Features

Seats can be rejuventated with a new cover At some point when owning an old bike or during a restoration it’s likely that the seat will need re-covering. There are several well known companies that offer an excellent service and I’ve used at least a couple for my various projects. However, I like to do…

Continue reading »

Yamaha XJ900 Launched in April 1983 at Yamaha’s test track in Japan alongside the YPVS RD350LC two-stroke twin, the XJ900 offered a more wieldy alternative to the bulk of the XS1100 four of five years earlier. But the combination of a slim, compact but highly potent multi-cylinder engine – clearly a sporting package – with…

Continue reading »

Iconic Kawasaki GPZ600R Everything was going for Kawasaki’s GPz600R when it was launched at the end of 1984. The factory was basking in the glory that it had created with the GPz900R, a machine that set new rules for superbikes. Like the 900, the 600 was liquid-cooled, the first of its type. It had Grand-Prix…

Continue reading »

Suzuki RG500 (left) and GSX-R 750 Imagine, if you will, two design teams at Suzuki working in complete isolation. Each has been tasked with designing and building the best road-going motorcycle they possibly can. Both teams working late into the night fuelled by strong black coffee. Both working with cutting edge technology. And what a…

Continue reading »

Honda C77 motorcycle restoration (pdf) Rebuilds often stall at the farming out stage. Parts disappear into the ether, worthy professionals are often busy stretching time estimates and many of us move goal posts which irritates the service providers slowing the job down. With the C77, all welding, brazing, machining, assembly and wiring were tasks for…

Continue reading »

To Honda’s top brass it must have, at first, sounded like the craziest of ideas. Not only a six-cylinder motorcycle with the pots inline across the frame, but also one of more than 1000cc. It could be huge and unwieldy, more so than Benelli’s 750 Sei. But, with fabled engineer Shoichiro Irimajiri at the helm…

Continue reading »

Are five valves better than four? The four-valve head… the 16-valve motor: the name trips off the tongue as the cutting-edge of suck-squeeze-bang-blow technology. We loved this in the 1980s, in the bike or car world, and both forms of transport would be emblazoned with ‘16 valve’ or ‘four valve’ in a bid to lure…

Continue reading »

Honda VF500F11 Jaundiced contributors to the pocket-sized bike mags moan about 25-year-old Honda fours as if they’re singing from the same hymn sheet: flaky ignition, self-destructing camshafts and cam-chain adjusters and self-seizing brake calipers. No matter that these bikes have been often sadly neglected by halfwit owners who’ve failed to observe the need for 1500-mile…

Continue reading »

Suzuki GT380 classic motorcycle Kawasaki and Yamaha’s contribution to global pollution levels is well known but it’s worth remembering that Suzuki was actually the last of the Japanese giants to abandon the two stroke. Honda showed uncanny foresight by not bothering with ring-dingers in the first place of course, but Yamaha had been producing the…

Continue reading »

Iconic Yamaha TZ750 Few motorcycles had such a dramatic impact on road racing in the 1970s as Yamaha’s TZ750. While Yamaha had been successfully providing 250cc and 350cc machines for club and international racers alike since the mid-60s, the TZ750 burst on the scene in 1974 and changed everything, becoming the machine of choice for…

Continue reading »