… MotoWasabi … Vintage Japanese Ring-Dings A Go-Go

Sortie Kawa 3 Cylindres 2009

Yesterday (Staurday) was another  brilliant day, nice and sunny if a bit chilly. It was the first Swiss Romand (french speaking) Kawsaki Triple Meet.

Thanks to Guy who tookthe initiative to invite all known Kaw triple owners of the region at his house before a ride-out in the Gorgeous country side… plenty of unknown road to me.

Of course, my S2 couldn’t get plated in time, so I showed up with my daily bike, a Yamaha DS7, with only 4 gears and very short sprocket ratios… and a bent frame as was discovered by the local Guru at top of the Molendruz pass. Never mind, it did the bike lots of good trying to catch up with 2 H2, Guy, always the polite type, stayed behind me to make sure I wouldn’t get lost.

I went down after coffee at top of the pass and they went on to clock up  another trouble-free 150 km (with the exception of a nearly lost baffle). All the gang then came down to my workshop for a cold one before going back home. A brilliant and simple day of fun.

Thanks Guy!

Hopefully next year (or next time), we’ll get a few extra people and bikes.

At Guy's house in Bottens

Top of the mountain!

Kawasaki 1972 S1 S2 Triple road test

Still high from the Suzuki road test, decide to give the bewitched triple a go… of course I shouldn’t have!

It was the first bike I bought to restore, 12 years ago. I caused me no end of troubles. I got to meet the worst parts suppliers in my life. I got  to discover the lack of honesty of a lot of bike shop. I also learned a lot from the  bankrupcy law (one shop closed on me while the bike was inside). The paintjob screwed up twice and the side decals are all skewd and varnished of course… so I can’t ven remove them. The frame was powdercoated and then we discovered a crack in the footrest plate when we kicked it over… the peg just fell on the floor.

The list is endless. The one good thing is that it put me in contact with the world of internet forums. You’ll find on almost all the two-strokes inclined forums under ither the nick “spike” or “motowasabi”. I couldn’t have finished this bike without their help.

Motor has been rebore to over over over S2 bore, the liner is so thin I am not sure it won’t distort and seize the super expensive pistons (from Brétille, a F1 piston maker). Everything mechanical is new, it’s got a Boyer ignition and this made us discover the stator was bad. Even with all that it still hasn’t got a new crank… It is a bad joke. I have the blinkers but didn’t bother mounting them… they need chrome and I’ve already spent a fortune on stuff like that. I mean the bike is jinxed!

Of course even with a fresh battery the bike wouldn’t start… I should have known better. I pushed it down the avenue and it started like a charm… The sound of them triples is very addictive! The oil lines check valves had obviously let a fair bit of oil, so the thing smoked like a Nebelwerfer. I thought the ace bars looked good (don’t they?) on the bike, but I had hard time adjusting to them. Thank God, the brakes, after all the time spent on them, allowed me to stop at the red light at the bottom of my San Francisco style avenue… major crossing ahead. There was a bit more taffic at this hour, so thought it better to go into the industrial zone to warm the motor and get it rid of the oil. I thought it was a smart move…

My tach is slightly-delic, it would go past the red zone. One more thing to check. Motor, even not run-in, would pick up revs and launch you down the road. The sund gets really crisp and is like nothing else in the world. I was starting to enjoy my new found Triple Owner status. For a moment, I thought the jinx had disappeared. I was wrong.

Of course as I went up and down the road, I didn’t notice a silver Kangoo parked… on my return trip, up jumped a policeman… Radar… 74 in a 50 zone. Cursed, I tell ya. After 12 years of work (on and off, I got so pissed at the bike), countless dosh splashed at it, a 1’000$ fine and the loss of my license, it’s only done 5 kilometers… I’m going to torch it!

Needs to be done:
General check all over the bike.
Repair tach
Fit blinkers for safety’s sake.
Fit new non-rusty acebars.
Get the motor to spew out the oil, I mean it needs to be ridden.

This one will get plated chop-chop… so I told the policeman.

Suzuki T250 1969 model Road test.

The previous test being slightly disappointing, I moved on to the 69 T250, which hadn’t moved since over a year!
I quickly reinstalled the regulator, but that caused a problem: I could hear the battery boiling over. So it had a short somewhere. Further investigation showed that only the the wire to the turn signal was shorting. So I just left it out of the system after isolating it carefully. This means that the charging system goes through the reg, but the turnsignals are fed directly by the alternator. Blown bulbs are normally the result of a system wired like this, but since all US T250 were wired this way I doubt that there’ll be a problem… maybe if I throttle it madly while switching on the signals.
Not likely.

Test ride was a nice change from the previous ones… everything worked faultlessly.nHandles well, shocks a commendable OK, fork just as the T350 i.e. well suited to the bike. The engine, which still needs to be run-in, is a riot!
Brakes work decently, although not the best I’ve had. very nimble, thanks to the large bars.

I understand why people do them up as racers of cafes.
The exhaust note is very pleasant, I suspect Suzuki paid special attention to it. Mellow but raspy, it makes the bike feel much larger in the capacity range than it is. A big thumb-up! Makes me feel like restoring the T20, so that i can compare them again… I was very impressed by the T20 and had a hell of a good time with it.

Needs to be done:

General check all over the bike.
Needs also a battery door.

This one will get plated chop-chop.

Although the paint is quite faded, that Mojave orange paint is still quite something to look at. Have a look at the gallery to see the many unique details Suzuki built in their bikes at the time. The 69 model is also a rarity and has design features unique to this year’s model.

Yamaha DS 6 Road test

Another brilliant Sunday… 4th in a row!
I decided to have a major test day: first bike was this Yam that I finished in winter… I had my doubt wether it would run as well on the road as well as it did in the workshop. Strangely, it did even if overall it’s the one bike with the “vintage” feeling. It doesn’t compare well to my other bikes from the same year.
This might be due to the vertical-split motor or the gearbox. The handling is quite good, once you get used to the bike’s small size and typical Japanese period shocks. The clutch, being all new, performed faultessly even if the action is rather short. Brakes are also some of the best I tried in a standard form, with the back being stronger than the front!
The only thing that spoiled the test was the carburation: it doesn’t mind idling and will do for ever, but on take off it feels totally strangled. It very easy to stall it, but once on the go, if you keep the revs up, it accelerates quite well.

Back from the run

Needs to be done:

Tighten all bolts general check all over the bike.
Change crank seals, it’s the probable cure for the richness.
Oil pump feels like overoiling: Adjust.
It’s also pissing oil from the RH side (should be dry): investigate and check

Needs also a side stand and spring and rubber. The badges aren’t yet glued to the covers! Decal needed for RH side.
If I’m not mistaken it also needs a battery door.

Really not that much needed to make it complete.

Corcelles-le-Jorat Classic Race 2009

Another Swiss speciality presented here: since we can’t have a racing circuit, nor organize races on the territory (since the fifties, all racing activities got banned after the horrid 1955 Le Mans crash with the Mercedes Silver arrows), well we organize timed hillclimbs. In theory, the winner is the rider with the closest difference in timing between two races… this doesn’t prevent people from going fast .

So every year, the peaceful farming community of Corcelles hosts a classic hill climb. Memories of “The Wild One” come into mind as the village is perfumed with castor oil, two-stroke oil and the smell of burned gas. Look at the pictures and see you there next year!

I’ll be there with the A1R…  hopefully.

A few pics of my region

We took my sister in law for a spin on the lake Leman (geneva Lake) aboard an old steam ship. Made me realize that I am living in a beautiful part of the world! Come and visit us!

View from the Château de Gruyères, where I was yesterday with the A1SS

The always picturesque Château de Chillon, viewed from the boat.

The Steam engine crank… 3.5 m long rods churning.

A view from the coastline, middle of the pic is roughly where the bike pics in the previous post where made. Look for the bridge in the middle of pic.

Riding test of the A1SS Samurai.

Another brilliant Sunday…  Third in a row!
What a difference between this one and the 67 A1 ! I just had to adjust the controls a bit and away we went to the picturesque city of Gruyères, of the cheese fame. The SS performed faultlessly, front forks, brakes and rear suspension were dated but very bearable. Since Gruyères is at an altitude of ~800 meters above sea, had to sail through some fog… interesting in summer. Rest of the day was absolutely sunny.
The A1SS will do 120 kmh in 4th gear, which tells me it’s in good shape. Not sure I’ll see 160 in 5th, but nowadays it really doesn’t matter.

Here it is on the steep slopes of Lavaux, Switzerland, on the return leg of the trip.

Needs to be done:
Apart from a sticky RH throttle slide, nothing much.

Carbs: repair/replace RH throttle slide stop… obviously still not quite straight enough. You only feel it at WOT.
Petcock: really needs a new set of joints, specially the tank/cock gaskets. It weeps a bit.
Exhaust: need to find a way of keeping my baffles inside securely.
Seat: needs a new cover when cash is at hand.
Stickers: A1SS needed, Again when cash is in surplus. André Okazaki at reproduction decals is the man, do not hesitate to contact him.
Tires: could do with a new pair of BT45s to enhance the ride.
I’m also playing with the idea of fitting signals and a scrambler bar, I have one at hand, more enduro like (lower than the original), but why disturb something that works well?

A few niggling problems

I was expecting a few problems, but there is really nothing much.

If you have an old A Series, this is likely to happen.

That's the cure: crude but effective. I will have to look at having complete sets remade.

Carbs were surprisingly very clean.

Cause for sticky throttle.

Riding report of my Kawasaki Samurai

Another brilliant Sunday… After tinkering the Samurai, I felt like giving it a go. Not the brightest idea as it turned out…

Rolled it out of the garage, and then it was time to tighten the triple tree nuts, everything felt loose and the front suspension was clunking.
it wasn’t like that last summer. I sling the poor bugger on its side-stand, go back inside and what do I find? A pool of stuff under the bike. Great!
Although I had ultra sonic cleaned the carbs, the float valves weren’t obviously shutting off. Since it was OK on the center stand, I still went.

I took the usual test course of about 20 kms, with some nice straights. The bike felt very unnerving, suspension and frame-wise. Once warm it would accelerate and I  felt again the nice side of the Samurais: it is a very supple and torquy engine. I stopped to adjust the brakes and I noticed that some screws were undoing themselves. Uh Oh, time to drive home. I gave it some stick on the way back, when suddenly the exhaust changed note… sure enough one of my baffles had left its pipe. I managed to recuperate it and deafened everybody until the workshop. They are very quiet in standard trim, but I think I’m going to try to shorten some baffles later on… it did sound good!

Needs to be done:

Brakes (front chatters, rear isn’t quite good)
It feels like the front forks have no oil in them – real pogo sticks. This could well be the case. The rear units also feel as if they have no oil left in them, they just bounce.
Tighten all bolts around the triple trees – and general check all over the bike.
Baffles Check and tighten
Tach seems extremly optimistic, the speedo is fine  or at least credible.
Turns signals, need a rear unit and a new RH control.
Horn Need a new LH unit and a new horn probably.
Seat needs to be redone.
Clutch would need a bit of fine tuning, the slipping zone is very short.
Carbs needs new float valve… I am pretty sure I put a new keyster set in there, so I might have to investigate another alternative.
It also feels like it’s rich (check starter plungers, but then again I think I changed them)
Oil pump feels like overoiling and it wouldn’t adjust, like the spring was sticking. Might have to locate a new one or go premix.

This is a somewhat mixed bag of a bright sunny Sunday… at least the bike runs quite well!

Look what’s on the bench…

I’m trying to get as many bikes s possible road-ready or at least to test run them and know what needs to be done during winter.