Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2018 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

Who got you started? Well? Who was it? Was it your brother, father, sister, mother or uncle? Or maybe a best mate? It’s a nostalgic question that’s left me all dewy-eyed this month. We received a letter from reader Carl Clarke who wanted to say ‘thank you’ to CMM’s own Pip Higham for helping him get into bikes. You’ll see the letter on page 20, but the long and the short of it is a teenage Carl turned up at Pip’s bike shop with a crisp fiver in his hand and ended up leaving with a bike (sort of) of his very own. Suffice to say Carl’s still into bikes to this very day and wanted to say thank you. So who would you like to say thank you to?…

THE NAKED TRUTH For many, a standard motorcycle is the perfect starting point for creating a special, taking the result of millions of yen worth of R&D and setting about making it better. The Streetfighter scene is one sector of the used motorcycle market that simply fails to go away; some builds soak up ridiculous amounts of time and cash, but there’s no shortage of those that don’t! The origins of the Streetfighter can be traced back to the mid-1980s, with the race-rep craze sweeping the nation it wasn’t long before many of those crutch rockets ended up in the hands of insurance companies who had paid out to settle claims for various GSX-R/FZR/CBR models after they’d ended up crashed and bashed. The insurance men then resold them back into…

MORINIS MAKE MAIDSTONE! There was a peaceful Italian invasion of Kent at the start of June involving scores of mainly V-twin Morinis. First, a little background: although Moto Morini had long been established as a manufacturer, nothing was officially imported into Britain until the new 3½ models arrived from the early 1970s. Designer Franco Lambertini, was ex-Ferrari and he applied car technology to this new design. The pushrod 72º V-twins used toothed belts to drive the cams. The mixture was fired inside Heron-form combustion chambers. The resulting package was a brilliant middleweight, even if the price ticket was more appropriate to a bike of twice the capacity! Luckily, there were still enough takers and in 1975 the Morini Riders Club was established. The inaugural meeting took place at The Highlander,…

The way we were… Send us your nostalgic snaps of you back in the day with your steed! Either send to me at bsimmonds @mortons.co.uk  or via our vibrant Facebook page. C’mon! Bob Davis says: “I’ve always been a regular reader of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics and I have been an enthusiastic rider since the 1960s. I have had a varied selection of bikes including BSAs, Triumphs, Nortons, Velocettes and now Yamahas. The first photo is of me back in the 60s on my 1939 Velocette KSS 350cc. complete with Ace bars. A friend of mine had it for sale at £10 and I managed to knock him down to £8.50! “I had the inlet bored out to take an Amal GP carburettor, large inlet valve and a MK 8…

SPECIFICATION BMW K100RS ENGINE TYPE 987cc liquid-cooled, four stroke, DOHC, four-valve, four-cylinder BORE AND STROKE 67 x 70mm CLAIMED HORSEPOWER 90bhp @ 8000rpm MAXIMUM TORQUE 63lb-ft @ 6000rpm TRANSMISSION TYPE 5-speed, shaft final drive COMPRESSION RATIO 10.2:1 CARBURETION Bosch LE fuel injection TYRES 100/90V 18 (F), 130/90V 17 (R) FUEL CAPACITY 4.8 gallons (22 litres) BRAKES Disc x 3 ~ (285mm) OVERALL LENGTH 2200mm (87.4in) OVERALL WIDTH 800mm (31.5in) WHEELBASE 1516mm (59.7in) WET WEIGHT 249kg (584lb)…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE 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. 1983 Yamaha XS1100 Q: Hi guys. I have a 1983 Yamaha XS1100 5K7 that has an oil leak. It seems to be coming from the camchain adjuster/tensioner. It’s been in the shop twice but I’ve still got the leak. I’ve been on a few American forums and it seems to be a common fault. I doubt very much if Yamaha has NOS adjusters. Maybe black silicone sealant around the plug would work: any suggestions? Brian Dixon…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Project Honda CB750 K2 part 14 Motor-head! Mark is almost there with the CB750 – but he does try to do things on the cheap! It’s why we love ’im… WORDS AND PHOTOS: MARK HAYCOCK The K2 engine was nearly ready to go, but there was just one last check and that was to the ignition system. The contact breaker and auto advance unit are mounted at the end of the crankshaft under a chrome plated cover which I must admit had seen better days (Photo 1). This appears to be another example of how these bikes are knocked about during transporting from the USA, which is quite annoying as this is not an especially cheap part. This is what it looked like after being beaten…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Mr Rotor-vator! Sometimes the only answer to a problem is a destructive one! Scoop removes a stuck-on rotor! Unless you ride some sort of race bike it’s pretty much guaranteed to have some form of generator and in most cases it’s mounted on the end of the crank. Generators can fail in service or may need to be removed in the course of an engine rebuild. If you’re lucky the rotating part of the unit will come off the shaft without a problem but as we know Dame Fortune rarely smiles on those who tinker with old bikes! The default settings are generally a range of pullers. Often these screw into the rotor and then a draw bolt is wound down onto the crank’s end. Tension…

Second sourcing Seized components go with the territory on any restoration, but it can be incredibly frustrating dealing with such issues. The fact that it took almost a month of ever-desperate measures to free the rotor just shows how time consuming projects can be. The drastic surgery obviously necessitated a replacement component and I was lucky beyond measure to actually have one to hand but what would have been the alternatives if The Gods of Restoration hadn’t smiled? I could have trawled the web for a compatible rotor but chances are I’d only be likely to find a used unit stateside. Importing heavy, second-hand, electrical unit is fraught with problems, shipping costs and potential failure; no one guarantees used electrical items almost half a century on! The next obvious and…

What to buy and how much to pay Any Yamaha RD has the ability to be a mix-and-match minefield monster; parts from 1970 through to 1980 will fit. Therefore, hybrids are best avoided unless that’s your thing. It’s perfectly possible to run a 350 top-end as it drops straight on BUT you’ll need the 350’s oil pump and primary drive gears if it’s to work properly. The basic machine can be easily upgraded without significant changes to the overall appearance. Check out CMM back issues where our Project RD350 has been featured; carburetion, inlet and suspension upgrades significantly enhance the RD experience. UK models arrived with just five gear ratios available and revised sprockets; this was done in order to pass noise emission tests. The sixth…

Project Suzuki GSX-R1100G part 2 Strip search! Buying the ingredients of the 1986 GSX-R1100 resto/mod has been the easy part. Now it’s time to worry the neighbours and the spanners… WORDS & PHOTOS: MARTIN CHILD There’s a real sense of anticipation as the garage door slowly rolls up and the sun spears onto the flanks of the recently captured trio of Suzukis. Cowering in the far depths of the garage, the GSX-R11, Bandit 12 and remains of the Gixer Thou look a fairly motley representation of the Japanese brand’s last three decades of big-cc’d progress. As we’ve all been getting along so well up to now, I’m hoping the result of this project turns out to be more of a Stockholm Syndrome kinda deal than a ‘you’ll never take me…

Suspension decisions Since specials don’t have to follow a proscribed lineage there’s a lot of options on hand. We could have gone for an inverted fork front end but that’s not the look we’re aiming for. Ditto the Hybrid’s rear end, a mono-shock conversion would have taken away a lot of that period profile; there’s also the concern that you could be feeding stresses into areas that are not up to the task. My Yamaha RD350 has benefited inestimably from the Race Tech emulators fitted last year so I’m keen to see if there’s a KH250 option available. The tail end requires shocks with longish lower shock bodies in order to clear the chain guard and at the moment the list of options would seem somewhat limited. Of course it’s…

That Bike Place If you’re in the north-west of England and you don’t have access to tools, a ramp, a garage or shed, this could be for you. Head to www.thatbikeplace.comand you can book anything from an hour’s space at a well-equipped bay to all day. Prices start at £15 for an hour’s use (including use of a ramp, tools, gloves and protective gear) up to £90 for a day’s use which comes with all the above plus free tea and coffee and Wi-Fi access. Better still they even offer a range of workshop tutorials, covering the basics such as oil changes, chain and sprocket changes and general motorcycle maintenance. The workshop bays are available to hire in the Manchester area, so for more head to the website or ring:…

SEE YOU THERE! August 2018 3-5 Gloucestershire Vintage & Country Extravaganza www.glosvintageextravaganza.co.uk 4-5 LlandBikeFest 2018 www.llanbikefest.co.uk 5 Normous Newark Autojumble Newark Showground www.newarkautojumble.co.uk 5 Suzuki Sunday london.acecafe.com 10-12 Moto Guzzi Club GB GuzziFest www.motoguzziclub.co.uk 12 Taunton CMC Exmoor Run www.tauntonclassicmc.weebly.com 12 VMCC & Classic Bike Day Ace Cafe London, london.acecafe.com 15 SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS OUT TODAY! 18-19 The Classic Car & Cheshire Autojumble www.cheshireautopromotions.co.uk 19 Ladies Day london.acecafe.com 26 Cheshire Classic Bike & Car www.classicshows.org 27 Notts Classic Bike & Car Show www.classicshows.org 27 Blenheim Festival of Transport www.classicshows.org 30-1 Salon Privé 2018 Blenheim Palace www.salonpriveconcours.com…

RETRO RIDE All the Fun of the Fair WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PHOTOS: KRIS JONES, BERTIE SIMMONDS Bertie has had Kawasaki’s Z900RS on test for the past few months: but does it deliver the real flavour of a classic Jap bike? Riding pretty much any bike gives you that feel-good factor: it’s why we do it. It’s why we accept the risks and embrace the thrills as riding on two wheels just puts a smile on your face. Riding classic bikes is both different and the same. It’s the same as the thrill of two wheels is there and it’s different because not only are you often riding something special –there’s a unique bond between rider and machine. There’s a deep emotional link that we have with our classics. It may…

CLASSIC RIDE Building  BLOCKS BMW took an about-turn from the boxer twin and carved a new niche in Beemer history when it created the legendary Flying Brick. We ride BMW’s K100 RS. WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY D CHAPMAN/MORTONS ARCHIVE The bike you see before you represents one of the most fundamental shifts in motorcycle design by a single manufacturer ever. Short of venturing into the world of forced induction two-strokes, BMW could not have opted for a more radically different set-up to that which it had previously championed. And yet the resultant new machine did retain two key features that had traditionally characterised the marque; shaft drive and a low centre of gravity. The new K series Beemers had arrived… Covered in acres of swooping plastic panel work, ducts…

READER’S RESTORATION BLACK GOLD! CMM reader Ken Turnock tells a tale of the healing power of restoring a Yamaha XS1100 XK. WORDS AND PHOTOS: KEN TURNOCK We always welcome stories from CMM readers about how they’ve gotten involved in other people’s restorations. Often we find that fact is stranger than fiction! What we have here is a story separated (as is often the case) by many years of the bike in question being left to rot under a tarpaulin, only to be brought back from the brink: this time by reader Kenneth Turnock. Don’t forget, if you have a story then let us know. You’ll find our contact details at the front of the mag. Over to you, Ken! The story of this bike starts (for me at least) a…

YOUR TIPS! Carb cleaning? This is to Dave Head and his seized mixture screws on his VFR last month. I soak the carb bodies in combustion chamber cleaner after disassembly and that often works, some judicious heat applied with a propane torch can also help. Clean and dry carb bodies first to eliminate any fire hazard, of course! Manufacturers sell combustion chamber cleaner here in Canada in aerosol cans. I empty a can into a tin and dip carbs and parts in it, it’s reusable. Naughty, but I poke a tiny hole in the bottom of the aerosol to relieve pressure and then cut the bottom. Spraying takes longer and it froths! Bloys Dekker…

Damage limitation! No one likes destroying perfectly good components and no more so than when the parts involved are the thick end of half a century old. Sourcing a replacement generator won’t be easy or cheap but it’s the lesser of two evils. Left-hand CS3 crank wheels aren’t exactly common and many that turn up have suffered from botched attempts at getting the generator off. I can get a damaged set of windings replaced but I’m not going to be able to repair a bent taper or damaged shaft quite so easily. And also, fortuitously, if it all goes pear shaped there’s a Plan B. Power Dynamo offers an electronic ignition system for the CS series Yamahas. I might not have the electric start facility but at least I’d have…

SPECIFICATION ENGINE TYPE Air-cooled 247cc, two-stroke twin, reed valve induction BORE AND STROKE 54mm x 54mm CLAIMED HORSEPOWER 30bhp @ 7500rpm MAXIMUM TORQUE 21lb-ft @ 7000rpm TRANSMISSION TYPE 5-speed (6th blanked off for UK market) COMPRESSION RATIO 6.7:1 IGNITION Points & coil CARBURETTOR 2 x Mikuni VM28SC TYRES 3.00-18 (F), 3.50-18 (R) FUEL CAPACITY 3.6 gallons (16.5 litres) DRY WEIGHT 155kg (335lb) WHEELBASE 1325mm (52.1in) OVERALL LENGTH 2030mm (79.9in) OVERALL WIDTH 830mm (32.6in) HEIGHT 1085mm (42.7mm)…

Marketplace Are specials special? Or just money pits? 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 discuss whether specials are indeed that... or not? Many people customise, thinking that they are enhancing their classic, and this can seriously devalue the machine yet in some rare cases it can enhance It’s all down to taste, but in general most customised classics are worth much less than a standard machine. Why is it being customised? Just because they want something different, or does the builder have a vision and the capability to carry out that vision, realise it and do it well? Classic Motorcycle Mechanics’ own contributor Allen Millyard…

BOOK CORNER SPEED: THE ONE GENUINELY MODERN PLEASURE A superb book from Mat Oxley, this charts the marriage of the bicycle to the internal combustion engine and the search for speed since then. A hardback with 170 pages and many glossy black and white plates, it looks in some detail at the early years of man’s quest for speed on two wheels, where average speeds quickly moved from a sedate 27mph at Britain’s first motorcycle race in 1897 through to the later eras, where – by 1937 – the world speed record stood at a staggering 173mph! Highly recommended. www.matoxley.bigcartel.com…

Fast Fred at Castle Combe Grand National The West Country’s biggest race meeting – the Castle Combe Grand National – is on over the weekend of September 1-2 this year. Backed by Motorcycle Accident Management Services (McAMS), the event organisers have got some mouth-watering VIP/ hospitality packages set up for the event. On Saturday evening, three-times World Champion ‘Fast’ Freddie Spencer and former 500cc Grand Prix racer and British Champion Steve Parrish will regale the audience with their stories from yesteryear in the Strawford Centre. On Sunday, the Ultimate VIP Experience is available with TT legend Ian Hutchinson and Bennetts BSB Championship leader Leon Haslam joining Spencer and Parrish. The VIP package includes a Sunday entry ticket, autographs and photo opportunities with the stars, a buffet lunch, VIP car parking,…

SCOOPERMAN! The sunny side of the classic world, with the VJMC’s Steve Cooper I’m fast coming to the conclusion that we classic fans are never really satisfied with our lot! We spend the dark, inclement, winters wishing away our lives willing the spring equinox to get a move on and thus herald the so-called ‘riding season’. Invariably we get one decent week at said celestial transition point and we’re off – like ageing hares full of joie de vivre reliving our youth. The weather then, generally, takes a turn for the worse and we curmudgeons then moan that it never used to be like this etc. Fast forward to May or early June and it’s now, apparently, too muggy and humid to ride, leaving us all as sweaty masses inside…

FEEDBACK WIN BRIDGESTONE TYRES Post to Mechanics, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email your pictures to editorial@classicmechanics.com Rose-tinted CBX! On reading June’s special on the 40th of the CBX1000, back in 1980 I had a red one supplied by Neil Tuxworth’s Honda, Lincs. I found the engine to be a revelation, so smooth and revving so readily: one of the less positives was the fuel consumption; riding it hard it might return 29mpg! The biggest failing was the handling: anyone who tells you it was okay was or is not riding it hard enough as it was a big wobbler. The forks were weedy and flexed under hard cornering, the brakes are the same as the type used on the CB900 and not up to…

Show us yours We want to see YOUR pride and joy in our pages, so you can share what you ride and restore with fellow readers. Email your hi-res shots to bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk or mail in some photos to the address at the front of the mag. Let us know what you’ve done and how you’ve done it and send before and after shots if you can. Do get in touch. Bertie. Michael McGinnis’ Yamaha SR500 This year is also the 40th anniversary of the Yamaha SR500! I found mine four years ago in Vermont, USA as a tatty but complete runner and have restored it in stages since then: a bare-frame stripdown and top-end rework in 2015, followed by the tank and side-panels respray the following year. I have ridden…

SPECIFICATION Kawasaki Z900 RS ENGINE TYPE 948cc, liquid-cooled, 16-valve, inline 4-cylinder. MAXIMUM POWER 110bhp @ 8500rpm MAXIMUM TORQUE 72.6lb-ft @ 6500rpm TRANSMISSION 6-speed FINAL DRIVE chain FRAME Steel trellis SUSPENSION Front: 41mm inverted forks, adjustable for compression, rebound and pre-load. Rear: Single, horizontal back-link shock adjustable for pre-load and rebound. BRAKES Front: Twin 300mm discs, 4-piston monobloc calipers with ABS. Rear: Single 250mm disc, single-piston caliper. TYRES Front 120/70-17 Rear 180/55-17 SEAT HEIGHT 835mm WHEELBASE 1470mm WEIGHT 215kg (wet) FUEL CAPACITY 17 litres…

The owner’s tale: Karl Chadwick Despite having had three K100s, two RTs and an LT plus a K75RT, I found none of them to be really ‘my sort of bike’. The twin was my real Beemer, yet in 2013 while recovering from a crash on an R1200 I spotted this on the internet. A gut feeling told me that I had to have it, which is what we tell ourselves, and it was duly purchased. With 28k miles from 1989 it was hardly run in and still rides like a new bike. It was the colour that was the attraction as I had always admired the combination. It rides beautifully, different from all my previous Ks. The pearl white luggage came with it and last year I took it to…

Kawasaki two-stroke triple history After offering 250cc and 350cc disc-valve two-stroke twins (the A1 and A7) in limited numbers from 1967, Kawasaki launched itself into the superbike age in 1969 with the 500cc three-cylinder Mach III which with 60bhp barely harnessed in its chassis was the hot-rod of choice. This was followed in 1972 by the 750cc Mach IV H2 triple with 76bhp, and the 350cc S2 (Mach II) which with 44bhp was pretty hot. To satisfy the UK’s learner market, a smaller 250cc S1 was offered. Following the 350cc timeline, the S2A was launched in 1973 with a disc front brake instead of the drum. This was replaced by the bigger-bore 400cc S3 in 1974 using a softer 42bhp engine and wider tyres. It was made even softer for…

Project Kawasaki Z1325 part 10 Better brakes! The Zed special moves on apace this month: which also means it needs decent brakes! WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND This month I am going to start off by stopping or rather facilitating a method of stopping this extravagantly powerful Zed from whatever insane speed it may reach in the hands of its South Wales owner. As the bike has the front and rear ends from a pair Gixxers, it stands to reasons that the original stoppers fitted to the Suzukis be restored to as-new condition and used. The Nissin four pots that originally adorned the GSX-R750 WP are a very fine set of calipers. So good in fact that I have just fitted a set to my 2004 ZRX1200R to replace the…

Project Yamaha CS3C part 4 Motor mayhem! A wrecked rotor and rusty races but Scoop’s fortune might just be turning! WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER When faced with an apparently insurmountable engineering problem it’s not at all uncommon to take ever more desperate measures to overcome the issue. I’m fortunate to have Sean Allen living nearby; he’s the youngster who built the amazing LC/YPVS hybrid featured in CMM some years ago. Sean loves his tools and offered to give the rotor a very serious talking to with his mega-torquey rattle gun, a device so far unbeaten. The rotor simply laughed at the tool, ate a handful of high tensile steel draw bolts and sat impassively on the workbench totally unmoved by the experience. The last resort had finally become the…

IT’S MY BIKE: Andy Gautlett “I bought this German import at a Stafford show a few years ago for £400. It was a bit rough and had been thrown together probably just to get rid of it. I normally restore Hondas but thought ‘why not, it’s cheap enough!’ “I set to and sorted it with new rubber and a seat cover along with various other jobs that needed doing. And then I ended up jumping through hoops to get a log book for it. Of course it didn’t have a current NOVA status so there were hassles there and finally I had to pay Yamaha UK £46 to get proof of the bike’s age. I got it all sorted in the end but I’ll not be going down that…

Project Kawasaki Z1300 A5 part 5 You’ve been framed! With the engine out, it’s time to tart-up the frame – should be a doddle, right Ralph? WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND Because the plastic bevel gear in the drive chain to the water pump on my mighty six fell to bits I was forced into doing some open heart surgery to the elderly Kwaka. Having had major fettling enforced on me, I decided that I may as well tidy up the bits that are usually hard to get at so popped the lump out (he says as though it wasn’t a major pain to do so!). Last month I repainted the engine and so now it’s time to cheer up the frame. I did seriously consider stripping the whole rolling…

Project Kawasaki Hybrid part 5 Bits and pieces… The chassis and running gear finally look decent, according to our Scoop. WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER. There really is nothing quite like getting key components back from specialist suppliers and finishers. When morale is flagging and enthusiasm dwindling, getting some shiny stuff back in the workshop is often the shot in the arm we need. First off the frame and all the black work is back from Mark Dunford of High Calibre coatings. Finished in varying levels of satin and gloss the whole shebang looks infinitely better than it had done previously; looking at everything now it’s hard to believe the KH had sat unloved for years with minimal weather protection. In line with my decision to cosmetically follow the lines…

Project Aprilia RS250 part 1 Love triangle! Almost 20-years on, Jeff and Heather get another RS250 and re-live their younger carefree days! WORDS: JEFF WARE PHOTOS: DAVE HERDMAN (ACTION), JEFF WARE In late 1999 early 2000 Heather and I were living day-to-day in Sydney, me a bike courier trying to get a start in moto journalism, and Heather working a mundane city office job. We were so young and only really thought about three things: what to drink that night, when we were getting paid next, and how long until we could get that elusive RS250 we were dreaming about… Well, I actually had four things on my mind generally, but I usually had more hopes of getting the RS250! Heather had just finished university, where she completed a Bachelor…

Pip Higham Tuner, engineer, rider Things are more like they are today than they ever were... Ever since the final days of the Cretaceous period people have been asking me to build engines for them, one such pal has exceptional vision and ability: he can make stuff that leaves me lost for words. I’ve built V12 Jaguar motors and even a 1913 Standard nine horsepower, complete with white metal crank bearings and a chain-driven magneto. Jim, for it is he, had no particular reason to visit, but, as friends often do, he just dropped in for a ginger beer and a Garibaldi. Pulling a six by four photograph from his top pocket, “Betcha don’t remember that?” he quizzed with a flourish. “Course I do, ’39 bronze head Ulster, we gave…