Pretty quiet session this week in the miserable weather, but lots of things going on. Armstrong 500 Heinz has been touching up paint on the frame to military standard of the day "slap some paint on it" - not to airbrush quality. More paint required. Honda NS125 Ioan busy with wet and dry on the main faring. Kawasaki Z250 Andy-Rattle-Can has been trying to get a nice sheen on a side panel. Yamaha 535 Virago Steve's been shining up the engine block all day. Yamaha TX500 Armed with a full set of cylinder head nuts, Dave W & Phil R got the head on the engine. Later they were seen with various other, scratching their heads - the replacement cam chain doesn't seem to be any longer than the old one.  Honda FX 650 Vigor Mal is still fiddling with the front mudguard bracket - this is about the last thing to do to finish the project.

Today, twenty seven club members enjoyed a fab festive buffet, provided by Henleys of Tumble . Thanks to Jo for organising and collecting, ably helped by Richard or Tricky as Jo calls him but the rest of us don't know him that well... Christmas music was provided by Andy J's phone when connected to the ancient hifi separates that Phil Mc likes to keep in his car for just such an occasion. The morning had been spent by Andy S and Dennis giving the painting corner a Big Winter Clean in readiness for the onslaught of Honda NS125R panels that will need priming and painting in the New Year. Elsewhere in the session, Heinz got to grips with the new spring compressors to put the Armstrong 500 shock absorbers back together after their recent overhaul. Chris, Chips and a first time visitor were shown by Phil H how to do a full brake service and chain maintenance on Chris's Kawasaki ER650. Finally, after listening to Phil Mc flap his gums for a few minutes, as is his wont on such an ...

 It was a relatively quiet session in the workshop but never the less some progress was made... Honda CBR1000F... The petrol leak from between carburettors 3 and 4 had not been quelled, so off came the carburettors once more. It still seemed most likely that the seals on the fuel feed tee-piece between the carburettors needed replacement, so Graham undid the nuts on the ends of the two long threaded rods that kept the carburettors together.  This allowed carburettor 4 could be removed.  The pair of seals did not look too bad but they slipped in and out of their openings very easily. The float bowls of the same pair of carburettors were also removed to inspect the rubber seal fitted between the carburettor and the float bowl.   Whilst the seals were intact they seemed quite thin and it looked as though someone in the past had supplemented them with some clear sealant, so perhaps it was time for some of those new seals as well. Would the seals end the fuel leak? Y...

  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 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...

No further reconstruction has taken place since the blog was last updated.  However we now have a replacement piston and ring set to replace the broken piston and a second split link for the cam chain. So hopefully progress on this engine can resume in the new year.

No further work undertaken at this meeting. However we have now acquired a replacement for the damaged piston and a second joining link for the cam chain, so work should be able to resume on this project in the near future. 

Still no physical progress on rebuilding the engine but new club member Andy Jenkins is confident that the cam chain will be safe to run with two split links and wants to source a 2nd hand piston to replace that which has been damaged – So watch this space

No further work on this project awaiting a decision on purchasing a replacement cam chain (or perhaps using the current cam chain with two rivetable links - not really a favourite of mine!)

Things have literally been ground to a halt by the need to obtain a new cam chain. It is proving both rare and extremely expensive.

Oh dear, oh dear, Oh dear. Jack made an excellent job of reassembling the clutch, then came the time to re-install the cam chain. A link had been ground in order to split the chain for disassembly. Unfortunately the ends of the adjacent links had also been ground through, meaning that the chain is effectively junk. It is a duplex chain (In order words two chains side by side!) and if it were possible to obtain one it seems as though it would be extremely expensive . A decision needs to be made on what to do with this bike/engine. If anyone has a spare Yamaha TX or XS500 cam chain in a cupboard it would be gratefully received.

I (Graham) worked on the engine with Jack and between us we were able to re-unite the two halves of the crank case. The only issue we faced was working out the correct torque wrench settings for the 17mm nuts that secure the crankcase from underneath around the crankshaft. Despite spending lot of time searching through the manuals that we have for it, the correct torque settings could not be found. We are still awaiting new piston kits for the engine. At least next time we will be able to refit the generator, starter motor and the components of the clutch etc. etc..

I (Graham) cleaned the internal surfaces of the engine and its oilways using compressed air. I also checked to see if there is anything we need to get hold of before putting the crankcases back together. To be on the safe side I have suggested that we purchase a gearbox mainshaft oil seal and a clutch pushrod oil seal. This is because both these seal are secured when the crankcases are tightened up. Whilst they can be forced in without splitting the cases, there is a good chance they will rip. A new clutch pushrod is also needed as the seal has worn a groove in it. Next on the agenda...Once we have the oil seals – begin re-building the engine.

No progress today – Piston kits are proving difficult to track down.

Replacement piston kits are still awaited for this particular bike affectionately nicknamed Hedge or Hedge bike. Apparently it owes its nickname to the location in which was stored for several years. Armantis spent a little time finishing off cleaning up the engine and laying it ready for re-assembly.

Workshop Session on Saturday January 08th  2022 Firstly, apologies for mistakenly calling it an XS500, the bike we have is in fact a wire wheeled single front disc TX500, which would have looked something like the bike you see in the picture. This week Amantis painstakingly cleaned up the crankcase gasket surfaces, removing the old material to help get a good seal when the liquid gasket is eventually applied. We are principally awaiting piston kits to get this engine back in one piece as it is, basically a surprisingly sound engine with very little wear.

I (Graham) am not sure I have ever seen the XS500 TX500 engine in the bike but of late it has been mounted in an engine stand and Amantis has been hard at work restoring the engine.  He has removed all 8 valves, cleaned them up and checked them as well as giving the cylinder head a thorough internal clean before reassembling it. When I first took a keen interest in the engine the cylinder barrels had been removed.  On closer examination I found that both piston rings (The compression rings not the oil scraper) on the right hand piston were stuck soundly in their grooves.  With some careful use of a thin screwdriver blade (A poor alternative to thin feeler gauge blade) and a lot of patience I was eventually able to ease them off the piston.  It was only then that the realisation  dawned that a piece of the piston’s skirt was missing.  Now you can’t just sew on a piece of material as if it were your wife’s skirt, it means that a new piston is required. ...