Kawasaki Z550 Now that he had insurance to ride the Kawasaki,  Keiran finally took it out for a ride on the road. Part way round the route it came to a halt and he feared he might need to be trailered back to the workshop. As you can see from the notes he made on the ride, it wasn’t a complete success. Never the less it was the first time in several decades that it had propelled someone over the tarmac.   One other worrying issue became apparent when it was wheeled back into the workshop and it was time to go home.  Keiran had filled the fuel tank right up for the first time since it had been lined and re-sprayed.  As Graham gave the bike a cursory glance over before moving on to other things, he noticed fuel dripping from the front left corner of the fuel tank.  There was no sign of anything leaking from the fuel tap, so the initial conclusion had to be that the tank itself was not fuel tight.   With Chris to assist him the fuel tank was...

  During a busier session…   Honda NS125F… Following its owner’s first visit to the work for a long while last Saturday, Keiran had fetched the bike back from our storage container. At this session Keiran, Phil R and Dave worked to try and find parts that had been removed from it some time prior to the Covid Pandemic. Once they had been rounded up an investigation began to work out what was what. A very rough looking petrol tank was found along with a variety of plastic components, which the team fitted together to make something resembling a Honda NS125F. The fuel tank was going to need a good deal of TLC to get it ready for re-spraying and all the plastic panels would need to be resprayed to get them in a fit state once again. A couple extra panels caused a lot of head scratching.  They looked as though they there were part of the fairing ,but no matter which way they were turned, or which side side of the of the bike they were held up again there seemed to be nowhere...

  Saturday October 11th 2025 The blog this week has a very different feel to it as it comprised of short videos instead of a typed blog.  I would like to thank Don for bringing in his Camcorder allowing me capture the videos you below. Yamaha TX500 (Circa 1978) Kawasaki KZ550LTD (Circa 1980) Suzuki GSF1200 Bandit (Cica 1999) Honda 650 Vigor Jiailing 125 Trails bike project Armstong MT500 Ducati 250cc Single Honda CBR1000F Yamaha 125 Majesty (Yer Majesty)

  Saturday September 27th 2025 Honda CBR1000F… Graham and Don pondered and tinkered and pondered over how to get the bike’s four carburetors in their new inlet rubbers.  Every time the right hand carburetor slipped into its inlet rubber the left hand one popped out.  The trick to overcome this was to completely loosen the clamps on all four carburetors and in particular those on the middle two cylinders.  Then push the clamps on the middle two cylinders towards the engine (i.e. away from the carbs.) This allowed the inlet rubber to expand without any restriction.  Another problem on this particular bike was that there was a metal bracket on the frame that was getting in the way of the idle adjuster screw which projected out of the left hand side of the carburetors.  Once the bracket was bent slightly to get it out of the way the carburetors could be properly lined up and finally slipped easily into their respective inlet rubbers.  Then all the clamps w...

Saturday September 20th 2025 I was not personally present at the session, so we owe the following summary of what took place to club Chair person Phil McAthey... CBR100F:  Chris/Gareth/Don replaced the inlet rubbers after first removing the metal restrictor plates that were inside them. They were removed after comparing them with the old rubbers which didn't have them. Unfortunately new insulator band screws (like Jubilee clips) needed to be ordered to complete the job so we could put the carbs back on.. YAMAHA MAJESTY:  Chris and Harry worked on Yer Majesty.. The screen was located in the container and fitted at the workshop. The bike was then started and it ran well. Minor repairs to the plastics were all that it now needed. KAWASAKI Z550:   AJ, Dave Wooley and Ioan worked on the wiring and sorted out the indicator problem. Essentially the bike is finished. The starter button was also replaced. KAWASAKI Z250:  New member Dan removed the unw...

  Saturday September 6th 2025. Mash Dirtstar 400 Scrambler… The end of an era. There were just to many issues to overcome.  Graham spent further time grinding away at the right hand exhaust rocker until the automatic decompressor mechanism no longer engaged with it.  Then guided by Graham Jo and Don then spent time reassembling the top end of the engine.  A battery was connected along with a starter pack.  In fact three different starter/chargers were tried. In most instances he engine wouldn’t turn fast enough for there to be a hope of it starting.  However on just one occasion it span up fast enough to fire. Not only that but it started and ran continuously for a whole 5 to 10 seconds.  Long enough to be confident that it could run properly and that the failure to run wasn’t due to an internal problem with the engine. Oddly though, the starter continued spinning the engine when it stopped firing.  In fact it only stopped spinning the engine when...