Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

I’ve ridden loads and even owned a few – so I find it hard to think that there aren’t any ‘new’ GSX-Rs coming out any time soon. Yup… with the GSX-R600 and 750 now gone from the UK line-up, Suzuki says that whatever’s left of the GSX-R1000R model will be sold in 2023. It’s all a bit sad, really... Yes, I know this is a ‘modern’ bike, but it comes from a long and distinguished line of GSX-Rs, dating back to 1984’s GSX-R400. I’ve been lucky enough to be on launches and ridden GSX-Rs and chatted to designers. I’ve even written a book about the GSX-R750, so I feel I have a close affinity with them. I’ve sat in sheds with family members and mates as they’ve fettled them, rebuilt…

Living legend John McGuinness MBE, the most successful racer around the daunting Isle of Man TT course, is to be celebrated with a limited-edition motorcycle. To help celebrate John’s 100th TT start earlier this year – also his steed, the Fireblade’s 30th anniversary year – Honda UK is building just 30 John McGuinness 100th Start replica CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SPs. John says: “The stars aligned for me to be back on a Honda Fireblade for my 100th TT start in 2022. It’s an awesome bike and has meant so much to me over my career and, if I think about it, to so many other riders over the last 30 years, too. I’m proud of my connection with its place in TT history and of this, my replica.” We know we…

There’s still time to WIN! 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 You’ve still got a couple of weeks to win the Moto Culture watch we have to give away,…

What do you think of this retro/concept MV Agusta 921 S? We’re not sure. It’s such a clear homage to the 750 S America of the 1970s that we had to squeeze it into our ‘concept bikes’ feature later in the issue and mention it ‘up front’ here, shall we say. The bike is built around an all-new tubular steel trellis frame, ally sub-frame and what looks like a billet-milled swingarm, all powered by a 115bhp motor. To us it looks a little strange and top-heavy – although the original wasn’t quite ‘traditional’ back in the day. The garish red/white/blue colours make it look like something from a US Republican party rally while other parts just look a little way out there. Either way, we’d love to hear your comments,…

In our experience, there are a few different types of concept/show bikes, so bear with us. On the one hand, you get reasonably sensible offerings, like the Honda Hornet concept of a few years ago, or the Yamaha T7 rally racer. They have engines which appear to have the cylinders in the right places and pistons inside them; they use telescopic forks; and, most importantly, they have mirrors and switches. They look like they could actually work… Then, you have the other end of the scale: wild-looking things, with clearlynonsensical design cues. For a long time, it would be ‘touch-screen controls’ and ‘rear-view cameras’ which marked out these show bikes as a load of old pony. Then it was internet connections in the early 2000s. More science fiction than anything…

Recently, I’ve managed to bag myself a CBR900RR-Y (929cc) for a massive £1000! Like editor Bertie getting hold of a 2002 Triumph Speed Triple for just £1000, I managed to get a bike from the noughties for a ‘bag of sand’. Yeah, a grand for a 2000 Blade – but what exactly ‘is’ a 929 Blade? Well, for the new millennium/Y2K Honda did a major revamp of the Blade as it was starting to lag behind both on sales in the showroom and out there on the circuits – by now production racing for 1000cc machines was happening once more. And, for Honda, the 929 was the answer. Unfortunately this model didn’t have much success at the TT, etc., but as a road bike it was a vast improvement over…

FAIRING PROTECTION Not a lot of it with any model of RGV and riding in the rain (best avoided) brings its own problems: the front spark plug gets drowned. Suzuki GB press bikes from launch in the late 1980s often had duct tape blocking the front fairing to stop this happening... REAR WHEEL The VJ21 came in with an 18-inch rear wheel with 140- rear section somewhat limiting tyre choice today. The VJ22 went to a more regular 17-inch and 150-rear section. EXHAUSTS Keeping a two-stroke 250cc sweet is a black art. Depending on your outlook, you’ll either be a KISS or a MOD! If you ‘Keep it Simple Stupid’ you may have to spend a fortune getting a bike back to standard as not many stayed that way. If…

Ihave owned my Honda Hornet 900 longer than any other vehicle and one of the reasons has been that it has been so reliable. Back in 2020 though, after receiving the road tax reminder, it did make me think that paying over a hundred quid for that plus the MoT for just a few miles covered each year seemed pretty bad value compared with a grand total of £10 for my other seven vehicles. Maybe I should keep it in the shed for a bit while I thought about it? I had a change of heart earlier this year and dusted it down, drained and replaced the 18-month-old fuel and booked an MoT. It passed okay but the engine sounded a bit rough. A few days later I was out…

After an 11-year title drought, Ducati has finally recaptured the World Superbike crown in 2022. In what has been a remarkable year for the Italian manufacturer, where it also took the MotoGP championship, the Bolognabased factory now has a total of 15 titles in the WSB series since its inception in 1988. Impressive. The firm’s first success came in 1990 with former 500cc grand prix rider Raymond Roche, before a title double from Doug Polen in 1991 and 1992. These titles were won on the race version of Ducati’s 851 and 888 machines, but a new and more beautiful machine was about to be launched… If ever a bike ‘looked right’ it was 1994’s Ducati 916: single-sided swingarm, under-seat end-cans, but the basis of the bike developed from the successful…

Ifigured it would be good to share my story and my collection with Classic Motorcycle Mechanics readers, so here we go! I moved to British Columbia, Canada, way back in late September 1991 and it was here where my youthful passion for motorbikes was rekindled. It was on the third day out in Canada that I saw a Kawasaki KZ900 for sale in a front garden. As I was looking it over, the owner came out of the house. “Hey, are you interested in the bike?” he asked. I replied: “Hmmm, I could be, how much?” He wanted $1200 for it – which was just way too much for my pocket. I decided to be cheeky and said: “How about I give you $600 for it?” Then – and to…

Finally I get to ride a Suzuki TS250 – I’ve now sampled all four of the 70s Japanese quarter-litre trail bikes. Each has their pros and cons but I can now genuinely see why Suzuki’s offering proved to be so commercially successful – ease of access springs readily to mind. All four of the quartet were eminently viable machines but Honda’s XL250 can feel a little top-heavy, Yamaha’s DT250 is almost too refined, and the Kawasaki F11’s fuelling isn’t as smooth as the Suzuki’s. None of this is nit-picking, yet having finally thrown a leg over the Hamamatsu offering, I now have the relevant data to construct a reasonable critique of the period quartet. Yes, of course they were all improved during their lifespans yet, in actuality, their essential DNA…

In part 19 I thought I had got to a point where the majority of the bike was built, although in some areas ‘roughly’ and in need of refinement. Most of the major components had been fitted or fabricated, perhaps! Anyway, after stripping the bike, I started to send some of the parts out to be finished that required input from elsewhere. The plan is to get the bike to a point where it starts, runs and can be put on the dyno, then fully finish the build. The frame went out to the powdercoaters and here lies a tale – we’ve all been warned! I’ve a chap I have used before and gives good results, but he’s a bit of a journey. A company local to me was recommended…

Yes, okay, the looks of this bike aren’t to everyone’s taste (nor are those of the rider, it’s me!) but bear with… Even at launch on some slippery Greek roads back in February 2006, most of us assembled motorcycle hacks knew we were on a bike which gave great value for money and – 17 years later – that’s truer than ever. Honda’s CBF range used existing, quality components and bolted them to cheaper running gear to make for a real VFM machine that would shrug off all that Old Father Time could throw at it. The motor was derived from the CBR1000RR, but shockingly neutered down to around 100bhp. If you’re looking away right now, you shouldn’t. We all know where ‘we’ actually spend our time – and it…

I was going to start off by saying: ‘Well, it’s done but it took longer than I expected,’ but they all do that if we’re brutally honest about our projects. They also consume far more money than we might intend or expect but that really is the nature of the game. If you were in on the ground floor of this one you might recall the initial plan was to effect an ‘oily rag’ refurbishment but that went to hell in a hand basket PDQ. So where are we up to? The freshly rechromed exhausts (the bank balance is still recovering BTW) were fitted and adjusted to ensure the threaded collars at the cylinders were on correctly and tight. With the tail-pipe hangers taking up most of the rearward mass…

If you went to the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics’ Stafford Show in October (and we know a few of you did) you can’t have helped tbut notice our editor on a 1990s-2000s stand… We had road bikes from the era as well as some pukka race machinery and replicas, including a former Yamaha Motor France endurance racer (now in Nori Haga colours) and a Yamaha OW-01 replica of Carl Fogarty’s lap-record-taking race machine. Now, while we realise that some eras aren’t for everyone, it was a bit of an experiment. With this in mind we contacted our friends at Duke Video to see if they could help us with some DVDs showcasing some of the best bike racing of that era. And they certainly came up trumps! Over the whole weekend…

If you keep tabs on modern motorcycle sales you can’t have ignored the fact that sportsbikes don’t sell that many and – as a result – one of the biggest names in biking is fast slipping away… The GSX-R family came about in 1984 with the 400cc version in Japan, before the endurance race derived 750 came out a year later, followed by the 1100 and later 600 and 1000cc versions. All of these have offered amazing performance and a low price and, as a result, sold in their hundreds of thousands over the last few decades. For many of us, the GSX-R of any capacity was a real ‘everyman’ sportsbike. And every woman… and racer, and streetfighter rider… Since 2001 the ‘daddy’ of the GSX-R range has been…

With Suzuki’s withdrawal from MotoGP, World Endurance and its flagship GSX-R1000 sports-bike no longer Euro 5 compliant for 2023, it does seem like Suzuki is rolling off the throttle as the major motorcycle player that it’s been. It’s a crying shame as Suzuki has brought some of the most creative and ballsy motorcycles over the decades, certainly in my own biking lifetime: from the early 1980s Katanas, RGs and GSX-Rs, right through to the TL1000S, B-King and Hayabusa. And it was during the 1980s that Suzuki was are its boldest. The 1985 Suzuki FalcoRustyco appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show and was ambitious with its two-wheel drive, 500cc square four engine, hub-centre steering and something Jack Shit (from Andy Sparrow’s Bloodrunners cartoon fame) would definitely be seen riding. A…

Last month I tackled the start of the paint job for my 1976 Kawasaki Z900A4 based custom built special, using techniques I had used before, and whilst I hadn’t done any for quite a while, it was hardly reinventing the wheel for me. But this time – it’s metal flake time… Back in the 1970s metal flake was very time-consuming with a huge skill level. You had to buy the flake itself, which is like very expensive glitter, and add it to a lacquer. The bigger the flakes the greater the street cred and the more difficult they are to spray, as even the smallest flakes are quite a bit bigger in size than the average spray gun nozzle. I discovered a fairly new product from the States called Flake…

Concentrating the oil had done. on the gearbox and primary shaft now and I needed to know what damage, if any, the debris I found in I cleaned the oil from all the gears, etc., and started to methodically take all the gears and bearings off, measuring and checking over each part as I went. All the bearings had some sort of scuffing inside of their races but it is so hard to get a good look inside, even with a few magnifying lenses that I have. A couple though, were very rough when turned by hand. The needle roller bearings had pitting on some rollers and on one of the shafts, so these needed to be replaced. Also, the 3rd gear on the layshaft which has a bronze bush…

The classic Z900A4 stock build has been progressing nicely and this month I will be continuing on the same theme. If I was going to ride numerous miles on this bike, I would probably treat it to a pair of YSS shock absorbers which I have used on my 1977 Z1000A1, on which I have clocked up many happy miles. When I first restored her, I fitted her with the iconic red Marzocchi piggyback shocks but after just a few hundred miles, my backside felt it had come last in a marathon arsekicking contest. When YSS shocks made their first appearance, I saw them at the Trade Bike Expo and they looked really well made and as they were doing a 50 per cent discount to the trade, to get…

Here’s an alternative to the ‘buy as much new old stock stuff as you possibly can, spare no expense’ engine rebuild. I’ve rebuilt my GSX motor with a few gaskets, a set of rings and a bunch of hard work. It should work fine, what could possibly go wrong? A while back I’d tried to sell my GSX11 for a few weeks but, alas, without success. I was brassed off that my lovely black GSX with unmarked fork stanchions and more new stuff than you could shake a B100P parts book at didn’t attract a buyer. I’d fitted a mint EF1150 engine in it that had sat under my bench for many moons. The problem was that whereas the EF uses an electronic rev-counter the earlier GSXs all use mechanical…