Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

LAST CALL FOR STAFFORD! Here is the last call for the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics show, held over the weekend of October 19-20 at Staffordshire County Showground. The 26th Carole Nash-backed CMM show will showcase a 50cc Kreidler, which was ridden by Robert Dunlop, just one of the thousands of fascinating motorcycles on display at the event. The lightweight water-cooled Kreidler was campaigned by Dunlop in events such as Isle of Man Jurby Road Races and in Aghadowey, Northern Ireland, where he won his first race. During Dunlop’s career in 50cc racing, the McMullan-supported machine recorded a speed of 98mph. To find out more about the show visit www.staffordclassicbikeshows.com/…

Is CMM overly anal? I really enjoy the mag, mostly, with my main interest being in 70s and 80s bikes, and you do an excellent job. However, could you please have a word with Ralph. I get it that he is very good at his job and takes pride in what he does, but I really don’t need to know what size of JIS screwdriver he is using to remove an engine cover, or that he is so well trained that he will only use the best tools. This information is of no interest to me I’m afraid, and I would enjoy his articles better if he got to the point: I can work out how to remove a tab washer… Also, it would be nice if Adam Child could…

The owner’s tale: Chris Brealey “Not much to say about the L5T really, people always seem to like it. Another straightforward resto, just refreshing what was there cosmetically and checking everything over. It only had 1313 miles on the clock so led a sheltered life in the States, so it hadn’t been messed around with too much. It is a bit uncomfortable to ride as the solo seat is on the short side and your bum hangs over the rack unless you have really short legs. Alternatively you end hunched over the front!”…

SEE YOU THERE! November 2019 01-02 Unwanted MCC’s Halloween Weekend Burton-on-Trent: www.unwantedmcc.co.uk 02 Firework Frenzy www.santapod.com 02-03 The 19th Footman James Classic Vehicle Restoration Show Shepton Mallet: www.bristolclassiccarshows.com 03 Ton-Up Day,Ace Café: www.london.acecafe.com 08-10 Winter Rally Swansea: www.welshcoastmcc.club 08-10 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show www.necclassicmotorshow.com 09 Straightliners Smeatharpe Airfield, Devon: www.straightliners.co.uk 10 Poppy Day Parade & Service – Military Vehicle Meet www.london.acecafe.com 10 Ring of Red around the M25 London: www.therideofrespect.co.uk 10 Ring of Red around the M60 Manchester: www.therideofrespect.co.uk 24 Mud Pluggers Day www.london.acecafe.com 24 HuddersfieldAutojumble www.phoenixfairs.jimdo.com 24 Malvern Drive-In Classic Car & Bike Autojumble Three Counties Showground: www.classicshows.org 30 VMCC (Dorset section) Breakfast Meet www.dorsetvmcc.co.uk/events…

IT’S MY BIKE: Steve Heslop “What was supposed to be my retirement hobby turned into a small business, which explains why I ended up buying this CG125. The young lad who owned it had started to convert it into a café racer, then lost interest. His dad was fed up of it under his feet so sold it on his behalf. I trawled around the few remaining, old time, bike shops in Manchester and unearthed enough new and used parts to get it back to how it should be. It’s been resurrected, not restored, hence the marks, scuffs and patina. I recently leant it to a friend for use on a local tiddler run and he was blown away by just how much torque and drive the CG had.…

Colour me bad! I have the paint kit for the CS3C now fully sorted and safely stored out of harm’s way and wrapped in soft blankets at the back of a cupboard in the house. Over the years I’ve learnt the hard way that paint kits stored in workshops or garages seem to be targets for bad luck. Therefore, it all stays ‘out of sight and out of mind’. Actually finding someone to paint the various parts proved to be harder than I’d expected. Because the bike runs candy paint, a fair number of the more commercial outfits simply didn’t want the job, firmly stating that they didn’t handle that sort of paintwork – fair enough. I also had another business decline the job because they weren’t prepared to paint…

cmm Archive Kat’s pounce! The name ‘Katana’ brings to mind a sharp, curved blade, used by the samurai of feudal Japan. Fitting then, that the name would be used on the winner of a cutting-edge design exercise that German motorcycle magazine Motorrad started back in 1979. They invited three famous design houses to provide ideas for how motorcycles should look in the forthcoming ‘space-age’ 1980s. Porsche Design, Ital Design and Target Design took part, and it was one based on a 750cc MV Agusta shaft-drive four from Target that won and was displayed at the IFMA Cologne show at the end of 1979. Target had been founded that year by Hans-Georg Kasten, Jan Fellstrom and Hans Muth. Kasten had started his design career at Porsche in the 1970s and later…

SCOOPERMAN! The sunny side of the classic world, with the VJMC’s Steve Cooper Sometimes you just have to put up and shut up when it comes to sorting out old bikes. If the job is worth doing then many of us will give it the best shot we can, even if that means spending more money than we want to. If you decide to take on a restoration then expect to pay for the privilege. Understand that nothing is cheap and please, please, stop carping on about how much cheaper all stuff was back when you were a lad; you’ve been looking through far too many visors of a rosy hue! The fact that prices rise is inevitable and if you accept the generally held view that moderate inflation is…

Happy birthday SOHC Honda fours! Even poor weather couldn’t hamper the 50-year anniversary event that marked introduction of Honda’s SOHC four-cylinder models. The event – held at The David Silver Honda Collection, Leiston, Suffolk – saw a large collection of models from the 1969/70s, SOHC Four range from CB350F through to CB750F. As well as a Best-in-Class contest, the day was packed with entertainment and live music, as well as a Honda History Quiz to win a £100 parts voucher! For more on the event and the winners on the day, visit www.davidsilverhondacollection.co.uk…

FEEDBACK Post to Mechanics, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email your pictures to editorial@classicmechanics.com Love the CB900F! I enjoyed the feature on the CB900F, a model I remember quite well as it came out just after I started in the trade, although the only Euro-style Honda I owned myself was the smallest, the CB100N, at least until I bought myself a CB250N earlier this century. I’m not sure if it might be a reason why Honda chose to make a 901 rather than 1000cc, but possibly it was influenced by the bore being the same as the CBX1000. Honda later superceded the part number for the CBX rings to those of the CB900. The article also mentioned the CB750F, which also came out in 1979, if not…

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. DAN AND NIGEL PETTITT’S HONDA VFR750s My dad Nigel and I have been avid readers of CMM for the last four years and thoroughly enjoy reading every issue! My dad has had a huge influence on my passion for motorbikes, introducing me to road racing at Oliver’s Mount back in the early 1990s. I’ll never forget the iconic sounds…

Early trail bikes and why they came to be... Before the ground-breaking Yamaha DT1 of 1968 trail bikes were generally based upon existing road bikes with just enough changes to ensure the ‘new’ bikes didn’t immediately get stuck in the mire. Yamaha had the likes of the Trailmaster as seen here along with the YL2CM which was, to all intents and purposes, a very early YB100 with an electric start, high bars, folding pegs, etc. Suzuki had been in the vanguard of the off-road bike movement with the likes of the K15 Hillbilly in 1965, which borrowed heavily from the K10 and K11 road machines. Kawasaki was also in on the act adding high guards to their J1 roadster to variously deliver the J1-T, J1-TR and J1-TRL. Such adaptations of…

Project Kawasaki GPZ500S part 2 Seals of approval! Our Justin has issues with weeping forks, so he asks CMM friend Rob Bean to show him how to replace his fork seals. WORDS: ROB BEAN PICS: JUSTIN BLACKAMORE Leaky fork seals: everyone has suffered these at some point, right? It’s something that can seriously alter the handling (and safety) of a bike, and this is especially true if the bike belongs to a newbie… The newbie in question is Justin Blackamore, who used to art edit (that means design) this very magazine. He owns this tidy GPZ, and while sorting these conventional forks is not beyond the realms of the home mechanic with a basic toolkit, it is for our Justin, so as a mate, I decided to…

Toolof the month JIS Screwdrivers Ralph Ferrand works with tools all day long – he sells them too at bikerstoolbox.co.uk. So he knows what works. with BIKER’S TOOLBOX Welcome to my new column where I will be exploring and discussing tools to be used on the motorcycles we all love and ride. I think that it is fair to say that the lion’s share of bikes consuming column inches in this fine publication are from The Land of the Rising Sun. Why is it called that anyway? At what place on the planet does the sun not rise, other than the Poles, and even then it does rise, just not very frequently. Sorry, side-tracked. Anyways, given the number of Japanese bikes adorning these pages I thought that I…

Parts & parcel: A breaker’s guide… GOOD ■ Exhaust headers: These are titanium. They are sought after by GSX-R750 SRAD owners! £50-£200. ■ Sub-frame: The bolt-on subframe is prone to getting out of shape if the bike goes over on the right-hand side, mostly because the silencer bolts to it. £50-£100. ■ Engine: Basically a good, solid design with no major weak spots. Gearboxes can whine on high mileage bikes. £600-£1100. BAD ■ Forks: K1/K2 forks came with gold nitride coatings on the stanchions; it wears off fairly easily. Don’t worry, though, because it doesn’t affect the performance of the fork/slider itself. £200-£300. ■ Bodywork: Iffy paint jobs and GSX-R models go hand-in-hand for some reason, but standard painted bikes do look great. Remember, a respray is often the result…

Essential safety kit The kit listed here is all absolutely essential. You’re working with extremely bright light, hot sparks, and high temperatures, so don’t cut corners! ■ Welding Helmet: An auto-darkening helmet is the best option. As the name suggests, you see the work through a clear lens so you can get the torch in the correct position before initiating an arc. As soon as the arc is detected, the lens darkens to a pre-set level, keeping your eyes protected and allowing you good sight of the work. How much are your eyes worth? Cheap helmets may have unacceptable delays in darkening. Their darkness level settings may be inaccurate, so get something decent. I forked out £250 for a Lincoln Electric item and I’ve been pleased with it. Look after…

cmm Tested Riding kit worn, tools twirled & tyres turned HEVIK MADSEN JACKET I’ve worn Hevik’s Madsen short wax-cotton jacket right through last winter on my short commute into the office – and I’ve got to say, I was very impressed with this comfortable, lightweight and casually styled bit of kit. Of course, it’s by no means a serious winter jacket, and if I was travelling more than a few miles each way, I’d probably opt for something a little more substantial. But for a simple and straightforward waterproof jacket, which looks smart both on and off the bike, I reckon it’s spot on. It is surprisingly well equipped, with a removable thermal lining to keep out the cold, zipped air venting on the shoulders and back for when the…

NEWS MoreBíkes.co.uk Here’s a new section where we share the classic goings on from our sister site MOREBIKES… French Yoshi Kat! Rumours are that Suzuki is working directly with Yoshimura to create a trick production Katana, which is why Suzuki France has decided to beat them to it. A few minor changes help the Yoshi Katana from France stand out. It gets a Yoshimura R11 exhaust system, new black and red paintwork, a carbon front mudguard and a new licence plate holder. With pricing starting from €15,999 and only 10 bikes available, you need to be quick! Yoshi Kat! Long-time Suzuki collaborator Yoshimura has just shown off a range of parts and accessories for the new Katana – and Suzuki need to take note. Called the Sepahan kit, Yoshi’s been…

** Prize winner****** The Ego hasn’t landed Just wanted to say that I’ve gotten back into biking for the first time in a few decades: who can I thank for this? The ex-wife. Best thing she ever did for me, apart from the kids, of course. What I wanted to congratulate you at CMM for is two things. Firstly, I love the wide range of bikes that are seen in your pages. Being my age (I’m in my sixth decade) means I just recall the old British bikes of the 1960s/70s (which I’m glad you don’t have in the mag) and then the glory days of the 1970s-1990s. This was when I was biking and, on my recent return, this era has made a return to my garage with a…

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! Darren Groucutt says: “I’ve just found these while having a rummage: a couple of pics of me with my bikes of the time. First one is my 1988 Yamaha FZR1000 Genesis, which I’d painted in the colour scheme of the then new EXUP; this would have been around 1990. I’m a painter by trade so back then my bikes used to change colour frequently. It had previously worn the EXUP scheme, but in candy blue with fluorescent stripes and decals! I prefer to keep them stock looking these days. The second pic is my 1999 Buell M2. I had…

KATANA TIMELINE 1979 The prototype Katana – Target Design’s ED-2 – debuts at the Cologne Show. Suzuki decide to put it and the smaller ED-1 into production. 1980 Production GSX1100S-Z is unveiled at Cologne Show. 1981 The Suzuki GSX1100S-Z Katana goes on sale along with new GS650G shaft-drive and GS550M. The first non-Katana (but with some Kat styling influences), the GSX400F four-cylinder goes on sale. LATE 1981 Homologation-special GSX1000S Katana goes on sale to qualify for production racing, most importantly TT-F1. 1982 Japan-only GSX750S Katana goes on sale. Essentially it’s a GSX1100S, but with a GSX750E motor and a larger back wheel. Some made it to the UK as grey imports. The tiddler GS125E, with Katana-shaped tank is also launched this year. 1983 Last year of GSX1100S in slightly modified…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Q&A Our very own wizened sages, Messrs Mark Haycock and Steve Cooper, are here to an 1983 KAWASAKI Z650 Q : The bike has 17,000 miles on it and was just purchased after 20 years in a barn, fully serviced and it’s been ticking over lovely. It has a Motad 4-into-1, CV carbs ultrasonically cleaned and now has new diaphragms to try to solve the problem of not running over at 65 to 70mph. Fuel tap seals have all been changed, float bowl level checked, advance ignition mechanism moving freely and is not rusted. The carbs I now realise are US-spec after looking at the service manual, as the needles have no adjustment, air screws are out two turns. The bike will rev round fully…

Allen Millyard Award-winning motorcycle engineer! Trials and tribulations Allen’s off to the Classic TT on the Velo – or is he? Oh dear! I was really looking forward to riding my Velocette V-twin to the Isle of Man for the VMCC Jurby festival at the Classic TT. In preparation I had been checking the bike over for several weeks and have ridden around 1200 miles virtually trouble-free, including over 200 miles in a day, so thought it would be good for the ride up to Liverpool. I decided I would leave myself plenty of time so I set off at 5am for a gentle 200-mile ride up to catch the midday sailing. The most direct route is mainly motorway and the Velocette was running great, cruising nicely at 55 to…

Useful Kit Welding table: You can make a full size one like the item pictured in my garage, which I made a few years ago using a stick welder, or, if space is limited, you can fabricate a smaller item like the one used by John Millbank in the photographs. Magnetic clamps: Ideal for holding parts in place ready for welding. They come in all shapes and sizes, and are a valuable addition to your equipment. Mechanical clamps: This covers everything from Mole grips to G clamps through to the more specialised toggle clamps. Buy what you need when you need it, and you’ll soon build up a useful collection. Welding Curtain: A large flameproof welding curtain is handy to have. You can cover up nearby large items to protect…

Pip Higham Tuner, engineer, rider A real good clearout! Currently, I’m a bit baffled. I need a lie down and I’m exhausted. For those of you yet to experience a colonoscopy (you will, you will), it’s a voyage of discovery into a seldom seen gloomy space. How is this relevant? Well, the process shares several ‘features’ with an area close to many of our hearts: the condition of our exhaust pipes. I soon realised way back when that the two-strokes we were selling appeared to become blighted with lethargy quite early on in their lives, and the longer this condition existed the more rapidly it worsened. Sound familiar? The techniques used to cure the malaise were simple, and again weren’t too dissimilar to the aforesaid medical procedure. Initially, a quick…