I made a trip to the supermarket yesterday. My R1 was parked on the street when our tree guy came up on his KTM ‘work bike’. He was suitably impressed by the bright red R1. I let him take it for a spin, which surprised the hell out of him. He came back all smiles. We’ll get a discount (or better) on the removal of the cedar limbs Puget Sound Energy left in the yard.
Today SWMBO sent me on an errand to the Dollar Store. I rode the R1. Coming out, in the parking lot, some guy said, ‘I like your R1!’ He said he has an R6, but my bike is better. The bike does seem to attract attention.
I’m finding relatively comfortable positions for my partly-paralysed foot and my limited-range-of-motion right knee. As I said, it’s always been a tight fit with my injuries. (Might’ve been better off with an FJ1200, but… R1! Red!) Right now, the biggest issue is that I’ve been out of the saddle for too long and I need to get used to it again.
I got the spark plugs, fuel filter, and battery changed on the Seca II. I put the new petcock onto the new fuel tank, but I’m not sure it’s right. The inside-tank end has two tubes with filters on the end. One is about four inches long, and the other one is about two inches long. The old petcock only has a short tube that’s maybe two inches long (no filter on it). I think I put the fuel lines back on correctly. One of them is a little loose, and the clamp is weak. I should probably order new fuel lines.
I tried to get the handlebar off so I can try to get the triple-tree off. No joy. I texted my neighbour to see if he still had my fuel can (which I’ll need to see if the bike will start), and he’ll bring it by later. He says he might have something to help me get the handlebar off.
The thieves ditched the ignition, and cut off the connector block on the wire that goes to the starter and replaced it with a toggle switch. I have a salvaged triple-tree and ignition I bought from some guy in England, and a new crown nut. In addition to the missing ignition, the old triple-tree and handlebar are pretty shabby-looking. The salvaged triple-tree and the new handlebar (and crown nut) will look much better. Oh… The ‘new’ ignition came with a fuel cap and seat lock assembly, so everything will work with one key.
The neighbour brought over the gas can, and it had some fuel in it. We cranked and cranked and cranked, and the bike wouldn’t start. Neighbour fiddled with drains on the carbs. We checked a plug on each side to ensure it was getting spark. Finally, with full choke, it started. But it would die when we tried to rev. The neighbour said he could clean up the carbs (and I have rebuild kits) if I take them off. Um… I don’t have the experience to do anything like that. I may borrow his trailer and take it to the shop. Need to do the triple-tree and the new connector anyway. I still have to try to paint at the end of the month.
The thief (thieves) cracked the front cowling. I’ll try to epoxy it and fill it before I try to paint. Or get an ‘exact copy’ from an eBay seller in England for $300 (with shipping).
Even getting it running, it has over 79,000 miles on it. The engine is very tired.
Back in the day on a transverse inline UJM, removing the carb group was a rather simple operation. If your bike is much more modern than that with a different engine arrangement I have no useful input.
But for the basic UJM it goes like this:
Pull the tank to get access to the area. Remove the fuel line from the carb end; usually a spring clip around a soft rubber hose. The throttle connection should be a clamp around the outer cable sleeve held down by 1 screw, and a ball or cylinder swaged onto the end of the inner cable. First disconnect the inner cable as follows. Hold the throttle twist grip it the idle position and push the throttle lever on the carb group fully to WOT should give enough slack to unhook the swaged end from the lever’s receptacle. If it’s a dual cable rig then a mirror image of the same technique will remove the return to idle cable. One the inner cable(s) are disconnected, remove the clamp(s) securing the outer cable(s). For a two cable rig you may need to remove the second cable’s outer clamp to generate the slack to disconnect the first cable’s inner cable. If so, you’ll probably need to reinstall the second cable’s outer clamp to disconnect its inner cable, then re-remove the clamp to complete the task. Easier to do than to describe.
At this point the carb group is just hanging off the back of the cylinder head’s intake ports with no other connections to the bike.
The carbs themselves are each attached to a couple of transverse metal rails by small nuts and bolts to form the whole carb group. Don’t mess with separating them at all. That way lies madness and difficulty reassembling.
Instead, each intake port ends in a soft rubber coupling ~1.25" in diameter that the carb’s metal exit nozzle fits snugly into. Each is surrounded by some manner of spring clip. Usually a stretchy spring of the length to be stretched tightly surround the circumference and ending with a hook on each end. Get a very good grip on both ends with needle-nose pliers and unhook the two ends from one another. Don’t lose grip or that spring will launch itself into the neighbor’s yard or onto your roof.
Once all the ports’ springs are removed, a little wiggling and pulling will extract the carb group from the rubber ports. Then it slides transversely out of the frame easily enough.
This may have been useless typing, but now it’s out there for anyone’s use.
My wife has taken over the catio, as she paints cupboard/cabinet doors. I couldn’t stand it any longer. Since she doesn’t seem to be using my Black & Decker ‘Mouse’ sander, and since the tail fairing of the Seca II was sitting out there, I decided to sand it using the 180 grit pad that was on the sander. I got all of the black spray paint off. I got a lot of the original Faraway Blue off, and it looks like I sanded down to plastic in some places. There’s a shiny silver warning sticker on the front of the fairing, warning riders not to overload the ‘sport rack’. I sanded the black spray paint off if it, wiped it with denatured alcohol, and then hit it with the 180 grit. With so many miles on the bike, this sticker isn’t pristine; but I’m going to mask it and preserve it when I paint.
As for painting, this is my plan: Re-sand the tail fairing with 220 grit. Spray it with primer (I hop the primer is compatible with the paint), and sand it with 220 grit. Repeat with the base coat, top coat, and finally, after I put on the YAMAHA sticker, the clear coat. It’s a small part, so I’m hoping I can pull it off successfully.
THe tree guy just left, after clearing the branches PSE left. I thought his ‘work bike’ (which he didn’t ride today) was a KTM. It’s actually a Kawasaki KLR650. I don’t know the year.
The left fairing I received from Germany a while ago was in a box secured with brown plastic tape. The box was… not pristine when I received it. The tape got all over the fairing, and left heavy residue then I took it off. Today I used denatured alcohol to clean it off. Worked a treat. There are a few chips in the paint, but not so bad that it needs repainting. The only thing is that there’s an XJ600N decal on it that needs to be removed. (I posted in FQ to find out how.)
So, things that need to be painted: The tail fairing, the front fairing, the front fender, and the frame. I’m confidant I can paint the little tail piece. I think the fender shouldn’t be too har. (I need to look at it to see how to get it off the bike.) The front fairing/cowling… The thieves cracked it. I’ll have to find some epoxy to fix it, and some body filler. I think this will be a challenge. I have rattle cans of paint, but this is a big part. I think it will take much work to get the primer even, then the base coat even, then the colour coat even, then the clear coat even. I’ll probably replace the after-market windscreen with an original one.
With over 79,000 miles on it, the engine is very tired. I’m thinking of buying a salvaged cylinder head and having it rebuilt. (It’s been rebuilt at least once before.) Having the engine rebuilt would be a good time to paint the frame. The mechanic can strip the frame in Winter. Unfortunately, I can’t paint in Winter because it’s too cold. I might have to take it to a paint shop.
Why am I expending so much energy and money on a 30-year-old motorcycle? It was the last thing my late-father bought me for a birthday present. Also the biggest present, since the Yamaha LT2 100 Enduro he gave me for my 12th birthday. The sentimental value far exceeds the monetary value. I mean, I could just buy a yellow '94 Seca II; but it wouldn’t be the same.
ETA: I have the original left fairing, but the thieves broke off the block with the pin that secures it to the frame. I have the right fairing, which has the block and pin. I could break the block and pin off of the right fairing, and glue it to the left fairing; then paint the original fairing. But it would be a lot easier to just remove the decal on the already-yellow fairing.
Per my advice-seeking from FQ, I’ve successfully removed the XJ600N graphic from the left fairing.
I ordered a new cylinder block from eBay. The original has been rebuilt twice, I think, and the first time they bored it out. (‘Plus 15’ comes to mind.) I hope the new cylinders are good. I have no expertise, but I didn’t see any scoring.
A seller in Germany had an original windscreen that looked new. The one I have now is an after-market replacement with a different shape. I ordered it.
Nice ride to Trader Joe’s today. My fuel light came on, which is the first time since the bike was resurrected. I think there was 150-some miles on the clock, but I forgot to reset it last time so there were several more miles since fill-up. I bought expensive fuel. Fuel is more expensive in town, and I went to a Chevron station. The bike is placarded for minimum 91 octane, so I got Supreme (92 octane). 21.4 miles from the Chevron station to home.
I had some things to do, and since I still had my boots on I took a ride a mile down the beach for a bottle of Evan Williams Bottled in Bond 100 proof bourbon, and a large bottle of white Bacardi. I moved the Jeep to the street, and the Prius to the driveway. It’s much easier backing the R1 into the canopy garage with the Prius there.
The hardware store didn’t have JB Weld Plastic weld for the cracked cowling on the Seca II, so I ordered some (and epoxy brushes and 1-inch fibreglass cloth) from Amazon. Should be here Friday. I need to call the place that sold me the paint for advice on sanding. The Seca II isn’t running, but at least I can do some painting on my week off.
I thought the inside of the cowling was left unpainted at the factory. After all, who’s going to see it? Nope. Numb nuts sprayed it with red primer, and it’s blue underneath. My Mouse sander is too big to get into the crevices, and the topside crevice is what’s cracked. I think I’ll wrap some chopsticks with sandpaper and try that. It has to be a bit rough for the epoxy to stick. I need to drill a stop hole just past the bottom of the visible crack. I’m thinking ¼ inch. I’ll fill it with epoxy when I repair the crack. I can smooth the outside of the crack and the stop-hole with Bondo or something. Then I’ll have to sand the whole thing inside and out, and use my wife’s hair dryer to peel off the graphics once I get the black spray paint off of them. This is really going to be a job of work.
Congratulations getting the R1 going! Must be fun. And the Yamaha Seca and the Seca II, I remember when those bikes could be seen all over the place! Reminds me of my first bike, an ‘83 Yamaha 650 Heritage Special. Man, that was a long time ago.
I’ve been out of the game for a couple of years. I sold my last bike, a 2005 BMW R1200RT, because it was too big for my needs. I didn’t have a long(ish) commute anymore, and also it was a little wide, with the bags on, for lane splitting. So I sold it and did not replace it. Yet. We’re in the middle of a remodel and the wife says let’s finish that before you get a bike. Okay, fine (really, I’m cool with it).
I’ll want to get something small enough that I can put it on a ramp carrier on the back of my Subaru Outback, yet big enough so that the wife and I can ride 2-up comfortably for, say, up to 100 miles at a time. We like going to baseball games and taking a bike through the crowds is a great way to go.
I might even go with an electric bike. Who knows? I’ve ridden a couple of Zeros, and some have power in scores. The throttle twist with all that torque is seductive. We shall see.
Tall tube is the petcock “On” position. As the fuel level drops below it, you switch to “Reserve” and suck from the short straw. Alway remember to switch back after fueling.
I surmised that in an earlier thread (or maybe this one, I don’t know). But I was only part-right. The old petcock had a short tube and no long tube; so I thought the short tube was for the main tank and the hole without a tube was the Reserve position. That’s why I was confused by the new petcock. In moving the old tank, I could hear something inside. So perhaps the long tube is in the tank.
I called ColorRite this morning, the company I got the Reddish Yellow Cocktail base and colour colours, plus clear-coat. They didn’t know if my Rust-Oleum automobile primer is compatible with their paint. They’ve only tested it with their own primer. They told me to test it by priming a disposable surface, then applying the base coat and colour coat. If their paint or the primer wrinkles, then the primer isn’t compatible. Since my original side fairings are damaged, those are ‘disposable surfaces’.
As for sanding, they said to start with 600 grit and work up to 1,500 grit. I told the technician that I didn’t want to make the surface so smooth that the paint won’t stick. I don’t remember what she said, but it sounds like their paint will stick to 1,500 grit sanded surfaces. Again, she told me to do a test. Once the primer issue is settled, the test will 1) show me the smoothness of the finish; and 2) let me know how many coats of the colour coat I’ll need to march the original colour. I was told not to sand between coats. Also, the clearcoat must be applied within 12 hours. I can let the primer sit for 24 hours, and then sand it just prior to painting, but once I start painting I won’t be able to stop.
I’m prepping one of the damaged fairings. The full-length graphic was a bear. First, it was painted over. Then it was too big for my wife’s hair dryer to allow me to peel it off. So I tried sanding it off. I put mineral oil on it and then took a break and went to town, and stopped off at Harbor Freight for sandpaper… and ended up getting a proper heat gun too. Tried that, but the sanded graphic was too thin to peel. So I sanded it off and tried to get the residue off with denatured alcohol. I hand-sanded with 400 grit until I got tired. Once I get done, I’ll go over it again with 600 grit. I’ll wash it and handle it with gloves, and then follow the instructions to see how it goes.
I’m not looking forward to sanding the cowling. It’s much bigger than the side fairing, has more crevices, is clumsy, and is not disposable.
I’ve always remembered to reset my petcock on all of my bikes. Except a couple of times when I was younger. It’s probably why I make sure to do it. (Or maybe having that big petcock on the floor of the Skyhawk. Riding motorcycles is a little like flying, innit?) The R1 has an idiot light. When it comes on, the F-Trip meter comes on showing how far you’ve ridden on Reserve. There is no manual Reserve setting. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
