Hey Guys thanks for the nomination. As with every month here on DTT, a great variety of builds with some excellent workmanship. An honor just to get noticed with some of the builds that take place here..
Grab a coffee, 3x winter's work compressed into a few paragraphs....sit back and read on…………
Me I’m a rank amateur builder with this being my first custom build. I’ve been into motorcycles since the age of about 10, and 38 years later I finally built my own. Had a raft of on and off road machines, and even did a restoration on a 1960’s British bike a few years back.
Anyway I was whiling away a winter evening about 4 years back and stumbled across the Café Racer program on Discovery Channel, I always watch any bike related TV, whether its racing or building. I saw the episode with Greg Hageman where he turned the ‘80s Virago into a dirt track/café racer for the Bostrom brother to test ride. That was it, I thought it looked so cool, I had to have one and the only way that was going to happen was to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in. After a lot of research I decided that shaft drive was not for me, so stumbled upon the chain drive equivalent in Europe, the Yamaha TR1.
More research and hunting realised that these were quite rare beasts. In the meantime other bits for the future build were researched and duly started arriving in the post. The rare Benelli Mojave petrol tank was even rarer than the bike this side of the pond, so a replica was sourced and purchased arriving all the way from India. Myself and the tank would spend many hours together during the build, as it was the single most time consuming part of the build!!! Along with the tank, the Motolana seat quickly arrived all the way from Thailand. So there I was, big idea, replica tank, new seat and no bike !!!
After a fruitless search over the coming months, an email popped into my inbox letting me know that a 1984 Yamaha TR1 had been listed on eBay…great I thought, until I clicked on the item……….It was rough, and I mean rough. Bike was partially covered in a tarpaulin, and been stood in the sellers back garden for over 5 years. The engine was partially dismantled and had been fully exposed to +5 years of great British weather………I took a deep breath and bid, as I didn’t know if I would see one ever again???
I won it, then it dawned on me, “won” might have been a little bit of optimistic. Almost a year since I had the mad idea to build my own, I arranged to go and collect the bike that weekend. I turned up at the sellers house and, all my fears were confirmed, it was a dog. The tarpaulin had blown off several years ago, and the bike was looking in a sorry state, covered in rust with a partially dismantled engine, lots of bits missing, and lots of bits in random boxes in the sellers garage. Anyway the deal was done, and we loaded it on my trailer after cutting the brake pipes to try and free up the seized wheels….
Back to mine and the following day it was on straight away with the strip down to see what I had to play with……turn out not a lot. Down to the engine, frame and swing arm, I sat there and started making a metal list of what I wanted, and how I wanted it too look. On the definite list were spoked wheels, modern suspension and brakes up front and the rear, low slung stainless exhaust with moto GP type silencer, usual Tarozzi rear sets, and that was it. Next stop was the local breakers, as having vision and pictures with no parts to hold is quite difficult to get an idea on how things might or might not work together. Came back from the breakers with a set of R1 forks, a set of GSXR 1000 triple clamps, set of R1 front and rear calipers and a set of clip on handlebars off some random Japanese superbike. No spoked wheels at the breakers just the usual 3 spoke cast Superbike stuff.
Quickly offered the forks up to get some idea on wheel sizes etc. The started scouring ebay for a suitable set of wheels. Found a front wheel I liked the look of which had the width I wanted so I could fit the tyre I wanted. The wheel, slightly buckled came of a Triumph 800 Tiger, it had seen a few off road miles by the looks of it. Got that sitting in the forks on an old bolt, as the spindle and bearing were non-compatible. Now it was onto the rear wheel………..hunted high and low, several other breakers and several wheels later I even mocked up an off road wheel off a random Aprilla. I had a monstrous wheel off some random cruiser turn up off eBay, which just looked ridiculous, than promptly was relisted and turned me in a nice £20 profit. Eventually I found a spoked wheel, which might well fit the bill. Lots of head scratching and spacer making eventually got it to fit. The chain drive engine had come back to haunt me even before the build had begun in earnest. Trying to get the offset of the rear disc, chain and look central in the swing arm took weeks of messing about.
Now that it had wheels, the build could begin. Modified the headstock to take the modern R1 front, got the wheels mounted and centralized, fabricated the seat hoop and battery box, set about mounting the rears sets, and linking them to the engine, brakes. Set about mounting the rear caliper by fabricating a brake arm and torque arm. Up fron the R1 calipers would not fit with the Triumph spoked wheel, so after several attempts and a bit of fabrication I managed to get a set of Honda VFR800 calipers to fit with some bespoke adaptors I made. Even then a few modifications were need to internal fluid routing to convert them from ABS to conventional calipers. Started fitting the controls and instruments, Tumbleton & Twist speedo from Germany, CNC levers, headlight (2nd choice) hung on stainless steel dairy pipework brackets. The frame was de-lugged and the internal carb breather system was sealed up as I’d be using a pair of Mikuni VM36’s, this enabled me to hide the usually front mounted coils up under the tank…………………….the Tank, I mentioned the Tank earlier.
The tank arrived from India and had been sitting in its box for over a year. I forgot to mention I only worked on the bike during the winter months from October through to March. A quick glance after I received it revealed all was well, so it went back into its box. It was time to offer it up with the seat in place to get that straight line café racer look. First impression were not good it was not symmetrical, the seams were very poor and it was not straight, it was full of rust inside, the filler neck had been welded off center and it leaked!! I ended up grinding back all the seams, adding new material in to fit the frame, cutting out and welding in a new filler neck. During this work I had managed to drop the tank off my work bench several times and gave it quite a few dents. Eventually I got it to look how I wanted it, even though it had taken nearly 2 months of on and off work.
The engine, another part I’d been dreaded judging by the state of it. I quickly realised that it was going to be uneconomical to rescue the original lump so set about trying to find one. About 18 months after the build started I chanced across an advert, some 30 pages down on Google……….I’d become that desperate. The engine a genuine TR1, chain drive the owner assured me, many people think they have a TR1 but it inevitably the XV Shaft motor so I found out on many occasions. The advert was on a sidecar cross forum, they love to put these engines in as they make loads of torque and being air-cooled are ideal for being strapped to a 3 wheeler hurtling around a muddy field. The deal done over the phone I arranged to go and collect the motor, with a fairly local, about 1-1/2 hours drive. Turned up the sellers house to be greeted by a slightly hungover “pensioner”. Cut another long story short this pensioner turned out to be a famous British motorcycle frame builder from 60’s,70’s & 80’s, one John Caffrey, an ex TT racer and good friend of the late Joey Dunlop. It took me 3 hrs to hand over the cash for the engine has a regaled stories of his time racing, showed me his TT trophies, gave me some tips on frame fabrication, and told me stories of the racing life with the likes of Joey.
Had the motor, in the bike in no time, set about fabricating an exhaust system and linked it to a Danmoto silencer I’d picked up off ebay. The motor was sold as a runner so I need to see if it did? The original wiring loom and ignition system was junk so researched aftermarket systems for the TR1 which would work nicely with the Vm36 Mikunis’. Bought a system manufactured by Ignitech in the Czech Republic, which they assured me would work fine and allow some on the fly tuning. Luckily the engine fired up after some mods the starter system and sounding nice and throaty.
We are now in year 3 of the build and its time to get a move and finish the thing. So a big push during the Winter of 2015, so various parts cleaned, plated, painted etc………..apart from that dreaded tank. I’d always wanted to learn to paint and though this would be an ideal learning exercise. Lots and lots of research went into it before I’d have a go, before that there was weeks of filling, priming and flatting…...more hours! Id researched paint on what and what not to use. I ended up using Non-isocyanate paint, as I didn’t want to poison myself in my makeshift paint booth………..Again to cut a long story short, the painting went great, the VW Tornado red looked stunning with a lovely gloss clear-coat over my custom designed decals………… 5weeks lather the paint was still not hard, and my the tank had been sitting next the radiator in my daughter’s bedroom, who’s imminent return from university called for drastic action. A visit to a local pro painter resulted in my having to strip the tank back to bare metal once again…………luckily on my way out of his paint shop I spotted a classic RD400 he was working on and decided to change my colour choice to the Brigade Blue it wears today………….Also forgot to mention the hump on the seat, I molded from scratch using GRP resin and glass fiber. This was painted, stripped and repainted during the tank phase…..
Wow 3 pages, told you this could go on a bit….well you wanted a story? End of 2015 and early 2016 saw the greatest leap forward as the bike is assembled. The wheels pained and rebuilt by myself, after they were powder coated……twice !! All the nice plated bits and pieces bolted on, new stainless fasteners, painted parts, few nice hand machined finishing’s. Bit of polishing here and there, but trying to stay away from the chrome everything look. New wiring loom arrived in 50m coils in a box so that I had to make from scratch. To how you see the bike pictured….
The bike fired up first prod of the starter, and after initial warm up where it’s a bit lumpy on the big 36mm carbs its runs perfect has lots of usable power throughout the rev range and should easily earn its “ton up” status. The modern suspension and brakes rally complement the V-twin power delivery and it rides so smooth
During my early research on the Café racers and the culture I read the story of the ’59 Club so in honour of those days I’ve named it the Spirit of ’59. This is my first ever ground up custom build even though I’ve done a few restorations and undertake various jobs for mates. I’m over the moon with the result and it only been seen by a few people, some of whom are not even into bikes and are impressed with how its turned out. I’ve set up a Facebook page with some information for people to look at, as some of them reckon I could advertise my services and make a bit of pocket money from my hobby? Who knows, when its out there so let’s see….
I’m an amateur as I’ve said and work full-time, luckily I’m an engineer by trade and after +30 years in the trade have a decently equipped single garage, with a lathe, mill, welder etc, all compact but everything takes place there.
Future plans, is to get the bike out to a few shows this summer and see what reaction it gets, maybe someone will like me to build one for them?? In the meantime I’d like to have a go at an American 1920’s era board tracker, but finding and engine to start from might be rarer than a decent TR1!!! Saying that, I’ve just managed to pick up another abandoned TR1 project…………so watch this space.
Here’s a link to the build I documented on the Do the Ton Café Racers forum: http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=63558.0
So following pressure from friends, relatives to get my efforts out to the wider audience I reluctantly set up a facebook page, so here that is as well...
https://www.facebook.com/LC-Motowerks-849865581796781/?ref=hl
If it makes the cut, great, if not, then no worries, its been a trip down memory lane just typing this. There’s loads I’ve left out but we could be here as long as it took me to build it !!!
Few more pics from the journey.....