Features

Yamaha 350 YR5 I must confess that when we picked up the YR5 Yamaha, we weren't quite sure how it would behave. Because of Yamaha's racing development, there was a tendency to expect a really pokey performance machine; and the YR5 frame is a direct descendant of the works racer, so we were anticipating road­holding…

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Kawasaki 350 How do you judge a machine? By the way it goes or how it looks, or what? No matter what it is you're looking for, at some stage you will have to compare it with other similar bikes. In the case of the new Kawa­saki S2 the only comparison which immediately springs to…

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Benelli 750 Think of six cylinders and you think Honda CBX – but Benelli got there first with its 750. Later came the 900 version but Neil Murray reckons the first was the real classic. I love the motorcycle engineering of the Seventies. The sheer diversity of engineering in that decade was incredible. Designers churned…

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BMW R65 I still quite haven’t figured out either why BMW built the R45/65 series, nor why they failed to develop it further. For my money, the design showed so much promise: smaller, neater, sweeter than the other aircooled boxers (airheads, they call ‘em now, to differentiate them from the current ‘oilheads’), but that promise…

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Honda CB750F This is nobody’s favourite Honda CB750. You only have to look at the prices of good clean F1s. At the same time, there’s quite a strong core of interest for F2s, and these are definitely worth a look. Right now, they’re cheap, but they have a historical significance in that they were the…

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Yamaha RD200 Before the 250cc learner ban, there were all sorts of bikes of around the 175-200cc mark and they were startlingly popular because they only gave a little away to their bigger brothers and were much cheaper to insure. Yamaha’s RD was probably the one with the longest pedigree. It started life as the…

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Yamaha XS250 rebuild (pdf) Yamaha's XS250 and 400 twins are pretty solid pieces of kit, but aren't immune to the occasional catastrophe. Tina's XS250 had provided solid and reliable transport for nigh on 15 years, and though it had recently been nudged aside in the garage by a Harley Sportster she thought it deserved more…

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Honda C77 motorcycle restoration (pdf) Although an unknown face to many Mechanics readers, I've been involved with classic motorcycle journalism for 15 years, much of it with sister magazine Classic MotorCycle. My favourite column, You Were Asking', allows me be an agony aunt-cum researcher and, although I've restoration experience and an extensive library, I'm lucky…

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Suzuki GS750 engine When Suzuki launched their first four-stroke back in the early Seventies they had gone to some trouble to get the design right. Environmental legislation was beginning to signal the end for high performance, smoky two-strokes, and with the GS750 Suzuki laid the solid foundation for their four-stroke GS range that would later…

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Suzuki GS750 Last month I managed to get Jason’s GS750 engine stripped down despite 25 years worth of accumulated muck, grease and barrels which were heavily corroded onto the cylinder studs. Now with all the bits and pieces thoroughly degreased and cleaned off I can lay everything out on the bench and take a good…

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