Workshop

Having owned my RD400F for 12 years I decided it was time to restore the old girl. After spending a lot of time restoring the parts, one area for real concern was to place the engine in the frame without damaging the frame or the engine. My solution is simple! I used foam insulation, the…

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Q: Having followed the manual (or so I thought) to adjust the rear brake on my BMW K1100LT I was left on a dual carriageway with a seized rear brake. At first I felt it was an engine problem due to severe loss in power but I knew it was the brake when it pulled…

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Words/Pictures by Steve Cooper Once in a while there’s a need to tight a nut or bolt on something that’s small, fragile or mounted on a surface that’s easily damaged. If you’re not careful the fixing ends up either not sufficiently tight or the surrounding material gets marked. Even worse you over tighten then snap…

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In an earlier edition of Q&A Lee was asking how to restore the yellowing plastic of the petrol tank on his TY250. I had a similar issue with the expansion tank on my CX500 restoration. I ‘borrowed’ some bleach from under the kitchen sink, made up a fairly strong solution with water and immersed the…

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Q: I have installed a racing exhaust on my W650, which is pretty much a set of empty pipes/silencers, but did not re-jet (I wasn’t interested in the supposedly four extra bhp it was said to provide). It’s LOUD, and the backfiring was wild at first, but 3500 miles / 5500kms or so later, it’s…

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Q: Hello! My son is living in the USA and he is in the middle of fixing up his 1984 ZX750 GPz  A12 American spec. He wants to know the torque setting for the bolts holding the drive chain sprocket on the rear wheel. He has set them at 29 ft-lbs, but is unsure if that…

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