Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

Are you a Kat kinda person? When Suzuki’s Katana first hit our roads 40 years ago, the impact was immediate and it is still being felt to this day. The machine has inspired a loyal following and the machine’s futuristic looks are still fresh, even as we move towards 2022. I’ve been lucky enough to spend time on a number of Katanas, including the recent Suzuki reboot which (nice as it was) isn’t really a Kat in my mind, because the looks just aren’t close enough, and let’s not talk about the tank range! I’ve yet to venture into Katana ownership and the mid-1980s me loves the idea of the bigger bike with the ‘pop-up’ cool of the 750: all very ‘Street Hawk’! One thing our cover star machine does…

Phillip McCallen to headline winter classic! TT legend Phillip McCallen will be guest of honour at the Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic Show in a new year treat for motorcycle fans. The popular road-racer will be joining the crowds at Newark Showground on January 8-9 and be interviewed over the weekend by Lincolnshire racing star-turned-presenter and fellow TT winner, Steve Plater. Phillip McCallen is synonymous with Honda, road-racing and winning! He is without doubt one of the most gifted road-racers of the modern age; 11 times a winner at the Isle of Man TT, multiple winner at the North West 200 and the Ulster GP, winner of the Macau Grand Prix and British Supersport. At the peak of his powers ‘Supermac’ collected winners’ trophies at almost all the road-race meetings…

Paul Smart: legend As CMM went to press we heard the tragic news that Paul Smart had been killed in a motorcycle accident, aged 78. Smart was well known for his victory aboard a Ducati Gran Tourismo 750SS based on the GT road machine at the first Imola 200 race in April 1972. Paul would beat no less a rider than Giacomo Agostini and his MV Agusta 500cc grand prix machine into second place. Smart would enjoy a long career, crossing over both four- and two-stroke machines, gaining seven podium finishes along the way. He would retire from racing in 1978 and build a successful motorcycle dealership chain in Kent, as well as fathering two children, Paula and Scott – no mean racer in his own right – with wife,…

BRIDGESTONE CMM BIKE OF THE YEAR READER’S SPECIAL Terrible twins! CMM reader Lance Bowyer-Lowe had a dream of owning Suzuki’s TL1000 V-twin… but ended up owning five! WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: LANCE BOWYER-LOWE We are always split in this passion of ours as to what we owned back in the day, or what we lusted after. Often, if you were of a certain age, you’d be lucky enough to own the latest Sports Moped, but then lust after the next big thing. And often ‘big’ would be the operative word. So, perhaps, if you were a Yamaha lad in the mid-1980s, lucky enough to have a FS-1E to plod about on, you’d pop to the local dealership and press your nose up against the glass as a series of ‘big’…

RETRO RIDE Rebels without a cause The reason why we’ve championed the 1100 Rebel as a ‘retro’ is that it has been around for some time in various capacity formats. The 125cc (well, 124cc) CA125 Rebel was a twin-cylinder cruiser from the mid-1990s. With around 11bhp and costing £2795 new, it was one of the few decent ways you could learn while being true to the cruiser concept – other than the same firm’s later V-twin Shadow. The CMX250 Rebel was launched at the same time as the 125cc machine, giving around 18bhp from its parallel-twin motor and costing £3495 brand new. The Honda CMX450 Rebel – 1986-1987 – featured a 447cc parallel twin motor. Meanwhile, the 2021 single-cylinder 300cc Rebel is not available in the UK. While the VT/V-twin Shadows…

FOCUS ON Kat’s out of the bag! It’sjust over 40 yearssincethe first of Suzuki’sKatana models reachedthe UK. John Nutting remembers being first to test them anddiscusses their lasting legacy WORDS: JOHN NUTTING PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE, SUZUKI GB, GARY CHAPMAN AND JOHN NUTTING It is little wonder that when Suzuki’s top brass saw the first designs that would be the genesis of the Katana range, they decided quickly to get the first model launched at the Cologne show at the end of 1980. Within nine months, the GSX1100S Katana was in the showrooms and it would lead to a whole range of Katana-style derivatives that 40 years later continue in the Suzuki model range. The reason for Suzuki’s quick decision was no doubt because the competition from Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha…

Shapes and colours Now for the important bit: what the Tuono should look like. I have to say, I’m not the biggest fan of the red/white chequers and less of a fan of the blue version. With the original panels and paint work faded, and with the lacquer around the filler cap heavily worn – as well as the bike having an awful tank pad – I could do something a bit special… But, as Griff says to me, “Keep it Standard, Stupid”, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been thinking long and hard about what to do. I’ve been thinking about the other Aprilias I’ve owned and they’ve all been Mille race-replica bikes, so they’ve got more ‘real estate’ to work with when it comes to fancy-pants colour schemes.…

WORK SHOP Project Kawasaki Z900 part 4 For fork’s sake! Our Ralph is fast moving on with this stock restoration: it’s time to get the fork out! WORDS AND PICS: RALPH FERRAND The forks on a Zed Nine are hardly the most sophisticated suspension devices; even back in the glorious 1970s they really didn’t shine, but they work better if they are returned to as-new condition. Ordinarily I would suggest that the first job is to loosen the top bolt whilst the stanchion is being gripped by the top and bottom yokes, but in this case I couldn’t as the bike came in boxes. I gripped the stanchion in the six-inch soft jaws of my bench vice horizontally for maximum grip area and the plastic spanner then was able to…

WORK SHOP Project Suzuki RG250 HB replica part 5 Roll Your Own After a few months of patiently waiting in a cold, dark, Aussie shed, Bruno has been awoken for the Aussie spring with a full chassis detail and service, not to mention a fresh set of wheels… WORDS AND PICS: JEFF WARE G’day! I know sometimes you guys are a bit behind as there are a lot of projects to fit into CMM, but as I write this we’ve been in lockdown over here for 90 days, thanks to a Covid-19 outbreak and slow vaccination rollout. Some lucky restorers out there would use the time to get extra work done but I’ve been busy working as Mr. Mum and helping around the house as we home school four kids…

Archive Wes Cooley – remembered WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: DON MORLEY, NICK NICHOLS/MORTONS ARCHIVE If anyone was synonymous with a machine and an era, it was double AMA champ Wes Cooley. Wester Steven Cooley won the AMA Superbike Championship in 1979 and 1980 on the seminal Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000-based machines, proudly carrying the number 34 plate, which was recognisable to tens of thousands of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, it was natural for Wes Junior to go racing, as his father had done so before him. After starting out, Wes was taken on by Yoshimura R&D when it was running Kawasaki KZ1000 machinery in 1976: he would take his first AMA Superbike win the following year. Pops and Fujio switched to the Suzuki GS1000 in 1978…

DIRT BIKE SHOW’S NEW VENUE! The International Dirt Bike Show has secured a new venue as the 2022 show is set to be bigger than ever! Europe’s largest off-road show will be held at the Telford International Centre from Friday, October 28 to Sunday, October 30, 2022, and is set to feature new bike and product launches for 2023 as well as op-notch entertainment. Before that, the acclaimed Classic Dirt Bike Show will take its usual place at the venue, being staged next year on February 12-13. Event planner Nick Mowbray says: “We are delighted to be moving the International Dirt Bike Show to the Telford International Centre. Our new venue will allow the show to expand and provide further opportunity for new features.” Find out more information about everything…

EVENT REPORT Super Stafford! It was lovely to be back, wasn’t it? Even if we weren’t at full throttle, there was a lot to love about the 28th Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show. WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: GARY CHAPMAN It was great to be back at Stafford for the 28th Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show after a two-year break. Understandably the crowds weren’t what they were in previous years, but those that were there still had a great time, celebrating the growing popularity of emerging and modern classics from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and even the early noughties. Visitors enjoyed the club stands, the live action, the Bonhams autumn sale, the GP Paddock and special guest stars from iconic eras of motorcycling, including the guest of honour, Michael Dunlop, a 19-times TT…

CLASSIC RIDE Bolts from the Buell! Back in the early Noughties, one forward-thinking engineer/manufacturer was doing things alittle differently… WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: HARLEY-DAVIDSON/JASON CRITCHELL/OLI TENNENT, MORTONSARCHIVES Erik Buell always liked doing things differently. There’s a bare-bones potted history somewhere on these pages to really show what I mean, but by the early 2000s he was building sports machines utilising the air-cooled, 45-degree push-rod V-twins the basis of which powered many a Harley-Davidson Sportster. Of course there were differences, more capacity (984cc but sadly not the originally mooted turbocharger), fuel-injection, high-flow cylinder heads and valve-train that owes something to the-then current NASCAR technology and a ram-air system; all of this helped push power up to around 92 claimed bhp at 7200rpm, which was a bit shy of the 150 that…

WORK SHOP Barn find Honda CL450K1 ‘Just one more thing…’ We welcome contributions from readers so here’s Nick Downs’ take on turning ‘Columbo’ even if you’ve bought a barn find from Colorado, in his case a Honda CL450K1 from 1968… WORDS AND PICS: NICK DOWNS Awhile ago I asked a friend of mine who isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, what he was doing that afternoon. “Watching Columbo,” he replied. Now, if you’ve never watched it, this titular detective series ran from the late 1960s to the early 2000s and in the opening scenes it showed ‘who did it’ as in the murder. In an attempt to develop the conversation I said: “The problem with Columbo is you know who did it from the start!” My friend leant forward, gave…

The Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Treat a friend (or yourself!) to a YEAR’S worth of Classic Motor cycle Mechanics magazine this Christmas… and enjoy this fantastic T-shirt as a gift. Then check out our other great offers… If you enjoyedthi issue, subscribe or renew for ONE YEAR from just £42 and claimyour free gift Visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk/xmascmm or call 01507 529529 andquote XMASCMM Get your gift subscription today Tryone of our other great titles too! Get 6* issues of one of these mags for just £20 Visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk/xmas21DPS Or call 01507529529and quote 710 TERMS & CONDITIONS: Rates are based on UK orders only. For overseas please visit: www.classicmagazines.co.uk/cmm-overseas Subscriptions will start with the next available issue. Offer closes 31/01/2022. Direct debit payments will continue at the price you paid, on this offer,…

WORK SHOP Unhinged and bracket! Lateral thought can be as useful as that piece of NOS reckons Scoop as he shows us how to fabricate a bracket. WORDS AND PICS: STEVE COOPER Project Yamaha CS3C throws me the odd curve ball now and again. Such scenarios are, I believe, mainly down to the rank incompetence of the bike’s previous owners and their gross lack of mechanical sympathy. When I was sorting out the chassis prior to painting I’d found the throttle cable splitter box taped to the top tube with a yard of electrical tape. Naively assuming the box itself was damaged I removed all the cables and just carried on with the project. It was only during the subsequent rebuild that I finally sussed out I was missing part…

WORK SHOP Project Honda CB750FA part 1 Down Under DOHC! We welcome reader David Punshon to CMM, a Brit who is now ‘Down Under’ and assessing his latest purchase, which he hopes to turn into a daily rider… WORDS AND PICS: DAVID PUNSHON I was actually looking around for an early Yamaha FZ750 to restore, when a friend told me about a Honda CB750 he had picked up. I went to look at it and although it hadn’t run for a long time, it looked half decent, with plenty of dust and patina, but it is a 1980 CB750 DOHC and I remember very well the reputation for camshaft chain issues that these bikes got when they came out. On the positive, there wasn’t much wrong with it – apart…

cmm News Gauloises’ return! We are loving this Yamaha XSR900 with its very special colour scheme. This is Yamaha’s latest edition to joint its Sports Heritage line-up for 2022. The basic XSR900 uses the chassis and full electronics package from the latest MT-09, along with the updated 889cc, Euro 5 version of the CP3 triple motor. This XSR900 takes Yamaha’s retro design to a new level with classic lines combined with the new split LED headlight, hidden tail-light, quick-release fasteners and foldaway pillion pegs, all in the blue and yellow Christian Sarron colours inspired by the ‘Gauloises Yamaha’ YZR500 that he rode to success during the 1980s. We love it! More of the same, please… Go to: www.yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/products/motorcycles/sportheritage/xsr900-2022/…

cmm News John Martin: an appreciation Yet more sad news as CMM went to press was that Air-Cooled Suzuki stalwart and all-round great guy John Martin had passed away due to cancer aged just 53. John, from the Peterborough area, worked as an electrical engineer but his passion was for old Suzukis – big or small! If you want to see what John was all about, then check out this month’s Katana feature. The main pictures feature John’s pride and joy Kat from our shoot in 2019, which was back-to-back with a modern Katana. During the launch of the latest machine, John’s was used in pictures alongside the modern version. He was also always raising money for various charities – mainly through his passion for restoring old Suzukis. It’s hard…

The way we were … Send us yournostalgic snaps of you back in the day with your steed! Either send to me at bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk or via our vibrantFacebookpage. C’mon! Allan Dollman says: “Here are a couple of pics of my brother Gary and I with our Honda Interceptors that I would like to submit for The Way We Were! The first picture was taken in 1987. I had a 1985 Honda VF500 Interceptor and my brother had a 1984 Honda VF500 Interceptor. In May 2021, 34 years later, we bought a couple more Interceptors and took another pic of us. I have a 1986 Honda VFR750 Interceptor and my brother has a 1984 Honda VF750 Interceptor. This was the first time in over 30 years that we have ridden together.…

RETRO RIDE Rebel rouser! Bertie rides the latest in a long line of Honda Rebels and finds this one very agreeable indeed. WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS PICS: GARY D CHAPMAN I really shouldn’t be enjoying this motorcycle as much as I am… but I am. These sorts of flashy cruiser trinkets aren’t normally my cup of Siam, but this one is. I mean, I’ve really enjoyed cruisers of a certain type. I’ve even been surprised by how good they can ride, handle and perform. Sometimes they’ve had real character, too (even if they weren’t air-cooled or from Milwaukee), but I wasn’t expecting too much from Honda’s ‘big’ Rebel – and that was wrong of me. My smile is matching my post-middle-aged spread. And that’s really something… and that’s really wide! Initial…

CLASSIC RIDE Buell – a potted history I’ve met many of the big-hitters and designers in motorcycling in the last 25 years, but few – if any – have been as passionate about their products as Erik Buell. After the troubled launch of the liquid-cooled Buell 1125R at Laguna Seca in 2007, where bikes had various running issues, 2008’s ‘street-fighter’ styled CR version was on the money. When the assembled motorcycle journalists sat down to dinner at the Berlin launch with Erik and told him that the bike was a massive improvement and that it should be a winner, he had real tears in his eyes. This is, of course, understandable, as it’s his name on the tank of every Buell ever produced. Erik started the company back in 1983, building…

RETRO REBOOT Suzuki GSX-R1000 Katana At last, someone has built what we’ve been wanting for years: a race-inspired Katana for the road. Read on and see if your mouth doesn’t water… WORDS AND IMAGES: SUZUKI GB All of our Retro Reboots – so beautifully created by Kar Lee – are pie-in-the sky, where we wish the major manufacturers would take heed and build something similar. Well, Suzuki has, and if there’s a better way to spend a dull time over lockdown, we’ve yet to see it… With around a year on its hands thanks to very limited racing activity, Team Classic Suzuki took on a special build, a lockdown labour of love: marrying the classic looks of Suzuki’s legendary Katana, that we celebrate in this very issue, with the basics…

WORK SHOP Project Aprilia Tuono Fighter R part 2 Twin shocks? Bought unseen, with an iffy clutch and looking as if it’s spent some time outdoors, what does the Aprilia expert think of the Editor’s Italian exotica purchase? WORDS: BERTIE SIMMONDS, GRIFF WOOLLEY PICS: BERTIE SIMMONDS “You’ve turned up at the right time!” AP Workshop’s Griff Woolley says to me. I’m guessing it’s because the kettle is on, but apparently not. Griff runs AP (Aprilia Performance) Workshops and he’s been running this business since 2008. His current partners in crime include Steven ‘Snox’ Snoxall and Amber Victoria. If you enter the building, expect to have the mickey taken – but they take it as well as they give it! Griff goes back a long ways with anything Aprilia. While some…

BUYER’S GUIDE Honda FireBlade – 893cc variants It’s Honda’s early 1990s game-changing supersports bike in its first two generations of format: the RR-N/P and ‘Foxeye’ RR-R/S! WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY‘D’ CHAPMAN It’s genuinely difficult to imagine our later, modern, classics without the Honda FireBlade. And if you wanted proof of concept, know this – the bike has now been with us for close on three decades. Where has all that time gone and how come we’re into the high teens in terms of variants of this extremely successful theme? Knowing that The Big Aitch isn’t known for being overly sentimental about models that have outlived their usefulness, it’s a given that the ’Blade has been an unequivocal success story. As we staggered towards the end of the 1980s the…

WORK SHOP Workshop part 2 We love Elsie! About time we caught up with Tony and his Lockdown LC challenge. Tony, of Allspeeds and Gibson exhausts, tells all… WORDS AND PICS: TONY GREENSLADE The LC build off is on. Here in the ‘Blue’ corner. I have dug out my LC frame, which I had powder-coated a few years back when I started the rebirth of the LC into a highly modified machine. The plan was to fit Suzuki RGV250 inverted forks in some Spondon yokes, whilst in the rear was a one-off alloy swingarm with an Ohlins shock. All sat on a pair of Aprilia RS125 wheels. All these parts were made to fit as a dry build and then stripped and sent for painting, polishing, etc. However, it has…

Next month IN YOUR MILDLY RESTORED CMM! KAWASAKI ZX-9R NINJA: Bertie Simmonds on why the Ninja 9R is a shrewd late 1990s buy… YAMAHA RD200A: Steve Cooper on this well-balanced Yamaha two-stroke twin. WORKSHOP HOW TO: Two-stroke tutorial! When carbs go wrong! And much more – if we can fit it all in! BRIDGESTONE/CMM BIKE OF THE YEAR: Another one of YOUR restos/specials in the spotlight! PROJECT BIKES: We will be showcasing some of the following (space allowing): Mark Haycock’s Honda CB450; Steve Cooper’s Yamaha C3SC and Suzuki Apache, or Rickuki; Jeff Ware’s Suzuki RM80X and Suzuki RG250 HB Replica; Ralph Ferrand with his Project Zed and maybe his Yamaha YZF-R6; Malc Shaw returns with his Suzuki TR750; Taylor Mackenzie with his Yamaha TY80; Kar Lee's Yamagamma; and Bertie Simmonds' Aprilia Tuono…