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The Motorbike Thread


Si-man

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  • 3 weeks later...

Surely most of the TTs have been won on bikes never meant to be ridden on public roads?

Not really, most TT bikes are based on road bikes and in most cases need to be strengthened a lot. A YZR500 is a fragile, lightweight race bike designed purely for the track. Getting one round the TT course in a fast time without breaking something is an achievement, to win is amazing IMO.

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My dad raced a road based bike in the senior manx gp in 66 :)

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That's it as it sits in the workshop with the little 500 motor in it, the 1000 motor was too big for the island given the constraints of my dads riding talents; still to complete 6 laps round the mountain as a privateer is a massive acheivement and makes me very proud :)

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Think, stop tanking it toward a major junction at 100mph... Bad times for being dead but I'm not even slightly surprised.

It seems the video was put out partially to suggest to people not doing that, but mainly to show car drivers the consequences of their actions. The person who pulled out said that not only had they not seen the guy on the bike, but they hadn't even seen the car he'd just overtaken. I don't think they put the video up to show how their son was unjustly killed and how terrible the driver was...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Engine: -

Rotax 636, head ported & flowed, 5 angle valve seats, heavy duty valve springs with lightweight caps, 865 cam. Estart removed including sprag gears and housing, lighter balance shaft and sprockets fitted. Blueprinted clutch plates with drilled basket for oil drainage, heavy duty clutch springs, increased oil drains to sump. Mikuni vm44 carb with k&n and no airbox flowing in to 2-1 equal length headers mated to either a quill T3 or fmf Q4.

Chassis: -

Standard WP suspension, talon/excel wheels, avon pxr front/dunlop mutant back. Beringer 4pot caliper with beringer cast iron disk fed by magura 190 master cylinder. Battery and all estart loom removed, capacitor pack fitted under seat. Indicators and switchgear removed (although the loom is intact so can be reinstalled) ktm exc headlight (early 00's square shape lamp) and ccm carbon numberboard for nice weather when the headlight is off.

Top of me head that's about the size of it, why you ask? :)

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You can make good power out of both the rotax ( 604) and the Suzuki (644) powered bikes, but you're going to be spending a lot of money to get it. Even then it's a pretty heavy bike although good fun for road use as they don't need an oil change every 300 miles :)

If all you're used to is an il4 then even in standard 45bhp guise you will fall in love with the torque but may well soon be wanting a bit more poke.

What model are you looking at?

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The rotax is a lovely motor, a bit agricultural but the gearbox is beautiful!

Home tuning wise there are a few things to do if not done already, look out for the following:-

Cut the sides out the airbox or remove it altogether, the standard unit strangles the motor.

The standard remus baffled silencer also strangles it, either put a straight through on there or knock the baffled out. The straight through remus race can is a bit obnoxious but flows well.

Taking the base gasket off the cylinder will up compression and give a bit more poke, I wouldn't bother unless you're already taking the top end off.

The valves can leak like a sieve if the clearances have been run too close. Compression on the kickstarter should be good,if not then a couple of hours grinding them in will get it healthy again. Clattery tappets isn't anything to worry about.

The dellorto carb fitted as standard can be really finicky to set up but once sorted isn't too bad.

The R30 frame is the same as the ds apart from a shorter swingarm and I think forks; you can't fit knobbly wheels as the will clash.

I have the rotax workshop manual and all of the special tools for working on it, I know the motor inside out literally! If you want more info pm me and I will do best :)

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Going to a sprint on sunday (28th sep) at this place called leighton hall near Carnforth. The reason I mention it in here is because the last time it hosted a motor event was in the late 60's. It is only happening at all because the Barbon hillclimb in Kirby Lonsdale has decided to do away with 30odd years of history and stop running a bike/3 wheeler event to focus on two car events instead. So if your up this way of the woods, I think an exclusively bike/threewheel event like this needs all the support it can get.

Should you need convincing:

1. There are no noise regs like there are so often these days. Yeah, no noise restrictions. That means open pipe potential and Avgas n R the way the guy upon high intended.

2. Car show for the intervals or the ADD minded (meself included)

3. Rumour mill says that John McGuinness has an entry and is gonna have a run out. I've already put 50p on him bringing the speedway bike he's got, just for shits n giggles ha ha. Anyway;

Here's the site and facebook .

Edited by CC12345678910
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  • 2 weeks later...

So I've only been riding motorbikes for about 25 years (I still want to see if the person my dad sold our TY50 to has still got it, so I can buy it back ; ), and for the minute I'm committed to the country I'm living in for the next 9 months, so thought it about time I bought my first bike. I found a 1971 DT100 on Craigslist, which I bought and rode once - liked it, but was planning to buy a Honda CRF250M soon as a bike to go on weekend trips etc. The other bike I wanted was a Yamaha SR400 as a cafe racer.

And then on Craigslist, up popped a nice SR400...

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Quite original, about 95%, but not quite as mint as it looks in the photo (that was 5 years ago I think). Either way it was in good well-maintained condition, bit of pitting on chrome work, alloy is all dull, tyres needed replacing, some small scratches to paintwork. But to find here (Thailand) with a registration book is rare, since the SRs here were grey imports from Japan. Getting the registration book made cost the original owner £800. All this was reflected in the sale price of £2000. But whatever, I had to had it.

So now the plan is to convert it into a 60s style cafe racer, which is quite popular. Actually I really like the riding position and styling of the original machine, and if it was as mint as the photo above then it'd be harder to switch bits. But whatever, I bought this as a fun bike, for evenings/weekends in the city. I'll be keeping all the original parts so I can put it back if I feel like it.

For now though, it's a project. Here's the first batch of parts...

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Lots of stainless steel! We have: shorter silencer and matching downpipe, chainguard, slimmer mudguards, clip-ons, more suitable top yoke (i.e. no handlebar mounts), a steering limiter to protect the tank from the new bars, shorter rear grab rails (original SR from Japan) and new fork gators.

To follow will be headlight mounts, smaller indicator lights, a handmade aluminium fuel tank in a Norton/Triton style, a smaller rear stop light and mounting bracket, and a shorter single seat.

Later I'd like a set of polished drum brake hubs, WM2-style rims and some Bridgestone BT45s. I just bought a pair of IRC classic style tyres, mid-range, good enough for me for the time being.

Damn it, I wish I could spend just one weekend in the 60s with a BSA Rocket Gold Star :(

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