Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

The cult of Elsie! You can’t help but notice that we have a certain theme running through parts of this issue. If you’re of a certain age, ride bikes (we guess you do) and went through puberty in the late 1970s, you’ll recognise our cover star as up there with Debbie Harry in the lust-worthy stakes. Yamaha’s RD350LC and subsequent models/ family members really did change the face of motorcycling forever. It’s why we’ve got a road test of Niall Mackenzie’s Elsie, a feature on the Pro-Am race series, news on the marketplace for LCs, a refreshed version of our most popular Retro Reboot, part five of Jeff Ware’s RZV500R resto, and the introduction of the most racy ‘LC’ ever – Yamaha’s YZR500 grand prix bike. Yes, Niall’s 1991 racer…

News Bristol serving up 70s and 80s treat! If you pop to The 40th Carole Nash Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show over the weekend of February 1-2 then you’ll be in for a retro treat! The whole event will be a retro-packed Bristol bonanza with a major theme of the 1970s and 1980s running through it. This means visitors, traders and club members alike are encouraged to show off their best clobber with huge cash prizes available. There is £100 per day for the best-dressed visitor, and a WHOPPING £1000 cash prize for the best club stand? We can imagine plenty of crazy outfits on display… Once more the venue is The Royal Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet, Somerset (for sat-nav, use BA4 6QN.). Visitors will be scouring the…

WIN Weise Outlast Sirius gloves TO BE IN WITH A CHANCE OF WINNING, HERE’S HOW TO ENTER: 1. Go to www.classicmechanics.com 2. Fill in your details 3. Press enter 4. Sit back, relax and wait. Competition closes: 15/02/20. Good luck! There are no cash alternatives available. The winner will be the first name drawn at random. Terms and conditions apply. To view the privacy policy of MMG Ltd (publisher of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics) please visit www.mortons.co.uk/privacy We’ve teamed up with our friends at Weise to offer you the chance to win a pair of Weise OUTLAST® Sirius gloves worth £74.99. Leather & textile outer with a waterproof liner and featuring a temperature regulating thermal lining. Find out more at www.thekeycollection.co.uk…

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. Daniel Mawson’s Yamaha RD350LC I figured I’d send in a few pictures of my lovely Yamaha RD350LC, which I finished sorting out back in April 2019. It’s been to two local shows in southeast Kent so far and won second in the 1980s class and also won Best in Show for a Japanese bike in another show. Well pleased!…

Project Yamaha YZF-R1 5VY part 3 Gold digger! Our own Paul Berryman seems to be panning for gold… but what are the nuggets in the 2004 R1 sump pan? WORDS AND PICS: PAUL BERRYMAN Every circus needs a clown, and right now it feels like I’m the one wearing oversized red shoes and matching nose in Bertie’s CMM big top. After taking the gamble to run my 5VY R1 without stripping the motor to clean out the potential of travelling flywheel magnets, I only enjoyed 4.6 miles before it seized solid. All gambling ads carry the tagline ‘Bet responsibly’, but it turns out leaving this engine unopened wasn’t the responsible thing to do. Funny thing is though, it’s just possible I may have got away with it,…

Project Yamaha TX750 part 2 Manual labours! So the bike’s arrived – but Mark needs a manual to prepare him. WORDS AND PICS: MARK HAYCOCK In the time it had taken between me buying the bike and its arrival on my doorstep, I was able to do a bit of preparation and the first requirement for me is always to get hold of the service manual. Then I can study it from start to finish to be sure I know precisely what I am dealing with. Unfortunately, this is one manual that does not seem to appear anywhere on the internet so I had to buy a real printed book, which had to be sent over from the US. The manual was updated a few times, but…

Project Yamaha YZR500 part 1 YZR-esurrected! What do you do if you’re offered a former factory YZR500 that you once raced? You procrastinate for several months and count your pennies… WORDS AND PICS: NIALL MACKENZIE The year was 1991 and I started the season riding for Honda UK on VFR750Rs RC30s. I was teamed up with the one and only Carl Fogarty, who was entering his second year with the Silkolene-backed Team. The original plan was for the King of the Jungle to be the sole rider, but after a chance meeting at the Earls Court bike show with Neil Tuxworth I was offered a contract. We had a comprehensive season planned taking in all the British Supercup races, most of the World Superbike Championship, Daytona, North…

Project Suzuki TS400 part 2 Apache hunter! All you never wanted to know about Suzuki TS400 and more! And knowing Scoop, probably some you didn’t… hee hee! WORDS AND PICS: STEVE COOPER OK, so mentally I’ve made the commitment to buying a Suzuki TS400 circa 1972-1977. In amongst that handful of years the bike changed quite significantly, moving from full on prototrail iron – sold as the fastest dirt bike you could ride on the road – through to a machine which had off-road aspirations that few owners ever bothered to realise. The truth is that the TS400 Apache never really cut it as a real trail bike, which is fine by me as I’ll be sticking to the Tarmac like a summer bug to a fork…

Project Yamaha RZV500R part 5 Bath time! There’s nothing like a refreshing bath after a hot Australian Summer’s day, even if it is in diesel and kerosene… G’day! I hope you have had a great month. As you lot deal with a cold Winter, it is quite the opposite here, nudging 35 to 40ºC, with blistering hot winds and plenty of bushfires around. The hot westerly winds blow straight towards the back of my garage door, meaning opening up for a bit of airflow results in me being cooked in an air roaster! Heather, the wife, reckons there’d be enough crackling on my ‘pork’ beer belly to feed the entire street. Anyway, for this season, as I have so many projects to get through, I’ve invested in…

Special BRU! This month we celebrate the Yamaha RD-LC series and a number of its family members, and over the last 40 years we’ve seen that all models are simply a blank canvas for talented specials builders. This one in shot is one of our favourites. It was created by CMM reader Brian Thomson and was inspired by the legendary 7Up-decorated RD350LC created by Nick Daniels back in the 1990s. Being a good Scotsman, for Brian it had to be IRN-BRU – even if he did dally with the idea of doing a Vimto tribute bike… Brian bought this bike for £870 as a non-runner around a decade or so ago and it was pretty much a ‘work in progress’ for more than five years after purchase (we featured…

VE DAY CELEBRATIONS FOR STAFFORD While Bristol is all about the 70s and 80s, The Carole Nash International Classic MotorCycle show at Stafford is going back still further! Despite being founded in 1980, the show – one of the largest classic shows of its kind in the world – will celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day which falls on the following weekend after the show dates of April 25-26. Highlights for the weekend include a 1940s-themed hall, with a Spitfire and Hurricane taking centre stage, surrounded by an abundance of privately owned classic motorcycles and incredible displays from owners’ clubs too. Organisers have been in contact with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to hopefully secure a flypast from the Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota, with confirmation due in…

Dine with dirt bike stars Kick-starting the off-road season, the Classic Dirt Bike Show, sponsored by Hagon Shocks, will be back with a bang on February 15-16. Two big names in the off-road scene have been confirmed as the guests of honour for the show, and you can share an evening of food, drink and stories with the star guests. The fantastic guest line-up, including American World Trials champion of 1979 Bernie Schreiber and British 500cc motocross champion Bryan Goss, will be at the off-road show over the weekend at Telford International Centre. Join the dirt bike stars on the Saturday evening for an exclusive three-course, sit-down meal with other like-minded enthusiasts. Between courses, the star guests will recount memories from their successful racing career to assembled guests for just…

** Prize winner****** Time waits for no man... As a regular purveyor of the entire gamut of motorcycle magazines in the UK (I must be a rare breed to buy them all…) I rate CMM as ‘in my top three’. Be thankful…One thing I like very much are the varied ‘eras’ you represent. Now, I’m a mere stripling of 65, I’ve retired but still ride a modern-ish sportsbike, as well as having an adventure bike in the shape of a Kawasaki Versys (I’ve read Bertie’s reports on the 2019 version with interest in Motorcycle Sport and Leisure) but I’m also a classic fan! I’ve currently got five machines, ranging from a Honda 400-4, a Kawasaki Z1000 through to a few from the 1990s. What I do find intriguing are your…

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! Jeff Stone says: “Father Christmas delivered early today! A nice Triumph Thruxton R. My last experience of a Triumph twin was the Bonneville engine I used in the Triton I built back in 1966, so it is 53 years on now and this one has nearly twice the capacity and twice the power. Nice that it has a retro look (can’t say the same for myself though), but all modern electronic aids too, plus better handling, better braking and all round, a better bike. Ideally suited to an elderly gentleman’s perambulations! Weather could be better though, as I really…

CLASSIC RIDE PARTS BIN PERFECT! Andy Bolas rides a Yamaha RZ250R, which he finds shares many parts from other tiddler Yamaha models. WORDS: ANDY BOLAS PICS: GARY D CHAPMAN With the classic family line of the RD350LC in focus this month, I thought I’d bring out a hidden gem from the family line to see what CMM readers thing. This month, I have delved into the back of my own garage and pulled this little number: Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to my RZ250 3HM1. This bike has been in my collection for a number of years now, been ridden on the road and on tracks all over the UK by both Ella Middleton and myself and to be fair, it could probably benefit from a minor…

MAIN TEST EIGHTIES ICON! At the end of the Seventies, Yamaha took the decision to reconnect the link between their successful racing TZs and their RD road bikes. Combining British design talents with Japanese technology, the resultant LC exceeded all expectations, becoming a bike that changed laws and lives forever. Jon Bentman rides Niall Mackenzie’s mint example. WORDS: JON BENTMAN PICS: GARY D CHAPMAN It’s 1980 and Yamaha’s existing two-stroke light-middleweight sports offering is the RD400, by now in its fourth year, as the F model. Good for a steady 106mph, and a fair deal faster once a decent tuner has been at the barrels. Good enough to be spanking everything in proddie racing, but then what opposition does it have? Suzuki has launched the instantly forgettable GS425…

MY LCs by Jon Bentman I had two, maybe three LCs back in the 1980s. Two 350LC road bikes, I think (I have pictures somewhere of an earlier white ‘Bounty’ example and later black three-stripe – but it might be just the one bike as I recall changing the bodywork on one bike). And a 250LC proddie racer: I loved them dearly. The proddie racer got a Stan Stephens cylinder porting job (£200); a steering damper (Kawasaki type – £25); off-the-shelf rear-sets; and (after a crash) ace bars. I knew next to nothing about mechanics, but that didn’t seem to matter, I could drain the liquid coolant (water only in the racer), remove the barrels, slip in new rings, maybe pistons as well, and have the thing rebuilt ready to…

Project Kawasaki Hybrid part 8 Hybrid heaven! Or is it hybrid hell? Our own Scoop returns with tales of this 500/400/250 mish-mash! Will he survive such mental anguish? WORDS AND PICS: STEVE COOPER Thankfully, we now have the engine in the frame! If you recall the previous instalment, Ian Bird (only vaguely assisted by muggings here) had found there was a fitment issue. And on the assumption that engine cases rarely, if ever, expand, the only logical conclusion was that the frame must have shrunk. The truth was not quite as literal as that, but hopefully you get my drift here. With the rebuilt motor heaved out of the chassis (they really aren’t lightweight, trust me on this one), a set OF bare and empty H1 cases…

BUYER’S GUIDE HONDA SS50 Thought the SS50 was just another moped? Well, here’s the original one! WORDS: STEVE COOPER GUARDS Make sure painted versions are solid and not full of filler. Check above fork brace component at the front for rot and examine all double-skinned mounting points. CHASSIS Pressed steel frames can rot out if badly stored. Check rear suspension mounts, swingarm and centre-stand pivots in particular. Swingarms can also rot out so look for holes or rust staining through the paint. SEAT BASE Check for rot and corrosion as replacements are rare and costly. SUSPENSION Of a pretty basic arrangement and likely to be bouncy even when new; decent fork oil helps. Expect to find generic aftermarket shock absorbers fitted now. ENGINE As with all Honda’s regular oil changes,…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Basket case! We’re inside the back of a clutch basket and there are no listed spares. Welcome to part one of sorting a clutch’s shock absorber. WORDS AND PICS: STEVE COOPER If you’ve been following our Yamaha CS3C restoration series then you’ll be painfully aware that the 200cc street scrambler had led a hard life, despite having less than 7000 miles on its odometer. Given the state of peripheral items, along with the scuffed tail pipes, it’s fair to say it’s been well abused. When we found a clutch basket that looked as if it had been attacked by metal-eating rodents this pretty much confirmed the bike had spent a lot of its life on the back wheel. The spare clutch basket assembly miraculously produced by…

Marketplace Elsie for a tanner? Paul Jayson from The Motorcycle Broker explains why we love Yamaha’s RD250 and 350LC, and how you can’t pick ’em up for sixpence any more! WORDS: PAUL JAYSON PICS: GARY D CHAPMAN Now I don’t want to get all ‘jumpers for goal posts’ about these two-stroke Yams, but they’re extremely nostalgic machines for us over 50 years of age. For our younger readers let me explain. When us oldies were growing up we could ride a 250cc motorcycle on L plates, without training, that could pretty much do 100mph from the crate. Then we took one test and could ride any size motorcycle we wanted to on the same day we passed our test. It was bliss! So, you can’t talk about the RD350LC without…

The elegant Dragonfly! This is for Allen Millyard: Allen, I used my first Douglas Dragonfly for travelling to work at an Austin dealership in 1960. The engine blew so I fitted a 500 all-aluminium pre-unit construction Triumph engine in the frame. It was wonderfully quick but I couldn’t stop it and sold it, but my love of the ride and frame continued. Having owned Dragonflies ever since, I had a spare frame, tank, headlight, mudguards and log book but no gearbox. After reading an article by James May about a Honda 400-4, I went to David Silver and bought a wreck there. I reconditioned all the wheels and running gear and put them in my spare frame. I just wondered if you would like to publish an article on it.…

CLUB FOCUS Liquid cool! The LC Club is now 30 years old and represents all that’s best from Yamaha’s RD/LC/YPVS range. They’re a good crew, so why not join? WORDS: PETE SPRAGUE PICS: THE LC CLUB The LC Club is still run by LC owners and is for those that own, run or are simply fans of Yamaha’s entire Liquid Cooled range, be they RD LC, RZ imports, YPVS, TZR/TDR, or any derived specials. We don’t judge, we welcome you all! Originally started in 1989, The LC Club is now just a reed-valve’s width over 30 years old and has gone from strength to strength. It is now a BMF affiliated club with over 500 members both in the UK and overseas. The aim of the club is to bring…

CLASSIC LOOKBACK Oh Lordy, it's the Pro-Am! Twenty-five riders on identical, free motorbikes, unleashed on a race track in front of a national TV audience. What could possibly go wrong? WORDS: STUART BARKER PICS: RONNIE WEIR, NIALL MACKENZIE, MORTONS ARCHIVE “The Pro-Am series was mental and we got up to stuff that you’d never get away with in any other racing class,” says, Niall Mackenzie. “We used to dab each other’s front brakes going along the straights, pull on the pillion grab rail of the rider in front to get a tow, and even hold our own front forks to make a more aerodynamic shape on the bike; in fact, anything to gain another one mile an hour on our rivals. It was brilliant fun and helped by the fact…

RETRO REBOOT Yamaha RD350LC If Yamaha put the RD350LC into production again, it might look like this: well, we’d hope so! WORDS AND IMAGES: KAR LEE The RD350LC has been rebooted before, but as the Kawasaki Z900 and the Suzuki Katana have both been officially reborn, we thought we’d bring Elsie back again. Back in 1980, Yamaha launched both the RD250LC and a bigger 350LC to an unsuspecting world. The smaller of the race-developed, liquid-cooled duo was a learner legal (at the time) 247cc, but it was the bigger 350 that hooligans lusted after. The power delivery, the looks, the handling, the bad boy attitude… this bike had it all. Almost four decades later we’re still lusting for the modern-day equivalent and while the Velocity Moto XSR900 LC-rep comes close,…

Kawasaki Z550F part 1 Zed Shed! CMM reader John Vassallo couldn’t turn down the chance for a cheap, rough, late 1980s Kawasaki as a project… but first, let’s hear some background. WORDS AND PICS: JOHN VASSALLO I’ve never been a fan of football, or any sports: just bikes. My first holiday abroad was Malta in 1974. I still have the photo of me stood with a Honda police bike. I was five. Sure enough, the first bike I owned was a 1964 Honda C50, when I was 11. Then a Casal 50 at 14. Now that was a very quick moped! I’d love another Honda step-thru, but look at the prices! If we fast-forward to the end of 1984, I turned 16 and had my first bike…

Project Honda ST1100 Pan European part 1 Pan Handle! The Pan can handle anything... even having a downhill mountain bike strapped to it for a jaunt to Scotland. Just ask our own intrepid Allen Millyard! WORDS AND PICS: ALLEN MILLYARD Back in the autumn of 1999 I bought a 1992 Honda ST1100 Pan European to rebuild and ride as a winter hack to save my Kawasaki H1F 850 and S1B 415 five-cylinder bikes from the mess and salt of winter riding. The Pan, as I call it, was seven years old, a fire damaged write-off, and had covered just 9000 miles from new. The previous owner had collected all the parts to rebuild it and said it was all there, but loosely assembled. I stripped it down…

The Suzuki Apache: A potted history! The TS400 arrived in 1972 the year after Suzuki began selling the Moto-X TM400 Cyclone and someone, somewhere, obviously thought it’d be a good idea to take the TM and make a road bike out of it. Therefore the engine was detuned, the frame revised and strengthened, road-going kit tacked on, etc. The first, J, model seems to have been made in something of a rush with the super low profile headlight robbed from the likes of the T125/T250 et al; the tank runs a filler cap from the some of the late 1960s models; and the forks look like they’ve been robbed of a road bike. The TS400J and K models seem to have garnered something of reputation. The suggestion (quite possibly urban…