Memories

I came across some old photo's the other day and thought since everybody likes pictures, why not share some of your past projects that have not been seen here before. Not sure the GS will be "your thing" but I thought the KH400 might " tickle your fancy"   

Thanks for sharing 
The GS looks real nice  BUT  The Kaw  is SEXY
Had a 750H2  in my youth ( And lived to say it )
Dave

Love them both! It's a shame you don't see that many Suzuki's anymore. The GS750 was a beautiful bike. 

wrote:

Love them both! It's a shame you don't see that many Suzuki's anymore. The GS750 was a beautiful bike. 

As durable as an anvil too.  Sadly, many die from valve maintenance neglect, as I'm sure KZ's do as well. 

wrote:

wrote:

Love them both! It's a shame you don't see that many Suzuki's anymore. The GS750 was a beautiful bike. 

As durable as an anvil too.  Sadly, many die from valve maintenance neglect, as I'm sure KZ's do as well. 

 

You are right, unfortunately lack of maintanence causes the demise of so many. It was 30 years ago when I built these, the GS was sold to a friend due to matrimonial challenges at the time   he only sold it on a couple of years ago so I must have done thatone right 

wrote:

Thanks for sharing 
The GS looks real nice  BUT  The Kaw  is SEXY
Had a 750H2  in my youth ( And lived to say it )
Dave

Hey Dave that explains the turbo on the KZ ( trying to replicate the rubber framed lunacy of the H2) I loved the KH which I bought "dirt cheap" as a non - runner complete with 70's green metalflake and "ape hangers"  that would have been at home on an episode of "sons of anarchy". It only cost £3 to fix the non-start (early Boyer Bransden ignitions had diodes on the switched side of the coils and all three where blown  ) jetting was a ball ache to get right with pods but the shock was  where the air box should be (I ran a bigger jet in the middle cylinder with the needle 1 notch higher which worked a treat at keeping the temperature under control) in the end I swopped it for the GS (which was an earlyUS import with faded orange paint, spokes and single disc) as the KH was a PITA due to having to run it on pre-mix ( the oil pump had been removed by a PO As the mounting was broken and I couldn't afford new cases). 

Memories....

...I realise now that I have been doing this (fixing bikes) for quite long time...
My dad worked for Ford for some 35 years, or more maybe, before leaving his "beloved Ford" and buying a Caltex Petrol station in 1986.
So, tinkering with cars, bikes, lawn-movers and out-board boat engines was the "done thing" on week-ends.
He taught us (my brother and I) so many practical things, with 'hands on" experience, engrained forever in our minds.
From wood-working to spray-painting...
 I remember, building, from a wooden crate of loose parts, a 250 CU inch straight six (Falcon Six, I think) and installing it into a Jeep Gladiator pick-up (J10 or J3000?)
I'll never forget him pouring a cap-full of gas down the carb throat and instructing me to "crank it"... It fired right up!
(I must have been 11 or 12 years old. Fun times...)

Anyhow, I bought a mint GSX400F (1983 model) to commute to the military base that I was stationed at in 1988. 
(I was 22 years old at the time...)



On my first trip to the base, at 04h30 on a freezing winter Monday morning, after about 20 miles, the exhaust cam seized in the head... 
Totally destroyed the exhaust cam journals in the head and the exhaust cam's journals were "blue", and a lot of shiny head metal galled on them!
(The inlet cam and all the valves survived unscathed)

I had no choice but to disassemble it on the living room floor in my flat. (fortunately on the ground floor!)
The landlady never saw what I did on that sitting room floor!  (Lots of news paper)





The (well meaning) previous owner, (on the day I collected the bike) admitted to replacing the alternator cover gasket, and somehow got some cloth material to clog up the oil gallery leading up to the exhaust cam journals.
I found the "plug" in the cylinder block by blowing compressed air into the galleries, but couldn't dislodge it.
I was able to remove the clog by using a 4mm diameter spring (used to suspend "lace" bathroom curtains) by fashioning a "hook" from one half of a coil of the spring on the end of it, and sending it up through the galleries while turning it, like plumbers do when un-blocking sewer pipes!

I managed to source a second-hand head (with matching cam caps) and and exhaust cam, from a place called "The Bike Hospital".
Low budget job, so I re-used the head-gasket, valve-stem seals that were on the second head.
Hand-made my own base and cam cover gaskets! 



That GSX 400 engine (scaled down 1100 Katana engine) had valve rockers, so setting valve clearances was pretty straight forward.
No internet in 1988, so no assembly manual...
I had to "wing it" by "remembering" rocker clearance figures from the 1980 Honda CG125 that I had repaired as a school boy!



I can't remember why I sold it... but have been looking for another, for years now... 

I came across an un-built, 12th scale model of it on Ebay a while back, and bought it to keep the memories alive.
(Can't say when I'll build it though)

H.


  

Keep the memories coming guy's, there must be thousands out there 

wrote:

Keep the memories coming guy's, there must be thousands out there

There are many memories, sadly there is very little pictorial proof remaining of how stupid I was in my youth!  

Here's one of me an my CL70 Honda around 1973.  I took off all the lights, turn signals, and changed front fender to make it into a dirt bike of sorts.

Sold that bike to get a 1975 Honda Elsinore CR125.   [attachment=154280]

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Here's one of me an my CL70 Honda around 1973.  I took off all the lights, turn signals, and changed front fender to make it into a dirt bike of sorts.

 

Wheelhop us gingers need to stick together, we're a persecuted minority