Recent content by ManxKat

Settle down boys and gurls, it's tech time! OK, there's now about 100 miles on the Yam since it was completed and I'm pleasantly surprised by how well it's all come together. The ride is on the firm side but that's my preference - the shortened forks are now running the stock capacity of 10 wt...

OK, I'm calling this one done (at least from a visual point of view, there's some carb fettling needed and the speedo to be calibrated but otherwise it's finished). The original brief was to turn an SR250 into something that looked like it rolled off Yamaha's production line in the late '70's or...

The Virago front fender will be bolted on as soon as it gets back from the chromers (together with the exhaust downpipe and headlight brackets)!

OK, first mock up after paint/ polish and I think that's definitely heading in the right direction!

OK, the Yam has been stripped and parts scattered all over the place for chroming, painting and welding. First major reassembly were the forks. I took 25mm out of them by shortening the springs and machining up 25mm damper rod spacers. As I've mentioned earlier, these forks are off an early 535...

Good to hear the legal folks were satisfied! Is there any way you could move the licence plate/ light assembly further up the rear mudguard or is it one of those legal requirements that it has to overhang the rear tyre? Re the horn (assuming you're keeping it), I bent the bracket on my bike so...

A symphony of monochromatic loveliness! Now get it out there and get some miles on those tyres!

Re: The Ducati Demon That 750 Sport is a work of art but, as Ducati themselves proved with the Sport 1000, a modern interpretation can just look plain weird if it's not done right (IMHO at least!).

Re: The Ducati I don't know what to call it Just a thought but it looks like the bike is running non standard foot rests. Have you checked for play in the gear linkage mechanism? If there's any slop in the linkage then finding neutral will be really tricky. Generally speaking, Ducati gearboxes...

Re: The Ducati I don't know what to call it If it's stalling when the engine's cold, apart from the obvious stuff like fluid level and contamination of the clutch plates, it might be worth also checking the piston inside the slave cylinder and the pressure plate on the clutch (when that comes...

Re: The Ducati I don't know what to call it Unless someone has done some major work on the engine, it'll be running a wet clutch (on the early air cooled Monsters it was only the 900 that ran a dry clutch). As far as the dragging goes, a simple oil change might help if the previous owner used...

The dyno never lies (but it can be persuaded to bend the truth)! As mentioned earlier, the mighty SR seemed to have lost some top end with the fitting of a new silencer. A thorough going over yielded two interesting contributory factors: i) there was no tappet clearance at all on either valve...

Sigh. Perhaps that 535 front end wasn't such a good idea after all (fork tubes are 36mm)! And a quick test run last night revealed: - I seem to have stumbled on a half way decent suspension/ ride height set up. It's hardly MotoGP standard but it is predictable and the shocks/ forks work well...

Dammit! You're absolutely right, the headlight sits way too high. I'll try dropping the mounts but I have a nasty feeling that I might need to investigate a bottom mounted headlight so that it will sit against the bottom yoke - which of course means also finding new homes for the indicators and...

Making some real progress now but, with every two steps forward, there’s one going the other way. So, if you’re planning on increasing the rear ride height on your SR250 (or just fancy a snigger at my expense), read on. The shocks you can see are 340mm eye to eye and, coupled with a drop of 30mm...