Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

One of the leading breakfast cereals says it all: ‘The original and best’, and we have to say that’s true when it comes to bikes. The original classics are what we know and love best, but there’s a lot to be said for other bikes that enjoy that moniker. ‘Trickle down’ is where it’s at in the classic world. Think about it. There are only so many Z1s in the world, so when they are all bought up, people look at Z900s, Z1000s, maybe even Z650s – hell, even the Zephyr range from the 1990s. Nowt wrong with that in our book… the more the merrier. And, as each subsequent era of machine, be it new or continuing from an original bloodline, hits that 15-year mark as dictated by the…

Here are three ways to keep both your bonce and your Gregory Peck warm this winter. First up, the Advanced Storm Collar uses a stretch Dry2Dry trilaminate fabric for a perfect waterproof and windproof seal between helmet and jacket. A microfleece backing adds next-to-skin comfort. This comes in at £24.99. Next up is the Advanced WarmDry Balaclava which uses an armed forces inspired construction allowing either partial or full face coverage. Highly thermal WarmDry fabric features moisture-wicking properties and a microfleece facing for all-day riding comfort. Price is £29.99. Finally, there’s the Advanced Windproof Balaclava which also uses either partial or full face coverage. Highly windproof softshell fabric also wicks away moisture and you’ve also got a microfleece facing for all-day riding/playing Call of Duty comfort. £29.99.   www.oxfordproducts.com…

We really like these subtle and classy two-stroke timepieces! Each Moto Culture watch represents a particular 500cc Grand Prix team that we supported during those halcyon days of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Yes, this was a true golden age of 500cc Grand Prix teams, the likes of Rothmans Honda, Lucky Strike Suzuki and Marlboro Yamaha. We think these timepieces capture the very essence of the era, where the likes of Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey battled for victory in the blue riband 500cc two-stroke class. Each Moto Culture watch costs £299 and features a Seiko vk63 chronograph movement, a leather strap, and is waterproof to five atmospheres. For more go to: www.motoculture.co.uk Or, maybe try and win the one we have FREE to give away. Yes,…

After weeks of deliberation by racing stars and riding celebrities, Motorcycle Live’s search for the ‘Dream Garage’ is nearly complete. Doubtless there will be plenty of classics up on the Dream Garage stand at the show. Those who have been polled include: 2021 British Superbike Champion Tarran Mackenzie; Isle of Man TT Outright Lap Record Holder Peter Hickman; ‘All-way-rounder’ Charley Boorman; and Guinness World Record holder Jenny Tinmouth. They had 10 choices in the lead-up to the show. Some were bikes they had owned, lust after, or raced. The only rules were that their chosen garage had to be made up of motorcycles from the last 60 years, and they had to be road-going bikes. We’ve heard rumours that the likes of Honda’s 1992 CBR900RR FireBlade, the iconic 1978 Kawasaki…

Douglas Adams spoke about this in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” Now, the trip to the Moon is a bit like a walk to the chemist in intergalactic terms. But it’s an awfully long way to go on a 1982 Kawasaki Z650… That, however, is about how far Bob Heywood has ridden on his Zed (the distance between the Moon and Earth varies from 225,000 to 250,000 miles). And while the average miles per year isn’t outlandish (around 5750 miles a year), it’s unusual to spend all those miles on the one bike. Bob…

Iused to think that putting decent paint on a bike was like chrome plating, something you simply couldn’t do outside a professional paint shop. I’m not saying you can do this from home and make a business out of it, but what does make it worth the effort is the pride of someone saying what a lovely bike it is and you can truthfully say that the chrome was the only bit you farmed out. I don’t profess to be especially brilliant at it, but I have produced some paint work that has been of better quality than other stuff I paid money for. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but amazing results can be achieved at home with some rudimentary gear. Throughout this series of articles, I will…

Iwas looking on the bright side after seeing the great condition of the top-end; a few bits of metal floating around the crankcase would have settled to the bottom of the sump and stayed there, right? I mean, I saw no evidence of carnage in the cam bearings, so the oil-filter was doing its job. Nothing to worry about, so the next day I walked into the workshop with a clear head and a job to do. First thing was to remove the pistons. I have some small Snap-On long nose pliers that I have had for ages and that are great for removing wire circlips. Just grab the circlip near its end, then pull down and inwards, then out when it has cleared the grove (Photo 1). Then, while…

At long last I had the 450 working, insured, UK registered and ready to go for its first test ride. By this stage I had got used to the unfamiliar sound that the engine made – aweird hissing noise which I eventually realised was merely the sound of the camshafts and rockers in operation. Probably what threw me was that the exhaust was much quieter than on any of my other bikes and quiet noises were drowned out. I had noticed that the clutch adjustment did not seem to work as I had expected and pretty soon it was apparent that the clutch was slipping quite badly. I did carry on for a little circular trip of three miles or so and it got no better. When I got home…

Phil Read 2 x500cc world champion 4 x250cc GP world champion 125cc world champion TT-F1 world champion Phil Read, who passed away on October 6, was a seven-/ eight-time world champion. Racing in a time of greats, Phil would win the 250cc crown four times (1964, 65, 68, 71); the 125cc title once (1968); and 500cc titles in 1973 and 1974 – the last of MV Agusta’s titles and the last four-stroke title until 2002. His final – and some say ‘questionable’ title – was the TT-F1 series. This was a title that was created solely to fill the gap in the Isle of Man TT’s lost world championship status in 1976. Phil – often a critic of the Isle of Man TT races – promptly entered in 1977 and…

Modern ‘bike-friendly’ denim is practical, comfortable and versatile, which means I don’t have to get changed when I get to my destination. I know many riders won’t ever consider wearing jeans on their bike – leathers and textiles are king. I get that. But with recent technological advancements, there’s no reason that a set of specially designed bike jeans won’t keep you safe should you end up sliding along the Tarmac. At first glance, the Oxford Original Approved Denim Jeans might not look like much. Aside from a line of stitching above the knee, they look like they could be a set of normal fashion jeans, and that’s a good thing. But are they up to the job of keeping you safe should the worst happen? Thankfully, I’ve not had…

After a successful restoration of a CB175 I decided to plunge once more into the resto world and all the agony, stress and, hopefully, joy that it brings... but what to buy? It had to be cheap, with plenty of available parts, a bit of a head-turner and, fingers crossed, a modern classic in waiting. Several bikes would fit that bill, but I wanted to keep away from the gaudy, plastic-wrapped sports bike of the 80s and 90s such as the GSX-R750 and CBR600 so it had to be a middleweight roadster and the one that started that whole budget class: the Suzuki GSF600 Bandit. The Bandit is such a brilliant bike – nearly everyone of a certain age will either of owned or ridden one at some point and,…

Kawasaki has always done the retro thing well – and often ‘first’, too. Even in my 20s I loved the look of the Kawasaki Zephyr range, copying as they did the original big Zeds of old – the bikes that my uncles would turn up on and the bikes I was plonked on top of as a kid and the first bikes I would pillion on. Zeds were in my blood, so the 1990s Zephyrs were attractive to me, even if I was (back then) a dedicated sports-bike nut… Of course, for some the Kawasaki W650/800 is more their thing, and – moving later on – the ZRX1100/1200R, of which I’ve owned a few and which (like the Zephs) are now classics in their own right. I was lucky enough…

CARB CONUNDRUM Q: I have a large-ish Ultrasonic bath. I have tried various chemical additives for carb cleaning and other alloy cleaning, most of which do clean the dirt, crud, goo, etc., off things, but my problem is the finish left on the alloy surface; they always end up dull, sometimes stained, not matt as if bead/sand-blasted, just dull. I have seen Ultrasonic cleaning adverts that show a cruddy hanging carb as a ‘before’ image then a bright, shiny, like-new carb after the ultrasonic cleaning as an ‘after’ image. What am I doing wrong? I do read the chemical manufacturers’ instructions. What chemicals should I be using? Or is it all an advertising con? I met a sarcastic, very old, biker at a local meet who said the shiny ones…

There have been moments, many moments if I’m honest here, when I would have happily swapped the Rickuki for a conventional restoration. Building a special may seem like a blank canvas to those not involved but the reality is often rather different. Keeping with the art allegory what you end up working on is often a motorcycle designed by Salvador Dali with serried revisions by Hieronymus Bosch and Albrecht Durer all following a plan laid down by Maurits Cornelis Escher – check these guys out for a laugh. There’s no blueprint to follow; you’re convinced you’ve entered an unknown dimension; and for each problem you solve you begin to believe you may just have engineered several more. With a series-production machine every single item only fits in one place, but…

Small and beautifully formed – that’d be a good sobriquet for Honda’s jewel-like VF500. Unfortunately it’s been erroneously tarred with the same brush as the poisoned VF750 and has been labelled ‘guilty by association’. The reality is that neither the 500 nor its small, 400cc brother were or are the cam-eating, enginewrecking monsters they’ve been made out to be. The VF500 is quite possibly the epitome of Honda’s contemporary drive towards mass centralisation as it strove to stay off the still potent threat from the likes of Yamaha’s two-strokes. Ultimately the VF500 never was or could be a marketplace competitor to an LC or Powervalve but, if you accept the notion of different strokes for different folks, it was a viable alternative. The VF500 was a huge leap away from…

Okay, it’s time to drill and tap for the exhaust studs. This has to be cock-on; you can see that I’ve used studs screwed into adjacent holes to get the angles correct, so it’s got to be perfect! After I’m happy with the repairs to the head, John at The Head Shop at Warrington did a lovely clean-up on the seats and also lightly trimmed the valves, cutting different angles on the throat, seat and then top face. Again, a bit like the ring gap deal, you’ll never realise the full potential of your motor unless the seats are bob on. John has a £20k machine to ensure that the seats are good. I’m very happy to pay him to provide that service, and no, I won’t be waxing lyrical…

Two of British motorcycling’s biggest names, including a king of the jungle, are set to entertain the fans at the first major classic bike event of 2023. Carl Fogarty and James Whitham will take centre stage at the Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic over the weekend of January 7/8 at Newark Showground, and with each man never shy to say what they think, there will be plenty of opinions, memories and racing insights of both modern day and ‘back in the day’ racing. Blackburn’s Fogarty – four-time World Superbike Champ, multiple TT winner and double F1 champion, Endurance World Champion and also winner of the 14th series of TV show ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here!’ – is well-known for his straight-talking style. His mate, Huddersfield’s James…

It was a weekend to remember at The Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show, and what a show it was! World superbike champion from 1997 and World 250cc champ of 1990 John Kocinski was there for both days, regaling the masses with unheard tales from the motorcycle racing world. For the first time at the event, the Honda FMX display stunt team, also known as Bolddog FMX, was there also: from backflips to superman grabs, showgoers were in awe – with audible gasps heard from the crowds – as they watched the team’s thrilling and certainly dangerous stunts. The show also had multiple elements that were new for 2022, including a hugely popular 1990s’ Hall which housed a number of machines and celebrated the up-and-coming emerging classics. Our less-than-esteemed editor Bertie Simmonds…

Even though I haven’t passed three score years yet, I am already noticing that my strength is not what it once was. When the Laser Tools rep came round last time, he was showing me high leverage pliers. These are basically geared pliers that multiply the torque from the handles by simple leverage. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and whilst the torque is greater, they obviously don’t open as wide. That said he left me a pair of long nose and combination pliers to play with. I wasn’t that convinced initially, but when I started trying to get a tight split pin out of my DT175 rear axle, the penny dropped. I could concentrate the pressure on pulling the damned thing out whilst not having to waste…

When I started writing these articles, I had no idea where or how long it was going to take me, honest! Similar to building my CMR TR750, the reality is it has taken me far longer than I ever thought and it’s been in part a journey into the unknown. Along the way I’ve met and had dealings with some good and very helpful people; my knowledge base has expanded; my fabrication and machining skills have grown and improved; I’ve learnt a lot in a number of different ways; and I’ve pushed myself to develop further abilities to achieve the end goal. Still not great at TIG welding though! I have what I call a ‘dry build’, that is a bike that sort of looks to be nearly finished in…

G’day! Last issue I stripped the top-end and was happy with what I discovered about Slabby 3, that it had undergone some TLC before being shelved. This time I’ve had a good look ‘down under’ at the bottom-end and I’m equally happy. I also check out the exhaust options and intake. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Isn’t that the way it goes? With the help of my eldest daughter, first job was removing the starter-clutch cover to expose the starter-clutch and starter idle gear. All look great with no issues. I then removed the starter motor, which I will bench test but most likely service anyway. I then popped off the clutch cover before turning the motor upside down and removing the 14, 6mm Allen bolts securing the oil pan to…

One impediment to signing off the dry build was the niggling issue of the idiot lights that wouldn’t all illuminate. When you find you’re colour blind to certain hues used in Japanese looms it probably makes a lot of sense getting in someone who can distinguish the various shades and preferably somebody who understands bike electrics. Fortuitously I’m good mates with the effervescent Ferret and, as we go back far longer than either of us are willing to admit, he kindly offered to drop by when he was next passing. The upshot of a quick inspection and fettle was that I’d made a couple of piss-poor connections when I’d recrimped some connections: the flying lead earth from the tacho was less than ideal; the neutral light was temporarily temperamental; and…