Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

A massive thank you to all the people who helped to actually FINISH my first project: so thank you Ross, Amber and, of course, Griff from AP Workshops. I’ve had many projects (TDM850, RSV Mille, VFR750, CBR600, RD350R) but this is the first that’s reached completion (I’ve still got a ZRX1100R and Speed Triple in the garage…). I apologise, but this happens, yes? We often abandon/sell-on projects, hence we’ve started our new project hunting feature called BAY WATCH, where Kev Raymond will take an (often jocular) view on the bikes that are being advertised as such. So many are out there, but what tickles our fancy and which should be avoided? Hopefully, Kev will help us there. This is just one of the changes this month to YOUR magazine. We’ve…

A shadowy move in the trademark world has led many to believe that we’re about to get a slew of ‘new’ RD-retro models… It seems that Yamaha has trademarked the RZ250 and RZ350 names at home in Japan, which many feel is a precursor to producing some new retro models using these famous names. Of course, RZ was the name by which our own much-loved RD models went by over in Japan/Australasia back in the day. So what do we know? Well, nowt… But, we DO know that every major manufacturer can see that sales of retro machines are big – and getting bigger. Think of Suzuki with its Katana; Kawasaki with its Z900RS and Z650RS; and, of course, Royal Enfield with its popular Interceptor and Meteor machines; and Triumph…

We’ve decided to put this to the readership… What do we think this machine is worth, as the owner is selling… Owner Gary Lawrence from Kent says: “This Harris Triumph Trident is a bit famous, being in the July 1989 issue of Performance Bikes magazine and it was also in the Poster Pig Out issue later on. I’ve had it for nearly 40 years and am finally thinking of selling it after all this time. I bought it as a basket case and spent two years rebuilding it and finding out about its history. Is anyone interested in it?” The frame is one of three that Harris Performance built in the mid-1970s and this one was apparently built for Jim Wells to race in F750 and Endurance races. Owner Gary spent…

Suzuki’s GSX-R750 is arguably one of the most important motorcycles to be built, ever, and many variants are rightly hailed as ‘classics’. Not only did the GSX-R750 kick-start the fashion for the race-replica machine in the 1980s, it also launched a number of race careers and the likes of the streetfighter sub-genre. The original air-/oil-cooled 750F from 1985 looked like the XR41 endurance racer it was so clearly based on, so it was also obvious that the road bike would return to the track, in production and superbike racing. As it did so, it made names of the likes of Kevin Schwantz, Doug Polen, Trevor Nation, James Whitham and Phil ‘Mez’ Mellor to name but a few. And – on the road – if you crashed one and couldn’t afford…

Time to crack on with part two of sorting these old switchgear items – as mentioned, I pretty much do this with my own bikes as no one wants to pay me for the time taken to do this, but if they are for my own bikes… Last month I cleaned up and powdercoated the bodies of the switches. This month I am looking at the guts and will start off with some cleaning. I kicked off by spraying brake cleaner on all the parts and scrubbing with a cheap toothbrush. Cheapo toothbrushes aren’t great for their original purpose but are easily sourced and perfect for cleaning parts in a bike workshop. This primary degreasing helps to minimise the crap going into the ultrasonic bath, these parts’ next destination. I…

WIN an Outback Excel Onyx 2 BBQ! WIN AlcoSense Excel breathalysers! With that tenuous link hanging in the air, let us introduce you to the CMM summer competition courtesy of our friends at AlcoSense! They’ve offered us ONE Outback Excel Onyx 2 gas-fired barbecue and THREE of their AlcoSense Excel breathalysers, for checking you’re good (and safe) to go the morning after… The Outback Excel Onyx 2 Burner Gas barbecue has a dual-controlled steel burner and specially-designed flavouriser Th barbe burne bar so that you can achieve restaurantlevel results from the comfort of your own garden. The flavouriser bar helps protect the burner while providing that unique smoky taste with each bite as juices and fats drip on to it and instantly smoke to flavour the food. With this professionalgrade…

Back in the 1990s, the taste of the bikebuying public in the UK was most certainly that of the sports machine: bikes like GSX-Rs, FireBlades, CBR600s and the like were flavour of the month. Later, naked versions of most of the 900, 1000 and even 750 and 600cc sports machines would be released but for many in the UK, we were starved of the 400cc four-stroke machines. These were bikes often of higher spec than the 600cc bikes sold over here, being as they were kept for the Japanese domestic market. Hardcore sporting inline fours and V4s were sold alongside each other, and in Honda’s case – in the same showroom, having as they did a range of CBR400RRs and VFR400RRs... Both inline and V4s would also ‘get naked’ and…

Things are starting to take shape on our 929 now. Hopefully I have found the bike a new home, too, which is good news, and hopefully we can borrow the bike later in the summer for a road test. Bertie has put his hand up for that one, as he did many miles on one back in 2001, so he claims! Let’s pick up where we left off in part two… While the exhaust is off I’m going to remove the rattly exhaust valve and replace it with the delete section I got from Martin Leigh at Max Torque Cans. One bolt has snapped off in the old exhaust valve as I have previously mentioned, but that doesn’t matter as we aren’t going to be needing the valve or the…

Few machines sub 500 cubic centimetres get such universal approval as Yamaha’s RD350LC, and rightly so. For many the Elsie is the very pinnacle of Yamaha’s parallel-twin development, or at least in its purist form. With nothing more complicated than a set of pressure-controlled reed-valves and a water jacket the bike is the apogee of the tuning fork’s refining of the genre. Yes, okay, the subsequent Powervalve/YPVS was a faster machine but it had to go up to a significant level of complication in order to achieve an extra dozen ponies. And, from an aesthetic perspective, the LC arguably knocks even the 31K/YPVS for dead in the eyes of many enthusiasts. The bike’s ancestry goes all the way back to 1967 when the YR1 was launched, followed, predictably enough, by…

The Aprilia Tuono Fighter R is done, she’s finished, she’s gorgeous, she’s even MoT’d and legal… Getting to this point has been around two years, which isn’t bad when you compare it to a Steve Cooper or Ralph Ferrand restoration! (Sorry chaps, joke…) But then while I’ve not done much myself, it’s amazing just how much admin, to-ing and fro-ing and general hair-pulling and money has gone on and in to get to this finished state. The bike was bought in the summer of 2021, for a few hundred quid less than the £2400 asking price – thanks to the clutch suddenly quitting on pick-up day. It was rough and not really ready for anything. With just shy of 34k on the clocks I wanted an expert to look at…

WITH MORE THAN 30 PAGES OF PRACTICAL ADVICE! WIN! Subscribers can win a Weise clothing goodie from: www. thekeycollection.co.uk a ComfortAir seat worth £70, a Bridgestone Oximiser and Tamiya kits… KAWASAKI ZX-9R B: Andy Bolas rides the ‘Blade beater’ from the 1990s SUZUKI GT185: Steve Cooper rides this teeny-tiny twin SHOW US YER SHED: WIN a £50 tools voucher if you show us YOURS! BUILD YOUR OWN WORKSHOP PART 2: Ralph Ferrand continues... BAY WATCH: Our new section sees Kev Raymond look at project bikes up for sale BRIDGESTONE/CMM BIKE OF THE YEAR: Yamaha’s RD250LC PROJECT BIKES: We will be showcasing some of the following (space allowing): Pip Higham’s Suzuki TC305 Laredo, Alan Dowds’ Kawasaki ZRX1100R Turbo, Mark Haycock’s Honda ST70, Steve Cooper’s Yamaha YL1 or new Ducati/Bultaco special. Perhaps…

In the early to mid-1990s Scott Russell was one of the best racers out there. Not only did he become known as ‘Mr. Daytona’ for winning the (once) prestigious Daytona 200 five times (tying with Canadian Miguel Duhamel for wins), he also won the 1993 Suzuka 8 Hours and was AMA champ in 1992. When he went to 500cc Grand Prix racing halfway through the 1995 season he did the best he could with the Lucky Strike Suzuki, taking over from the retiring Kevin Schwantz and then becoming the de facto team leader when Daryl Beattie injured himself in 1996. The only rostrums gained by Suzuki in that year came from Russell, including a superb third at the Czech Republic behind Mick Doohan and Alex Criville. He’d shown that Superbike…

We’re not always looking back in Classic Motorcycle Mechanics – in fact this special classic is a punt into the future… You may not like it, but electric motorcycles are coming down the road. For Simon Whitelock, who’s been building striking specials for more than 30 years, battery power is a reality, but with a classic twist. At first glance his Kawasaki KH250e looks like a well-restored two-stroke triple from the 1970s. But there’s no crackly exhaust note or a cloud of white exhaust smoke as he rides off down the road. Just a high-pitched whine as he zips up to its top speed.  Semi-retired at 62, Simon’s first bike was an Ankermatic 50cc moped. He is a qualified building surveyor but he’s also been a bike mechanic, Ducati dealer,…

This game-changer is 30 years old this year. Yes, we know it’s slightly aesthetically challenged, but stick with us… It was a game-changer because it was the first BMW to use the R259 Boxer twin motor, better known now as the ‘oil-head’ engine, where air would cool the cylinders and oil the heads. The 1085cc Bosch fuel-injected motor wasn’t anything to write home about output wise, even three decades ago, but it was torquey enough and sounded nice. It had a claimed 90bhp, so 80 at the rear wheel, which itself looked like a cutting blade from a Moulinex food blender. The wheel was attached to a single-sided swingarm called a ‘Paralever’ which incorporated a useful shaft-drive system. With the whole motor being part of the chassis itself, the front-end…

Do you ever wonder, ‘Oh my God what have I taken on’ when it comes to your projects? I certainly can empathise with this sentiment, but thankfully I am pleased to say the statement was shortlived and I am enjoying working on the beast. I am sure at some point this will strike a chord with many of those who read this magazine for sure. Now in the depth of the project I have reached the stage where you look at the number of parts in the man cave and wonder what order you are going to start with; most tackle the easy stuff and think the harder items will – somehow overnight – join the easy section. Nah… sadly this does not happen! To back-up my previous comment, I…

I’m guessing our sheds are places of stability, tranquillity, constructive thought and occasionally intense frustration. I’m going to refrain from ‘Man Cave’ references here. In fact I’m very hopeful that a member of the fairer sex might chuck their metaphorical chapeau in the ring and show us their hideaway, please. My Dad had a salient observation about work: It expands to fill the time available for it. Bit cutting, I thought. Our stuff is similar, it seems to expand to fill the space (the shed) available. This brings me to the cornerstone of shed life: If you’re buying your first shed, think hard before you settle for a little ’un; think about the fun you can have when you get offered an old lathe and you’ve got the room! Remember,…

Some years ago, I pushed planning to its limits and built a massive workshop and office on the side of my house for my business. It wasn’t a cheap venture, but it allowed me to move my business out of Bristol to my house on the edge of a small rural village. I used to work in television, print and photography and this financed the build. After a few years, things changed (I won’t bore you with why/how). I sold all my big work machines and was left with a big workshop space. What would you do? Yes, I filled it with motorcycles and tools. I found that many people were happy to pay me to fix their old bikes as regular bike shops had little or no knowledge of…

I did mention at the beginning of this project that I did not think much of the headlamp output, and that I would need to sort that out, but there were a few more things to do with the electrics which I wanted to look at. It was clear that the bike had been rewired at some stage and Photo 1 shows one of the connectors, which is the pre-insulated type. I cannot say that I am a great fan of these as they look rather clunky and I feel that the original type of Japanese-pattern 3.9mm bullet connectors should be used instead. Photo 2 shows a small bundle of wires which have been tied together with a label that reads ‘Flashers’ so evidently the intention had been to fit…