Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

Every day is a school day… Because, after all, we never stop learning, right? That’s how I’ve felt in this job (journalism) since day one 30 years ago and I feel the same now. It’s the same attitude I bring towards my riding. I try better riding courses, I read better riding books and talk to mates about riding, and we often discuss our differing styles or points of view after a ride. It all helps. So when Niall Mackenzie asked me if he and pal Neil Hodgson could help share some wisdom, who was I to say no? Now, first a disclaimer: We’ve all ‘been around a bit’, so much of what is written you may (or may not) already know, but – as stated above – you may…

Tested Riding kit ridden in, tools twirled and tyres tested AURITECH CUSTOM EARPLUGS Having tried and liked a pair of the regular ‘one-size-fits-all’ Auritech plugs, I’ve been using these ones since around 2018. Firstly, the custom fit comes from me having had a mould of both ear canals made, from which they produce (in my case) a pair of soft silicone perfect fit plugs. You can also choose a harder, UV-treated material which is hypoallergenic if you like, but I like the comfort you get from silicone (stop giggling at the back…). Now, the trick part of the ear plug is the patented acoustic attenuation filter, which is a little ceramic insert inside the plug itself. Apparently, the filter reduces the likes of background noise, wind noise, etc., thanks to the…

STROKERS AT THE COMBE! Events have been extremely thin on the ground this year due to the situation with Covid-19, so when I saw the LC Club were having their own group at Castle Combe and there was a space going I decided to book it for Ella Middleton, as she’s not really ridden since someone punted her off at Cadwell Park last year. I arranged everything with Pete Sprague who is the club’s southern rep and he’s been in CMM before! The great thing about Castle Combe is the fact that they only run small groups on their bike track days and (with one no-show) that meant just 11 in her session. The weather wasn’t too bad, but chilly, and as it was the LC club I decided to…

Super Scrambler! Greetings from the US of A! I have to say I loved the reader-built Street Scrambler based on the Kawasaki Z400. I read the article twice before seeing it’s a Bike of the Year candidate. It’s great as it’s totally outside the box! Triumph exhaust: hell yes! A street bike into a cross-road machine: hell yes! Home brewed: hell yes. I recently had a 1978 KZ400 and loved it. I bought it as a neglected survivor for a ‘parts-fetcher.’ I cleaned it up and used its luggage rack to strap down anything that would fit on it! I was shocked at how fast it was and it did great wheelies! I then read (in your magazine) that its motor is actually half a Z1 900, which explained a…

READER’S SPECIAL WITH BRIDGESTONE Winds of change! Kent-based CMM reader Stuart Gilbert loved a Z1, but couldn’t afford it, nor a Zephyr back in the 1990s – but then he could, and boy would his be a breath of fresh air! WORDS AND PICS: STUART GILBERT I always fancied a Kawasaki Zephyr when they first came out in the early 1990s, which in turn began when I first saw a Z1, but couldn't afford either of them at the time when the bug had bitten… Strangely, it was the 550 I thought was the best looking due to its close-pitch cylinder finning as opposed to the 750; the 1100 had not been released at that point, so that was my only choice. Fast forward to 2013 and I saw by…

RIDE BETTER! Welcome to part one of our three-part series on how to ride your modern classic better! Messrs Niall Mackenzie and Neil Hodgson give us some tips on survival out on the road and on track. Part one: preparation, the basics and urban riding… WORDS: NIALL MACKENZIE, NEIL HODGSON, BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: GARY D CHAPMAN, MORTONS ARCHIVE Every day should be a school day, right? That’s what my old boss once told me and I still stick to it… Every time I do anything, be it in the office or throwing a leg over a bike, I’m prepared to learn something new. It’s the best way… Car drivers may be blinkered, think they know it all and not want to move forward from passing their very basic…

Allen Millyard Award-winning motorcycle engineer! Dribbles and drips! With six of the damn things to keep on top of, it’s a wonder our Allen hasn’t gone stir crazy: yup, he’s sorting the carbs! I have only done around 50 miles on my Super Six this month, because I’ve been riding some of my other bikes. I’ve noticed that it has a slight leak from the carburettor overflow pipes when I park the bike, that clears up once the fuel tap is turned off. The engine seems a bit hesitant at lower throttle openings, which John Nutting also noticed when he came to ride the Super Six for next month’s CMM road test, so I decided to remove the carbs for a closer examination. When I built the bank of six…

If you can’t beat ‘em… PHOTOGRAPHS: MORTONS ARCHIVE, THE MARK WERNHAM COLLECTION Edwards would win his and the (new) SP2’s championship in fine style two seasons later. He would battle with 2001 champ Troy Bayliss and this would be a season of two halves… Troy would dominate the first half, leading by 53 points after they hit Colin’s home round of Laguna Seca. There though, Edwards would win race two and the next eight races, including the legendary final round championship clash at Imola, where our main image is taken. At that round neither the Aussie or the Texan would give up, but Edwards had the momentum to seal the championship in fine style with a double win, with Bayliss taking two second place finishes. ■ Want to get hold…

News STAFFORD CANCELLED It was with huge regret that we had to cancel The 27th Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show which was set to take place over the weekend of October 10-11 at the Stafford County Showground. Our hand was forced due to the worsening situation and rising infection rate of Covid-19. Mortons Media Group reluctantly took the decision after closely monitoring events both locally and nationally. This long-established event has always been a firm favourite with motorcycle enthusiasts from all over Europe and with the increase of cases worldwide and nationally, Mortons felt this was the safest thing to do for the well-being of both visitors and traders. Traditionally, the show is a highlight in the event calendar;it is also a strong social event for visitors at the…

Show us yours We want to see YOUR pride and joy in our pages, so you can 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 more at…

RETRO RIDES Carry on Doctor! Suzuki’s big V-Strom has some new retro clothes for 2020 and we love the look! WORDS: MIKKO NIEMINEN PICS: SUZUKI The retro-wave has been washing our shores for a good while now, but for big adventure touring bikes it’s a new thing. Suzuki is the first to the party with the V-Strom 1050, although we can expect plenty of other brands to follow suit, judging by the recent concept bikes from the likes of Ducati and Husqvarna, as well as paint jobs on the likes of the Yamaha Ténéré 700. With the new V-Strom, Suzuki has taken inspiration from the DR-Z Paris-Dakar race bike and the DR Big production machine from the 1980s – and we love it! Suzuki designers took the rectangular headlight as…

What to look out for… Keep your eyes open when it comes to signs in the urban environment. These can come in a number of formats, such as signs from other road users. Brake lights: Yes, they tell you the car ahead is slowing down, so you have to. Indicators: Often under-used by the car fraternity, so never presume the driver is going to use them or that they are going to turn or move in the direction the indicators say. Conversely, do use yours and remember to switch them off! Road signs tell you what’s happening ahead. Speed signs should be obeyed in the urban environment;, no-entry signs ditto. Other signs hint to what could be around the corner, be it a school (children crossing the road), speed humps…

I own them... Kettle Club chairman Dave Hewitson was barely in his teens when he was bitten by the GT750 bug. In 1977 a neighbour was visited by a black GT750B with a Piper three-into-one exhaust. “I can remember the howl from the bike as he shot off down the road,” remembers Dave. Dave subsequently owned a wide range of bikes, but never a GT. While on holiday in 2003, he found a copy of Classic Bike Guide in which there was an advert for a one-owner blue GT750 for £2500. “Suddenly the desire to own a GT750 was as strong as it had been when I first saw one,” says Dave, who, upon returning home, found a cheque for £2500 as compensation for endowment mis-selling. “It was a sign,”…

RETRO SPECTIVE HONDA CB1000 Project Big 1 Check out this rare Honda ‘Four’ that will be hard to find today, but is worthwhile if you can! WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE You have to forgive its name… ‘Project Big 1’, and instead call it the ‘Super Four’. For this is the Honda CB1000 – a bike powered by a detuned CBR1000F four-cylinder, given some quality parts in the chassis department (half-decent forks and Showa piggy-back rear shocks), but then cursed with a daft name and a short lifespan. Apparently it was the Honda engineers who coined the name, only to find that ‘The Big 1’ or a version of the name was some form of American-branded toilet cleaner. Nice. So we’ll call it the ‘Super Four’. Looks-wise, the Super…

Project Yamaha TX750 part 6 Fuel for thought… With the bike being left stood for some time, what’s happened to the carbs and the air-filter? WORDS AND PICS: MARK HAYCOCK And so – let’s get back to my Yamaha TX750. Well, the fuel feed seemed to be all in order so it was time to look at the carburettors. Unlike the TX500, the carb set up is very simple as there is no mechanical linkage with opening and closing cables for the throttle. Instead, a separate cable leads from the twist grip to each carb, with synchronisation dealt with by an adjuster on each cable. This is not the most accurate way to synchronise, but it does make it very easy to disconnect the cables and hence…

What to buy and how much to pay The bike came in two candy colours, red and blue, and in two, slightly different versions: earlier examples had a single seat and rack along with a pair of gauges. The later version had a dual seat and just a speedo. That said, Yamaha met some sales resistance over the single seat and offered a dual seat free of charge to both existing and new customers, so there’s no hard and fast rule as to what’s period correct. Rougher project examples can be had for as low as £250, with a half-decent one hovering around £400-£700. A fully restored or really super tidy can touch £3000-3500, with decent runners that are all together between £1500-£2000. That said, prices are rising because it’s…

Stuff The latest riding kit, top tools, tyres, retro clothing and more! SHARK EVOJET This is the new SHARK EVOJET which apparently combines unrivalled comfort and lightness, and boasts the widest field of vision from that visor! Apparently, one of the major innovations of the EVOJET is the visor and chin-guard being one attached unit. This has many benefits, including offering riders a panoramic field of vision while in the closed position. It can be changed from full-face to the jet position with just one hand. You’ve got an anti-scratch and anti-fog treated visor, and the chin-guard closes and locks using a hook system. The ventilation system has been optimised to ensure a continuous flow of air during use. The chin-guard itself is equipped with an inlet which distributes the…

Ralph Hudson Ralph Hudson, who raced into the record books when he became the world’s fastest rider of a conventional sit-on motorcycle at almost 300mph, has died after succumbing to injuries sustained during another record attempt in the US. The 69-year-old was riding his modified GSX-R1000 (1650cc, 420bhp) Suzuki at 252mph when he lost control during the Southern California Timing Association’s annual Speedweek event at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, in August. He died in hospital three weeks later. Hudson set two of his fastest FIM-ratified speed records in 2018 at the Uyuni salt lake in Bolivia. He clocked 298.16mph over a measured kilometre, while his two-way average speed through a measured mile was fractionally slower at 297.97mph. He missed his target of 300mph due to the poor salt condition, but…

MAIN TEST Half a century of haze! Suzuki’s GT750 two-stroke triple was the factory’s first real superbike. John Nutting details its origins and rides two examples of a machine with a faithful following. WORDS: JOHN NUTTING PICS: GARY CHAPMAN With 50 years having passed since Suzuki’s two-stroke GT750 was launched, it’s easy for many motorcycle fans these days to regard the bike as a bit of a dinosaur, a smoking throwback from an era of unbridled and eventually doomed excess. But at the time, we could hardly believe what we saw in the papers after the T750R, as it was then known, was unveiled at the 17th Tokyo Show in October 1970. In the 1960s, Japanese two-strokes meant performance, but large-capacity two-strokes were just a dream.…

Project Yamaha CS3C part 11 The Fast Show! Scoop is actually making significant headway… we think! He’s also got comedy on his brain… WORDS AND PICS: STEVE COOPER In the words of Jesse from The Fast Show: “This week I arr been mostly working on the right-hand side of my street scrambler!” Following on from the unparalleled success of the electrical stuff last time I decided to sort out the clutch shock absorber (featured in one of our Workshop set pieces) and then add the rest of the giblets to that side of the motor. The raison d’être for this sudden and atypical flush of enthusiasm was simply that once the outer engine cover is in place and the oil-pump fitted, I only have two significant jobs…

BUYER’S GUIDE YAMAHA RS200 Once derided but gaining a strong following now, it’s Yamaha commuter twin. WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: DARREN HENDLEY GUARDS Infamous for rotting out on double seams and strengthening ribs: a decent tinsmith should be able to repair all but the most corroded. WHEEL RIMS Long since deleted, if you need new rims you’ll need to look at aftermarket options. ENGINE Simple and straightforward, most parts are still available either from Yamaha or aftermarket. Pistons long ago deleted, but YB100 ones fit. ELECTRICS Any issues with the electric foot are likely to be either carbon brush or control box related. Replace the former and service the latter using any 180/200 factory manual. EXHAUSTS Unique to the RS200 and vital for good performance: RD125/200 systems are sometimes a…

Project Honda TL125S part 1 It’s a family affair! Our very own better riding guru Niall Mackenzie shows his love of the off-roaders of old with this, the Honda TL125S – and check out son Taylor’s bike later this issue! WORDS: NIALL MACKENZIE PICS: NIALL MACKENZIE, GARY D CHAPMAN The Yamaha RD 350LC might be the all-time love of my life, however, for many reasons I also have a lasting affection for the little Honda TL125S. It may be a humble and even insignificant motorcycle, but still one that played a huge part in my life pre-racing. I’ll start from the very beginning. There’s a tradition in Scotland when new babies arrive, on their first encounter with friends and relatives, said child is furnished with some cash.…