It lives Igor, it lives!

About four months after I started rebuilding it I found the time to
finish off the bits necessary to start it this afternoon.

Smoking like a bastard because
a) it's just been started after being rebuilt,
b) the pipe is full of oil and shit,
c) the premix is about 12-1... that's right... 12-1 as recommended by Mr
Yamaha for the first five minutes.

Ring-ding-ding-ding-ding Ring-ding-ding-ding-ding

Starts easily now... Suprising what compression does.

Just need to sort out the bodywork and replace the exhaust with
something not full of holes.

Apparently, eventually, flickr should make a short vid of this
available. Ged only knows why it takes so long to 'process' the video.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8963323@N05/5503457636/

Not available for public viewing at the moment.


God I love motorbikes, even 20 year old piles of shit.

 

Blimey. No mention of that by Mr Clymer. Lot's of stuff about no more
than half throttle for 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then strip the top
end and check for scoring before a half throttle limit for 30 minutes!
Not very practical for a hill climb machine. The half throttle for
increasing duration at the Haynes track next Saturday will have to do.
That will be done on 25:1 mix.

Mine sounds a bit quieter with the FMF power core silencer. Still a bit
of mechanical noise, though the death rattle from the two-piece power
valve has gone. A lot of it is clutch rattle I reckon.

Same with mine. Though a properly functioning power valve may be a
factor as the compression wasn't too bad before.

I was pleased to find the FMF Fatty pipe fitted perfectly as the bends
and contortions seem very year specific.

Absolutely. I also gave the 30 year old pile of Italian shit a wash as
it was dry and sunny this afternoon, in readiness for an imminent MoT
test.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Download the official Yamaha manual. Not sure what model yours is or
what year but you can find some manuals here:

http://www.yamaha-motor.co.uk/uk/services/owner-manuals/index.aspx

I downloaded the WR one and it's the full service manual.

Er... I'm almost embarassed to admit that in a fit of enthusiasm I
ordered a new FMF Fatty expansion pipe and power core silencer.
Couldn't find anything second hand and what it has really doesn't fit...

Of course the fact the wiring was a dogs-dinner of twisted wires
probably didn't help much.

Three kicks was all it took for it to 'stumble' the first time. After
that it took another couple and it ran. Even ticks over now. Sounded
crisp to me.

Good to read, for reasons above.

Rather irritating that the pipe cost me about a third in the US what it
would cost here but that carriage made up a lot of the difference...

The next thing, after I've sorted the YZ out, will be getting the WR
road legal.

Roll on the summer...

 

I've got a story about a bike-engined hillclimb "voiturette" in a book
here. It is a fantastic story and one day I'll sit down and type it
all out and stick it on the web. You'd love it, especially where it
describes draining the oil out before pushing out to the start line
"for less drag and, therefore, more power", let alone thrashing up the
hill and coasting, dead stick, back to the paddock - then stripping the
top end to polish out the valve "bruises" in the piston crowns. He had
it right, see, if he just ran out of revs in top on the straight, and
the valves just kissed the pistons.

 

Rats! [1]

The Colin Chapman Lotus philosophy taken to the limit. I bet the fuel
tank was off a lawn mower, or more likely hand crafted in light alloy to
hold just enough for one run of the longest course. Though he would need
a bit spare to get back to the paddock at Gurston Down as the start is
steeply downhill for a while.


[1] I checked. No apostrophe as the exclamation apparently does not
refer to any part of a creature's anatomy, or indeed a rodent at all.
Etymology allegedly via drat, being a shortening of "od rot" - a
euphemism for "God rot".
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Blimey. I'd tell Mr Yamaha where to stick that bit of advice. I can't
see why it would be needed when you coat all the bits with oil before
assembly anyway, & 12-1 makes for a very lean mixture.

Still says it's private.

 

Good point. Yes.

According to flickr (from my side):

"Your video is being processed,
While this is happening, only you can see this page.
Once the video is finished processing this page will be viewable by
Anyone"

I think it's screwed because I only uploaded a 13MB file which surely
would only take minutes to process.

Anyway, think of a smokey 2 stroke in an untidy garage and you've got
the picture.

 

On Mar 6, 9:20 pm, wrote:

<snip>

Excellent stuff.

Last week, my neighbour asked if I'd lift him down to Coulsdon (a few
miles away), and bring my trailer, because his cousin had just died
(aged 43, had a sore throat, had it disgnosed as terminal throat
cancer and he had two weeks to live, which was indeed the case. It
makes you think) and had left "an old Honda C90" in his outhouse.

So yesterday we hitched up the trailer and trogged down there, and
sure enough, under a layer of dust and dead spiders, at the back of
the house was a 20 year-old C90 which actually looked pretty good.
Apparently it had been there "for years" and as the MoT sticker on the
legshields said the last MoT had expired in 2007, this was obviously
the case.

Anyway, we put some air in the flat tyres to make wheeling it around a
bit easier and toted it home. Put it down on his front parking and
sort of contemplated it.

Me: "I bet it still goes." Him: "Go on, then." So we stuck the key in
the ignition, turned on the fuel, pushed it and it didn't. A sniff of
the fuel tank suggested that the petrol had well and truly gone off.

Me: "It's a Honda C90. They always go. Got any fresh petrol?"

He did. I undid the carb float bowl drain plug, observed the draining
of petrol the colour of wee after a really bad night, and with the
plug still out, we poured some fresh fuel in the tank and let half a
pint[1] drain through. Then the plug was given a brisk clean, the
drain plug replaced, the ignition switched on again, and it was
pushed. It started in 47 feet less than a Ducati travels.

God knows what the neighbours thought as the two of did a victory
dance round this old Honda.

All the electrics work, and as far as I can see it needs a new set of
front brake shoes and a new 6v battery. We'll remove the carb and give
it a damn good clean-out because I think the pilot jet is a bit
gunged. Neighbour rides a BMW GS to work, and has decided that he'll
use the C90 now because it'll run for a week on sod-all fuel and
because he's decided the bike should remain in the family. Which is
nice.

[1] Enough for at least seven miles, on a C90.

 

I bought a crashed cbr1000rr from a bloke who had been keeping it on its
side on a mattress under a tarp in his back yard. For a year. Got it
home and put oil in it, fresh fuel and a battery. It started first push
of the button and settled into a quiet purr. Those blokes at Honda know
a thing or two about reliability.

Fraser

 

I'd expect the same of any modern FI bike, actually.

 

Then two miles down the road the reg/rec blew up.

 

He'd been retired for twenty years before Gurston came into use.
Anyway, the only way to get the thing to start properly was "with the
assistance of four hefty, strong young men pushing" or being towed by a
car. Not only that, but being drained of oil before the start would
have left precious little in the rolelr bearings for a restart, once it
had been up the hill and then standing for some time. No. it was dead
stick or nothing.

I've found not only some pictures (and very good they are, too) but a
report, quoting chunks of the original article I have here:

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/247345/
john_bolsters_bloody_mary.html

Pics 5 and 9 refer to the fuel tank: the only mention of it in the
article refers to a "motorcycle fuel and oil tank, mounted above teh
driver's knees".

Very impressive, and slightly more obscure than the equally heretical
"Gor Blimey", which is a contraction of "God blind me". Possessed of a
colourful turn of phrase, those medievals.

 

Wonderful, many thanks. Gives new meaning to the 'dead loss lubrication'
quip. I must post a link on the NHCA forum. Too many off the shelf bikes
out on the hills these days. Though one or two keep the 'special' spirit
alive.

You can still do the dead stick trick at nearly all hills (ignoring
twisty sprints) these days. Gurston is probably the only exception. Time
was the lads would have coasting races but we always get a 'no
overtaking on the return' warning at the riders' briefings now. Not been
to Gurston for a few years. A lot of CIHAGM activity used to take place
on the way back down. One of the few hills where someone managed to drop
it on the return.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+