mazdeuce - Seth said:So...... what's the future of the parts bike.......
I've already caught myself looking up parts to rebuild it... No. no.
I'm going to bring it into work on a trailer, strip it down, then bring it home in small boxes.
mazdeuce - Seth said:So...... what's the future of the parts bike.......
I've already caught myself looking up parts to rebuild it... No. no.
I'm going to bring it into work on a trailer, strip it down, then bring it home in small boxes.
Last week I brought the R50/5 to the 'office' and started stripping it. The next day I got sick and couldn't go back to work for a while (Isolated, had my brain swabbed, and generally felt terrible for a few days until I was cleared). Now I'm back and taking parts off when I get an hour or more of free time. While I was gone, my co-workers all had a good look and speculated about the strange old machine in the hangar.
I have always enjoyed relaxed garage time, listening to good music while I disassemble machines. I am in no hurry and can poke around and figure things out as I go. It has come apart pretty well so far and I managed to extract the whole wire harness intact while keeping all the connections in the headlight. I hope to just swap the headlight into the R60/5 and run the wires and cables from there. I may directly swap a lot of other components such as the forks and wheels after I compare the see which ones are best. I still don't see this as a true restoration of the R/60, but I want to make it right and reliable as a driver.
In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :
I struggle with not going to far when cleaning them up and not ever wanting to ride them. Why I try to just fix vs restore.
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :
I struggle with not going to far when cleaning them up and not ever wanting to ride them. Why I try to just fix vs restore.
I've been that way with my cars for a long time. ...and then I get a great deal on "just one more". I love to drive them and I love to work on them. That balance where there's ample time for both is always just "one more thing to fix" away.
At least with the bike I can make progress while I'm at work.
The GOAT Rally was this weekend. The XT225 was awesome. More on that later. Today I was on the bike from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm; back roads, a few rough trails, some short stretches of twisty pavement, pouring rain, and river crossings. I think my muscles will be sore when the feeling comes back. It was a good day.
Ah yes, project creep.
This doesn't include the current state where it was all back together, ran for 15 minutes, and promptly lost compression on one cylinder. Heads just went back on this weekend.
The G.O.A.T. Rally G.O.A.T. Rally 2021 | Facebook
This was the first big group ride that I have ever done and I really didn't know what to expect. It was a Saturday and Sunday event, planned to be about 6 to 7 hours each day including a stop for lunch. Around 75 people showed up with lots of cool bikes and gear. At first I felt out of place on my 15 year old XT225, wearing 20 year old Army pants and boots with a thrift store windbreaker. Soon, chatting with the other riders about the bikes and gear it was easy to fit in. For some, it was also their first 'rally', others had been doing it for years. The ages ranged from 20s to 70s with a surprising number of other riders in their 50s.
It was highly recommended to have a riding buddy, but I was going to break away from the ride at around 1 pm to attend my one year old granddaughter's birthday party. I decided to just tag along and trail a random group. The riding was not what I had expected. The group I trailed was going fast and not stopping for scenery or checkpoints. It was a 55 mph roller-coaster on rough dirt roads and loose gravel. If I slowed to use my navigation, I'd lose the group. No time for pictures or scenery. Keep a good line and watch out for hazards.
Suddenly there were two startled calves on the road. A black one veered just in front of me, then jumped through a barbed wire fence. I still have no idea how it made it between the wires without getting tangled or torn up. The brown one stayed just ahead for a moment, then disappeared into the brush. The group barely slowed. The leader probably didn't even notice the calves. I wondered what he was using for navigation. I let my path drift a too far to the side of the road and got into deep, loose gravel. I almost lost it, but managed to pull the bike back on line before the next corner. When the group caught up with and passed another group of about five bikes, I split off and joined with the slower group. The pace was still quick, but not as frantic as the first group I was with. I stayed with them until it was time to break away to get ready for the birthday party. It was about three hours of riding and by the end, I felt back in my old comfort zone on the bike and riding on the street. The forced pace of the ride brought back the feeling and old habits that had been dormant for most of the last 30 years.
Day two I decided that I would run my own pace. I wanted to enjoy the scenery and do some of my own navigation. If there was a group nearby to stay with great, but I felt fine riding solo now as well. Most of the riders were camping at Eagle Bluff Resort on the Illinois River. I was riding there from home about 20 minutes away. When I arrived at Eagle Bluff, everyone was already gone. I took a moment to set up my navigation and set out on the course. I was really happy to catch a group of six riders a couple minutes down the road and fell in as their trail. They had a quick pace, but not rushed. When we stopped for a pee break, I rolled ahead and checked out the lead's bike. A nice, new Yamaha Tenere 700 loaded with gear. He had a nice Garmin GPS mounted high up (in forward view) with voice nav Bluetoothed to his headphones. A much nicer set-up than my cheap tank-mounted Android tablet running Gaia GPS. Still, as we adventured on through the day, I found that my set-up, used properly, kept me on the track just as well if not better than the Garmin.
I stayed with that group for quite a while until we reached a water crossing with terrain that a few of them were hesitant to cross. After waiting a few moments with them, I waved and went on ahead solo. I enjoyed riding at my own pace, stopping occasionally to take some pictures. Around 11 am, I stopped for a quick lunch from my pack. I was on a rough trail and hoped that I could get some good pictures of the group when they caught back up. As I ate, I heard them drive by in the distance, then fade away. They had missed the turn-off. Eventually, the rumble came back. The lead rider, Don, showed up on the Tenere alone. The trail was rough and they had sent him to scout ahead. He called them on his phone and discussed the terrain and that rain was coming soon, then turned to me and said, “They're not coming, do you want to pair up and go ahead?”
For the next couple hours it was just me and Don and we had a great ride. We passed a few riders coming the other way and warned them of what was ahead and they warned us of some deep fast flowing water. When we reached the water crossing it didn't look *that* bad, but as I rode across, it really pushed the XT225 downstream and I had to pull hard to keep it straight. I'm glad that the tires kept good grip.
The rain got worse as we rode and we were both soaked, but didn't care. Eventually we reached the town of Sallisaw near I-40. I needed gas badly and Don was ready to break away to the Interstate and make his way back home. We split up and I did the rest of the route solo. I arrived home a little before 4 pm, soaking wet and a little sore. I had left home about at 8:30, traveled about 200 miles, and had been on the bike the whole time other than short stops along the way.
Through the day I realized that my XT225, weighing in at about 260 lbs wet, is a much more versatile machine than most of the modern Adventure Bikes I was riding with. Most of them had over 3x the power, but roughly twice the weight. Terrain that I could blast across with a big grin was a difficult challenge to many of them. On the highway I can only sustain 60 - 65 mph, but in most cases, that's fine. I have the 14 tooth front sprocket ready to install, but decided to wait until after the rally. It *should* give me a better low-end without changing the top-end much, but I didn't want to take my chances on a day long ride. During the full day on the bike, I had some fuel anxiety with the two gallon tank and a sore butt from the old seat. I just ordered the 4.1 Gallon Clarke gas tank and a Seat Concepts Comfort Seat . I'm sure that I'll add more accessories to the list as time goes, but for now that's a good start.
Wow, what an event! Thanks for sharing your take on the XT225 too. I've pondered a dual sport bike, and something lighter and more nimble does have some appeal especially since my road bikes are all a bit portly.
Sounds like you had a blast at the GOAT rally. Reading your report has me itching to get out on a long dirt ride.
The XT225 will probably rest for a week or two now before I put the new tank and seat on. Meanwhile I'm riding the R75 to work and cleaning it up when I have some spare time. It sat outside for a long time before I bought it and has corrosion starting in a few spots and needs a good detailing.
One thing that I'm not sure how to deal with is oxidized rubber. The rubber around the tach and speedometer still looks decent, but if you touch it, your hand gets black dusty residue. I suppose if I can't find a good treatment for it, spraying it with PlastiDip should seal it.
The R60 is waiting until I have a full day off available to rewire and install some of the parts that I pulled off the R50 parts bike. I found a video that is going to help a lot for getting it properly tuned. Not the best production quality, but exactly the info that I wanted to see.
I decided that Mrs AAZCD needed a little Ninja to get her license on. Happy (day after) Mother's Day.
AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:ddavidv said:If you want to pick up some safe road riding skills watch a few of DanDanTheFireman's videos on YouTube. He dissects GoPro videos of accidents and near misses and I've learned quite a bit from him.
Thanks. I just watched a couple of his videos. Great narration and presentation.
I watched about an hour of Dan's videos with my wife this morning Good stuff. Here's his web site:
The R60/5 is alive. I rode it for about an hour yesterday. It ran fine and felt good.
Some of what I have done:
As a project bike I don't think that my work will ever be done on this one. There will always be changes and adjustments that I want to make. For now, there is a list of high priority work to do before I let it lapse into occasional attention: More carburetor work, starter replacement or cleaning and rebuild, swap the kickstand/center stand from the R50, blinker relay, and horn.
When it's convenient: Rear drive unit swap, figure out what seat I want, rebuild the forks from the R50 and swap them on, finish enclosing the battery area, and deal with how ugly the exhaust is. ...and there's plenty more after that.
More carburetor work...
On the way to work this morning it stalled out at a traffic light. I pushed it to the side of the road. It seemed out of gas. It should have had plenty of gas. With the petcock flipped to reserve it started and I finished the drive.
When I parked and shut it down there was a puddle forming under the right carb. The gas was not dripping, it was flowing.
I shut off the gas and pushed it to the hangar. At first I though that the primer pump was stuck, but after opening it up, I'm pretty sure the float needle was stuck. I have a carburetor rebuild kit that I still haven't installed on this bike and I'm going to use it before I go anywhere else but home. I should have already done it, but the problems that I've dealt with so far were more of a macro level and a few little seals and needly things seemed like they could wait if it was running okay.
Today, swapped to a different seat and side covers on:
My bikes are clustered in the 1.5 car garage surrounded by way more junk parts and disorganized tools than I care to list. The Ninja is Mrs AAZCD's and it gets to stay in the house. I got the idea of buying her the Ninja after seeing this video review by 'Regular Car Reviews': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsX2rIZory0 . It is a great bike for her to learn on; lightweight and balanced, low seat height, enough power and noise to feel like you are going fast, and it looks sporty. Our 1977 R75/7 may be a bike for her to grow into, but not a good starting point.
I have only had it out a couple times and it is a fun bike. The 250cc engine redlines at 13,000 rpm which is about twice what the other bikes do. Sure, it doesn't make any power below about 6,000, but winding it up all the way and flipping through the gears feels awesome. By the time you are revving out in 6th gear you are actually doing a reasonable highway speed rather than the 130 mph+ that you'd get on a 'real' sport bike. It's also very forgiving; Weighing only about 330 lbs, it brakes quickly and corrections to your path don't require much effort or finesse. I thought of buying another one for me, but with four bikes now I think we are doing fine as long as she lets me borrow it from time to time.
There's going to be a Yamaha YZF 600R too. Not that I was really looking. Well, yes I was constantly looking for a deal on another Ninja, but the YZF was not a plan. It's in the family (daughter #2 and her 'pretty much' husband) and I've been trying to help out with their finances. Buying the bike at a good price just makes things easier for everybody. I explained to Mrs AAZCD that it's just like her Ninja, but a little bigger and therefore more comfortable for me. I explained to myself that is just a 600 cc like my '71 R60/5 and I can ride it responsibly. There's a title issue that's getting sorted out, so I don't plan to actually own it for about another month. It's an '04 with about 50k miles, so I'm looking up maintenance and a few parts for it. Maybe a keeper, Maybe a flip. My XT225 and R60/5 are both definitely keepers.
At one point I had decided against the fairing for the R60/5. I like the odd, old look of the original headlight bucket.
Yesterday I was clearing space in the garage and the box with the fairing needed to be dealt with, so I went ahead and installed it. I like the look, but no more than I do without the fairing. It's easy enough to swap on and off. It stays on for now, 'till I clear out more junk.
You're as bad as me.
"I think I want a motorcycle?"
Now I have 11!
mazdeuce - Seth said:You're as bad as me.
"I think I want a motorcycle?"
Now I have 11!
Per your advice earlier, they do fit the space a lot better than cars. I'm finding four full-size ones comfortably exchange for one car.
...and I recently sold two cars.
mazdeuce - Seth said:You're as bad as me.
"I think I want a motorcycle?"
Now I have 11!
Make sure that you never turn off the light where you store them, otherwise they may get frisky and multiply like rabbits.
At least that's my excuse as to why I never seem to be able to make more space in my m/c storage even if I manage to sell a bike.
Sooo... Um... Excuses: It was a busy night at work last night. I didn't get to nap at all unless you count a few moments of micro-sleep sitting in my aircraft waiting for daylight. I could get into detail, but simply put, the aviation weather forecasters are wrong about 50% of the time and it effects me very directly sometimes. On top of that, I am changing from a 12 hour night shift last night to a 12 hour day shift tomorrow. Then my daughter was having trouble studying for a nursing school exam and asked if she could drop 4 month old grandchild #7 for a few hours. Thoughts of getting anything accomplished or getting any rest evaporated.
Late in the afternoon, I was too tired to do anything mental or mechanical, so I sat down at my computer and stared at the screen. Next thing I knew I had messaged a guy about a '98 KLR 650 that had just been listed and he had replied that he'd meet me within the hour, before the rapidly approaching severe thunderstorm moved into the area.
I didn't really have my mind, I probably shouldn't have even been driving. I had some cash, he had the title, we traded, and then it was done. What have I done now.... It's parked in the hangar at work. I'll find out what I bought in the morning.
The weather has turned very hot. I've been doing little things to the bikes and taking little rides.
All of the plastics are off of the KLR. I plastic-welded some cracks and holes, got some new LED turn signals, and mounted an ammo can on back for luggage. The green and white "Spoke Guards" will probably come off soon. Do they really serve a purpose?
There is a new seat coming for the R60. I had tried re-making one, but after trying a few different ideas it became clear that just buying a new one was the better choice for now. The R75 is clean and ready to go, but doesn't get used much - I prefer lighter bikes. I didn't buy the troubled 1982 R100 that I saw on FB market for only $800. I am both glad that I had the restraint and sad that I may have missed out on a deal.
The XT225 has the 14 tooth sprocket on now and the larger 'Clarke Tank'. I like both, but the tank has a very slow seep at the petcock. I may take it back off and re-seal it today after a ride. The new seat cover from 'Seat Concepts' is back ordered, but they sent an email assuring me that they know I want it and they will ship it when their minions finish stitching it together.
The Ninja is a fun toy, but mostly is reserved for Mrs AAZCD when she gets her license. The next step for that is taking a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Course in Late July or August.
The YZF 600R still needs a good title. It's coming from another state and was last sold on just a bill of sale, which isn't going to work to get it transferred here in Oklahoma.
The other motorcycle project is fixing the engine/transmission on a 2001 Yamaha XV1600. This one had missed a recall regarding a metal clip that can come loose in the engine causing the transmission (and rear wheel) to lock up while driving. It failed while my daughter was riding on it as a passenger and I somehow didn't hear about it until six month later. Eventually the discussion got around to, "Bring the engine over and I'll fix it." As an added bonus, I'm teaching my five month old grandson how to use tools for when the job requires baby-sized hands.
Quiet afternoon at work, so I had time to re-cover the KLR 650 seat. I cut some Naugahyde that was left over from work I did on some Jet Skis. I wanted reinforcement for the aging foam, so I cut a piece of PigMat that was handy and used it in the center of the seat. A pneumatic stapler and some rustproof staples put it all together.
A little more progress on the KLR 650. I repaired, sanded and primed the tank and trim pieces over the last few weeks. Today I painted them with a single stage 'tractor paint'.
I'll let that set for a week, then decide if I want to put the decals on. Here's a pic of the decal set that came with it:
I'm riding just about every day, mostly just getting around town. The bikes all have a very different character. Riding the Ninja and XT225 is simple and easy on the street. Smooth shifting, brakes and clutch and well balanced for what they do. The KLR is a little uncomfortable for me. Something in the geometry of turning and leaning just feels different than I expected. Probably the higher CG and large front wheel change the dynamics. It's not bad, I'm just not used to it. The R75 is comfortable on the highway and a good smooth and steady ride. For a long cruise, it's the one to take. The R60 is my favorite. It has an electric start, but I usually kick it. It's not a quick bike, but has smooth power from low to high rpm. It shifts hard through the four long gears and the clutch is like an on-off switch. The balance and riding position is right where I like it. For corners, I just lean down a little lower over the tank and the bike magically carves through right where I want it. Once I got a feel for the quirks, it is a smooth precise machine.
I expect that I'll be putting the R75/7 up for sale soon. It hardly gets ridden and doesn't fit a niche in my repertoire. There is work that I'd like to get done on it, but it is way down the list of projects. If things work out perfectly, I can trade it for another BMW that I've been ogling the ad for. I think I could put a GS to use for longer rides, maybe an overnight trip.
R75/7:
1100 GS:
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