Classic Motorcycle Mechanics November 2016 preview

HOND DA CB400 FOUR 70s

Ridden & rated

MZ TS2 250 DO DOUBLE Tested

70s

SUZUKI James Whitham al rides the semin !

80s sports bike

November 2016 Issue 349

FIVE DECA CADES OF MODERN CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS

Year of the brute

90s: D Ducati 996 strip-down ❙ Tuning a Bandit 1200 ❙ Sorting a TL1000S rear shock 80s: ZX-10R touring ❙ Yamahaa DT175 resto Retro: Brighton Speed Trials ❙ Honda CB750 Plus: De-restricting an air-box

64

❙ WORKSHOP NEWS

66

❙ Q&A

68

❙ YAMAHA RD350

73

❙ HONDA CBR600 F-X

Mark Haycock, Scoop and YOU with tips!

Scoop once more fettles his Yammy twin.

Andy Bolas on this ‘coming classic’ middleweight.

74

❙ SUZUKI TL1000S

78

❙ SORTING AN AIR-BOX

Andy Bolas sorts his suspension.

Steve Cooper shows you how!

82

❙ DUCATI 996

84

❙ SUZUKI GSF1200 BANDIT

88

❙ WIRING PART 3

92

❙ YAMAHA DT175

97

❙ HONDA X-11

98

Contents

New metal tools and reviews.

Jim Lindsay strips his!

Bolas is back with the Bandit!

Ralph Ferrand and connections!

Ralph again; gets on with part 2!

Coming Classic?

❙ HONDA CB750 K2

Mark has another project!

110 ❙ MV AGUSTA 350

Scoop checks out a sizzler.

114 ❙ HONDA SS125

She’s pretty much done!

06

ARCHIVE

08

HONDA CB400/4

12

NEWS

18

CALENDAR

20 22 26 32

Wayne Rainey at the 1987 Transatlantic races.

Mossy on the middleweight of the 1970s.

Events, reports and what’s happening in our world.

Remember, remember bikes are great in November!

FEEDBACK

34

ENDURANCE LEGENDS

36

SUBSCRIBE!

38

SUZUKI GSX-R750F

46

More info on this 2017 event.

Subscribe or we fire the editor. Again.

James Whitham on the legendary Slabbie.

MZ MISCELLANY

Steve Cooper on a pair of Eastern European marvels.

SHOW US YOURS

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READER’S RIDE

60

BRIGHTON ROCKS

130 NEXT MONTH

You tell us how it is!

Now with added nostalgia!

‘The Way We Were!’

Dave Brooking heads to Ireland on an £800 Kwak!

The glorious Speed Trials!

BIKES OF 1979

John Nutting on this amazing year for motorcycling!

RETRO REBOOT

What if Kawasaki made a KR500 for the road?

Honda VF500FII, Yamaha YZF-R6, Moto Morini 3.5 Sport and more!

126 ❙ MAKE OR BREAK?

Revisited: Five years on Scott Redmond checks prices.

62

SAVE!

SAVE!

SAVE!

Yes! If you want to save on your subscription come here!

www.classicmechanics.com / 5

u can d joy in our pages, so yo an ide pr UR YO e se to We want rs. restore with fellow reade share what you ride and .co.uk or mail to bsimmonds@mortons Email your hi-res shots mag. Let us know dress at the front of the in some photos to the ad d after ne it and send before an do e u’v yo w ho d an ne what you’ve do in touch. Bertie. shots if you can. Do get

Jason Madelin’s 1985 Honda XL600R Just a quickie to show my 1985 XL600R after a Sunday morning ride out, covering the green lanes of Devon and sometimes beyond. The old girl rides great over the rough and mud though she’s not as light and easy to start sometimes as her younger relatives. She still manages to make me smile though and yes I sometimes swear and cuss but that’s what it’s all about.

She pulls like a dream and someday I would like to give her an overhaul but I don’t want her off the road so for now she is being used as she

22 / classic motorcycle mechanics

We’ve teamed up with The Hobby Company www.hobbyco.net which distributes Tamiya plastic motorcycle kits in the UK to give our favourite restoration one of its amazing motorcycles in miniature. So, send in your pictures of your bikes and you could win the chance to indulge in a miniature motorcycle restoration of your own. Remember to send your name and address on each submission so we know where to post the kit.

KIT WINNER

was made to be. I have loads of Lanes arround Devon I use but one o of my favourites The Ox Drove, near Salisbury, I have not ridden for a while so I guess I will be giving it another ride soon.

Yes every ride produces another chip from a flying stone to the swingarm, another scratch from a tree branch and I know she is over 30 years old and some may say she should not be used in anger but restored in my garage but, hell, if I keep going so will my XL. Yes I have had faster, better

handling and with electric start green lane machines but something about the XL makes me smile. I can’t

really explain it. I have a more or less spotless Bandit 600 in the garage but she doesn’t get out as much as the XL as the ‘no-traffic peace’ of a green lane in my mind can’t be beat but I do enjoy the Bandit as well.

Green lanes are not all about flat-out speed but respect to others on the lanes is a must as are good manners and a smile.

If we don’t look after them before we know it the Government will have a reason to stop all vehicles using ‘our’ green lanes!

READER’S RIDE

Eire Force One What bike do you need for a 1200 mile father-son bonding week in the Emerald Isle? A 27-year-old £800 Kawasaki of course!

WORDS: DAVE AND NIALL BROOKING PHOTOS: DAVE AND NIALL AND KEV LARKINS

W

hat could be better than getting away from it all on two wheels, with your lad, retracing the halcyon days you had yourself as a kid?

Life goes in circles, so many say, so when CMM reader Dave Brooking wanted to get away from it all and have some quality time away with his 13-yearold son Niall, it was a no-brainer that the pair would go away on two wheels and revisit some of Dave’s old haunts on the Emerald Isle.

The eagle-eyed among you will recognise Dave as the owner of the somewhat stalled Project GSX1100 EFE and Kawasaki ZX-10. The ZX-10 was the choice of Dave’s son Niall, and his lucky sod of a dad managed to get this very clean late 80s rocketship for just £831.25 off of eBay at the end of 2015.

Plans were hatched for trips abroad for 2016 but (as is often the case) Dave’s roofing business was booming and a trip had to wait until summer of this year. Dave says: “The plan was to pop down to southern Ireland and visit my mum’s side of the family. They are in Castletown-Barehaven (or Castletownbere) down in southern County Cork.

26 / classic motorcycle mechanics

It’s such a wild part of Ireland and I love it down there. It’s rugged, peaceful and unspoiled. It’s also therapeutic after the hustle and bustle of life in general, even if I live in a village in the Midlands!

The town itself is a well-known fishing location, but – politically – it’s divisive as most of the boats are Spanish or French and it’s thought that around 90% of the catch made from there doesn’t go to a quayside auction but straight to Continental Europe.

It’s also home to the famous MacCarthy’s Bar.” Dave is no stranger to the area, having been visiting from the age of 13. “I’m from Essex and I recall being 13 and being pushed onto a Slattery’s coach in Victoria Coach Station in London, being plonked next to the driver and then being picked up by my uncle Niall at the other end after a whole day’s travel. You couldn’t do it these days! I’d then spend six glorious weeks there, it was lovely. I fell in love with the place from then, really. The family were all fishermen and they would work on the boats.

During my holidays I’d fish the rivers for brown trout, dig the peat and load the tractors: it was a typical Irish working holiday – I loved it.”

Today you probably couldn’t load a 13-year-old on a coach and send them on their way, but the next generation of Niall (Dave’s son, named after Dave’s uncle) loves going pillion so a plan was hatched for an Emerald Isle week-long getaway. The plan was simple: leave The Green Dragon pub in Brigstock, East Northants at around 6pm, then head to Pembroke and take the ferry to Rosslare, south of Wexford. Dave explains: “I had to do a day’s work first, st, so wee left e t home o e in the t e evening e e g and a d aimed a ed for o the early morning (1 or 2am) crossing. Following th he four-hour crossing we then have a 4-5 hour ride and d then still have a bit of the day left at our destination.

My reasoning is that – having travelled in Ireland extensively – I’d rather do British roads in the dark,, not Irish ones!”

This would be the second time son Niall had visited Castletown-Barehaven, but the first by bike. And the comfort of the ZX-10 proved to be an issue. Dave says: “Niall fell asleep on the way there, which was a worry. He refused to take his father’s advice and sleep the day before, but the excitement was a bit much. Fifteen minutes into the journey and we’re just out of the county and off he went. It shows the ZX-10 is comfy.

Thankfully with the set-up of a top-box and throw-over panniers he wasn’t going anywhere.”

The trip itself was 493 miles door-to-door with plenty of stops on the way of course.

LEFT: What a view: Allihies Beach in the background.

BELOW: Setting off from Brigstock.

www.classicmechanics.com / 27

NOSTALGIA

Brighton

SPEED TRIALS Imagine being able to go hell for leather down a stretch of Tarmac on the gorgeous south coast. Well, you still can!

WORDS AND PHOTOS: ALAN TURNER

M

adeira Drive is a seafront road that lays claim to being Britain’s oldest dedicated racetrack. It came about in 1905, through the vision of local Sir Harry Preston, but things did not go quite to plan and it was the 1920s before the Speed Trials featured regularly on the race calendar.

Organised by the Brighton & Hove Motor Club, tradition has it that motorcycles compete in the Speed Trials ‘by invitation’. For many years such arrangement has been made with the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC). This does not restrict the entry though, far from it. Every year, Sprint Section entry secretary Juan Manzano has the task of disappointing riders as he tries to find a variety of around 50 motorcycles representing old, new, bog-stock and highly modified from a large pile of those keen for throttle exercise in front of the huge crowds that the trials attract.

The original Speed Trials were held over a mile, but the march of progress and speeds way beyond Sir Harry Preston’s imagination, means it is now prudent to conduct things over a standing start quarter, with riders sent off singly. For much of the rest of the year, Madeira Drive is a long car park, subject to speed limits.

Each rider moves forward and is carefully positioned on the start line. A marshal uses a chock on the end of a long handle to keep the bike in the right place. Ahead is the wide expanse of road, to the left the controlling light, at red until the course is clear. On the green, the rider is free to leave at any time. Only as soon as he, or she, moves forward is the timing mechanism activated.

The first set of lights measure the time taken to cover the initial 64ft of the course. For those who remember schooldays physics, a sub-two-second

32 / classic motorcycle mechanics

Roger Simmons settles down for a day at the office.

Junior Drag Bike racer Charlotte Hales launches her GS500 Suzuki-based bike to a 15-second time.

Big hair and Kawasakis small and large marked the end of the Seventies.

Bikes got even bigger in 1979, a year when almost everything was going through changes. But what were the best new models? asks John Nutting.

www.frost.co.uk

01706 658619

Project Yamaha RD350 part 6

It’s alive!

F

ollowing on from last time the dial gauge and timing light were pressed into service and a pleasant hour (not) was spent tweaking the RD’s points and back plates until we had a firing point of 1.85mm BTDC. And before every air-cooled Yamaha owner writes in, fighting off fits of apoplexy there’s a good reason why I’ve strayed from the supposedly sacrosanct figure of 2.0mm. With the advent of ethanol based fuel, two-strokes have been doing strange things and detonation has been taking out pistons, cylinder heads and, on occasions, even entire motors. My contacts in the industry are now strongly recommending that timing is retarded just a touch.

Seemingly it’s even more crucial with some of the earlier Japanese classics such as my RD350. Apparently the early 1970s cylinder head profile the engine runs is simply wrong for what now flows out of the pump nozzles in 2016.

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The compression ratio is too high, igniting the fuel too early and generating too much combustion pressure. So with timing suitably tweaked and everything else theoretically sussed there wasn’t really too much left to do hopefully.

With the carbs back at their official residence the tank was now ready for fitting. It’d been derusted, had the metal

Dial gauge in action.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: STEVE COOPER

Scoop’s early RD350 is making smoke and screaming like a banshee… but why? balance pipes relieved of a vile black intractable mass, been given a total tap overhaul and had its filler cap rebuilt.

Yamaha’s disproportionately annoying, below-the-top-frame-rail link pipe has been replaced with an easily and readily demountable link pipe once again supplied by the ever patient Yambits.

Given all the attention the tank has received I fully expect it to repay me by doing the dirty at some point in the near future!

However, and entirely against CMM reader expectations, I’m actually not quite as stupid as I look. Okay, hard to believe I know but on this occasion I was genuinely planning ahead. I’d worked out that it’d be a whole lot easier to access the carbs and their fittings when the bike was first fired up if the tank wasn’t obscuring everything.

So removing the freshly fitted tank, digging out the Sealey remote fuel tank and rigging twin outlets meant I was dangerously close to being ready for the auspicious moment.

COMING CLASSIC

Honda CBR600F-X 1999-2000 ASK ANDY CMM contributor Andy Bolas has owned hundreds of bikes new and old and he knows what to source, buy and collect for the future. Listen to him!

I

n 1999 Honda took the plunge and released its all new middleweight supersports bike, giving the venerable CBR600F a huge revamp in the process.

The old steel-framed CBR was falling behind its competitors in the sales stakes after most of the 1990s on top of its game. This time, Honda started with a clean slate and eliminated all of the old bike’s weaknesses: out went the steel frame and in came a lovely alloy frame and swingarm (which bolts straight to the back of the motor), four piston Nissin calipers up front replaced the ageing twin piston sliding calipers of the Steelie, proper sized wheels to suit a 180 rear tyre (up from 5in to 5.5in rim width), weight reduced by 16kg and an all-new motor with a claimed 110bhp to put the CBR back to the top of the pile; they still managed to keep the centrestand though!

The CBR600 F-X was Honda’s answer to the Suzuki GSX-R600 and Kawasaki ZX6-R and at the same time Yamaha unleashed the R6. This redesign allowed the CBR to tackle the competition head-on both on the spec sheet and on the road and track.

Compared to the opposition though, the CBR was more of a relaxed option to its raw-edged rivals.

I guess what we are looking at here is the thinking man’s future classic. To ride it feels like it does

SPECIFICATION

CBR600 F-X F-Y

YEARS AVAILABLE

1999, 2000

MAJOR CHANGES

Colour changes

PRICE WHEN NEW

£6359 otr

VALUES NOW

£1200-£2500 VERDICT

A great future classic, great all round machine and probably all the bike you will ever need!

everything better than the previous model; handling is sharper (shorter wheel base and stiffer chassis) but not quite as extreme as its competition though this is not necessarily a bad thing is it folks?

Issues: apparently some early bikes did suffer some mechanical woes in the form of faulty bearing caps holding the cams in place causing a lot of noise and accelerated mechanical wear, no recall was issued and the problems were dealt with at dealer level. This may have created a problem if you had purchased your new steed from a parallel dealer.

I would think you would have to be very unlucky to pick a bike up with this fault though as all these years later, very few seem to have suffered from it.

Prices still seem to be falling at the moment and in some cases you can pick up an F-X/F-Y for less than a late model Steelie, although I can’t see this ggoing on much longer. Personally I would look to speend around £2k on a nice example with decent miles and history. A while ago I purchased a mint F-X X from a friend for £2400. The bike has done 850 00 miles and has lots of history; it also came with a Yoshi can, double bubble screen and braaided lines.

Other than the previously mentioned early engine O prooblems it’s your usual cam-chain tensioner (my lateer F-Sport model needed it replacing at under 4k miles), or regulator rectifier problems, rotten dow wnpipes (plenty of companies offer stainless rep placements now) and general wear and tear to look out for. Speaking to people in the trade these models always sell quickly and only really return agaain for service, so take the plunge with con nfidence! cmm FOR: Easy-going, not as extreme as the com mpetition, build quality and general availability.

Wa asn’t around long so could be collectible.

AGAINST: Some colours are rather horrible, some say y it's soulless. www.classicmechanics.com / 73

www.frost.co.uk

01706 658619

Making connections part 2

WORDS AND PHOTOS: RALPH FERRAND

Getting plugged

He’s back on the sparky warpath is our Ralph, yet again he’s making good connections.

A

s a motorcycle restorer, I see some heinous electrical sights during my working week; twisted together wires, covered with insulation tape is a favourite DIYer money and time-saving solution.

As with so many similar bodges the old cliché ‘penny wise, pound foolish’ springs to mind; there is a reason why Mr Kawasaki and the more modern Mr Triumph don’t save money on connectors by twisting wires together when building bikes – they would have to replace many burned out wiring harnesses during the first year and their products would gain an undesirable reputation for unreliability.

It was badly designed and manufactured electrics that contributed to the untimely demise of the old British bike industry.

Do you remember that comic truism about British bikes? ‘Lighting by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness!’

Whenever I peel back badly wrapped insulation tape, there’s no knowing what I’ll find underneath. Shown on this page is the uncovering of bargain connectors for the fitting of Far East manufactured mini indicators, presumably purchased from flea bay, to a Kawasaki sports bike. By the time my customer bought his ZX-6R from the parsimonious DIY wiring ‘expert’, they did not work at all, if indeed they ever 88 / classic motorcycle mechanics

had. Because the bodger had buggered up the rear of the loom, I had to repair that as well.

My customer supplied me with some more cheap and nasty mini indicators to replace them, which I fitted properly for him, but did caution that such cheap units probably wouldn’t last long, particularly as he used his bike in the winter. After one winter he took it for an MOT at a backstreet bike fettler in Bristol, who advised him that one of his indicators wasn’t working, but they would fix it for

£15. I got a call that evening from him saying his bike wouldn’t start and smoke was pouring out from under the seat.

When I got there I soon discovered that the MOT bodgers had connected the positive indicator feed, from the alarm, to an earth wire in the loom instead, which burned out the main wiring harness as soon as the alarm was set. Luckily for my customer, lots of ZX-6Rs are crashed and written off so the breakers have shelves groaning under the weight of looms for crutch rockets and are only too happy to

Above and main shot top: can you believe this connection? No, neither can we!

COMING CLASSIC

Honda X-11 1999-2002

BERTIE’S S BLATHER The fat fool may m not know about diets, but he is a serial erial bike-buyer bike buyer who has just picked up a VFR for next to nowt!

I

’m ready to be shot down in flames for this one, but I’m putting the Honda X-11 up for coming classic-dom down to one reason only.

They’re pretty rare. There, I’ve said it. So, let’s look at the beast. Firstly, it’s big. It’s basically a Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird with an updated ‘centre pivot’ frame, minus the fairing and a few horses. It’s still got the linked brakes but a lot less practicality. It’s also bloody ugly.

In a time of the Bandit 1200, ZRX1100 and Yamaha XJR the X-11 simply looked naff: a single headlight, red-backed clocks (with only one trip meter: that was it) a bulging midriff where the frame cradled that 1137cc motor and with a strange vented fairing over the radiator, it just looked bulky when the others looked purposeful.

Now, I’ve got some history with the X-11 having road tested one a few times at the end of the 1990s and having used one for about six months as my sole method of transport in 2001. Looking over those original road tests I can see I enjoyed riding the bike, but always placed it last or next to last in its peer group. Not that it really had one: it wasn’t a retro or even really a Bandit-beater. It was just a big,

naked bike with a hefty 120bhp rear-wheel, real-world stomp that you couldn’t use as you were swinging in the breeze. You may be thinking ‘modern CBX1000’, but it isn’t.

When I had to use it for my-then long trek to work, the lack of a screen annoyed, motorways were ‘a blast’ for all the wrong reasons and there wasn’t really a place to strap a bag down properly. It was 222 kilos of big bruiser that handled well enough, did some things well enough except look right.

After just a few years it was out of Honda’s range as they instead went with a Blade-powered Hornet 900. This means it’s often hard to track one down, so if you find a good one and it’s the right price.

Keep it. Hide it. You never know…

We’ve seen X-11s with many miles on for around £1500, some with big screens and luggage on (why didn’t the owner just buy a Blackbird?) We’ve seen standard bikes with 16k on the clocks for £2750 and a daft special for £5000! Most bikes seem to have low mileages: in the main most aren’t used for anything other than quick blasts and reliability is good: brakes can be de-linked too. Try one if you can: quirky, if not quite there. cmm

SPECIFICATION

YEARS AVAILABLE

1999-2002

MAJOR CHANGES

Colour changes

PRICE WHEN NEW

£6500 OTR

VALUES NOW

£1500-£2750 VERDICT

Rare, so bag one standard: that is all.

FOR: If you like this sort of thing, it’s for you. Rare, too!

AGAINST: Some hate the linked brakes, the looks, the lack of screen…

www.classicmechanics.com / 97

SPECIFICATION

ENGINE TYPE

Air-cooled, four-stroke, twin, 349cc, OHV BORE AND STROKE

63 x 56mm

CLAIMED HORSEPOWER

34bhp @ 8500rpm

MAXIMUM TORQUE

N/A

TRANSMISSION TYPE

5-speed, chain final drive

USEFUL CONTACTS

COMPRESSION RATIO

■ The MV Owners Club is THE prime point of contact: www.mvownersclub.co.uk ■ Made in Italy Motorcycles who assisted with this buying guide ■ Motori Di Marino ■ North Leicester Motorcycles ■ For parts try specialist suppliers in Italy or eBay Italia – www.ebay.it

9.5:1

CARBURETION CARB

2 x Dell’Orto UB24S B24S type TYRES

2.75-18(F), 3.75-18 (R) FUEL CAPACITY

3.5 gallons (16 litres) DRY WEIGHT

132kg (290lb) WHEELBASE

1290mm (50.8in)

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