your pictures of your bikes and you could win the chance to indulge in a miniature motorcycle restoration of your own. Remember to send your name and address on each submission so we know…

Project Big Zed part 4 Angle-grinding monkey! Ralph needs to fit the Zed motor into the frame… which was abused to take a Suzuki GSX-R mill. Oh my life! WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND Last month I set up the lumpy cams on the fire-breathing heart of this super Zed: this month I was initially faced with an uncommon piece of damage to repair on the mating faces of the crankcases where the alternator cover attached, which, obviously, needs to be oil tight. What caused the damage is unclear, it looks as though it has been nibbled by a small rodent with uncommonly hard teeth and the bit further away had been attacked by a fool with a hammer and blunt centre punch. What actually caused the damage I guess…

Allen Millyard Award-winning motorcycle engineer! Cone alone! How does Allen make his lovely exhausts? And how does he get a radiator for his specials? Working in my garage I get totally absorbed in what I’m doing and sometimes forget the time until my wife Tracey pops in and says, “What do you fancy for tea?” It’s 5pm and I’m up to my knees in the swarf from machining parts for my new 374cc six-cylinder engine. Where did the day go, I’m thinking to myself. This new project is really stretching my imagination to the full – there are so many parts to make; more on this new project later on. Back to my Kawasaki H1 500LC I was talking about last month. I only had a couple of jobs left…

Scoop’s lubed strip-show! How do you kick-start a project that’s truly a wreck? Steve Cooper dives in… again. WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER Yes I know I’m a predictable mug, a sucker for a bargain that’s anything but and an inveterate lover of small two-strokes but that’s just me I guess! Some years ago I got the nod regarding an AS1, Yamaha’s seminal 125cc sports twin and even though I was locked in an apparent life-or-death struggle with the Suzuki Stinger I ‘had to have it’. You know that feeling where the project will inevitably be protracted but deep down you’ve always wanted one? No? Oh, it’s just me then! Anyway the poor little bike had spent more than two decades in a wet Welsh coal cellar; an environment not…

IT’S MY BIKE: Bill Bristow Having owned triples of all sizes over the years, I decided to have a go at a full-blown ‘nut and bolt’ restoration. The obvious choice for me was the prettiest triple, a Candy Red S2 from 1972. Fortunately for me a friend in the triples club, Malcolm Ince, had a sorry example just waiting to be loved again. Into my garage it came, to be stripped down to its every last component part. Although it was showing just over 2300 miles, poor storage had taken its toll and someone had nicked the pistons! The inlet rubbers were missing, the exhausts and seat cover/foam were shot as well. A full engine rebuild was done by myself (it’s my job) but the search was on for…

Project Suzuki GSX-R750WT SRAD part 2 Recoup rules! In a rush to sell his spares, our Scottie found he may have got shot of one thing too many… WORDS AND PHOTOS: SCOTT REDMOND Being strict with yourself is something that should be easy to do, but so often we all let ourselves down. Good intentions litter the path to hell (I read that on a fridge magnet once…) So far my good intentions for my SRAD have been achieved. Firstly, I did exactly what I said I’d do regarding the mountain of parts that arrived with my GSX-R750. It wasn’t easy, but I pretty much had the majority of it shifted before I could change my mind. A local bike breaker bought an old GSX-R600 from me in the summer,…

Pip Higham Tuner, engineer, rider Total recall... or why bike people are the best! There is a long held belief that while working in a retail environment is fine, it would be even better if customers didn’t keep getting in the way. Motorcycle sales are invariably complex (can I have a screen/lock/set of matching luggage/ patchouli-flavoured enema with that please?) but hey, if you want to turn metal into money you have to kiss the occasional frog. Most of my customers were lovely people; I still bump into the odd one at shows or at Rivington on a warm Sunday afternoon. I struggle to remember faces but I could probably recognise their clutch basket at 20m and generally the conversation revolves around the fun they had back in…

Archive CRAFAR King of cool! WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PHOTOS: MARK WERNHAM/MORTONS ARCHIVE Simon Crafar has the strange honour of being the best rider never to have won a World Superbike race and yet when he went to 500cc GPs he became one of the few to beat the dominant Mick Doohan! Crafar was Malaysian Superbike champion in 1991 and he spent time in the UK too, racing a long-in-the-tooth Castrol-backed RC30 in 1992. For 1993 he ended up in 500s riding a privateer Harris Yamaha YZR, before he got signed up by Oscar Rumi’s semi-factory RC45 team for the 1994 season. Even in the factory team, the RC45 was a fickle beast, but by 1995 Simon had ‘inherited’ Doug Polen’s factory machine, even if it still ran in…

cmm Stuff The latest riding kit, top tools, tyres, retro clothing and more! KUSHITANI WINTER JACKETS These jackets are called the K-2670 Winter Mode Jacket and the K-2671 Winter Tech Jacket. Oh, not forgetting the K-2676 White Goose Down. Catchy… What may look like lots of jackets is actually just three, which contain two jackets in one! The K-2671 Winter Tech is a water resistant riding jacket with a diamond quilted inner jacket for all-weather riding. The insulating down jacket goes inside the outer on all jackets and you can get CE-approved armour to fit. The K-2676 White Goose Down Jacket is a lightweight jacket with real goose down. www.kushitani-uk.co.uk HJC IS-17 HELMET We think this is called the ‘Shapy’. Why, we don’t know. Available in these snappy colours, it…

cmm News Zed revival Kawasaki has launched the Z900RS in Barcelona (see our report on page 26) so we caught up with Kawasaki’s European PR Manager, Martin Lambert, to get the low down on it. Q: The Z900RS is finally with us. What’s the story? A: It was much anticipated and thanks to huge worldwide interest there were loads of ‘artist’s impressions’ circulating. It’s great to be able to tell the whole story now and start getting some reaction to bikes being ridden. First impressions are positive. Q: The Z1 looks are intentional, right? A: Yes, the stylist Norikazu Matsumura is a Z1 fanatic. He has a Z750RS that is a Japanese market version of the 1976 Z900. His attention to detail is incredible. Some of…

Zed head-ache! Nick Edwards Regarding dialling in the cams, anyone following the instructions given by Ralph Ferrand and his 121.5 lobe centre settings will succeed in building, at best, an engine with little power and, at worst, a grenade. I am glad I am not the customer! The easy way to calculate the lobe centre as written by Pip Higham somewhere years ago is: subtract the small number from the big number, add 180 and divide by two. In this example the figure comes out at 110° either ATDC for the inlet cam and BTDC for the exhaust cam. A handy tip I can pass on though, is to use a strip of plastic milk bottle rolled into a cylinder shape to sit inside the cam bucket recess in the…

I own this TX650 Yamaha The Yamaha TX650 is one of number of bikes that Peter Hunn has owned since he took up two wheels again in 1993. It was after his elder brother bought an SR125 Yamaha to pass the riding test that the former scooter rider was fired up again. Peter found a neglected CB100N Honda and being handy with the tools – he trained as a chef before switching to the electrical supply industry and is now retired – repaired it so that he could pass his CBT through the British Motorcyclists Federation’s scheme. A Suzuki GT200X5 was similarly revived, as was an XS850 Yamaha triple ‘basket case’ and an FJ1200 tourer, which he still owns 20 years later. “The FJ has been a brilliant bike and…

Project Kawasaki Hybrid part 3 You’ve been framed! Movement on Scoop’s hybrid: yup, the engine is in the frame! WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER Having made an overt commitment to the Kawasaki Hybrid Project by spending some of my hard-earned on the crank recently, it’s now time to get down and dirty with the chassis. We have to persuade half a litre of best Mach III into the space originally intended for a learner-capacity triple. Some specials are automatically destined to be sold on eBay as ‘abandoned projects’ simply because the planned creation’s concept is fundamentally flawed. However, we’re on fairly firm ground with this project as other 250/500 hybrids have been successfully built. First up the forks have been pulled apart and checked over for any obvious damage. The…

Project Laverda Jota part 1 De-rattle and roll! The self-confessed Zed man has a Jota in to fettle, so be prepared for lots of history and mickey-takes of anything Italian… WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND A good friend I went to school with, Pat Vincent has long suffered from Italian-bike-itis. The symptoms of this unfortunate ailment are an inability to see imperfections in any motorcycles created in Italy. The only ‘Japanese’ bike he has is a YB11, which is basically a Thunderace made uncomfortable and impractical by the spaghetti munchers at Bimota. I have ridden it once and found it to be unsuitable for the road. I’m sure it’s handling would be great on the track where you don’t need or even want to know what’s behind you. I never…

A fluid solution and the big guns! There’s a raft materials out there that come under the headings of penetrating oils or easing fluids. Most work in a similar manner via their low viscosity which allows them into extremely confined spaces i.e. threads. However, most have a finite ability and when the gap between the threads is simply full of rust these fluids struggle. Some home mechanics swear by diesel as a penetrative aid and if you can submerge the components it can often effect miraculous cures. Thermal cycling can also break corrosive bonds which will then allow the chosen penetrating oil or easing fluid better access. There’s also a range of materials that work by contraction; a fluid is sprayed from an aerosol can which contains both a vocative…

What to buy and how much to pay Okay it’s decision time: S2 or S2A? We ask only because the two models look substantially different. The S2 runs a painted front guard, that signature treble pinstripe and the famous duck-tail rear end. With the S2A it’s a chrome guard, more restrained paint but still with contrasting stripes and more rounded tail piece. Front brake aside, there are minor differences but none that should really sway you either way. Because it’s relatively easy to ‘mix-n-match’ we’d urge you to get input from an acknowledged authority and ideally join the Kawasaki Triples Club. Rough but complete project examples start around £1500-£2000 with good tidy runners at or around £4500 give or take £500. Top end examples are going up and we’ve seen…

cmm Marketplace A split market? Every month we take a look at the classic motorcycle market with a range of industry experts. This month, Paul Jayson from The Motorcycle Broker and our very own Scott Redmond look at the high and low end of the marketplace. The market for classic Japanese and Italian motorcycles is now dividing in two. The machines that are perfect in every detail are rapidly increasing in value. However, those that are ‘bitsas’ and not investment grade are losing some value and will stagnate by comparison. As values increase, buyers are becoming far more canny and are employing brokers to carry out due diligence on these machines. People are taking the investment perspective far more seriously as values start to increase. When a classic motorcycle is…

BOOK CORNER TWO-WHEELED BLITZKRIEG A pictorial look back at the extensive use of motorcycles and bicycles by Nazi forces during the Second World War: 128 pages, 200 illustrations (many rare or previously unpublished) by Paul Garson. www.amberley-books.com MOTOGP SEASON REVIEW Now in its 14th year, this is the officially sanctioned book by MotoGP promoters DORNA. Brought together by Julian Ryder, this has more than 200 pages and many colour pictures of all 18 rounds. www.motocom.co.uk…

Goldie winner! Here’s the lucky fella that won the National Motorcycle Museum’s summer raffle. Bart Maatje, from The Netherlands, won a gorgeous 1960 BSA DBD34 Goldstar. He already rides a Honda VTR1000F Firestorm back home but the Goldie will be his first classic bike! Bart purchased the first prize-winning ticket from the museum shop while visiting the UK last year. Meanwhile, the NMM’s Friends Scheme goes from strength to strength. Why not join up and enjoy the Classic Bike Tours on a series of Brit classics, Workshop Training Days and the Try a Classic Day? Upcoming dates include a workshop day on February 24, a bike tour on March 22 and a try-out a classic day on March 31. These events are for ‘friends’ of the museum. So to check…

FEEDBACK WIN BRIDGESTONE TYRES Every month we’re giving away a pair of Bridgestone tyres to the writer of the best submitted letter we receive. You can choose between Bridgestone’s BT-016 Pros, BT-023s or BT-45s! No cash alternative, before you ask! Simply get in touch by sending emails to: letters@classicmechanics.com or post your letters to the normal address, giving contact details just in case you are that lucky winner. Special specials? In the December issue of CMM, Steve asked whether anyone was building or had built a special that didn’t fit any of the usual categories. Would this SR250 fit the bill (I’ve attached ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots for consideration). I bought the SR as a running hack but after about an hour I couldn’t stand the looks, so something had…

Honda’s other hit singles... Other machines shared the NX650’s four-valve lump, although none of them shared the kudos or character of the Dominator, but let’s start with the Dommie and its changes. Launched in 1988 the NX650J (RD02) weighed 152 kilos dry and almost 180 when wet. The US model had a drum rear brake and a 13-litre fuel tank. This first model carried both an electric boot and the conventional kicker until the 1990 model, when Honda upped the power to 47bhp and decided that electric start would be dependable – although you could retrofit it. Gearing was also changed, although it’s hard to know which way. Some forums/owners say the 15f/45r sprockets went to a 14-tooth front in 1990, others say just going to a 47-tooth rear. It…

READER’S RESTORATION Back to the FUTURE CMM reader Kelvin Pollard made his own updated take on the Honda CB900FZ. The result is stunning, special and unique! WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PHOTOS: KELVIN POLLARD Kelvin Pollard didn’t do this ‘retro reboot’ restoration by halves… He hadn’t even touched a bike (by his own admission) for around 30 years and yet he decided to tackle a full-on restoration down to the very last nut and bolt with this 1979 Honda CB900FZ. Respect is due! The bike had been in his mate Andy’s family since 1984 when it was bought at auction. From the late 1979 through to 1985 it had done few miles (around 8000) but it had been sympathetically stored. It was ripe for restoration – or as the basis for an…

WORK SHOP Q&A Our very own wizened sages, Messrs Mark Haycock and Steve Cooper are here to answer all of your woes, be they mechanical or spiritual. Every month we will be giving advice, as well as some general tips. Don’t forget to send in your own tips too. Yamaha R5 Special Q: This is a Yamaha R5 special I have just built. As I have used cone filters and non-standard exhausts, can you advise what jetting I need to compensate? At present it has standard carbs and jetting. Stephen Lockhart A: That is difficult to answer without knowing the precise details of your modifications, so instead perhaps I could point you in another direction? There is a very good book around which tackles the subject in…

Paint schemes and components When building a project the possibilities, if not limitless, are certainly much wider than a brochure-copy resto. Different paint schemes are an obvious option as are decals or graphics. If the subject matter is a totally fresh build around a heavily modified frame then everything is up for discussion and debate. However, Project Hybrid is still a Kawasaki triple so there’s a tacit desire and expectation that it comes out looking like one. Get the paint wrong and it could end up looking like a tart’s handbag – or something that Bertie would choose to build... The legendary ‘Tri-Star’ brochure of late 1971 detailing the following year’s model range has always held disproportionate attraction for me. Those triple stripe decals, the satin black headlamp and brackets,…

Project Yamaha CS3C part 1 Time capsule twin! He’s at it again! Once more Scoop takes on another oddball bike. Will he ever learn? WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER Where does the time go? I ask this as I am at a loss to explain how it’s four years since I opened the crate that contained a Yamaha CS3C street scrambler from Canada! The bike has sat at the back of the workshop covered in protective blankets and hidden by two push bikes, neither of which I shall ever use. Having occasionally sneaked a look at the 200 twin I’ve pondered long and hard what I should do with it in terms of fettling/spannering/ repairing etc. One thing that’s a given is that the motor needs to be taken down…

COMING CLASSIC Honda CBR954RR He’s just finished a book on Fireblades so he’s boring us daft around the office with his facts and figures. He’s owned a few, too! BERTIE’S BLATHER Yes, I know this FireBlade has only just turned 16 years old, but it really is a masterpiece and you should consider tucking one away for the future. Tadao Baba was the man behind the first FireBlade and every one up to this model – known as the ‘954’. Why? Well, that was the capacity of the motor and overall the bike was considerably improved from the (quite ugly) previous ‘929’ version, which was capable in itself. First – the looks. This Blade was both butch and feminine and a big improvement on the ‘only a mother could love’…

Project Honda CB750 K2 part 8 Swinger switch Mark talks about bleeding brakes this month… before going off on a swingarm-shaped tangent! WORDS AND PHOTOS: MARK HAYCOCK Before we start, there is just one point I want to mention about brake bleeding on the CB750. This can be done using various means, for instance by using a Mityvac or its very much cheaper alternative – a large syringe – or perhaps forcing the fluid up from the bleed nipple to fill the master cylinder reservoir. The conventional way seems to work well enough, i.e. by connecting a flexible pipe to the bleed nipple and opening the nipple while operating the brake lever. But there is one important proviso: don’t pull the brake lever right up to the handlebar grip. This…