Yamaha XS650

January 4th, 2012 | Articles,xs650 | 15 Comments »

Yamaha XS650

 

Yamaha XS650

The origins of the Yamaha XS650 reach back to 1955 and now defunct Japanese manufacturer Hosk. Hosk made an impressive and fast 500cc twin modelled after the German manufacturers’ HOREX 500 seen below. After @ 10 years of producing the 500 twin, Hosk engineers designed a 650cc twin. Hosk was then acquired by Showa Corporation, and in 1960 Yamaha bought Showa. When the Yamaha XS650 was unveiled in ’68 it had a very advanced design. The engine and gearbox were “unit construction” with the crankcase split horizontally for ease of assembly and maintenance where most (British) contemporaries in 1968 had a vertically split crankcase or “pre-unit”, with separate engine and gearbox.

Yamaha XS650

Mid-’77 the Yamaha XS650 front forks had a major redesign. Fork tube diameter increased from 34 to 35 mm and internals were changed (although this also holds true for various years of the same tube size).

The entire fork assembly with triple tree will swap either way but fork parts are not interchangeable. Also the brake caliper changed from a 48 mm dual piston cast iron design for the 34 mm fork to a 40 mm aluminum single piston floating caliper for the 35 mm forks. The brake caliper mounting lugs on the fork sliders are of different spacing for the 34 mm and 35 mm forks so the calipers can’t be swapped.

The Yamaha XS650 was produced until 1985. In the United States, the last model year was 1983 with Canada, Europe and other markets continuing into 1984 and 1985. However, many US models were left over due to overproduction and an economic recession and brand new 1982 and 1983 models could still be purchased in 1987 at some dealerships.

Carburetion

Yamaha XS650 models pre-1980 use the twin 38 mm constant velocity Mikuni carburetors that can be tuned by moving the needle clip position, or by replacing jets.

Ignition

Up to ’79 all Yamaha XS650 models used points ignition. Two sets of points are located on the upper left of the cylinder head. On the right side cylinder head, an advance mechanism is located. And advance mechanism is used to retard the timing for easy starting and smooth idle. Post-1979 models use electronic ignition systems, and although earlier points units were generally reliable, well, electronic is definitely the way to go!

Performance based on results obtained from the 1979 XS650;Standing-start quarter= 13.86 sec at 96.05 mph Average gas millage @51 mpg

Yamaha XS650

These days, the Yamaha XS650 is a very popular basis for modifications and specials. From cafe racers, street-trackers, flat-trackers, hyper-motards and whatever the imagination can conjure, the Yamaha 650 will be the most popular bike for classic Japanese motorcycle specials builders for some time to come.

Yamaha XS650

 

Yamaha XS650

650Performance.com is the go-to spot if you want to build big power into your Yamaha XS650 motor safely. Says Craig…

“Now that people are putting their modified Yamaha XS650 engines with the CNC’d heads on the street and race track I’m becoming a bit uncomfortable with what I’m hearing about how radical some of their modifications are.

The Yamaha XS650, clutch and transmission were designed for an engine that would make around 42 rear wheel horsepower (RWHP). When Yamaha was in the middle of the dirt track wars in the ’70s, the engines built for Kenny Roberts and others on the factory team (as well as the best privateer engines) were putting out right around 70 RWHP and reliability wasn’t generally a problem. The best engines built by Bud Askland, Harry Lillie and others were inspected after every race but would typically last a half season or more before any major replacements were required. Compared to the BSAs, Triumphs and Nortons this was a real luxury.

When Harley took the next step in XR750 power Yamaha responded by pushing the Yamaha XS650 power envelope even further. With Tim Witham in charge of development the XS reached the 75 RWHP threshold with stock head castings. While the bikes were rockets, things began going wrong. Broken transmissions, cases and connecting rods were the worst, but clutches and valve trains were breaking too.

You probably know the story about how Yamaha’s response to this was the fabled OU-72. What some people have forgotten is that the OU-72 didn’t just have a sophisticated revised Yamaha XS650 cylinder head with previously untouchable flow numbers, it was also accompanied by all the reliability tricks Tim Witham had learned – strengthened cases, Webster transmissions, thickened and deeper clutch baskets, alloy rods and a host of other upgrades.

Yamaha XS650

The first XS engine that Harry built for me was exceptionally powerful. It was a full AMA-spec build and was the strongest XS engine I’ve ever run.

After about a half year of racing it at Sears Point with AFM another racer was looking at the bike and pointed out a small crack in the cases, right in front of the cylinders around the oil up tube fitting. When Harry dismantled the engine the cracking was found to have extended all the way down into the cases and around the crankshaft webbing.

We tossed those cases and took the edge off the rebuild by lowering the compression a little bit, richening the Lectrons a little bit, advancing the cam a little bit for more midrange, etc., and it dyno’d out at 71 RWHP. Perfect. Since then I’ve always run my engines in a state of tune that gives them 69 – 72 RWHP and I’ve never had a catastrophic failure.

The point of this message is that the stronger cases, clutch baskets, etc. aren’t available today. They are either worn out, broken or lost. And the specific lessons learned from piles of broken parts about how to modify your engine to live happily at 75 RWHP are long forgotten by the men who developed them.

 Yamaha XS650

 

Yamaha XS650

If you have a good OU-72 head, or you are one of the people who recently received one of the new CNC’d heads (or you have any head that really flows well), you have the potential to reach 75 RWHP.

For the reasons above, I caution you to resist the temptation to raise the compression a bit higher than discussed in my Yamaha XS650 engine modification guide (see 650performance.com if you don’t know about this), or tune it a bit sharper, or bias the power curve to toward the top end, etc.

If you have a solid 70+/- RWHP or less your bike will run really hard on the street or race track and (if it’s put together correctly) will be reliable.

 

Remember: 69 – 72 RWHP = reliable. 75+ RWHP = expensive things break.”

The images above and to the left here are the work of Gordon Calder, an obviously talented photographer who has created many motorcycle related works of art by concentrating on light/shadow, detail and contrast.

Mr. Calder obviously has a keen eye for dramatic images where most of us only see the big picture, and this, among other talents, enables Calder to tease out the art in industrial technology.

“This year’s TX650 gets an A on its name…and a C+ on its report card.

Multi-cylinder super-bikes have evolved into machines that can handle almost as well as twin cylinder bikes, even though the multis are wider, heavier, and have a higher center of gravity. Even so, heated debates still take place all around the world as to which design, twin or multi, is the best.

All the pros and cons of multis have undoubtedly been considered by Yamaha, but they have stuck to their twin-cylinder guns. Instead of taking a big jump into a three- or four-cylinder touring machine, they have elected to refine their present line of twins.

Since its inception in 1970, the Yamaha TX650 twin has been battling for positive recognition. It has sold well and has been one of Yamaha’s most reliable models. But the original XS-1 had some unusual handling quirks that have been part of the bike since the beginning. Some riders never let the 650′s wiggling and wobbling bother them; but others, whose level of tolerance was much lower, confessed to never feeling quite confident aboard a Yamaha XS650.

Yamaha XS650

This year’s Yamaha XS650, called the TX650A, has gone through some frame and suspension changes that are major enough to qualify the chassis as being all-new. Yamaha made these changes in an effort to rid the 650 of its unusual handling traits, which, in turn, would clear up any blemishes on the bike’s reputation. Since the primary advantage of a twin is its supposedly better inherent handling, the TX650 would not be considered a true success until it overcame its inhibited road behavior.

THE BIKE: Our test bike, the Yamaha TX650A, uses the same basic powerplant as last year’s TX650. The narrow, very tall engine retains its slightly oversquare 75mm bore and 74mm stroke, which give it a total displacement of 653.8cc. The compression ratio has been lowered to 8.4:1.

Straight-cut primary gears transmit power from the 360-degree crankshaft to the large, multi-plate wet clutch and five speed gearbox. The gear ratios are close together and evenly spaced, so no big rpm drops occur between shifts. A single-row chain drives the overhead camshaft, and dual 30.6mm Mikuni-Solex constant-velocity carburetors supply the gas mixture to the engine. A two-piece airbox mounts under the front portion of the seat and houses a pair of washable, oiled-foam elements. Another piece of foam is placed behind each element to filter out the big pieces. An easy 90-degree turn of the wing-nut knob on either side panel gains access to the filters.

 

Yamaha XS650

The Yamaha XS650 uses a conventional battery/coil ignition system. Dual breaker points mount at the left end of the over-head cam, and a massive AC generator hangs on the left end of the crank.

A panel just in front of the handlebars holds the speedometer (which reads nearly five mph fast at 30 and 60), tachometer, ignition switch and idiot lights.

The Yamaha XS650 uses a double downtube frame that has a single, large diameter backbone. Heavy bracing and gusseting have been added to this year’s frame to give it added strength and permit less frame hexing.

The bike has a sidestand on the left and a centerstand; it doesn’t take much effort to get it up on the centerstand, but you must lean the machine way over to the right of center to get the sidestand down. If you have short legs, or if you’re standing on the left, the bike can easily fall over on the right side while you’re trying to get the sidestand down.

Yamaha XS650

The TX650A uses alloy rims at both ends, with a 3.50 x 19 Yokohama ribbed tire up front, and a 4.00 x 18 Yokohama universal on the rear. A double-action hydraulic disc brake stops the front wheel, and a single-leading shoe drum brake gives the rear wheel its stopping power. The front forks allow 4.9 inches of wheel travel and the five-way adjustable rear shocks permit 2.8 inches of rear wheel travel.

Chrome fenders, shocks, exhaust pipes, and chain guard, contrasting with the matte black finish of the handlebar switches and instrument panel, give the TX650A a neat, modern appearance. The four-gallon (last year’s was 3.7 gallon) Cinnamon Brown gas tank, side panels, and headlight also blend in nicely, but the frame detracts from the bike’s otherwise clean overall appearance. It has gussets supporting gussets and frame tubes bracing frame tubes, all held in place by thick, heavy welds. Other than that, the machine’s workmanship is well above par, and all the pieces fit together nicely.

ENGINE AND GEARBOX: The Yamaha XS650  TX650A has a wide range of usable power which begins just above idle and lasts to engine redline at 7500 rpm. It builds power smoothly and steadily and there is never a spot in the powerband where the engine comes on all at once. There aren’t any flat spots throughout the range either. The bike accelerates best between 4000 and 7500 rpm; maximum horsepower is at 7000 rpm, and the torque peaks at 6000.

This steady pull gives you the feeling that the bike isn’t exceptionally fast. We were really surprised when it turned a 14.42-second quarter mile with a terminal speed of 92.2 mph. These figures are close to those of some superbikes we’ve tested.

Yamaha XS650

To start the engine when it’s cold, push down the enrichener lever on the left carb, turn the key on, and push the starter button. After a few seconds of cranking, the engine comes to life. Let it idle for 30 seconds or so, lift the enrichener lever, and you’re ready to take off. When the engine is warm, the procedure is the same, except you don’t need the enrichener at all. There is also a kickstart system in case of a failure in the electric start system, but it takes a healthy prod to turn the engine over. Last year the TX650 had a small lever on the handlebars which was hooked to the starter motor and also operated an exhaust valve lifter (which acted like a compression release). Pulling this lever would activate the starter and lifter simultaneously. But the starter cranked the engine over so violently that it often jerked the crankshaft flywheels out of alignment. Once this happened, the already-heavy engine vibrations would become heavier.

The TX650A doesn’t have the valve lifter this year, and it uses a starter motor that transmits less torque to the crankshaft so the crank stays in alignment. But it sometimes takes three or four pushes of the starter button before the starter gears engage. The spring in the Bendix starting unit is too strong and won’t always allow the starter gears to mesh. The resultant clunking and whirring sounds are terrible.

For the smoothest starts, we found that revving the engine to 1500 rpm and letting the lever out very slowly was the easiest way and required a minimum amount of clutch slipping. If the engine rpm was, below this point, the bike would chug and surge and sometimes stall when the clutch was engaged. If the revs were above 1500, we had to hold the clutch lever within this three-quarter inch engagement area until the bike was moving about 10 to 12 mph.

Above 10 mph the engine works well; it never wants to chug or bog out unless the revs drop down below 1500. There is plenty of overlap between the gear ratios, so the engine rpm doesn’t drop much between shifts. When you’re in the hefty part of the powerband, it’s easy to stay there.

Yamaha XS650

The TX650A has enough power to cruise the freeways and open roads easily. There is enough reserve power in top gear to let you move easily with the flow of traffic. For the quickest acceleration to pass slower vehicles you have to downshift once or twice to get the revs above 4000; but you can also pass comfortably in top gear. At freeway speeds of 55 mph the engine is only turning an easy 3700 rpm in fifth gear or 4200 in fourth.

If you like to play racer on winding roads, you don’t have to shift a lot to keep the engine above four grand. Third gear lets you run close to 80 mph without over revving the engine, and in fourth you can go over 95 mph.

Yamaha XS650 found it necessary to redesign the cylinder head cover for more efficient top-end oiling. However, improperly designed baffles in the cover let oil seep out the breather when the engine is running; and when it’s stopped, oil that accumulates in the breather hose falls to the ground.

We liked the gear ratios and overall gearbox operation very much. The shift lever travel is short, and the shifting was always smooth and positive. When the bike was new, we experienced some difficulty finding neutral from first gear. About 50 percent of the time we would miss neutral and end up in second. But shifting from second into neutral was always a no miss proposition. After the gearbox limbered up, this problem ceased and we never again missed a shift. The clutch took some punishment, but it always acted like it should: It never chattered or grabbed.

HANDLING: The frame has undergone some critical changes to prevent the wobbling that existed on previous Yamaha XS650. First, the swingarm was lengthened an inch and beefed up for more strength and rigidity. The frame is now heavily gusseted around the swingarm mount, steering head, and rear engine mount.

Yamaha XS650

The longer swingarm on the Yamaha XS650 increased the wheelbase to 56.5 inches. The 650 retains its 27 degrees of steering head angle, but the front wheel trail has been increased from 3.9 to 4.4 inches, due to the shorter fork offset. But even with these new frame changes, the TX650A possesses a strange chassis combination that makes the overall handling really different from the street bikes we’ve previously tested. The TX is still a 474-pound heavyweight, and it is still noticeably top heavy. 45.7 percent (217 pounds) of the weight rests on the front wheel, and 54.3 percent (257 pounds) is on the rear.

The high center of gravity adversely affects the bike’s slow-speed cornering, low-speed maneuverability, and directional stability in crosswinds. As you go through a slow turn, the bike sits up slightly and heads toward the outside of the comer when you open the throttle. You must make a small, quick steering correction to keep going where you were aimed. The bike doesn’t veer off course a great deal, but enough to be annoying.

Yamaha stiffened the Yamaha XS650 front forks and rear shocks, which successfully improved its high-speed cornering through smooth turns. The bike never wobbled at high speed nor did it do anything unusual in these turns. You can pick a line through a smooth corner and the machine will follow it precisely.

The footpegs and mufflers are higher this year, so we could lean the bike over much further without encountering premature grounding problems. If you play racer and push the machine to its limits, you will drag the footpegs when rounding smooth, slightly banked turns. Through fast, flat corners, the sidestand will drag when turning left and the muffler mounting bolt scrapes when going right. If you’re a more casual rider, you can achieve reasonable lean angles without anything digging into the pavement.

The TX650A cruises along smooth highways and open roads nicely. You can change lanes quickly and predictably, and zip in and out of traffic with ease.

COMFORT AND RIDE: For hour-long trips, the TX650A is comfortable; but on longer jaunts, it becomes very uncomfortable, mainly due to the thinly-padded seat. The seat is hard and slants down at the front, so as you ride along, your body gradually moves toward the gas tank. In this area, the seat padding is thin and doesn’t offer much support. You can feel the seat base pushing on your rear end, and after a short while you feel some saddle sores forming. If you move back on the seat, there’s a little more padding, but still not enough to be really comfortable. The stiffness of the suspension made the hardness of the seat even more annoying. The inability of the forks and shocks to absorb small bumps and ripples caused the bike to bob up and down, which hammered the seat against our butts. On our test bike this was very aggravating: but on the borrowed 650, the broken-in suspension was considerably smoother. Solo riding on the borrowed bike was just about as smooth and comfortable as two-up riding on the test bike-and that wasn’t bad at all. And even though the suspension on our test bike is insensitive to small-and medium-size bumps, strangely enough, they absorb big jolts fairly well without transmitting much shock to your body.

The handlebar/footpeg/seat relationship is fine for people shorter than 5′ l0″, but some long-legged riders will find it a bit cramped. The handlebars are high enough and have a nice rearward rake, but you’ll find yourself sitting in a squat position, with your knees high and sharply bent. This eventually makes you uncomfortable and restless.

Engine vibration also has a negative effect on the TX650A’s comfort. You get a tingling sensation through the hard, thin handgrips, and through the rubber-covered, rubber-mounted footpegs; but the largest amount of vibration comes through the seat.

One nice thing about the  Yamaha XS650 TX is its quietness. There is very little mechanical noise produced by the engine, and the note from the mufflers is a deep, throaty one. Our decibel testing showed that it produces only 86.3 db (A), so you won’t offend any citizens with loud, unwanted noise.

BRAKING: The Yamaha XS650 front disc brake worked perfectly and consistently during the whole test. It required only a two- or three-finger pull on the lever to bring the bike to a stop, and it never wanted to lock up the front wheel.

Although the rear brake isn’t very powerful, it does an adequate job of stopping the rear wheel. You have to press hard on the brake pedal to stop the bike, so you should never lock the rear wheel accidentally.

The brakes work nicely during panic stops. They’re progressive and stop the bike quickly and predictably without fading. The bike also doesn’t get sideways or out of shape when both brakes are full on; it stops in a straight line every time.

From 30 mph, we got the  Yamaha XS650 TX to a screeching halt in 37 feet 1 inch, and from 60 mph, it took 137 feet. The testers never felt apprehensive about using the full stopping power of the brakes because they worked so predictably. A beginning rider will also find the brakes reliable, consistent, and easy to use.

RELIABILITY DURING TEST: We were very pleased with the  Yamaha XS650 TX650A’s reliability. The machine spent some punishing hours at the dragstrip and on the dyno, plus many miles on the streets and highways. Nothing broke, fell off or stopped working, and that’s what reliability is all about.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: The TX650A has a rugged, quiet engine that produces a wide band of usable power ranging from 2000 to 7500 rpm. Once over 10 mph in first gear, it pulls steadily and strongly all the way up to top speed. The close-ratio gearbox provides even gear spacing, and a short, positive lever throw.

The handling is unusual, with a high center of gravity that makes the bike feel top-heavy in slow turns, awkward while maneuvering at walking speeds, prone to be affected by sidewinds, and reluctant to be tossed into a hard corner too quickly. When the TX650A is new, the forks and shocks are stiff, causing the bike to skip around and change direction while cornering on ripply or mildly choppy pavement. After the suspension has a few thousand miles to loosen up, the 650 corners more precisely on these same turns. And smooth, high speed turns create no problem, either when the bike is new, or after the suspension wears in.

The TX650A has the potential to be a true sporting bike in the tradition of the British twins that it originally copied. It has bettered these bikes in many areas — electrics, electric starting, oil retention, reliability and ease of maintenance. But if there’s one thing that these almost-extinct British bikes have going for them, it is near-impeccable handling, and in that respect, the Yamaha should have to stay after school for some extra lessons.

 

Yamaha XS650

 

The Musket V Twin

January 3rd, 2012 | Articles | 25 Comments »

The Musket V Twin

Casting pattern for the new 1000cc The Musket V Twin

The Musket V Twin, An email from Aniket Vardhan arrived a few days ago with an update on the Musket. Attached were photos of the just finished casting patterns for the cases of the big twin version of his Royal Enfield Musket V-Twin. His first Musket, based on the 350cc single generated a huge response from around the world, but it wasn’t long before everyone began asking about a twin based on the 500. Combined with the appearance of the ACE Fireball high performance kit, how could he not do it? All he had to do was design an entirely new crankcase based on the bigger cylinders, decide how best to cast the pieces, create the intricate patterns necessary, cast the parts, finish the parts, build the engine, test the engine, fit it into the modified frame and test the finished bike. In other words, he had to create a whole new The Musket V Twin! Once everything works as planned, he’ll be able to go ahead in whatever direction he chooses.

Casting pattern for the new 1000cc The Musket V Twin - left side

Wood working and metal working are usually viewed as different branches of the “hands on” family tree, obviously related, but each group keeps to itself at reunions. Conversation in the wood family is about saws, planes and grain while the metal men speak of milling, welding and grinding. It’s only when their pattern making cousin shows up that the two sides spend much time together, and when they do, the result is engineering art, wooden pieces that take on the appearance of a finished, engineered metal part, after all, that’s why they exist, but with the warmth of the wood from which they’re created. Some of us could put those patterns up on the mantle and leave them as is, parts worth looking at in their own right, but we would be interfering with their mission, to form the molds for the molten metal that will eventually become a functional machine.

Casting pattern for the new 1000cc The Musket V Twin - right side

Creating the patterns is slow and painstaking work, but, as you can see, they look gorgeous. They reflect the care and craftsmanship Aniket brings to this entire project, plus the eye of someone who knows what will look just right, the cooling fins on the timing cover are sweet.

Casting pattern for the new 1000cc The Musket V Twin - timing cover

The Musket V Twin

Here’s Aniket to describe the process:

Just finished sanding the new casting patterns, have sort of been ‘dead to the world’ for the past several months.

Things which caused delays – biggest one was a modification which will allow *left side shift* with the newer 5 speed transmission. I had never seen one of those transmissions up close until I saw Chumma’s.

Discovered that the left side shift lever is mounted on a shaft that runs through a hole drilled right through the crankcase. This, of course, needed a new boss to be accurately located and placed right where this drilling would be. Don’t ask me how annoying that was and how long it took

Then there was a change in the timing cover for machining reasons, had to completely remove and rethink the bosses for the oil feed banjo bolts. Better now in wood than later on the castings.

Some of the features of the new design:
1. V angle is now 59 deg. This was arrived at after considering feedback on the original The Musket V Twin, making it more compact, reducing length and making frame fitment much easier while allowing both 350 and 500 top ends. The narrower angle looks nicer too, though this is a matter of taste.

2. The oil filter is now housed in the timing cover- the smaller and lower of the two holes visible. This needed a lot of relocation of the internals but simplified the oil circuit (the original motor has an external filter housing which needed more plumbing). The larger and upper hole, at the ‘peak’ of the timing cover is the ignition/points housing, which is now a part of the casting, as opposed to the bolted on housing in the original engine.

3. Cooling fins sculpted onto the timing cover. Just HAD to do this Pretty! The timing cover is much more in keeping with classic air-cooled aesthetics. It is overall a much more sculpted, smoothly radiused form which recalls fondly the beautiful castings from our favorite vintage engines. Took a LONG time!

4. New motor will allow left side shift with the 5 speed gearbox.

Let’s see how CNC machining goes. Quick, I hope!

——————
Some people believe an engineered piece can look only one way, dictated by the function it performs, but seeing the process of an engine like this coming together and hearing Aniket’s thoughts behind it, we see that there is much art involved, there always has been, and those who try to say that engineering is cold simply don’t understand.

Aniket, you never fail to impress. Beautiful work, and there are followers of this project around the world that can’t wait to see and hear it fire up.

The Musket V Twin

Casting pattern for the new 1000cc Musket V-Twin – two sets – think of the work!

Skid Lid Davida Nirvana

December 30th, 2011 | Articles | 9 Comments »

Things are pretty quiet in the world of custom bike building and blogging, so I reckon it’s time for a Christmas post on the subject of gifts… And this year my lovely missus the Dutchess, has decided I need a better quality (safer) open face lid than the el-cheapo Bandit Jet I got from Germany for about 60 Euros.

We’ve done the rounds, looking at Ruby, Bell (including the nice the Junior range just being imported – with a slimmer shell) and of course Brit lid-makers, Davida.

I’m usually not that excited about buying British, but these lids are rather lovely, and although the trim looks a bit like gaffer tape on some models (it probably is) they are made of quality materials, and the new Nintey-Two range has a very small shell size – the same as the non road legal Classic Jet & Speedster – but with British Safety Standard approval.

For reference, Davida make a few lids:

The Jet – UK Road legal (and massive)

Classic Jet - Legal in the US only

Speedster - not legal anywhere

Ninety-Two - Road legal, using the smaller Speedster/Classc Jet shell – but with Kevlar and hard-ass padding.

The Classic & Classic Race - an old school pisspot lid – not legal anywhere.

This is the Ninety Two. As the Shell looks pure Speedster, the main visual difference is the lining, which is breathable fabric instead of leather, but the fibreglass composite shell is reinforced by Kevlar (sounds tough to me), whereas the other two smaller lids are without the Kevlar.

Useful green sticker, below…

For shape comparison, here is Davida’s original road legal lid on the left, beside the new ninety-two… The Ninety-Two makes the standard Jet look the size and shape of a large pumpkin. Not ideal for looks, but they are a lot more comfortable.
Bowling ball to the left…          …custom cool on the right.
In typical British style the model options on the Ninety-Two are limited by bureaucratic red-tape as Davida were apparently only able to get Small & Medium sized models passed through UK safety tests…

…so I’m told that there are melon headed people out there squeezing their heads into lids made for less cranially-challenged wearers…

…plus, to get the helmets through the BSS they fitted hardest cheek pads imaginable – however, thanks to a tip off from Anita at Victory Motorcycles in Camden (home to Untitled Motorcycles)

I discovered that Davida are cleverly making a batch of soft cheek pads that you can pop-in instead.

This padding swap probably makes them non BSS compliant, but the stickers are still on the lid, so hopefully there wouldn’t be any issues with the long arm of the law should you be stopped by a well-informed and extremely pedantic traffic cop.

My nine year old went to town with her Xmas colouring pens…
The 92s are made in the full range of Davida paint options, (above) and I’ve gone for the classic silver with black racing stripe (see below, shown on a road-legal Jet).
…Hopefully that stripe will make me go faster.

Thanks to Colin at Gorgeous Bikes in Chelsea for supplying the lid, and sourcing those secret cheek pads – and thanks to the lovely Dutchess for the perfect Xmas gift..
Dutch

Interview: Kevin Ash

December 11th, 2011 | Articles | No Comments »

Kevin Ash is one of the world’s leading motorcycle journalists. His writing is syndicated to magazines all over the globe and his online home, Ash On Bikes, is essential reading—packed with intelligent observations and devoid of attitude. In our latest interview, he reveals his love for the Moto Guzzi Griso, why the BMW K100 is a terrible bike, and what’s wrong with electric motorcycles.

What was the first motorcycle you bought with your own money? An Iso 150 scooter for £10 when I was 14. A mate and I used to ride it (illegally, of course) over local heathland. I decided I was Evel Knievel and tried to jump off a plank propped up with bricks. I hit it flat out, the plank exploded and I went flying. No helmet, just a T-shirt. But you just bounce at 14. My first road bike was a Suzuki AP50—my fame was widespread, because this was the first red AP50 in Ipswich—and you don’t get much cooler than that. It’s been downhill ever since …

What do you think is the most beautiful production motorcycle ever built? Oh, there are loads I could cite. And I love the looks of some bikes you wouldn’t describe as beautiful—like the Katana 1100, the Ducati Diavel and various Harley Sportsters. As for beautiful bikes, I love the T160 Trident and the bevel drive 900SS, I’m not going to leave out the 916 just because it’s predictable, and the same goes for the absolutely stunning MV F4. But the bike whose looks do the most for me is the Guzzi Griso (above), sweeping and elegant on the left, overtly mechanical and rugged on the right. Then there’s the Super Glide (below)—the modern one, the old boat tail was fine except for the boat tail! Or the Commando 850 Interstate, the Z1, the hoover tube ZXR750 … I’ll be here for hours.

What motorcycle do you despise? The 1984 BMW K100 (below), as much for the fawning reaction of so many people because of the badge blindness it generated. Still you can find many who’ll tell you what a breakthrough machine it was, how it was reliable, handled and performed when it was none of these. It vibrated nastily, it was heavy and slow, it was inexcusably unreliable and it didn’t even resist corrosion very well. It took another three years for BMW to finish it, but the engine was always fatally compromised by being laid out longways and horizontally: the combination of long stroke and too-short conrods—both essential to make it fit in the chassis—meant it would always feel unpleasant and laboured.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? There are moments on bikes when you’re concentrating so intently on the moment, the rest of the world, life, worries, memories are all pushed out of your mind as you focus on the now. That can happen while hustling a sweet handling bike up a sinuous mountain road or a powerful, communicative superbike around a really great race track. There’s no such thing as perfect happiness, but on two wheels, these can get close. I can think of a few other things too, but they don’t involve bikes …

Electric motorcycles: Yes or No? No way. For some reason people choose to ignore exactly where the electricity comes from, yet in the UK and many other countries, anything from 70 per cent upwards is from fossil fuels, mostly coal and gas. So even if you believe man-generated CO2 is causing climate change (and I don’t), switching to electric makes little difference anyway. You might, and only might, reduce emissions slightly, but not in a game-changing way. The silly small range and long recharge times make them impractical, while prices are very high and these won’t come down much. The lithium used in the batteries is under increasing demand, yet it’s a very limited resource.

An entirely new method of storing electricity is needed to transform practicality, and it must be invented (and then refined in labs) first. Developing electric road vehicles using existing technology is a waste and a deception. These things are clearly no solution to anything they claim to be, except moving pollution away from cities into someone else’s back yard. And it all ends up in the atmosphere anyway.

What is your favourite journey? Crossing the Alps on any number of routes. If anything clarifies why bikes are so much better than cars, it’s this. You experience the journey through the fall in temperature, feeling the chill of the air, the closeness of the edge of the road on perilous corners. You’re always aware of the road surface, you get damp as you ride through the clouds, cold at the peak of the pass, maybe stopping to add warm clothing, then as you descend you feel the warmth returning, the increasing humidity, the smell of the vegetation changing from fresh pine to heavy scented pollen, insects start to hit your visor again. You’ve been involved in a journey and the environment you’re in, not merely observed a trip through a screen in a climate-controlled comfortable box to the smell of your petrol station sandwiches.

Which ‘everyday’ modern bikes do you think will become future classics? The equivalent of the Honda CB750 or Moto Guzzi V7 Sport, if you like? Some modern bikes are already heading that way, such as the original Fireblade and the 916. More recent ones include the seminal GSX-R1000 K5 (above) and the Diavel. The S1000RR and Multistrada mark a historical turning point, where the Europeans leapt ahead of the Japanese in technology, so they’re important. We’re over-familiar with the R1200GS but that surely is a classic, being transformed when it lost 30 kg in the transition from R1150GS in 2004. There will always be a demand for Hayabusas, Monsters, VFRs, early R1s, the ZX-6R B1 and other fine bikes too. One that’s not even on sale, yet will surely become a classic, is the Ducati 1199 Panigale (below). The technology in that is breathtaking and a major leap forward.

Who are your real-life motorcycling heroes? Sheene got me into bikes, not personally of course, but through transcending the usual barriers between bikes and the public. I also think he was one of the truly great riders and was actually underrated for that—and to a schoolboy, he was a hero. Rossi is ethereally talented and a fabulous character, but not heroic. For that I’d say Simon Pavey (below), who I saw on the 1999 Dakar when I was covering the event as a journalist. I have never, ever seen anyone as tough, determined and able to apply his outstanding skills under the most adverse conditions, which he did relentlessly for three weeks. (I’m proud too that I made an exhaust system for him out of beer cans and inner tubes …) He won the toughest man of the rally award, and that was the toughest year ever of the toughest race on earth. Two thirds of the rally failed to finish yet he was a privateer with no support, and he made it. Oh, and for most of the rally he had the flu. That’s a hero.

Are you optimistic for the future of motorcycling? In the medium term, yes. The fear of legislation tends to be worse than the laws we eventually end up with. I remember all the fuss about how emissions rules would kill bikes, or the 100 bhp limit would drive people away. Instead, bike emission rules are lax compared with cars and we have better performance than ever. And while the EU is trying to get France to drop its 100 bhp limit, there’s no evidence it does anything useful. I get annoyed by the scaremongering in some quarters of biking, like MAG (the UK motorcycle action group) saying bikes older than seven years will be banned from towns. This is nonsensical spin designed to bolster support for their protests: in fact, a few French towns are trying to ban all old vehicles, so it’s not an anti-bike measure at all. It won’t happen in most places anyway, certainly not the UK.

In the long term, our society is becoming so risk averse my youngest daughter is not allowed to run in the playground for goodness sake. What are the next generation going to make of airbag and crumple-zone-free vehicles that fall over? Bikes will simply become too scary, and I think motorcycling will suffer badly from a lack of fresh blood.

What is your current state of mind? Mellow and content. I cannot think of a better job to have, and being freelance is even better than working for a bike magazine as I bypass all the usual office politics and ladder climbing. It’s hard work but that only makes it more satisfying, I love writing, travel and riding bikes, and that’s exactly what my job involves. I have a fabulous family too, what else could I ask for? Okay, last week’s £57 million lottery win would have been nice …

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Harley Davidson Powered F-15 Mini Speed Boat

December 7th, 2011 | Articles | No Comments »

Harley Davidson Powered F-15 Mini Speed Boat

Harley crate motor powered F-15 mini speed boat from St. Martin Mini Speed Boats

Is it ever appropriate to ride your Harley in a t shirt and shorts? Sure, when you’re in your Harley Davidson powered mini speed boat from St. Martin Mini Speed Boats of Mentor, Ohio. Starting with their standard 15 footer, they mounted a Harley Evolution 1340 crate motor, added their own patent pending water cooling system, connected it to a Mercury Marine® Alpha stern drive and you have the boat you see here. Nice.

Harley crate motor powered F-15 mini speed boat looks good

It’s not a big boat, obviously, 2 persons or 600 pound capacity, but it pushes all the right buttons. Painted in an orange and black color scheme and emitting the correct Harley sounds, you now have the perfect answer to those summer weekend dilemmas, ride the Harley or take out the boat? Why not do both?

Harley crate motor powered F-15 mini speed boat engine closeup

There’s no detail on the site describing the water cooling though the photo here gives you an idea of what they’ve done. Is the engine rubber mounted to isolate vibrations from the hull? Also, no performance figures are available. Base price is $29,995.

Harley crate motor powered F-15 mini speed boat fans and cooling

We’ll be following up with more detail because I find this pretty interesting, but it shows what a resourceful company can do when someone asks, I wonder if you could …? Motorcycles, cars, airplanes and boats, is there anything the Harley V-twin can’t do?

We were pointed in this direction by one of our readers to the north who keeps up on the world of boats (retired Canadian Navy) and lots of other interesting mechanical technology. Thank you, Gerry!