Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

I couldn’t help more than a shiver of excitement to see our very own Andy Bolas ride Yamaha’s TZR125 this issue. I was 16 when the TZR was first released and I can remember them proliferating on the streets of Thanet vividly. I so wanted one badly, however… OK, we heard last month that it’s time for me to shed some weight. Well. I’ve not ALWAYS been this way, but I’ve pretty much always been ‘above average’, or ‘well nourished’, or a ‘little on the larger side’. So, even aged 17 I would sit on my mate’s TZR125 and just think it was a bit on the wee side for me; how I wished I had been older so I could have ridden a 250 on L-plates… So, I figured…

Former Norton Motorcycles owner Stuart Garner has avoided jail, despite siphoning off £11 million from members of pension funds of which he was sole trustee. Appearing before Derby Magistrates Court on March 31, Garner received an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years. He has also been ordered to pay more than £20,000 in costs. According to the Derby Telegraph’s report of the hearing, Judge Nirmal Shant QC, told Garner: “You controlled the Norton motorcycle business and in 2012 the business needed funds and you raised around £11m by establishing three funds which were under your control. You did not know you were breaking the law. However, it is plain, in setting up a pension fund worth £11m, that you should have known your basic responsibilities as a trustee.” Apparently,…

Bonhams Motorcycles’ first sale in Italy entitled Passione Moto will take place on the weekend of October 1/2 at the world-renowned Moto dei Miti Museum near Rome. In a change to the previous dates in April, this is being staged in partnership with motorcycle paddock-great Genesio Bevilacqua, founder of the Althea Racing team and the Civita Castellana museum. More than 100 motorcycles will be offered in the sale covering decades of international motorcycling history, including a selection of the museum’s own sports and competition machines, the tasty titbits of which include an ex-Team Gallina, 1981 Suzuki RG500. The Suzuki RG500 was ridden to 50 Grand Prix victories and carried three riders to win the World Championships – Team Gallina’s Marco Lucchinelli and Franco Uncini in 1981 and 1982 respectively, and Barry…

Bernard Kuropka says: “Bertie! I think we’ve met before. I had a red GSF1200S Bandit on a Bike Magazine Brett Tour that you were on in the 1990s. I had two pals with me, Steve Morris and Mike Lock. So enjoyable was that experience that not many years later, I encouraged a group of Classic Bike pals to van our classics over to France and Belgium, and thus began about 10 years of ‘Old Farts Classic Bike Battlefield Tours’. We visited Ypres, the Somme, Normandy invasion beaches, etc., many times. Alongside that, we began an 11-year pilgrimage to the Le Mans 24-hour Bike Endurance Race. I had a pal who owned a Hotel in the Alpes mancelles (St Leonard de Bois), halfway between Le Mans and Alencon. I part-exchanged the…

PICS: Like many a country pub, The Kentish Horse in Markbeech has its weekly bikers’ evening and in the summer months it attracts an eclectic range of machines, from old British twins and two-stroke crotch rockets to big adventure bikes and modern classics. Conversations range from the previous weekend’s GP to a long-distance trial. In short, there’s something for everyone… But when this Honda CL350 street-scrambler turned up the first time, every head was turned. The latest addition to a local accountant’s collection, it stood out with its bright tank graphics and lavish chrome-plated exhaust system. It looked decidedly alien, yet familiar. I had to have a go, and Mark, as we’ll call him because he wants to remain anonymous, was happy to let me ride it for a week.…

G’day! On the last update we fired the RM up and wow, what a cool moment that was. I’ve since run the little yellow terror through multiple heat cycles, much to the listening pleasure of my neighbours, and then retorqued the head. Probably not necessary but why not, it’s easy to do. Next up were the wheels. I had been so undecisive about what I wanted here. A fully polished rim each end and new spokes with a black hub? Silver-painted hub? Maybe a natural alloy hub? I then realised if I had brand-new looking wheels, I’d have to do everything else to match – the forks, the shocks again, a perfect swingarm… Everything else could look crappy if the wheels were new. So, I decided to go with a…

Last time, I was performing a laying on of hands on the whirring heart of the engine of my 1976 Z900A4… Although under close inspection the oil-pump showed no ill effects from four-and-a-half decades (and given there were no tell-tale marks on the screws), I can reasonably assume that this was the first time its innards had seen daylight in 45 years so it would have been foolhardy to build the engine without inspection. An oil-pump failure can kill an engine stone dead! This month I’m going to make a start on putting the top-end together and I’ll begin by pulling out my head stands and popping the valves back in the cylinder head. Given how relatively inexpensive a set of heads stands are, I have never understood why folks…

Barry Sheene 1976-77 500cc champ This is the machine that Barry Sheene took to his final 500cc world title, which is now an astonishing 45 years ago. For many years his title-winning Suzuki RG500 XR14 took pride of place in Barry and Stephanie Sheene’s home on the Gold Coast of Australia. But, at the back end of 2015 Suzuki GB took delivery of the bike and it was fully restored along with other Sheene machines to be ready to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sheene’s first title in 1976. Shrewd Sheene was canny when it came to the start of his 1977 season as it wasn’t certain that he would stay with the factory Suzuki team at all. It was rumoured that Barry could have Suzuki RG500s or even Yamahas…

Three-time 500cc world champion Wayne Rainey will ride his 1992 title-winning Yamaha YZR500 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year, marking 30 years since the Californian won his final Grand Prix title. Wayne was 500cc champion in 1990, 91 and 92, and sadly would suffer a life-changing injury at Misano in 1993 while wrestling Kevin Schwantz for the 1993 title. He was left paralysed from the chest down as a result. Since the accident he’s been a Grand Prix team boss and is currently in charge of the regeneration of MotoAmerica – what was the AMA series. Yamaha has already previously set up a YZF-R1 for Rainey to ride. The former champ took to the track at Willow Springs back in 2019 – but a 500cc two-stroke screamer? This…

We love to hear from you, so why not let us know what you like, or dislike in YOUR magazine. Simply get in touch by sending emails to: letters@classicmechanics.com or direct to the editor at BSimmonds@Mortons.co.uk or post your letters to the normal address. Big lads unite! And shrink… Ah, Bertie, I’ve just read your intro in the latest mag. I was in the same boat as you, leaning on things to pick something up and the same when standing up from adjusting the chain, etc. I was fed up with trying to buy more riding kit and finding the only stuff that fitted my waist was too long in the leg and arms and looked like they were meant to be on a clown… Losing weight is simple (well,…

And so, despite pandemics and winter storms, we are at (or dangerously close to) the end of project Kawasaki Hybrid. It starts, it runs and generally does everything that two-stroke triples should do, but with one exception: it’s in the wrong colour. Our opening image shows the bike in a donor set of used bodywork that’s been fitted to check everything is where it should be and there’s no component clashes or inter-part interference. Squeezing the proverbial quart into a pint pot, space was always going to be at a premium in certain areas. And that’s not something you’d normally have to think about on your average restoration but, obviously, this is a hybrid so nothing is guaranteed or can be taken for granted, etc. The only obvious issue spotted…

You can usually bet that the front forks of any bike you acquire which is more than 15 years old will need some sort of attention, but this is especially so with one near 50 years old. I have covered forks a few times in my last projects so let me say that these are very straightforward to dismantle and put back together again, so I shall just look at one or two points of interest. The forks on this CB450 were pretty good considering, though they might not look it at first glance (Photo 1). Okay, the gaiters had long since disintegrated, likewise the oil seals, but a closer look revealed that the ‘pipes’ (to use Honda language) were pretty good and usable as they were, which is fortunate…

Ever since I first set eyes on a blue R1, when they first came out, I was smitten. They were just so pretty. Then, some years ago, a chap brought a 1999 R6 in blue for some fettling. I went all googly-eyed over it and had to apologise for dribbling on his bike. Much to SWMBO’s (She Who Must Be Obeyed) annoyance I made him promise to let me know if he ever fancied parting with it. And indeed he did… I picked it up one winter. I sorted a few things that were wrong, got her an MoT and went for a ride – whoops, pretty she was, fast she was, awesome handling, but comfy she most definitely wasn’t. The only way to relieve the pain in my wrists…

This is the ultimate in the line of rotary racers, developed by Brian Crighton – the man behind the original machines from the 1980s-1990s. These are a track-only limited run. The Crighton CR700W is a twin-rotor fuelinjected 690cc rotary, with a Spondon frame weighing just 129 kilos and producing 220bhp. This initial machine is going to be ‘incredibly collectible’, according to the distributor Paul Jayson from The Motorcycle Broker. Paul says: “The first machines will be a run of 25 signed by Brian Crighton and hand-built by him for track use only. Of the 25, 10 have been sold already and the remaining 15 are available at present for £95,000 + VAT, which is £114,000 including UK mainland delivery.” Apparently, the Crighton motorcycle brand is owned by Rotron Power, which…

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. MIKE KING’S 1980 SUZUKI GS850GL I’m really not sure if you have featured the Suzuki GS850GL 1980 model before, but as we know, the Japanese LTD models from the 1980s are not everybody’s cup of tea, but for some reason I am drawn to motorbikes that are USA spec: high bars, smaller fuel tanks, stepped seats. The good thing about this model…

PICS: This bike for many mid-40s to early 50-yearolds is where their biking career started properly – myself included – so it’s little wonder that many of us are heading back this way and enjoying bikes, tiddlers and learner machines that we fell in love with in our youth. The Yamaha TZR125 was introduced in 1987 to replace the slightly dated RD125LC, which was itself a pretty damn good bike. The reason it had to be replaced was because the laws had changed some years before and the 125cc class was the entry-level for many 17-year-olds. This meant that all the Japanese were building and selling top-notch, classy 125cc machines, most notably by this stage Suzuki and Honda with their RG125 and NS125R respectively. this class – there was something…

Yes, I know that we have a rich vein of Suzuki GSX-R750 models to choose from that are 15 years or older, but looking ahead and behind for the last two years, we’ve not had any GSX-R750s imported into the UK, thanks to those pesky Euro emissions laws. So, while you could be in the USA and order, say, the 2022 GSX-R750 for $12,599 or a GSX-R750Z (same bike, swanky MotoGP paint) for $12,699, you can’t get one in the UK. The existing model available in other markets is what we could buy up until a couple of years ago, but what we want is a NEW UK model GSX-R750, so that we classic folk can buy it in the next 15 years or so. In the meantime, let’s look…

Now then, if this was an original RR-N FireBlade I would have no bother shifting it on in one hit, even though it’s been sitting idle for two years and will need some shed time to get it ready for battle. Instead, the last of the CBR900 dynasty is a very much overlooked model, which explains why 24 hours after this one was advertised on the VJMC for sale page on Facebook it hadn’t been snapped up, even with the asking price being a very realistic £850! After exchanging a few messages with the seller we swapped phone numbers, and one phone call later I had trimmed a few quid from the asking price and bought the Blade blind. The next day my mate was dispatched with an empty van…

Love it or hate it, there’s no escaping Suzuki’s XN85 is a smart-looking beast. Drawing on the Target Design Katana blueprint, the forcedinduction air-cooled four is arguably one of the most stylish, if short-lived, turbo-charged motorcycles. Infinitely less gawky and awkward looking than Yamaha’s XJ650 Turbo, easier on the eye than Honda force-fed V twins and, from an aesthetic point at least, up there with Kawasaki’s GPz Turbo. Based on the GS650 with a very small overbore, the XN85 was effectively a ‘me-too’ product that the Hamamatsu firm obviously felt obliged to offer. Other than the aforementioned capacity upgrade, the 650’s motor was graced with a half-litre larger sump; an oil-cooler; a purpose-designed turbo unit from IHI; fuel-injection; an early 1980s ECU (Engine Control Unit); and a smallish reduction in…

When I started the process of restoring my first ever motorcycle, naively I thought I’d be nipping down to Halfords for a bottle of T-Cut and a can of silicone spray. I’d seen Dad do it on numerous occasions and I thought my TY80 wouldn’t need anything more than a wipe down and a good clean. I was wrong… Being a simple machine, I thought the strip-down would only take an hour or so. I set about taking the tank off, seat off, handle bars off and removing the wheels. I thought I’d just quickly take the forks and engine out and I’d be about there. The forks came out okay, so full of confidence I thought I’d quickly take those to bits, too. I stripped all the bolts out…

Little other than a clogged exhaust slows a twostroke down like poorly set ignition timing. Firing the plug(s) at precisely the correct time is paramount in getting all of the potential power delivered exactly when it should be. To add some context to this, on average the actual firing duration of a spark plug occurs in less than four milliseconds. If you thought that was impressive, get your head around this – at tickover the so-called ‘ignition event’ transpires over something like 15-20 degrees of crank rotation beginning at the given firing point BTDC (before top dead centre). Increase the rpm to, say, 5000 and the same process takes place over some 90 degrees of crank movement. Now look at the red-line on your stroker’s tacho and marvel at what’s happening…