Is motorcycling allowed?

[WrightJnr]

I think we just *thought* the chicks liked the smell. Because when I came in from a ride a few months back on the DT my wife looked at me with a screwed up nose and asked what that smell was.....

Divorce her. Immediately!

[WrightJnr]

Every Friday we had a race day outside school.. meant lots of polishing of ports and the like on Thursday evenings. I rebuilt my 50 engine more times than I care to remember, not because it was broken but in an attempt to extract another 1/1000th of a HP.

 

Castrol R made us all smell like motocross racers. my school clothes, hair, bag everything smelt of the stuff. Natural pheromones and made the chicks swoon for us ous. We were so damn pisss cool

That was WAY too much effort. Was much easier to drop a 80cc barrel on the thing and get rid of the tot glass piston.

 

Of course it you couldn’t be fast, you needed to sound fast. Removing the baffel out the pipe dropped the panties even faster..

[Paul Ruinaard]

Ah 2 stroke nostalgia. I indulged in many years of Castrol R in various Husqvarna's - I tried the KTM 495, Yam 490 and Maico 490 (regret never riding a Honda or Kaw 2 stroke 500) but, for enduro's always came back to the Husky's. I did advance from Castrol R at 25:1 (burn out the exhaust every 6 months or so) to Bel Ray at 50:1 with never a problem, even in Lesotho. Even now I look at indulging in a 250 or 300 2 stroke.

 

Regarding the Yamahas I shamelessly try and understand Kevin Cameron's musings on the 250's and follow various blogs of Banshee flavoured Kenny Roberts replicas as well as 500's imported into the US from Japan and re-built. Fascinating; just do not let them seize at 160.

I once gave my excess karting fuel with Castrol R in it to the gardener. He ran his weedeater on it and wanted to know what was in it cause it made the thing a lot more powerful....

 

He wanted to get more of it so for a couple of months whilst i was racing i gave him my excess and the whole neighbourhood smelled of Castrol R. He was all smiles....

[WrightJnr]

I once gave my excess karting fuel with Castrol R in it to the gardener. He ran his weedeater on it and wanted to know what was in it cause it made the thing a lot more powerful....

 

He wanted to get more of it so for a couple of months whilst i was racing i gave him my excess and the whole neighbourhood smelled of Castrol R. He was all smiles....

My weed eater ran on Motul 800 for a few years. Always had premix available from my 300, man.....fresh cut lawn smell finished off with 2-smoke edges....Was like sex for your nostrils.

[IceCreamMan]

That was WAY too much effort. Was much easier to drop a 80cc barrel on the thing and get rid of the tot glass piston.

 

Of course it you couldn’t be fast, you needed to sound fast. Removing the baffel out the pipe dropped the panties even faster..

Haha. I was poor. No maaaaanie for those kind of mods.

 

Used to cut the baffle for performance.

 

One time I took of exhaust to clear carbon. Put some petrol in. Set it alight an well things got out of hand. Next moment the entire garden was on fire. Haha. My ole man was livid.

[Wannabe]

I set my MBX 50 up with a 14/35 for top end speed, then did the "hook both feet in the carrier, chin on the tank" for aerodynamics to top out at as high as possible.  

 

The "Bullet" as we used to call it. 

[Andymann]

After my AR50 which was pretty rapid my Dad did a deal with my brothers and cars, and I was offered a brand new MBX - R3495 in 1988.  Compared to the AR quality wise it was miles ahead, but it was a slug performance wise.  Even with a bored out carb and K&N filter it wasn't great.

 

In the end, I barely rode it, and sold it to buy (another) DT175 for university.  Probably only had 6000kms on when I sold it.  Often wonder where it is now.

 

The AR would be easier to track - I had an AE and desperately wanted and AR so found an abused one in Newcastle where we lived.  It never had papers, so because the frames were the same, I converted the AE engine to six speed, and built the AR parts over to the AE frame.  So somewhere out there in SA is an AR50, with AE50 engine and frame numbers..... It would also have a custom manifold to fit a Suzuki B120 carb, ridiculously wild porting and marks on the rear wheel where my Dad took it to Iscor and they gripped the hub in a massive lathe with a 3-jaw chuck to turn out the groove in the rear brake hub surface....

[Paul Ruinaard]

After my AR50 which was pretty rapid my Dad did a deal with my brothers and cars, and I was offered a brand new MBX - R3495 in 1988.  Compared to the AR quality wise it was miles ahead, but it was a slug performance wise.  Even with a bored out carb and K&N filter it wasn't great.

 

In the end, I barely rode it, and sold it to buy (another) DT175 for university.  Probably only had 6000kms on when I sold it.  Often wonder where it is now.

 

The AR would be easier to track - I had an AE and desperately wanted and AR so found an abused one in Newcastle where we lived.  It never had papers, so because the frames were the same, I converted the AE engine to six speed, and built the AR parts over to the AE frame.  So somewhere out there in SA is an AR50, with AE50 engine and frame numbers..... It would also have a custom manifold to fit a Suzuki B120 carb, ridiculously wild porting and marks on the rear wheel where my Dad took it to Iscor and they gripped the hub in a massive lathe with a 3-jaw chuck to turn out the groove in the rear brake hub surface....

My boet was is about 6 years older than me. My dad decided my older brother needed a project so as he was in insurance he got him a scrapped Cub 50 cc Honda auto clutch 3 gear as something to tool around the garden on. He thought it would take him months to get it going. Took him days. Thta was built in to a scrambler (with whatever could be scrounged)

 

Then the next iteration (which is the link to the above) was a B 120 delivery bike which was also scrapped from a crash that was modified to go around the Darrenwood dam scrambling track. It was a lot more rapid than the 50cc Honda. Non existent suspension and ramping over disused car bonnets to see who could get furthest - circa about 1974. there was a track around there ins the areas that are now essentially offices which all the area lighties raced their home made machines on. No sight of anyone on a proper MX bike unless your old man was rich .

 

I also inherited some of his hand me downs and spent many an afternoon trying to catch my mates around some of those sections of track - all of which are Cresta parking lots now. There were a coupe of pretty hairy corners and the like in there and when they built Cresta centre they had to compete with us using their excavations for our tracks. Got chase doff site many times by the guys trying to build a shopping centre. there was a drop off on the corner of Judges and republic called "Gravity Cavity" if i remember correctly - through the river and up the other side - many fond memories of a youth spent riding these things around the dam there - "Scrambling"....

[Stoffel76]

I had an AE and desperately wanted and AR 

Lol, I know that feeling... When I was 16 my dad bought me a knackered AE. Engine ran ok and I had to fix up all the electrics and body work etc... (Also not licensed, but my dad owned a motor workshop and so I used his trade plates...  )

 

Later, I got to rebuild the top end and put in a new piston and rings.  Unfortunately, probably should have done the bottom end as well... Shortly after that, the roller bearings decided to disintegrate and bits made their way up the transfer ports and embedded themselves in the top of the piston, barrel and head... 

 

So then I was phoning around local bike shops looking for parts and the one place said they had a whole bike, but an AR!    I was so stoked!

 

But when I went to go see it, it was an AE...  Anyway... That lasted me till I was 18 (and moved on to the next knackered bike my dad had bought me that we'd been fixing up - a Kawa Z200) 

[Andymann]

Lol, I know that feeling... When I was 16 my dad bought me a knackered AE. Engine ran ok and I had to fix up all the electrics and body work etc... (Also not licensed, but my dad owned a motor workshop and so I used his trade plates...  )

 

Later, I got to rebuild the top end and put in a new piston and rings.  Unfortunately, probably should have done the bottom end as well... Shortly after that, the roller bearings decided to disintegrate and bits made their way up the transfer ports and embedded themselves in the top of the piston, barrel and head... 

 

So then I was phoning around local bike shops looking for parts and the one place said they had a whole bike, but an AR!    I was so stoked!

 

But when I went to go see it, it was an AE...  Anyway... That lasted me till I was 18 (and moved on to the next knackered bike my dad had bought me that we'd been fixing up - a Kawa Z200) 

 Hmmmm - might have been my old hybrid lol

[Wannabe]

I had one of the very first RZ50's in the country (i.e. the first batch that came in)

That little thing was QUICK compared to the MT50 (still aircooled) I had before it (also my last non Yamaha motorbike  )

It was fast (as a early 80's 50cc can be) up to its rev limit of  12000rpm (yes, it did rev up to that, no problem), but it worked out to an indicated top speed of just over 90km/h. 

 

Friend of mine's Dad owned the local Bike shop, and he worked there as an mechanic, so I used to visit him quite often.

Scratching through a box of front sprockets one day, I found a 15t front sprocket (standard on the RZ was12t) that looked like it would fit. Checked, and yes it did fit. My buddy told me that with such a large jump in front teeth, I will not be able to get away, but I tried it in any case. I was greatly surprised to find that it got of the line with great ease, and the top speed jumped to an massive 120km'h indicated, at about 11000rpm.

Back at the shop my buddy did not believe me, so when he took the bike he just finished servicing out for a test ride, I tagged along on the RZ, and sitting next to the bike he was on, he also recorded 120km/h. 

 

Of course I was over the moon with this, and started terrorising the local Delivery Gang on their  200cc delivery bikes. I was also the King of the Heap at the local Saturday morning dices.

 

We then started playing with the bike, porting the hell out of it, and we fitted a Flat Slide Carb we found on a totalled 80cc MX bike. (can't even remember from what bike  ) We cut the exhaust off just before and after the expansion chamber, and then the expansion chamber all along the weld and cut/re-arranged the baffle plates in the expansion chamber before welding it together again, this turned it into our homegrown performance pipe, while still keeping it looking stock.

He also managed to source me a set of fibre reed valves, which transformed this bike into a real little monster. 

Somewhere along the line we also fitted a smaller rear sprocket, which increased the top speed considerably, but affected the acceleration a bit.(also can't remember what size sprocket, but it was a few teeth smaller)

The piston was kept standard, we just "skirted" it a bit to make it lighter, and the conrod was also sanded smooth. We also decked the head a bit to up the compression ratio. All of this done with no scientific base, we just did what we thought might work, if it did, we kept it like that, if it did not, we returned it to standard if possible, or got another one, benefits of having access to parts. I did however spend a lot of time servicing my bike, "de coking" it, etc.

 

I ruled the local dices, even against the later Kawa AR 50's and the few 80's that was around, the Honda MBX and the Suz Gamma's. Some of these were also heavily worked, but I weighed next to nothing then (under 60kg) so had a good power to weight ratio.

 

I took it down Tarlton track, and ran a best quarter mile of 21sec at 116km/h (dropped a friend in his new Ford XR3 that day)

Sitting upright in the right conditions, I could maintain 120km'h, crouching took the top speed up to between 130-140km/h and slipstreaming was a tad shy of 160km/h

 

At the Hillsnacks dices in Krugersdorp, I also ruled the roost, only being beaten by a track orientated 80cc Honda that was geared so tall, it had to be pushed off the line to get going. 

 

Kept that little bike for many years, even after I had an RD125LC and my first 350LC. Still took it out to the dices every so often, just to piss the youngsters off. Eventually sold it to a friends younger brother.

 

Ah, those were the days.

 

For some or other reason, these are the only photo's I have of any of the bikes I owned over the years. I know I have a photo or two of my Eleven Special somewhere, but can't find it.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Wannabe

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Reminds me of me and my mini, and another mate and I with his motos. Rebuilding them every term, rebuilt my mini twice and just tried to get everything as good as possible. 

 

BTW wannabe... smaller back sprocket makes better top end speed... bigger rear sprocket makes better acceleration.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

[IceCreamMan]

Lekker wannabe. Those were the days.

 

We had similar ethos. Mod it, don’t work. Revert if possible.

 

Used to sand down heads on mirrors an fine sandpaper in my mates back garden. Kids of today will never know that. It’s how learnt bout mechanical things.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Lekker wannabe. Those were the days.

 

We had similar ethos. Mod it, don’t work. Revert if possible.

 

Used to sand down heads on mirrors an fine sandpaper in my mates back garden. Kids of today will never know that. It’s how learnt bout mechanical things.

my uncle owned an engineering shop, so used him for the re-bore and head hone for the mini. Never again, 'cos his idea of mates rates was 20% over and 3 weeks longer. 

 

The mirror and sandpaper! Man, I'd forgotten about that!

 

EDIT: My old man was part of a crew that used to street race in the 50's, 60's and 70's. LOTS of old school racing & engine tweaking knowledge that went down with him. Wish we'd done more of it together. Building an AC was his dream... 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Captain Fastbastard Mayhem

[WrightJnr]

 

An orange Nova helmet. A classic in its own right!! Nice.

Edited November 14, 2019 by WrightJnr

[Stoffel76]

An orange Nova helmet. A classic in its own right!! Nice.

Who didn't have a Nova helmet?  (and then a bit later a Lafe)