Month: April 2010

UPDATE: Really Creative Reader Ride. Yamaha XS650 in a CT1-175 Enduro frame. And it Rocks!

UPDATE: Mike wrote the following over on the Yamaha Enduro message board about the build.  Hope you guys don’t mind me adding it here.  He’s responding to Ctune1 on that board:

Hi Mark-The inspiration for this bike came from seeing the Ducati Hypermotard at the Cycleworld show. Sabrina thought it was cool and suggested we build a “RetroRetard” of some sort. She didn’t have a bike or know how to ride but said she would and started looking for a bike. She soon found a CT1 on Craigslist and we went and picked it up in Hollywood for less than $100. It was mostly all there but we found out the motor was shot. I was working at WCC and we had a yamachopper which had been making the rounds and nobody ever got it running or rolling, so as it was a really awful mess I took the motor from it. We test fired it in the garage and nearly set the place on fire as I just had rigged the ignition and sprayed choke cleaner in the intakes while cranking it over. There were no carbs even so it just sort of roared and died in a ball of flame which eventually went out.


Inspired, we sat the engine on the ground and started hacking into the CT1 frame. The frame mods consisted of completely removing the down and under tubes originally in place for the 175. Then I ground and smoothed all the nubs and uglies off the frame top tube. Then I draped the frame over the engine which we had set on blocks on the ground. From there I could see it was possible! I drilled the rear down tube for horizontal “through” tubes which I tig welded in. I made alloy plates using cardboard templates to get the shape right. The same thing was done with the top head mount. The head had to be narrowed in the milling machine in the top mount area which normally is 3 inches wide or so. I milled it down to the same width as the top tube and made alloy plates to hold the head.


This had to be done to fit inside the tunnel of the fuel tank. Next I bent up some 4130 tube and made the engine cradle. Again I drilled through holes for the front mounts and welded in footpeg mounting bungs. After that the brake pedal was modified to fit. I made a battery box and mounts for coils and starter solenoid all under the seat.



The tank also had to have the seam on the bottom ground and smoothed to clear the head nuts. It’s pretty tight but it all fits.

The pipes I made also from mild steel bends. The mufflers are my own design with a chambered “flowmaster” style interior. The outer muffler plates I dimpled in the hydraulic press with some tooling I made before welding the muffler bodies together. The heatshield decoration is made from ¼ “steel rod, bent, welded, chromed.

Rear wheel is xs650, front is original but is soon to be replaced with a twin leading shoe unit from an r5.
There were a few other bits and pieces it took to get it all working but it’s a really fun bike to ride. It fits Sabrina perfectly, she learned to ride on it, went to a riders school and passed her test. She rides it a few times a week and it’s been really great fun. She loves the character and mechanical nature of the beast. It has way more character than modern plastic bikes all covered up, and starts easily and sounds great.

Next up on the list is a 350 sprint I have had sitting around for a year or so.

Best wishes to all, Mike

Mike Cook sent in thses pics of this really creative build.

He Writes:

Hi great blog you have going here! Here are some pics of a bike my friend Sabrina just finished! It started out as a Craigslist  found ct1 175 enduro with a knackered engine, so we replaced it with a fresh 650 unit, which Sabrina built with some pointing and grunting from me. The frame took some serious modifications to get the engine in there. I did the exhaust, mufflers and the frame work and helped find the parts. Next up is a big twin leading shoe drum from an R5 and some fork boots. All the best, Mike Cook
 Man I love builds like this.  Really well executed hybrid.  It must pull like a tractor!

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Almost forgot! MotoGP is under way!

Shaping up to be a hell of a year.  If you’re stateside set your DRR’s and kickback!  Here’s some of my favorite players and main competitors to watch…

Ben Spies.  The new American hope in his Rookie GP year and showing a LOT of promise…

Lorenzo… now on his own no longer sharing setup info with his fellow team member……

Valentino Rossi.  The Dr. Is in the house and in first place!

But the Aussi Jockey Casey Stoner is off the milk (lactose intolerant apparently) and back in for the long haul.  Unfortunately he crashed out in Qatar but it’s a long season yet to go.

Nicky Hayden.  Sorry Nicky… I love ya but unless they get rid of traction control your slip-slyden dirt track skills will not help you any longer at this level. I wish it weren’t so…  Sure hpoe you prove me wrong though.

Reader Ride. Yet another Stunning Triunph Scrambler.

Thanks to reader Piet Vauterin of Belgium for this excellent bike. One of these days I going to HAVE to get one of these. I spend enough time staring at them I might as well buy one.  Of course by that logic I’d also have to own a few Guzzi’s, Vincents, Ducati’s etc etc… but I could live with that. LOL

 

 
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Vincent.

Got this from a reader. Not sure if it’s his bike or not. Beautiful either way.

Sometimes there just something about them…

Just an aside from our regularly scheduled posting…

Coming to that point with a motorcycle where your own personal and spiritual gears mesh and the bike just becomes an extension of you is a moment of satisfaction that’s hard to explain to folks who don’t ride. For a lot of us this can happen as quickly as the ride home from the dealership on that brand new ride and for others it may never happen. Sometimes the two of you just have irreconcilable differences. It’s usually not the bikes fault. It’s usually our fault. We just refuse to believe that the “bike of our dreams” could be anything less than perfect. Then we spend some time trying to bond and it all goes wrong. Hey it happens. No point denying it. Put it behind you and move on. We weren’t the rider we thought we were. At least not on that bike. These things “usually” happen quickly enough.

But then there’s those of us who are constantly falling for the tired old girl with all that “potential”. We know we can get her on the road quickly but once we start into her it’s like pulling that first thread on an old sweater. Next thing you know you’re into a full restoration of a bike that was just going to be a “rider” till you finished one of the three projects you have going on already. Even in the best of circumstances there can be weeks or sometimes even years before you can get that first ride much less that moment of mystical magical bliss.

I had just such a moment this weekend on a bike I would have never expected. The first amazing thing is that I actually kept it whole and didn’t take it all the way down. It was a “rolling upgrade”. A cosmetic buff and fluff with some substantial performance mods that actually worked as advertised. The next surprise (at least where I’m concerned) is that it’s a 4 stroke single. Long time readers of this blog know that my first love is 2 strokes. You can see my 2-stroke blog as an example. It actually preceded this blog by quite a bit but I kept finding all these cool bike pics with nowhere to post them so this blog was born.

Anyway, after a lot of tinkering and performance updates I finally got the jetting dialed in in my DR650 this weekend and took her on the first of what will be many longer excursions. Twenty minutes into it I knew I was hooked. Everything started to feel natural. The riding position, the (nicely upgraded) handling, the power and torque of the engine.What started out as a ten minute shakedown run lasted all day and the grins lasted all weekend. This single cylinder, do-it-all motorcycle stuff is more fun for the dollar that any bike I’ve ever ridden. I’m starting to wonder why bikes would ever need more than two cylinders tops… er… then I remember the sultry stumble of my old speed triple and come to my senses. But still, does anyone really “need” more than one? Maybe…. we are a country covered with interstates after all. But where’s the fun in that? All the best action is on the 2-lane stuff anyway. And don’t forget the dirt and gravel!

Just noticed…. 200,000 visits!

Things have been growing at a pretty good clip around here and I didn’t notice the count as we passed 200,000 visits. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a great big THANK YOU you to everyone for stopping by and especially for all the great pictures that folks have been sending in. A lot of the credit for the success of this site goes to the readers. You’ve been making my job a lot easier lately with all the great submissions. Thank you VERY much and please keep em coming!