Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

Hubble, bubble, Stinger trouble! It’s fair to say that Steve Cooper’s Suzuki T125 Stinger restoration has been tough on the old boy… In CMM’s pages we’ve traced the highs and lows of the purchase, strip-down, restoration and rebuild of this popular Suzuki twin, but only now can we appreciate the effort that Steve and his select band of helpers and product/service providers have put in. For proof of the pudding, go to page 50 and enjoy! It’s wonderful to see projects come to fruition… such as Allen Millyard’s RC374. We all know that this has been long-since finished, but the full story has only been seen in CMM month-on-month. Next month is his final instalment before a big recap and photo-shoot in which you will see the bike in all…

Stuff The latest riding kit, top tools, tyres, retro clothing and more! FURYGAN JACKETS Furygan has released four stylish and functional autumn/winter jackets which provide bikers with hard-wearing protection and off-bike style. Check them out. Furygan Bruce The Bruce jacket is made from 100% premium waxed cotton. It comes with a waterproof and breathable liner, as well as a removable thermal lining. Protection comes in the form of CE/D30 armour at the shoulder and elbow as well as a pocket for a D30 back protector. You’ve got five pockets too! Sizes S-4XL, in back or brown. Furygan Thruxton The Thruxton is a fully CE-approved waxed-cotton jacket and comes with a shoulder and elbow D30 protection and a back pocket for an optional back protector. There are eight pockets (six outside)…

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. We’ve teamed up with SDoc100 (www.sdoc100.co.uk) which manufactures some of the best bike cleaning kit in the business! So, send in your pictures of your bikes and you could win an SDoc100 cleaning kit worth £50! Remember to send your name and address on each submission so we know where to post the kit. Dave Wolff’s 1996 Kawasaki ZZ-R1100…

MIRA FILES HOOLIGAN HOMAGE! Here’s a way of reliving your misspent youth riding 350LC Yamahas, without the handling woes. John Nutting tries a modern conversion based on a XSR900 triple. WORDS: JOHN NUTTING PHOTOS: GARY CHAPMAN For those who delight in the sheer hedonism of racing around on a 350LC Yamaha but can’t now cope with the weedy handling, here’s the antidote: a 900LC. Designed by Surrey-based Hag Hughes, the 900LC captures the look of the ever-legendary two-stroke twin. It’s based on the XSR900, Yamaha’s retro-styled version of the three-cylinder MT-09, with a bodywork kit that can either be fitted by the owner or specified when the bike is bought new. And I have to say that the version I tried out, which included extra servings of style and performance…

READER RESTORATION MICK'S MACHINE The Ossa Mick Andrews Replica was synonymous with the rider and brand who won back-to-back European Trials Championships, as well as three Scottish Six Days Trials from 1970 to 1972. WORDS: JEFF WARE, KRIS HODGSON PHOTOS: OWEN STUART Ross Osborne isn’t your typical garage restorer, which is fitting as Ossa is in no way your typical bike manufacturer. This story starts in a slightly unusual place: Ross had years of experience riding and racing bicycles and decided to build a fillet-brazed bicycle frame, which was then turned into a brakeless fixed-gear bicycle that Ross has to this day. This was eight years ago and in the intervening years Ross’s early passion for motorcycles grew, starting with an Aprilia RS125 everyday ride. The RS125 was later sold…

SUZUKI T125 STINGER Satan’s STINGER! Negotiating an agreeable Brexit for both the 52% and the 48% would have been easier and taken less time, but (drum roll) Scoop’s Suzuki T125 ‘Project Stinger’ hits the road – at last! WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY D CHAPMAN Road testing your own motorcycle raises any number of questions. Might the words written be biased, could they be overtly sympathetic, will they gloss over any shortcomings? Well, maybe, but you (the reader) has every right to know that facts and I have a responsibility to deliver the truth even if it is my bike. So in the twin spotlights of openness and honesty I’ll lay my cards on the table and say: I love and hate this glitzy little bike in equal measure. I…

RETRO REBOOT Suzuki DR-ZV650 The DRZ400 has been in the Suzuki line-up for almost two decades and has stayed mostly the same: time for a double reboot. WORDS AND IMAGES: KAR LEE Nineteen years ago the charismatic DR-Z400 thumper arrived on the scene. It came into the UK in two main flavours: the ‘S’ trail version in 2000 and the Supermotard-styled DR-Z400SM in 2005 which featured smaller wheels, bigger brakes and different suspension. Both bikes turned out to be underpowered, especially when compared to today’s competition, but that didn’t stop them becoming immense fun to ride off-road as well as on. Amazingly, both bikes are still available new in some parts of the world but as you’d imagine, they’re long overdue an update so here’s ours… ENGINE With a claimed…

Project Suzuki RG500 part 6 Rotary club He’s nearly there! Our Jeff sorts the rotary discs out on the square four and fires her up… WORDS AND PHOTOS: JEFF WARE G’day! Well I trust you’ve had a good month or so. I’ve been flat stick on the RG500 as the local postman greeted the kids at our mailbox with some RG goodies a few times. Incidentally, our postman is a cool guy, he rides a mint RG400 and drives an AC Cobra and is from your land! We talk bikes a lot if I see him out the front delivering the post. Bikes are a great leveller eh? So, my rotary discs arrived along with associated O-rings and gaskets and some other bits and I got to work. Before fitting…

Project Honda CB750 K2 part 18 Tank lining two! As we approach the end of his ‘working’ restoration, Mark shows us the last part of sorting the tank. WORDS AND PHOTOS: MARK HAYCOCK Last time we looked at preparing the tank and cleaning it out but before we move on to applying the coating, sometimes you might find the cleaning process troublesome. Photo 1 shows inside the tank of a bike I bought recently. Apart from rust there was some brown/cream substance that appeared to have been poured in. Scraping at the stuff with a screwdriver showed thick rust underneath (photo 2). It got worse, as there were lumps of the same stuff rattling around inside, which were forced out of the filler hole (photo 3). I think this was…

Archive Ossa & Mick WORDS: JEFF WARE PHOTOS: NICK NICHOLLS Ossa or ‘Orpheo Sincronic Socieda Anónima’ was originally a company that specialised in manufacturing cinema projection equipment. Founded in 1924 by Manuel Giro, it became renowned for its two-stroke motorcycles that had great racing success in the 1960s and 1970s. This rather large shift in focus happened after the Second World War when motorcycle production for the Spanish market took off, as people needed affordable transport. By the 1960s exports to Europe and North America played an important part in the company’s success and racing/competition was seen as the perfect avenue for increasing both awareness and demand for the brand. In 1967 Ossa had its first racing breakthrough, when in the 24 Hours of Montjuic in Barcelona, its…

CALENDAR CORNER DAVID SILVER MUSEUM CALENDAR The David Silver Honda Collection calendar 2019 features a brilliant selection of shots of some of the classiest motorcycles from the museum itself. Quality. www.davidsilverspares.co.uk ANDY TIERNAN CALENDAR Another staple calendar we see is this one. The Andy Tiernan calendar this year concentrates on post-war twins with all artwork by the legendary Mike Harbar. Proceeds go to the East Anglian Air Ambulance. www.andybuysbikes.com/Calendars/Calendar%20page.html…

CMM HITS SUBS HIGH! YES! We’ve hit a new high on our subscription base here at Classic Motorcycle Mechanics. Of course we have to be hush-hush as to the actual numbers, but thanks to our various offers and the wonderful CMM EXTRA we have taken our subs members to a record level! Turn to page 42 for our latest subscription offers, but remember that our subscribers get CMM dropped through their door WAY before our on-sale date in the shops. Don’t forget that CMM EXTRA allows YOU access to more than 210 issues of your favourite magazine going back to 2005. We reckon that’s almost 11 million words, so you can find anything you need, from road-tests to restorations you just have to subscribe to become an EXTRA member! ■…

CARB CLEANING KINGS! Our friends at Vapourworx have just updated their website (www.vapourworx.co.uk) Ben Day is the man who can when it comes to carburettor cleaning and overhaul. Having stripped weapons and radios down for the military for years he reckons stripping down carbs on classic motorcycles was a ‘natural progression!’ He says: “I like to consider myself a bit of a ‘one-stop-shop’ for carb cleaning and restoration. Someone asked me to vapour blast the carb bodies and ultrasonically clean them: then only the tin-wear looked bad so I learned to electroplate parts too and that's almost five years ago now. I like to do it all in house if I can. It doesn’t work out cheaper that way for people (quality costs, don't forget) but I have the control…

** Prize winner****** Born again bike-hider… I am a ‘born-again’ born-again biker: twice! My first jaunt was in the late 1970s to early 1980s on my first form of ‘freedom transport’, an AP50: definitely faster than Fizzies! This was followed by a 1972 CB250 that had dropped ’bars and was home sprayed black! Cars and girls interrupted until the mid-1990s, when I was born again with a quick DT125 and then I leapt straight onto a VFR750 Mk.1. This was followed with a Ducati El Paso, a ZZ-R1000 before back to a VFR Mk.2 for a good few years. Kids and a ‘think of the children’ moaning partner made me sell it. Then two years ago I was born again, born again, but my partner didn’t know. I started with…

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! Paul Martin says: “I attach a couple of pictures for The Way We Were in Classic Motorcycle Mechanics. The first one is of me at 16 on my brand new Honda CB125 back in 1971 outside my home. The second is some 46 years later, same spot different bike, only my hair has changed colour and the tree looks a little larger along with the cubic capacity of the bike! I’m still riding Hondas today, as you can see! Ralph Peters returns to TWWW saying: “This is my 200cc Yamaha in a picture taken in Burton during…

Project Suzuki GSX-R750F part 1 Swift Slabby! Our man down under, Jeff Ware, was tempted into re-building a sorry Slabby in record time! How did he do it? Read on... WORDS: JEFF WARE PHOTOS: HEATHER WARE I’ve just completed a full ground-up restoration of a Slabside in just over three months – phew! I love these bikes and know them inside out, as they were popular back when I was an apprentice motorcycle mechanic, so I worked on them a fair bit. There is little argument against the general belief that the Suzuki GSX-R750F, the very first GSX-R750, was the first true four-stroke street superbike. It was faster, lighter and better looking than any four-stroke motorcycle available. It also out-performed most of the two-strokes and came in at a competitive…

BUYER’S GUIDE HONDA CB400 FOUR A perennial favourite that’s now significantly cheaper than its peers. WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY DOROTHY CHAPMAN ‘Ubiquitous’ is a word we journos tend to over use but in the case of Honda’s 400/4 it’s totally justified. Go to any classic motorcycle show, a biker’s café, a bike club ride out or your local boozer’s bike night and the chances are there will be a CB400F there. At its launch the bike had instant appeal to a much wider cross-section of motorcyclists than anyone would have expected, even pulling in people who had previously sported one of those period patches that read: “I’d rather eat worms than ride a Honda!” Today the bike is even a constant feature within that bastion of Britishness that is…

Project Yamaha CS3C part 7 Going cranky! Scoop and his mates carry out various surgeries to the CS3C’s heart. Nurse, scalpel! WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER This instalment’s missive is all about the engine and the faults, the issues and the subsequent rebuild. Those readers who haven’t yet lost the will to live may recall the chaos that was the top-end of the original motor and the spare pair of cylinders. There was a hope that they’d only need a light hone, remember? And then we found out that the wretched things were considerably worn. So worn in fact, that they needed to go out to maximum oversize at 1.00mm. Well, I’d like to report back to say that everything went according to plan but, of course, anything involving a…

The 39th Bristol Bike Show! You’ve still got time to plonk the 39th Carole Nash Bristol Classic MotorCycle show in the diary… Taking place over the weekend of February 2-3, the show once more takes place at The Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet BA4 6QN. Starting out back in 1980, the show has grown into Britain’s greatest annual celebration of all that is best about the motorcycles of yesteryear. The event is a big draw for enthusiasts, club members and traders alike. It features the finest themed club displays and there is fierce competition for the much-coveted ‘best stand’ award and cash prize every year. Many owners show off their pride and joy for public scrutiny, including everything from immaculate showroom-condition motorcycles to rusty barn-finds. Bring some cash…

John’s VFR400 Hi, I have just read the article on the VFR400 NC24 and see that John got his fairings and boxed bike from Birmingham. I used to own an NC24 in Birmingham registration E21 NOU and wondered if it was my old bike? If it is could I just say how glad I am to see her still alive and being well looked after as I had a lot of joy from her. Steven Bryant Bertie says: “Brum is a big place, Steve – but we will ask John.” Just looking through the January issue on the Honda V4 NC24 I was really interested to know: what indicators were used? The reason for asking is I would like to put some on my 2001 Yamaha FJR1300. Jim Cramer Bertie…

CLASSIC RIDE Johny come lately! John Kocinski came closer than anyone to winning a world 500cc championship on the V593. Jeff Ware rides the most beautiful two-stroke race machine ever. WORDS: JEFF WARE PHOTOS: PETER PAP “I won’t tell you what it cost me but it wasn’t cheap. More than my house! Anyway, what price can you put on a piece of history like this? It is a very rare and beautiful machine. Don’t fall off it!” This Cagiva V593 belonged to huge motorcycle fan and avid collector Steve Byrne when I rode it. The bike held a spot at Steve’s bar with Andrew Pitt’s world-title winning ZX-6RR. Steve’s other 18 bikes live in the garage. Like I said, Steve is a bike nut. When he heard that the then-MV…

John Kocinski Q&A Jeff Ware: It has been said that this was the bike that turned Cagiva from also-rans to almost-wins and if you didn’t take the ride in 1994 Cagiva would have pulled the pin. What is your take on that? John Kocinski: Yes, it is probably true but a lot of my greatest memories have been when I rode for Cagiva. It was a company of great passion. JW: When you think back on the V593 and particularly the wins you achieved how do you feel? JK: It is one of my greatest accomplishments to win on a machine that no one else other than Eddie Lawson has won on. It was heartbreaking when Cagiva could not continue in 1995 because we were so close to having a…

Who is Hag Hughes? Hag spent his youth riding freestyle BMX but when it came to getting a motor in his two-wheeler his folks were dead against it. As his family had a few bob, when Hag saved up for a motocrosser, dad relented and built his own track for Hughes junior in the garden, provided he never rode on the road. Hag recalls: “Thing was, I grew bored and wanted the rush and freedom that a road bike would give me. Secretly I began saving once more,  this time culminating in a Suzuki X7 racer. Once at home and safely in the garage (a place where my dad would never venture) I set about making it road legal. On went a Mead-Speed replica RG500 fairing and seat and a…

The buzz about the Stinger A T125 appears in Suzuki’s catalogue in 1967 but not in this format. The first to carry the name is a miniature Super Six with conventionally, gently, angled barrels and a conventional chassis. Supposedly only for the Japanese and/or SE Asian market the bike rapidly disappears from the model line up only to re-emerge as the Stinger T125 in 1969. The bike shares some running gear with the TC120 Trailcat which features a single cylinder two-stroke motor; the Stinger’s engine remains singularly unique and something that no else has sought to emulate. Insiders at Hamamatsu have said Suzuki was trying to produce what the American’s call a canyon racer, in Suzuki-speak it was designed as a ‘creek machine’. The frankly outrageous engine layout militated the…

Project Kawasaki Z1325 part 16 Still standing! We’re near the finish line for this cool custom Kwak. This month Ralph sorts the sidestand and shoehorns the motor in. WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND It’s almost time to get the dry build of the mighty 1325cc Kawasaki Zed special powder-coated by Nick at Griff’s Reality Motorworks – but first, I have to sort the sidestand. Sidestands and their mounts often suffer on big Zeds and this one was worse than most. The component is in an area where it gets covered in road crap and, despite lubrication of the sidestand pivot being a part of the service schedule, it is more often than not neglected. A bike used back in the day would not get the sort of love and care…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Head scratching Modern petrol and high compression ratios may be harming your stroker: Scoop looks at two-stroke cylinder heads. WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER Even if there is no substitute for cubic capacity when it comes to horse power for any engine, of any size, it’s the cylinder head that determines the bulk of power that is generated. One of the best mechanisms with which to gauge engine output is ‘brake mean effective pressure’ or BMEP. This unit of measurement gives us a very effective benchmark for comparing the performance of an engine against another of the same type along. By swapping head designs on any engine you can ascertain the various impacts of profiles, angles, compression ratios etc. In a nutshell cylinder heads aren’t just…

Project Kawasaki Z1300 part 10 Exhausting work! Sorting the exhaust and re-fitting the carbs, our Ralph needs more arms than an octopus.. WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND Here I am, back at the bedside of my sickly beast, nursing her back to full health so she’s ready to roar around the sleepy streets of Somerset, ploughing grooves into the Tarmac on off-camber bends. Yes, you see, even with the extra two inches of stature of this Godier Genoud six, shod with Bridgestone’s finest BT45s, I am often egged into pushing her so hard into bends by the turbine-smooth motor that the engine bars and exhausts are scarred by road surface interaction. So, work is needed, then. This month I started to refit the exhaust and the first job was to…