83 Yamaha TR1 cafe build

briandk

Been Around the Block
I'm far from the first one to do a build based on the TR1 or XV920, but here is mine.

I bought the bike back in December and got a ton of spares with it, including a whole bike with 2600 km on the clock, but with no papers and with frame/engine number that some previous owner hammered in himself. Rumor has it that the spare bike was a motorcycle magazine review sample.

The plan so far is R6 forks, but not USD. I have a 2002 R6 right side up fork that should be a bit longer and hopefully give me a bit more groundclearance. I bought a cognito moto stem for it and am currently waiting for the guy who is going to swap the stems to be done. As for tank, I first bought a mojave just like everyone else, but ended up changing my mind. The current plan is a KZ400 tank. I got one a while back and it seems to fit ok.

Here the main bike sits with 78000 km on the clock, before the work begins. As a bonus, in the back is a friends BMW build.

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First job was getting the seat off, something that turned out to be a bit harder than I had thought as the right side seat latch was stuck and took few good hammer blows to come loose.

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Next up was removing the rear subframe and exhausts. The clamps around the mufflers fell apart when I un-did them, rusted through. The left side muffler has also started to come apart where it meets the headers.

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Starting to be able to see the swingarm's condition. It has a few rust spots, but I'll see how it looks tomorrow. Worst case I have the spare bike to steal some parts from.

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Thanks nanno :)

Today was mostly spend getting the rear wheel off and the chain broken. I don't think I've ever seen so much grease in one place before. I managed to get myself and most of my tools covered in it.

After getting everything removed, I tried offering up my CB750 wheel and it looks like everything pretty much lines up. Should only be a matter getting the spacers right.

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Pretty bad day today in the workshop. I got a cognito moto stem to mount an R6 front end on the bike, but after screwing the R6 top nut on the stem it was totally stuck and taking it off again ruined the threads on the stem.

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I’ve reached out to cognito moto to see what’s up. Besides that I spend most of the time fighting with the monoshock pin, it seems to be quite stuck. I took the swing arm off the bike so I had a better angle to work on it, but to no avail. Letting it soak with penetrating oil now
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Had an hour or so to sneak away to the garage today, so took the front end off. Amazing how many wires and connections they managed to fit into the headlight. Still no luck getting the pin out that hold the shock to the swingarm so think I will have to get a gas torch and try with some heat.


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Cognito Moto immediately offered to replace both stem and nut. Excellent service. I’ll also use their stem pressing service this time.


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Today I got my sprocket and chainring sorted.

The original gearing on the TR1/XV920 is 16/35 on a 630 chain. I am changing to a 530 chain and from the stock 18” rear to a 17” based on a Honda CB750 DOHC hub with a K8 SOHC sprocket carrier (CB750 K7 and K8 has more sprocket offset than earlier years, so room for a wider tire).

I had a custom 19t/530 counter shaft sprocket machined and to match stock gearing I would need around 38t on the back. Not so easy to find such a small size in 530 and with Honda 4 bolt pattern, but the bike is already low geared and I didn’t want to make it worse. I ended up with a CB650 82-83 chainring which JTS makes in the right size (JTR284).
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Finally managed to get the pin out of the rear shock today. The solution was a few minutes heating it with a gas torch, followed by liberal amount of penetrating oil and more banging on it while disregarding the chance of hitting my own fingers. I also took off the backbone frame today, slowly getting the parts ready blasting and powdercoating. I still need to figure out what I'll do about the engine. I have the spare 81 engine which looks great (picture below), but not sure I want to change to the early type of starter, so still considering cleaning and painting this one.
 

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Waiting for a tool to remove the bearing races from the steering head, so I can get the frame painted. I seem to be having terrible luck with getting stuff shipped to me at the moment. Either the wrong items arrive or nothing at all.

Anyway, I moved the engine to a little wheeled board so I could push it around without breaking my back. I plugged the intake/exhaust up with silicone plugs and pushed it all out of the garage and gave it a good scrub with degreaser. I found a guy who says he can soda blast it without taking it apart, but so am still on the fence about that.



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Got the frame parts back from powder coating. Not really very happy with the result as the paint is slightly bumpy on one side and even though I asked them to plug the airbox holes, I got it back filled with sand. Spend hours running the garage's firehose through it, drying and then vacuming the inside of the frame. I guess you get what you pay for.

I started trying to cleanup the engine by having a go at it with aircraft stripper as preparations for painting it, but in the end I swapped it out with my spare engine. It's in a much nicer condition, but unfortunately with the gen 1 style starter (have not seen any other TR1s with that). I guess I can swap the case and starter if it gets a problem.

Got a pair of TM38 flatslides to replace the Hitachi CV carbs, they fit nicely on the engine side and I had a buddy 3D print adapters for the tubes that go to the frame.

I also got the R6 forks mounted using the cognito moto stem, easy and no cutting required. Next is drilling and tapping holes on the lower yoke for steering stops.
 

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Got the lower frame and swing arm mounted and tested the alignment of my CB750 wheel. With the wheel centered in the swing arm the sprocket is pretty much perfectly aligned and the left side CB spacer seems to be the right size, right side will need about a centimeter turned off.


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Got the brake side CB750 collar cut down to 27.5mm and the wheel mounted

Edit: oops.. forgot about chain tensioners, will see if they fit or I need to trim the spacers.

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Front wheel sort of mounted, I need a 19mm hex top to secure the R6 axle. Hub is from Cognito Moto and it’s laced to a 3.5” rim with a 120/70 tire.

Brake side exhaust test fitted, used the original front header with an angled mid pipe.

I am still not quite sure what to do about the chain side. The original rear header is an Y (see pic) that connects both mufflers and I am wondering if I can just block off the part that used to go to the brake side or if I should cut it off and have it welded closed. Pretty unsure what a dead end in a header would do to the engines performance and what effect it will have on the system that the two sides are no longer connected.
 

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From personal experience I can tell you that two unlinked-exhaust pipes will actually affect the performance (esp. torque) rather negatively.

If you want a cheap 2in1 the Mac will be the thing you want. It works quite well, but rusts faster than an old Lada with the paint stripped off.

http://www.nichecycle.com/ncs/categories/exhaust/head-pipes/804-1003h-yamaha-xv-920-r-virago-2-1-black-head-pipes-by-mac-performance.html

Cheers,
Greg
 
der_nanno said:
From personal experience I can tell you that two unlinked-exhaust pipes will actually affect the performance (esp. torque) rather negatively.

If you want a cheap 2in1 the Mac will be the thing you want. It works quite well, but rusts faster than an old Lada with the paint stripped off.

http://www.nichecycle.com/ncs/categories/exhaust/head-pipes/804-1003h-yamaha-xv-920-r-virago-2-1-black-head-pipes-by-mac-performance.html

Cheers,
Greg


Hi Greg.

I looked at the Mac but for the price I don’t find it that attractive given its mild steel. I would like the two into two look l, so perhaps I should emulate the original system and link the two mufflers. I guess it should not be that difficult to make some connection on my mid pipe


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If you're interested I also build custom exhausts for the TR1/XV from stainless. Either to one of my standard designs or to whatever design you want. If that's something that interests you. There's a thread on TR1.de, where I showcase my work or better to say the process of finding and building the perfect 2in1in2 for me.
 
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