Singularly subtle SRX

The best looking big-bore Japanese single in Britain? Brian Tarbox,
a long-time SRX fan, thinks so.

WHEN Judy Fearnley set out to turn her SRX600 Yamaha into something special she called on the services of the Gaz man. This was her secret weapon - a long-time friend whose spit, know-how, imagination and hard graft drove the project.
Subtlety of the modifications confirm that old adage about less being more. The overall effect is stunning but has been achieved through fastidious attention to detail rather than radical transplant surgery.
For my money (and a good deal of Judy's) this is the best-looking big-bore Japanese single in Britain. Please send photos if you reckon you have something tucked away in your garage that will make me eat those words.
Judy, 27, said: "I absolutely adore this bike. There are still times when I can't believe it's mine. It's the best thing I own and I owe it all to Gaz. Everyone should have a Gaz. The only problem is that he is always suggesting new ideas for the bike.
"The exhaust system and paint job are the only things I have had any say in, all the rest has been down to him. It starts with a whisper. He quietly says: 'Wouldn't it be good if we did this or that?' It's all so subtle, but the next thing I know I find myself putting the same idea to him."

Gaz is obviously a graduate in the psychology of the subconscious, but what else can we tell you about him? Well, he's 6ft 2in, 39 years old, works as a warehouseman cum van driver and has been a biker since he was 17. His surname? Sorry, he's one of those bikers from whom not even a dentist could extract that information. Gaz is just Gaz.
His phone number's not for publication either. He's happy to work on friends' bikes but his services ain't for hire. If you want a 'Gaz' to help customise your machine, you are going to have to find one of your own.
He runs a couple of Z650 Kawasakis - a 1979 B3 and a 1980 F1. Both modified, of course. Nothing too outrageous, just the same kind of detail changes that have lifted Judy's SRX head and shoulders above the pack.
He put his time and effort into the SRX because Judy's a mate and he liked the challenge of working on something a bit different from the common or garden UJM.
"Judy more or less gave me a free hand," he said. "I am really chuffed with the way it has turned out and think of the bike as part of me. I ride Z650s, but there are thousands of them out there, so whatever you do to them you can be sure someone else has done it before. Working on the SRX was interesting because there are so few of them around."
Slave to SRXs

JUDY'S Huddersfield home is a shrine to the Yamaha. Its photographs stare back from every nook and cranny while pride of place is taken by a pencil drawing of the machine sketched by an artist friend. Call in winter and you will find the bike in the living room too. Well, you wouldn't leave something like that in the garage, would you?
Then there are the trophies - a growing collection from a variety of shows. Not all the awards are displayed quite as prominently as others. Two won at a local event organised by the FWE Club are a little lurid to place in the window. The club's initials stand for Fairly Well Endowed, a claim to fame amply illustrated by the plaster trophies they awarded the SRX!
Judy was knocked out when a picture of the bike she sent to the Thumper Club was featured on their website (www.thumperclub.org.uk). It also won her an invitation to their 2001 rally in Abergavenny. The praise it attracted there is something she values more highly than any silver cup or plaster thingy.
She said: "It's great when people say they like the bike but it's even better when guys who are really into single cylinder motorcycles and know what they are talking about have good things to say about it. I don't think anything compares with that kind of appreciation."
Judy's favourite feature of the bike is its drop-dead gorgeous appearance, but this is not just a shine-and-show machine. About half of the 53,500 kilometres recorded on the clock are down to her. It would be more but the bike spends each winter safely tucked away from the ravages of our climate and the councils' salt-seasoning of the roads.
Judy's not a fair weather biker though. Far from it. She doesn't have - or want - a car licence. She and twin sister Anna have been bikers since they were 19, an obsession they inherited from their late father Derek who had a bash at scrambling and rode in a Clubman's TT. In his younger days, he owned a variety of iconic British bikes and later returned to the fold with a more humble 150 MZ.

Judy's been up to her eyes in biking since she took over the SR125 Yamaha on which her sister had already passed her test. A sales assistant at the Geared Up motorcycle clothing and accessories shop in Huddersfield, Judy's also a Driving Standards Agency approved riding instructor with the local Roadrunners group.
When the SRX special is enjoying it's annual hibernation, its place on the road is usually taken by her Honda CB250RS. It has been like that since she bought the Yamaha in February 1999. However, she loves the performance and character of the bigger single so much that last year she bought a second SRX in more or less standard trim for £1050 as a second workhorse.
Her sister was keener on Suzuki Bandits but now she's bought an SRX too. Judy said: "Anna didn't think the performance would be that good but she rode my standard SRX about six miles and said, 'That's it, I am getting one'.
"I have never liked faired bikes or four cylinder machines. I love the single cylinder engine and its bottom end power. With the low bars I have on the special you can tuck down into the bike and feel part of it."
Judy also rates the SRX ten out of ten for reliability and has never had the engine apart. But her love is not totally blind. Vibration above 5000 rpm is one drawback and she admits the cafe racer riding position can be a strain on long runs.
A 325-mile trek to the Scottish Highlands with a rucksack strapped to her back was a pretty torturous experience until the roads became twisty and interesting enough to steal her concentration from the aches and pains that took centre stage during the boring straight bits of the journey.

Regular readers of my ramblings in Mechanics will be well aware of my passion for the SRX. This goes back to 1986 and the bike's UK launch in the latter stages of a ten year sentence I was serving with Motor Cycle News.
Having overdosed on zillion-mile-per-hour four cylinder superbikes, I was keen for something different. The SRX was just the tonic my jaded palate needed. A good ole British-type single? Hardly. The look may be retro but the engine is a long way removed from anything ever made at Small Heath or Bracebridge Street: one cylinder, but two carbs, twin exhaust ports, gear driven balancer shaft, four valves and overhead cam.