Tinkicker

Often don't get a choice in the day job. Torque drive or bust. Scary stuff torquing a drive nut down to 22,500 nm with an hydraulic torque driver doing around 0.5rpm with all the creaking and groaning going on. The flight response is very much to the forefront of the mind. Engine stuff is relatively delicate and torque wrench used. Stuff like axles, big air wrenches.

Cam chain and tensioner is a must do if you have it apart. Not a case of will they fail, but when. When they fail, it sounds like its the fan tapping against something.

Dealers.

Strapping a JATO bottle to the back of your bike will give a useful increase in top end speed.

As an ex cbt instructor, ex motorcycle workshop manager and operations manager in what was once probably ( well in actual fact was) the largest motorcycle activity centre in Europe; may I wade in? 1. The first module in a cbt course at the time was the protective clothing module. No student was expected to know what to wear. If they had it, fine, if not we provided it ( helmet and gloves) they were told the basics of what to wear on the day during the booking process. Of course, this was probably 20 years ago. No one ever turned up in a plunging neckline blouse, miniskirt and high heels. They wore what they had or could borrow that was most suitable. 2. Students were expected to turn up on time, but no student was ever expected to complete a cbt in one day. Most did, but some needed further tuition. For whatever reason. It is part of the cost of doing business. Those poor sods who required further tuition usually found me teaching them as the standby instructor on call for " non routine" circumstances. Generally it took a morning to bring them up to speed and conduct the road ride. 3. Some students crash bikes. Others dont. Crash repairs were an ongoing thing. You do not give a flying feck about scratches, which is the vast majority of the damage done on a cbt... You do however incorporate a damage waiver. That, IIRC was £3 per session. That more than paid for any serious damage that occured to the bikes. Maybe one out of 5 cbts, we would have to replace a broken lever that cost £1.50 and we had dozens in stock and every instructor had them in his kit. If you are getting a lot of crashes, I would be looking at the quality of the tuition. The head of on road section and I would be constantly monitoring who crashed what. If an instructor has signifcantly more crashes than the norm, it was our job to find out why and take the appropriate action. 4. You do not fit modifications to any bike willy nilly. If your add on crash bars amputated someones leg and the lawyers found out out said crash bars were not part of the original vehicle design, you are in deep doodoo. You take your chances. We did not fit crash bars as damage was not a major concern. We did our homework and provided bikes that were suitable for the task, had good damage resistance and minimal repair costs. You could throw the venerable Yamaha SR125 down the road ten times a day and not scratch the paint. 5. Damage costs were nothing compared to general maintenance and depreciation of assets. A drop in the ocean. I can only recall one incident of what I would call major damage in 12 years on cbt bikes, and that was a smashed headlamp, broken front fender, smashed speedo and bent handlebars.

And as for me, clearing the crankcases and plug after all the slow speed work the missus was doing. A pea sat on a drum moment.... Told you it was tiny.

This afternoon I taught the missus how to ride little yeller. I was pleasently surprised. She did better than 75% of my old CBT students. Only stalled the bike once. I got her as far as starting and stopping the bike, putting it in and out of gear, clutch and brake control and riding around in large circles. She loved it, but it was obvious she was starting to plateau and was tired. Lesson over. Next time it is changing gear and tighter turns.

I love fettling and my 40 year career has been spent doing it, but even my patience gets tried sometimes. VFR is not my friend at the moment. Carbs are coming off yet again to replace those 30 year old float needles. No point just doing the failed one, the others are likely not far behind and I would guarantee the same shennanigans next spring. No matter how you check and double check, entropy is present in all machines and every single part of every machine, including those NOS parts on ebay. They may have never been taken out of the bag, but they are still 40 year old parts. There is no guarantee that a part that is working 100% today, will work tomorrow. Everything on planet earth has an expiry date. In effect, a 10 year old bike has collected 10x the potential for breakdowns that a year old one has. My youngest bike is pushing 30 and my oldest is pushing 50. You all enjoyed my DT175 and little yeller restorations and all the stuff going wrong. This vid pretty much sums up fettling vintage bikes.

Glad you are all enjoying your ride outs. Sigh. Owning a few vintage motircycles sadly means that for every hour of riding means 12 hours of finding and curing yet another inexplicable fault. The vintage bike owners vocabularly can be be summed up in one sentence... What the feck is it doing now and why the feck is it doing it?

Little yeller gets her first outing on the dirt in the field behind the house. No rattles other than my broken ribs, they had a bit of a moan at all the shaking. She is nice on the dirt, but the suspension struggles a bit with my 15 and a bit stone frame. Even had her kicking up a few roostertails coming out of corners, mainly due to the sandy soil. Followed by around five road miles around the village. I do not totally trust her yet, so stay well within pushing distance of home. She behaved flawlessly though. As ever, an absolute hoot to ride. Much fun to be had at sensible speeds. Tiny like a moped, but with a very crisp and willing motor. She is at her best around 40mph. Helmet and gloves for scale shows just how tiny she is. Not much bigger than a kids bike. Imagine my 15 stone sat on it.....

1970s honda trail 90. Nothing with modern electronics will survive the EMP of multiple nuclear detonations.

Yes. I never heard of it before, but apparently it is a depressingly common thing on carbed VFRs according to the internet. Never gave the lack of overflow tubes a second thought before. I am going to remove the carbs and change all the float valve needles. At 27 years old, they have had their alloted lifespan.

Wandered out to the shed last weekend with a view to re commisioning the VFR ready for taxing it for may. I was going to balance and set up the carbs. Of course, it has been sat a few weeks with the Aspen fuel in, so with a little trepidation, I pressed the starter. Nothing. Wut? And then I noticed the dashboard looked a bit dark. A solitary oil pressure light lit. Press gearlever up and down to find neutral. Still nothing. Checked connection to neutral switch. Nothing. New neutral switch ordered. Very odd. It was fine last time I had the ignition on. Filled the tank with two gallons of fresh fuel, pulled clutch in due to no neutral signal and away she fired immediately. Switch arrived yesterday and went to fit it. Out with the old and a bit of a gusher of oil which was unexpected, but ready for. In with the new and a look at the oil that gushed out. It was very thin and stank of fuel. Merde! Off with the fairings yet again to loosen the exhaust, so I can get the drain plug out. Stupid design, exhaust right under the drain plug. Oil changed, filter drained and time to spin it over. Whir dunk. Double merde. I know what that is. It is a hydraulic lock. Tank and seat off and easily accessible rear plugs removed. Press the button. Dunk. Of course, it had to be one of the soddin front cylinders. Radiator moved out of the way and I could remove the front plugs. Left front was the culprit. So fuel expelled from the cylinder, plug dried and refitted and off she went. Time to get the gauges out and set up the carbs. It was now 1pm. Started the job at 11am and expected to be done for noon, so I was running a little late and in a fine mood... Not. Soddin motorbikes. Got the gauges connected, bike fired up and it started pissing it down before I even got it warmed up. Just feckin great. Pushed bike into shed, locked it in and stomped away. Good job that neutral switch failed when it did and it was hydro locked. If it had started normally and the switch was ok, I would not have known about the contaminated oil and likely fried the big end shells. Turns out the float valve on three was slowly leaking fuel and with the carbs being downdraught types and tilted at 45 degrees, they do not have overflows. Fuel had one place to go. Straight into the cylinder, past the rings and into the sump. Appeared to be about 1 and a bit litres of fuel in the oil.

Absolutely. These type videos are full of testosterone fuelled idiots who should be able to see a situation evolving, but take no action or even deliberately take an action that makes a mild situation into a serious one "to prove a point" and show the car driver a thing or two. Congratulations. You are laid on a mortuary slab and the car driver is facing a driving without due care and attention rap. You certainly proved your point. More oxygen to go around for the rest of us. I stopped group riding because of such behaviour. Nothing worse than mixing pack mentality with motorcycles. To the OP. Why were you expecting to be flamed? For good or for bad, most motorcyclists these days are the teenager " bikers" of the early 1980s. They have seen friends die, have had body parts in plaster, and have learned from the experience. Few are the number of todays motorcyclists that will defend idiotic behaviour. I know one thing, if motorcycling ever got a grip on todays youth like it did in the 70 and 80s, the accident rate would quadruple and motorcycles would very soon be banned from the road.

It is always goong to be a CX engine as the engine was part of the structural integrity of the entire bike. The CX in fact was one of the first bikes to use the engine as a structural member of the chassis, instead of the cradle frame. The 650 frame is substantially different, so the engine is likely mounted diffferent too. The taller cylinders may also hit the 500 tank. So no, in my opinion you are onto a loser looking for an easy swap. The CX500 is a great bike, celebrate it for what it is. I would have another in a heartbeat.

Bad fuel, bad plug, broken reed valve, worn crank seals, bad ignition switch, bad kill switch, electrical connection bad, bad ignition coil, bad CDI..... Take your pick.

Would not know. Not willing to pay for a TV licence, I only watch youtube, netflix and prime really. ITVX at a push. When I did have a licence, I used to enjoy a similar show called the restoration man which was about converting old buildings into homes, but that did not oversimplify the process. They never came in on time and on budget. A honest show.

Its not him, he is quite a likeable bloke, even if a bit silly. Its the entire ethos of his show format. It has resulted in his casual viewers thinking "hmm i have a 30 year old Honda Chally step thru in the shed, must be worth a bomb". Said pile of rusty scrap metal gets pulled out, a new chinesium carb fitted, fresh fuel poured into the internally rusted tank and engine started up. A bit of duplicolour paint sprayed over the top of the rust and new handlebar grips fitted. It appears on ebay as " fully restored and a great runner. £2500, no lowball offers, I know what I got". Silly shows like Coles have had a very detrimental effect on the old bike market, it raises peoples expectations far higher than they should be, all in the name of a scripted TV show where buyers are flocking to buy that old piece of tat at a huge profit. Now he has ravaged the old bike market, and the petrol can market , he is now suddenly an expert on classic cars.

T**t.

Genuine OEM. Do not be tempted by cheap replacements. I was and paid the price.

Learned this voltage ditty as an apprentice at college 40 years ago... 12.7. Im in heaven. 12.5. Im still alive. 12.1. Much work needs to be done.

From what I have been able to gather, the ignition coil should look like this on the vast majority of H100 UK models. Since you did not mention a model year, I cannot pin it down further, but this un fitted basically from 83 to 88.

Ayup mucker.

Yup, once had one connected up all winter to a CB1300. Green light saying all OK. Came to start the bike. Click whiir whir wh. It went in the bin. I have a pro grade charger now that gets connected to the VFR once a month and then disconnected again once it displays FUL.

Wrong coil.