HONDA CBR900RR SUZUKI RV125
VAN VAN
BUYER’S GUIDE
KAWASAKI S1A ✹ G O L D E N
C H I L D ✹
■ Tyres: all you need to know! ■ Reunited with my Honda MT-5!
£4.20
HONDA
VT500E Knowledge:
Knowledge:
Blasting
GSX1100 EFE masterclass
Skills:
Sorting CV carbs
No.334 August 2015
Forgotten 80s middleweight
ROJECT BIKES NIALL MACKENZIE’S RD400E, STEVE COOPER’S YAMAHA RD350B, MARK HAYCOCK’S YAMAHA TX500, KNOWLEDGE STAN STEPHEN ON OIL PUMPS AND YAMAHA GEARBOXES ❙ CLASSIFIEDS BUYING/SELLING TIPS ❙ Q&A YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
August 2015 Issue 334 Publisher: Steve Rose, srose@mortons.co.uk Contributors: Joe Dick, Kevin Larkins, Ralph Ferrand. Art Editor: Justin Blackamore Reprographics: Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield Divisional advertising manager: David England, dengland@mortons.co.uk Advertising: Sam Dearie, Lee Buxton sdearie@mortons.co.uk, lbuxton@mortons.co.uk Tel: 01507 524004 Subscription manager: Paul Deacon Circulation manager: Steven O’Hara Marketing manager: Charlotte Park Publishing director: Dan Savage Commercial director: Nigel Hole Associate director: Malc Wheeler Editorial address: CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS MAGAZINE, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR Website: www.classicmechanics.com General enquiries and back issues: Tel: 01507 529529 24 hour answer phone help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk Archivist: Jane Skayman jskayman@mortons.co.uk, 01507 529423 Subscription: Full subscription rates (but see page 36 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £50.40. Export rates are also available – see page 36 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. Distribution: COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel: 01895 433600 Subscription agents: CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS MAGAZINE, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR Printed: William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton Published date: CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS MAGAZINE is published on the third Wednesday of every month Next issue: August 19, 2015 Advertising deadline: August 5, 2015 © Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISSN 0959-0900 CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS magazine takes all responsible steps to ensure advice and technical tips are wriitten by experiienced d and d compettentt people. We also advise readers to seek further professional advice if they are unsure at any time. Anything technical written by the editor is exempt – he’s rubbish with spanners. CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS (USPS:729-550) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. USA subscriptions are $60 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. Periodical Postage is paid at Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Postmaster: Send address changes to CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS, Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715572-4595 chris@classicbikebooks.com
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Colour me good... We’re lucky in the classic world. We’re lucky as we have some of the best colour-schemes, paint jobs and graphics in the biking sphere. Take a look at most modern motorcycles and you’ll probably wonder what all the fuss is about (I sometimes do). So, can any colours really match up with the luscious palettes we see on classic Jap two-wheeled works of art? I mean, just check out this S1A; it’s simply gorgeous in gold (even if it’s probably called ‘orange candy crush’ or some such nonsense). If there was a heyday for classic Jap colour schemes it was probably the 1960s/1970s with vibrant colours and everyone wanting a candy-coloured bike with a dash of metalflake, or perhaps a flip-flop… While the 1980s gave us some lovely colours on road bikes, such as Kawasaki’s lime green (straight from their racing paint schemes) and race
replicas came in some cool colours – like Suzuki’s corporate blues on the GSX-R750 – things went wrong in the 1990s! If you remember the first ‘pink’ YZF750 in 1993 or the zig-zag purple shell-suit that was the water-cooled GSX-R750 and 1100WNs then you’ll realise that for the Japanese it was a time that taste forgot! There were some notable exceptions – such as the first Blades and the single-colour ZXR750J – but many factory schemes of that decade were hideous! Maybe we should do a straw poll on what the finest colour scheme ever was? Oooh and while we talk about questions, please fill in the readers survey in this issue of CMM. We want your feedback to improve YOUR magazine!
Bertie Simmonds
editor
Bertie Simmonds
Jon Bentman
Andy Bolas
bertie@classicmechanics.com Bert is literally desperate for some time off – if only to swap indicators.
editorial@classicmechanics.com Last helping of JB: let’s just say he’s gone from the BBC to ITV.
editorial@classicmechanics.com The man with the plan tells us to buy Kwak’s ZX6R!
Steve Cooper
Mark Haycock
Alan Dowds
editorial@classicmechanics.com Scoop loved the cover bike S1A this month and helps us with fuel taps!
editorial@classicmechanics.com Mark gets to grip with his TX project and sorts the brakes and steering.
editorial@classicmechanics.com Dowdsy looks into the rubber soul of tyres.
Stan Stephens
Justin Blackamore
Niall Mackenzie
editorial@classicmechanics.com Stan serves up a double helping on oil pumps and Yam twin ’boxes!
editorial@classicmechanics.com The lad who makes the mag look good rides for the first time!
editorial@classicmechanics.com He’s stripping his RD400 frame this month.
Gary Chapman
Pip Higham Suzuki scholar
Genial Ad Giant
editorial@classicmechanics.com This month GC has snapped a fair chunk of the mag. From S1A to Blade and the cover!
editorial@classicmechanics.com Pip tells us what the score is with the amazing EFE!
editorial@classicmechanics.com The Tall Guy is the one to go to for all your ad needs!
Editor without a clue
Older/nicer stuff editor
Lord of the LC
Arty photographer chap
Exit stage left…
The Q&A King
Art editor rides!
Coming Classic King!
Tells of tyres
RD400 main man
Sam Dearie
www.classicmechanics.com / 3
Contents 39
06
ARCHIVE
08
1997 HONDA CBR900RR FIREBLADE
42
HONDA VT500E
13
NEWS
50
EIGHTIES EXCESS!
56
TYRES
18 20 22
Old Pals Act: Barry Sheene and Steve Parrish.
Bertie Simmonds on a classic.
New games about old bikes, Seb Vettel on an H2 and more!
CALENDAR
August rules – it’s going to be a great summer!
FEEDBACK
More Diversion owners surface: and Nutting gives us a history lesson.
SHOW US YOURS
Your sheds are alive with the fruit of your work.
26
NOSTALGIA
30
KAWASAKI S1A
How one man was reunited with his Honda MT-5.
64
RON HASLAM SCHOOL
We get our own Justin Blackamore onto two wheels. Jon Bentman’s last hurrah on a middleweight V-twin! Spanish reader Eduardo Sanz’s amazing collection! How they’ve developed and what to buy.
SUZUKI RF1000
The RF900 for the retro-reboot era. Does it rock you?
121 NEXT MONTH
Suzuki’s GSX-R750 SRAD, Bridgestone Hurricane Scrambler and more!
122 PARTING SHOT
Sheenie once more – on the TR500.
67
❙ WORKSHOP NEWS New metal bits abound this month!
70
❙ Q&A Your questions answered.
74
❙ SORTING CV CARBS Scoop on how to clean your carbs.
78
❙ YAMAHA RD400 Niall Mackenzie makes progress.
80
❙ BLASTING Steve Cooper on blasting.
84
❙ YAMAHA RD350 Changing Vrooms for Scoop.
86
❙ GEARBOXES Stan Stephens on the Yamaha two-stroke twin gearbox.
88
❙ YAMAHA TX500 Mark Haycock sorts brakes and steering on his TX.
92
❙ OIL PUMPS Stan shows us how to sort out oil pumps.
102 ❙ SUZUKI RV125 VAN VAN Be Mr Sand-man… 114 ❙ SUZUKI GSX1100 EFE A knowledge masterclass from Pip Higham. 119 ❙ COMING CLASSIC Kawasaki’s ZX-6R Ninja.
Steve Cooper rides a two-stroke classic!
www.classicmechanics.com / 5
We want to see YOUR pridee and joy in our pages, so you can nd restore with fellow readers. share what you ride an Email your hi-res shots to bssimmonds@mortons.co.uk or mail he front of the mag. Let us know in some photos to the address at th what you’ve done and how you’ve done it and send before and after shots if you can. Do get in touch. Bertie.
KIT WINNER
Linden Spencer’s 1977 Honda CB550 Cafe Racer Myy son and I have just completed the build of a 1977 Honda CB55 50 F2 2 Cafe Racer. The bike started as a £200 eBay purchase. As you can seee from the pictures it now looks considerably different to a standaard CB B550 with different forks (GSX-R750K4) CB500T tank (paint by Dreaam Maachine) Cognito Moto hub conversion for GSX-R discs on a spoked rim m, Carpy four-into-one exhaust, modified Dime City seat, moto gadgget sppeedo built into the headstock and a whole load of modifications to fraame, electrics, wheel sizes etc. all done by us! We have only had it coompleted a few days and already had heaps of praise from those thhat haave seen it, the MoT bay was buzzing with people asking about it… ….
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.
Hugh Kennedy’s Yamaha RD250B Having finally finished the restoration of my RD250B, I thought I would send you a picture. The bike was donated to me several years ago in boxes, the previous owner having stripped it in the late 80s. It sat under the bench at mine for a few years until I finished my other projects (alas I have lost the contact details of Stuart from Kirkintilloch who gave me the bike so if he sees this, please get in touch). She was finally finished on the morning of the Scottish Classic Show, with half an hour to spare and won Best in Show. Also pictured is my 350LC which is unrestored, she was ridden to the same show and managed to win first place in the 80s class so a good day was had. I will add that ‘Elsie’ does get used and always manages to put a smile on my face. I know the Kawasaki ZRX1200 is not quite a classic yet, but I had to include it in the pics as I promised your esteemed editor I would send him a pic of the one of the bikes he wishes he never sold! I must say Bertie you did a cracking job of Rex: and no I ain’t selling it to you!
Also in the pic is my newly acquired RD400F which is about to get the full resto treatment. Finally I had to include my
17-year-old daughter’s Yamaha YBR125, she only has 18 months to wait to ride the 250B as she has claimed it as hers!
Derek Rudge’s Honda C110D
Alan Mello’s 1974 Benelli 650S Tornado
I have restored a number of early Hondas but haad to sell them when we moved house in 2011, the one I most regret selling was a CB72 2. By 2014 I had got our new bungalow more or lesss how we wanted and had the chance to find another rebuild project. Thiis was a 1963 Honda C110D. A rather unusual model, these little push--rod engined Hondaas are now getting scarce and the more common version of this modeel was the C110 with the upswept exhaust. The bike had been dismantled and loosely put back together, the frame had beeen shot blasted and repainted to a high standard but the rest of it was in a sorry conditionn, as can be seen by the before photo. I have now finished the rebuild and it is now MoT’d and back on the road for the first time since 1978 8. I would not have been able to source the parts without David Silveer Spares, CMS in Holland and good old eBay! I have done all of the worrk myself except for the paint and rechroming. I hoppe to unleash the full 5bhp around the lanes of Somerset, recreating my misspent youth! I also hope to enter the bike in shows over the reest of the summer. I have another rebuild in the pipeline, this time som mething rather larger, a BMW R100RS, I am saving up to be able to afford to get the paintworrk done on that and may get it back on the road beff ore the autumn thiis year, I have now retired and have a bit more time too tinker in the garagee.
Greetinngs from Minnesota USA! I got bitten by the Benellli bug roughlyy 25 years ago when I inherited a 250 two-strokee from my motther-in-law. When I found this ’74 650S Tornaddo for sale onnly 15 miles from my home I had to at least goo t ake a look! Well two years and many hours and dollarss later here itt stands today 95% complete. A complete reewire, new piss tons and rings, and headwork were among the many tasks required. I must admit I love the colours from thhe 70s and thee alloy castings, particularly the front wheel hub. I look foorward to showing it off at the local bike gatheerings.
www.classicmechanics.com m / 23
HONDA VT500E
POINT OF ORIGIN Forgotten, and few and far between, the Honda VT500E is an endangered species on the point of disappearing into the mists of time. A sad state of affairs for what was a hugely significant machine... WORDS: JON BENTMAN PHOTOS: GARY CHAPMAN
I
n the early 1980s Honda was on a mission, not a single-focused ultimate-truth type mission, instead one of increasing divergence and expanding imagination, creating multiple futures, each with a dazzling complexity possibly never before seen in motorcycling. Honda upped its game in the 1980s, spending inestimable millions on R&D to create all manner of new engine configurations. While singles and twins would replace the smaller fours – clearly being more economic solutions for the performance parameters of the light-middleweight classes – for middleweight-to-large-capacity machines Honda adopted no end of new designs. However, it was the vee engine configuration that underscored most of these: V-twins of varying angle and capacities and V4s, essentially 90º, from 400 to 1000cc. The vees powered everything from cruisers to supersports. When Honda unveiled the VT500E in 1983 it was then part of that wave of new machinery that arrived so thick and fast we could barely keep pace. Only a year earlier Honda had given us the VT250F which had tried to compete with the 250cc two-strokes on the roads. It hadn’t succeeded, but as a 90º V-twin 250 it was still a gem of a machine, one that would bounce back in 2000 as the VTR250 (something of a mini-Monster, trellis frame and all). There’d also been the new CBX550F – perhaps to make sales to those who were still actually rather enjoying the inline four experience. Even in 1983 the VT500E had to share the limelight and was mostly overshadowed by the sporty new VF400F. Honda was sub-compartmentalising the capacity categories perhaps as never before. Its middleweight offerings were becoming countless: CB400N, FT500, XL500R, XBR500, VF400F, CBX550, CX500E, VT500E... and more besides.
42 / classic motorcycle mechanics
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OWDS
: s e o d
Tyres
The most important thing on your classic – these interface with the road and are vital to staying upright. Alan Dowds tells the story of bike-riding rubber. WORDS: ALAN DOWDS PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE, MICHELIN, BRIDGESTONE, PIRELLI, METZELER, AVON AND GARY CHAPMAN
H
oops, rubber, tyres (or tires!). Call 'em what you will, they're one of the most important parts of your bike. And they can completely transform it – from a gripless, wobbly piece of old nonsense, to a sharp-steering, super-stable, streetseeking weapon. Now, if we were talking about a brand-new 2015 bike, straight from the fancy-pants showroom, this would be a pretty short feature. Tyre sizes for most road bikes nowadays have become standardised around a few fitments, and within those sizes, you can select from a high-mileage commuting tyre, through a sticky sport-touring hoop, right up to a near-slick trackday tread, which would let you lap within ten per cent of a proper racing tyre (if you had the minerals of course…) So new bike riders – they've got it properly easy, but what about us guys: the folk on the older, cooler, more fun metal? Well, we still get good options – but we need to work a bit harder, is all. Put a bit of effort in, and you can find excellent, modern rubber for almost all sizes, even the proper weird ones. Here's our route to rubber happiness…
56 / classic motorcycle mechanics
HISTORY
Let’s start by looking back. We’re sold on bikes from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century. So what’s been happening in the last 40-or more years to those black, round things we call tyres?
1960s
These were utilitarian times, with utilitarian machinery: everything used inner tubes of course – bike wheels were (almost exclusively) wire-spoked, with no way to make an airtight seal in the rim. The tyre construction was simple too: no such thing as ‘low-profile’ tyres, so there were only two numbers: the width in inches, and the diameter of the wheel, in inches. So a BSA Gold Star had a 3.00 19 front and a 3.50 19 rear: three inch wide front tyre, and three and a half inch wide rear, both on 19 inch diameter spoked wheels. The profile was unspecified, so was, notionally, 100 per cent. The one good thing about this generic nature of sizes is that there are still plenty of tyres made in these sizes today: especially the classic tyre designs from Dunlop, Avon and Metzeler. Dunlop’s TT100 was the first tyre to lap the Isle of Man Mountain course at 100mph, and is still made today…
1970s
In this decade Japan emerged as the major player in motorcycling bringing an amazing array of machines to the common man. At first, tyres largely stuck to the old sizes, meaning pretty narrow, tall carcasses, on 18 and 19 inch rims. But as frames got stiffer, power outputs increased, and things like disc brakes and monoshock rears appeared, the rubber had to adapt. The easiest change was obviously to increase the width of the rear, giving a larger contact patch, and hence more grip. Wider designs didn’t work so well with highprofiles though – they get too heavy, and the tall sidewalls flex too much, generating excessive heat. So in the mid 1970s, firms like Metzeler began producing /80 and /90 section designs, which allowed wider rubber, with lower sidewalls, giving a more
stable, lighter tyre. The 1970s also saw the adoption of cast aluminium wheels, which let firms use tubeless tyre designs. Special sealing beads on the rims, together with an airtight inner liner on the tyre meant the inner tube could be dumped, saving weight, improving reliability and enhancing performance all round. In racing, Michelin moved towards dumping tread patterns altogether, building semi-slick, and slick tyres for GP racing in 1977.
1980s
We might have had ZX-Spectrums, CD-players and electric hair crimpers. But the world of bike tyre technology was still feeling its way. We’d moved over to metric tyre widths at least, so the 3.00 and 4.25s were making way for 100- and 120-section tyres. No-one had any idea how big to make the wheels though. Japanese engineers veered from 19-inch fronts to 16-inch rears, then swapped to 16 inch fronts, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Kawasaki’s early air-cooled GPz range used skinny-to-modern-eyes 18-inch rims, with 100 or 110-width fronts, and 120-130 section rears. Then the water-cooled GPZs arrived, using 16 inch fronts and 18 inch rears, getting slightly wider. There was still some distinction in smaller models – something like Suzuki’s RG250 actually had the same width tyres front and rear – a 100/90 16 front and 100/80 18 out back. But towards the end of the decade, a consensus was beginning to form, with Honda’s CBR600F sporting 17 inch rims front and rear, albeit in skinny 110/80 and 130/80 sections. The 17 inch wheel made a decent compromise in terms of steering, tyre profile shape, tyre wear, and wheel mass, and it’s the size that most road and road-race bikes have settled on since.
1990s
Now, we were starting to get somewhere. The production-based 750cc superbike class was white-hot in terms of development, and the tyre sizes were starting to pan out. Honda’s RC30 (from 1988) was using a 18 inch back rim, but Kawasaki’s ZXR750 came out in 1991 with a 180/55 17 rear, and a 120/70 17 front. As a result, you can still shoe your ZXR with all manner of 2015-spec hot-poop hoops, while the RC30 is stuck with ancient sport-touring rubber, when you can find it. Widths at the rear went up quite quickly, from 160 to 170 then 180. The 190 section rear first appeared quite early on in the decade, on Ducati’s 916 in 1994, but it took another couple of years before it was widely adopted, on Suzuki’s 1996 GSX-R750 SRAD and Kawasaki’s ZX7R. The 200-section rear just missed the 1990s, first seen on the 2000-model Kawasaki ZX-12R… www.classicmechanics.com / 57
Super
Suzuki What was it that made the GSX1100EFE so darned good? Marque expert, CMM’s Pip Higham knows a bit about how to make these marvels go faster and what made them mighty in the first place. WORDS AND PICS: PIP HIGHAM
S
uzuki really stirred up the pot with the GSX1100 of 1980, if you wanted sphincter-searing acceleration at a knock down price the GSX had it all covered. Suzuki sat back to watch the combined efforts from Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki flounder in its wake until (with the opposition closing the gap) the EFE was born in 1984, and it had no intention of taking any prisoners. The EFE motor is astoundingly simple: it has four cylinders, five speeds and one destination, the top of the heap. It builds on the principles established as far back as the GT750 water-cooled two-stroke. The transmission layout is very similar, this design carried on to the GS750, the GS1000 and then the GSX1100. The crank and gearbox input and output shaft centres are shared with its four-stroke buddies, the basic design of the camshaft drive chain and tensioners is a simple evolution of its forebears. That’s the trick that Suzuki pulled off for the umpteenth time, no crazy ideas, just good old simplicity and brilliance of design that don’t hanker after adulation or adoration, but that does tend to follow after the first time you crank open the throttle on one! Around the time that the 100 horsepower gate swung open the Big 4 were all capable of producing bikes that could transcend this hurdle but there were many problems which befell them. There were chocolate cams and recalcitrant camchain tensioners and second gear selectors that did and then didn’t. Big problems emerged when bikes exceeded 200 kilos and 100 horses. But the EFE tore up that risk assessment, and then proceeded to tear up the quarter mile with Pee Wee Gleason on board in mid 10 second order at close to 130mph. These numbers were pretty impressive back then... wait a mo, they’re 114 / classic motorcycle mechanics
Top: Lovely modified EFE with Fazer 1000 swingarm. Above: This trick EFE uses modified Akrapovic Bandit 1200 headers and end can!
Simple solutions: Model and marque experts like Pip should be listened to! pretty impressive now! The reason for this massive rush of ballbusting torque is simple, the development that Suzuki did on the GSX1100 was just the starter, when the main course rolled up the EFE had a totally sorted carb/cam/valve/piston/exhaust combo. The carbs were just big enough to allow in excess of 110bhp but small enough to encourage high intake velocity which gave near perfect atomisation of the intake charge, hence great midrange and throttle response regardless of gear position or the position of the tacho needle. The cams, likewise didn’t need crazy lifts or excessive spring pressures to get the job done, just enough was okay thanks. The intake valves increased in diameter by 1mm from 27 to 28mm but the exhaust stayed the same at 23mm. The 74mm pistons are lovely, tough with slim rings, the forgings (not castings) are neatly ribbed under the crown for strength and heat dissipation. Yet again Suzuki pulled a rabbit out of their hat here, generally speaking, alloys used for casting use a higher proportion of silicone in their mix. This reduces the coefficient of expansion thus allowing tighter piston to wall clearances, the ART alloy used for the forged pistons still allows minimal clearances which were previously unheard of. It might be worth mentioning here that Suzuki’s GS1000R F1 racebikes used pistons crafted by Fred Hadleigh at Omega in the West Midlands. What is truly amazing is the similarity twixt the Omega design and the later factory pistons as installed in the EFE, and yes I am 1
1/ The inside of the forged piston on the EFE – check out the ART symbol. 2/ Here's the layout of the camchain, with tensioners in place and slippers. 3/ Here you have the layout of the parts in the camchain tensioner.
2
4/ Cam sprocket bolts: on the left are the later 7mm EFE ones and on the right are 6mm cap screws as fitted to earlier bikes. 5/ This be 16 kilos of solid EFE crankshaft muscle!
aware that the 1000R was a two-valver and the GSX has four of ’em, the design clues I’m referring to relate to the internal design as opposed to the piston crown. I’ve mentioned Vincenzo Piatti’s contribution to the TSCC concept previously but I’ll just refresh that area briefly, Piatti pioneered a fully machinable combustion chamber which optimised compression, valve size and flame travel to burn the precious charge in the most efficient way possible. With this single refinement the GSX and its first cousin, the EFE, stomped off into the distance, any gear, any revs, anytime. Given the fact that there was so much of everything available at relatively low engine speeds, riding an EFE was rapidly recognised as a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon, they start easily, will run on just about any kind of fuel without complaining, they don’t get hot, they have a huge alternator to fire up the similarly huge headlamp and they don’t wilt after a tankful of abuse. Even 30 odd years after its release the EFE has a loyal band of followers that can’t get enough of that torque-nami, sure they dress ’em up with USD forks and trick swingarms (like Colin Peabody’s lovely bike here) but the stuff that sits under that crackle black cam cover is sacrosanct, the beating heart of a true classic. The architecture that was laid down back then has not changed, particularly in drag racing circles (or should that be straights?) Whatever, EFE-based bikes, with a few tweaks are running over three seconds quicker down the 1320 than Pee Wee ran at Orange County International Raceway all those years ago, sure they have multi-stage lock up clutches and trick auto boxes and digital everything but underneath are still the rock solid design concepts that haven’t been improved on. With capacities of up to 1600cc by virtue of big pistons and stroker cranks it’s unlikely there will ever be a more appropriate basis for this kind of lunacy as slimmer, modern engines afford less room to grow. So we have a great spread of everything, reliability, simplicity, strength and power. Can’t last can it? And it didn’t, fuel injection, water cooling and Nikasil plated bores changed what had previously been simple and pure into, well, complicated, and we don’t really do complicated. So the EFE continues to co-exist with its younger siblings, I wonder how things will be in another 30 years? I know which one my money’s on. 3
4
5
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Next month
SUZUKI GSX-R750 SRAD: Bertie Simmonds on why the SRAD is a spectacularly rapid bargain and a wise investment. YAMAHA XS650 SPECIAL: John Nutting on a flat-track special. WOOLY MAMMOTH: Andy Westlake on a man with a Munch Mammoth. STORM WARNING: Steve Cooper rides a Bridgestone 175 Hurricane Scrambler. QUICK SPIN: Chris Moss on the 1990s V-twin Honda VTR1000.
PLUS! WORKSHOP: How to clean small parts, Scoop reports on a mishap at the MIB – check your insurance! SEPTEMBER PROJECT BIKES: Steve Cooper has finally found a Yamaha RD350B, James Whitham should be further along with his Suzuki GT250 X7, and the Suzuki apprentices should have more on their 1990 Suzuki GSX-R1100L. AND MUCH MORE! DON’T MISS IT! AND LOTS MORE
DON’T MISS IT!
ON SALE:
AUGUST 19
www.classicmechanics.com / 121