Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

cmm Stuff The latest riding kit, top tools, tyres, retro clothing and more! LS2 CHALLENGER HELMET LS2 has added three new colour options for the popular sports-touring Challenger helmet for the 2020 summer season: the eye-catching, Jeans/Fluo/0range 'Canon' and stylish Black/Titanium, and Red/Blue 'Propellor'. Developed from LS2's supported racers, the Challenger blends the latest in race technology, with first-class safety and features for the road. The Challenger weighs just 1385 grams and comes with good ventilation and a breathable, hypoallergenic liner. The outer shell is made from High Performance Fibreglass Composite and it's aerodynamically sculpted to help keep the wearer's head stable at higher speeds. Apparently, this helps reduce fatigue! It comes with a quick-release, 3D 0ptically Correct Visor, a Pin lock Max Vision Anti-Fog System and has a flip-down…

CMM/BRIDGESTONE TRACK DAY We know you'd know by now (as it was due to go ahead June 6-7), but the CMM/ Bridgestone track day and event at Cadwell Park had to be cancelled. It was a sad decision to make, but one which was eventually made in the middle of May, long after the June issue of CM M had gone to press. Darin Frow from our friends/organisers Classic Bike Trackdays said: "Thanks to everyone for their patience, but we had to await circuit owner MSV's announcement following the Government's most recent instructions regarding the pandemic. While MSV issued a statement advising that their circuits would be operational from Tuesday, May 26, with new procedures aimed at mitigating the risk to riders as well as CBT and MSV staff, we…

Scooting Ahead! We at CMM are above any scooter/ motorcycle, Mods/ Rockers rivalry here - anything on two wheels is something we love. So, it's natural that we have to mention what our sister title Scootering is doing. Scootering is now the best, all-round magazine dedicated to the scooter scene here in the UK, and here's why... Sinee 1997, when Classic Scooterist was conceived by editor Mau Spencer, it's been the magazine at the beating heart of the classic scooter scene, the go-to magazine that concentrated on the classic scooter end of the hobby and the nostalgia that surrounds the first-generation scooterist. Now, Classic Scooterist editor Mau Spencer and the editor of Scootering, Dan Clare, will be collaborating to give the scooter scene the very best in news, reviews, features,…

Triumph Speed Triple timeline 1994-1997 Triumph Speed Triple The original was a modular machine in the T300 series family with a spine frame, 885cc triple producing 98bhp claimed. Basically frame and motor were from the Daytona 900. With clip-on bars and a single, round headlamp it was a clean-looking design that won a lot of friends: just see the prices now! It also came (for 1997 only) in 750 form. Price then: £7699 (1994). Price now: £2800-£5000! 1997-1998 Triumph T509 Speed Triple The first T500 series Triple, 108bhp from a motor held in that signature swoopy ally frame and single-sided swingarm. Engine capacity was still 885cc. First models came with clip-ons before moving to bars. Price then: £8299 (late 1996). Price now: £2000-£3500. 1998-2001 Triumph Speed Triple 955i A few…

Allen Millyard Award-winning motorcycle engineer! Odd job man! With lockdown in full swing, Allen's on with his Zed Super Six and also doing some odd jobs! It's been a strange few weeks not being able to ride my bikes or go to bike meets and shows, and especially not being able to test ride my newly completed Kawasaki Z1 1396cc Super Six. I had one last job to do on it before its first road test and that was to fit some better fuel hose that was ethanol resistant. The original fuel hose that I bought online had gone hard in a matter of weeks after contact with petrol, and also as a precaution I wanted to fit a pair of inline filters. The standard petrol tap filter is made…

What to buy and how much to pay If you're likely to be paying top dollar for an S1 you could probably do well to take along a marque/ model expert. It's one of those bikes that's likely to have had one careful owner and 16 that didn't give a damn. Mix 'n' match examples are likely to be in the majority and you need someone who can spot an S1B that's masquerading as an S1A. Period and minor changes to details such as original body-coloured front guards versus later chrome ones are easy to overlook in the excitement of a potential purchase. Early models had silver painted outer engine cases, later examples were just buffed alloy. Do they interchange? Ask an…

Project Kawasaki Z550F part 3 screwing around... CMM reader John Vassallo is further on with his Kawasaki Z550F project. We are just a little bit behind as we have SO much to cram into the magazine! Bear with ... WORDS AND PICS: JOHN VASSALLO It's New Year's Day (ok, I know Bertie is holding features over as he's got lots to put in your issue of CMM... ). I woke up at 8am with a clear head. I'm not sure how, as I'd celebrated the New Year at a 1980s fancy dress at my local. (See? Remember going to your local pub?) Maybe I held back with the booze. Either way, my friend Dave Sims was on his way over to help with my project. What a…

BOOK CORNER RACING CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES Andy Reynolds rode the best classic machines between 1976 and 2016 at the highest level, and on some of the best-known courses in the world. Told in his own words, this book recounts his successes, friendships and hardships, and gives great insight into the world of motorcycle racing. Paperback, 240 pages, 57 pictures. www.ve/oce.co.uk CLASSIC ENGINES, MODERN FUEL: THE SOLUTIONS  car-based, yes, but still interesting. Paul Ireland investigates what happens with modern fuel in a classic (pre-1990) car engine, so much of the basics are the same. The book includes descriptions of how a spark-ignition engine works, and how it can be tuned to avoid common problems. Paperback, 152 pages, 136 pictures. www.veloce.co.uk…

Guzzi stone saving! Moto Guzzi and its parent company the Piaggio Group is looking forward to business moving towards normality and trying to stimulate demand with a range of special offers on their Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia and Guzzi machines. For CMM readers, you'll be interested to know that the retro Moto Guzzi V7 Ill Stone, Stone Night Pack and Special come with £1000 off! Other offers are available on the Piaggio Liberty 125 (0% HP finance); the Piaggio Medley 125 and MP3 300 hpe Sport (3% PCP finance); Vespa GTS 125 & 300 (0% HP finance); Aprilia 125 range (0% HP finance); Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 (3% PCP finance); and an £850 trade-in bonus with the V85 TT! For more go to: www.piaggiogroup.com/en…

WIN Weise Michigan is jacket 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: 10/07/2020. 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 Weise Michigan jacket worth £169.99. Subtle, classy retro design cues mark the from the crowd. Quilted shoulder stitching and upper-arm stripes round off a high-quality textile out more at thekeycollection.co.uk…

FEEDBACK Post to Mechanics, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lines LN9 6LZ or email your pictures to editorial@classicmechanics.com Bad bikes? Enjoying the magazine - thank you! I'm just writing to share my impressions of the articles covering the Ducati 748 and Suzuki TLl000S. Were both of these bikes so poorly designed? They both appear to be complete engineering disasters. I can imagine that both would cost an absolute fortune to put right and the types of problems described are downright dangerous if not checked and addressed. Far worse than my Kawasaki H2C that I owned when I was 17! I've owned a 748 BIP and experienced the regulator/ rectifier problem, but have owned a 996SPS, 998R (still have), 749R, 999S, 999R, 998FE, 1098S, 1098R, Panigale 1199, Panigale R and now a…

Show us yours We want to see Y0UR 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 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 Chain Care Kit worth £50, which includes their new White Chain Spray 2.0 that offers four times more wear protection for chains and sprockets than the competition. Find out…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE 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. 1999 SUZUKI BANDIT GSF600 Q: When I ride over small and big bumps in the road, I hear a banging from the front end. It seems to come from the left side at the top yoke steering stem. I have changed everything: wheel bearings, new fork sliders, bushes, seals, and even a new steering head. I set the steering play as per the Suzuki workshop manual. I tried tightening the bearings, but it made no difference. I noticed that…

Tool of the month with BIKER'S TOOLBOX What a wrench! Ralph Ferrand works with tools all day long-he sells them too at bikerstoolbox.co.uk. So he knows what works. My first impact wrench was bought for eleventy billion pounds from the Snap-On man in the early 1990s together with a battery drill/driver. The drill driver was a great new toy but, in real daily use, was under-powered for most workshop tasks and the nickel cadmium batteries of the day did not pack much of a punch and had a disappointing lifespan, with replacements costing the GDP of a small country. The impact wrench was more impressive, but very heavy and again not producing the sort of torque the cost might suggest it should have. When some bottom-feeder stole it I didn't replace…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Project Ducati 999 Racer part 1 Dial Duke 999! Louigi Moto's Rich Llewellin took the plunge with this 2003 Ducati and ended up making a beautiful homage to Paul Smart's lmola 1972 winner... WORDS: RICH LLEWELLIN “The new Louigi Mote 999 racer was born out of regret," so says owner Rich Llewellin. We had an amazing 749R-based special that was the most wonderful of machines to ride and we sold It on to make way for other projects. As soon as It was wheeled out of our North Somerset-based workshop by its new owner I knew that I had made a mistake. It's taken a few years for the right bike to come along and then the back end of 2019 a 999S of 2003 vintage came…

Project Triumph T595 Daytona part 1 Daytona dreamin’ Jim always wanted one of these... and three years ago he finally got on. He's now cracking on with this Triple Treat. .. WORDS: JIM LINDSAY So there we were, me, Bertie Simmonds and photographer Gary Chapman standing by the side of the road taking a break from a CMM photoshoot when I mentioned doing a Hinckley Triumph Daytona for my next project. Bertie said Niall Mackenzie had one... in bits. If you're wondering why an ex racer of Niall's ability would be interested in an ancient, battered first generation English sports bike, the brief answer is he wasn't, although he did appear with it in the September 2016 issue. Here's the story. Niall was instructing at a Mallory…

Suzuki TR750 Special part 3 Chain reactions! When the chain starts to rub on certain things, what does our Male do? Apply some ingenuity! WORDS AND PICS: MALE SHAW Last time I'd lined up the wheels and got the chain to run fairly true with a lot of measuring and a bit of machining. As a slight aside a mate of mine uses long fluorescent tubes as straight edges to align his wheels. He does a lot of track days and is quick, so although it's not a method I've come across before I can see how it works. At some point I'm going to investigate how I can use my DeWalt laser level to achieve this function and report back if it's successful. There're a lot…

cmm Tested Riding kit worn, tools twirled & tyres turned RST PRO SERIES X-RAID SUIT I've been a bit of an RST leathers and textiles fan for the last 20 years. RST derived from the original cheap-as-chips 'Rhino' brand back in the late 1980s, but year after year they've really moved the goal posts for budget biker kit. My first foray into the brand was a few leather and textile suits from 2000 and I've seen both types of biker apparel come on in leaps and bounds since. Budget they may be, but the quality has continued to rise. My last textile 'adventure' suit was the Paragon II from around 2010, which I only stopped wearing last year, and this X-Raid seems to be the logical successor. And what a…

SCOOPERMAN! The sunny side of the classic world, with the VJMC's Steve Cooper Do we genuinely need large capacity classics? Are they actually viable in today's traffic conditions? Is a Honda CBX1000, a Kawasaki 21, a Suzuki GT750 or a Yamaha XS1100 really practical now? It's emphatically a given that the world of two wheels is one where an ageing demographic holds sway with the Big Four actively targeting those over 50. And age is catching up with those in the classic scene; the lads of the late 60s and early 70s are now at, or approaching pensionable age and time has, sadly, caught up with some of them. If you scour the small ads, sift through eBay or even look at the bikes for sale in the back of…

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! We've teamed up with The Hobby Company (www.hobbyco.net) which 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 where to post the kit. Mike Cowburn says: "Here are a selection of snaps taken of my bikes, starting with an FSl-E that cost a few hundred quid when it rolled out of…

“I love my Doris!” Cliff Williams, 61, bought 'Doris', a low mileage 2002, Speed Triple 955i model in 2005 from Roger Winterburn, at Windy corner. "The price I paid, I'm afraid, is lost in the mists of time and two house moves. However, I do remember the deal involved my trading in my 885cc model. The difference between how the 885 and the 955i felt was huge. It was apparent that ongoing development had brought a good many improvements. so began a long and happy ownership. "An early test of our partnership was it being pressed into use whilst conducting CBTs. In truth, the triple engine, being so flexible, made life easy. Following a change in my personal life, I found myself with the opportunity to head off across the…

“I own these TZR250 Yamahas” These TZR250 Yamahas are two of a number of exotic Japanese sports bikes owned by Owen. No last name as he wants to keep his collection private! A lifelong motorcyclist who started on vespas in the 1980s, Owen soon graduated to an RD350LC and after owning big sports bikes found their appeal waning, and went touring on BMW adventure bikes. That's when raw 250cc race replicas caught his eye. "I got bored stupid with what the factories were producing, so I started looking for Japanese market models," he says. The other 250cc machines in his shed now include two TZR250SP v-twins, one from 1992 and one from 1994, alongside a 750cc Yamaha OW-01, an FZR400SP, a TZ250 4DP racer and a stock FZ750. He's also…

HAYNES PRINT & ONLINE Project Honda VFRB00 F-iW part 2 crash course! Poor Jonny! A 2000-mile trip cements his relationship with the VFR and then the worst happens! WORDS AND PICS : JONNY HEDGES Hello everyone... it's been some time since I appeared in CMM and a lot's happened. Last year I told you about my intention to go on a long ride to Spain and Portugal, but I had to get the VFR serviced, which I figured I'd do myself. Wemoto was my first and only port of call. They supplied a Simota air-filter, oil and oil-filter, as well as a full TRK brake caliper kit (see page 10-11) for the front and rear calipers of the V4. As is usual with Wemoto…

Project Yamaha TZR250 3MA part 4 First Kick! There are things that we classic mechanical types get a kick from and at the top of the Iist is that first fire-up! And when it starts first kick, it is an even sweeter moment... WORDS AND PICS: JEFF WARE G’day! Last time the engine was in and we were a happy team. Since then I have hooked it all up, but it was far from smooth sailing. My first job was to clean those Mikuni TM32mm SS carburettors up. They are a complex carb, way ahead of their time. These ones had been modified and most likely caused the huge engine blow-up. They run a solenoid-controlled air jet set up, where there is a bank of various air…

Triumph T595 Daytona timeline The Triumph T595 Daytona was the Hinckley firm's move away from their cost-effective 'modular' approach to motorcycle chassis and motor sharing, and also their first foray in the big superbike class. The looks are almost like a fatter Ducati 916: there's that lupine tilt to the headlights and a single-sided swingarm. Motor and chassis are unique. The frame rails are swoopy aluminium, the swingarm held an attractive, exposed three-spoke wheel, while the motor was a three-cylinder Sagem fuel-injected 955cc lump. Price new in 1997 was £9649. Despite early road tests of the time, the T595 wasn't a FireBlade beater, it simply did its own thing and was a pleasing, British alternative to anything Japanese or Italian. It did have some issues just after launch. T595s were…