On the road

The engine is running, and I still got a few weeks before the first snow will fall i Sweden. This is the scenery that made me build my motorcycle - a small paved countryside road, autum leaves and a little bit of mist in the air. Nothing else to do than breaking in a new engine...


If I add up all the tips on the internet about breaking in engines the result is useless. Some say; be extremly carefull the first 100km. Some say; beat the engine hard. Some say; never idle. I say; this is not a racer. I want the engine to respond to my wishes. I want the bike to be easy to drive. So I´m mixing the Yamaha instructions of taking it easy with the forged piston demands of beating. The formula of it all is avoiding lowest and highest revs. Use the throttle midrange. Use engine brakes a lot to distribute the oil evenly. Change oil and filter after 500km. - I will keep You informed if the engine blow up...


There is though a question mark. I got 150psi of compression but the horsepower is not there. And the bike does not sound as much as before. But it runs very steady and precise - nothing sounds wrong. I am posting on several forums to find out if this is ok. There is a small leakage of oil from the kick indicator, so I will take the engine apart again during the winter. I just want to tune in the piston in the autum breeze.

Assembly sentimental

Is there such a diagnoses? Can´t help but feeling a little sad while putting the motor together. I have got so use to the interrior of the engine that I´m allready missing the looks of the machine behind the covers. I hope the sound and the revs of the motorcycle will make me forget.


The new piston and cylinder sleeve is shining. It is not likely that the 400cc engine will reach 10:1 compression - as the 500cc will do with this piston. But I hope that it will make a little difference.

Valve mounting. The assembly is done with a custom made tool - to avoid accidents. The dismounting was made a week ago with a simple wood workshop clamp and a short metal tube.

Lapping valves

New valve guides in place, but no grinding tool in the workshop. It took me the whole night to adjust the valve seats with coarse paste. After six hours two fine, red, full circles appeared. Time to go home and rest the palms. To morrow it is time to do the final lapping with fine paste. When I decided to replace the valves and adjust the valve seats I did not know if it was necessary. Didn´t have any idea if they were worn or not. But when I push the new parts into possition I can see the difference, and the guides are much tighter - no need to measure. The old valves were broken in all possible ways. Happy to find the reason for the lack of compression.

Speed cable

My engine trimmer is driving motorcycles as well - good to know. But he drove a little bit to much with his ribs a few days ago. He broke one and cant trim my motor until next week. In the meantime I´ve been working with the speedometer cable problem. I wanted to put my only gauge in the centerline of the bike, but there is no room because of the head light. I could have made more room by moving the light a bit forward, but that gives the impression of the light driving on its own - a bit ahead of the rest of the bike. As a designer I know that good design is measured in millimeters and a good day´s work. The 5 1/2 inch head light is not big - but it is in the way at exactly the wrong spot. Two holes were the only way to solve the problem. I used two rubber bushings, left over from the top triple tree, to guide the speedometer cable through the holes. Absolutely no room left over in the headlight housing. Had to remove all the standard connectors - use simple cable lugs - bend the H4 bulb pins in different directions - in order to get all the parts together.


The textile on the gauge is a linnen cloth from the local paper mill...

A Kedo moment

The package has arrived. Finaly it is time to put things together again. The people at Kedo has a good tradition of keeping all of their products in stock = quick delivery. They also have the habit of putting candy in the packages to bring the unpacking to a true Kedo-moment.


While the top and cylinder is taken care of by the professionals at Eliasson´s racing, I´m getting low behind the front light. The tt handlebar (of my own design) has been replaced by clip on bars from kedo. To fit in with the worn surfaces of the rest of the bike I used the heat resistant paint again. It creates an iron like structure to the otherwise shining crome of the new handle bars.

The speedometer is moved to a center position, and lowered to the level of the top triple tree. The down side to the compact design is that I now have to drill two holes in my bates headlight to lead the speedometer cable to the wheel...


The tiny electrical system and the small throttle handle is good to have when the angle of the clip on is adjusted. Even with this small components I needed to restrict the steering angle with a few degrees.

Cylinder head cleaning

The cylinder head was full of burnt oil. The perfect tool to remove this is a sharpened nylon stick. Soft enough to not leave a scratch, and hard enough to chip the cole from the metal. The result is a good surface to polish. I left the old valves in to protect the valve seats. The company www.Kedo.de is shipping new valves, seals, guides and a new Wiseco high comp piston for the engine. There is no obvious reason for the lost of compression. Just the result of leaking oil into the cylinder. I will take no risk - both top, sleeve and piston will be reworked. The lokal Yamaha supplier Eliasson Racing will do the bore of the cylinder sleeve.

The original surface of the top.

The winter workshop

Setting up the winter workshop now. Moving all the tools and equipment from the 170 square meter powerstation into a 20 square meter office. It is in here the fairings will be built, starting in a few months. The renovation of the engine is in progress on the table. More pictures comming soon.

BBQ in the color of grey

This weekends bbq had a special guest - the rain. Mats was one of the visitors that gave the weather a good fight - by bringing his bike. A sr500 from 1978, rebuilt during the winter 2010. The dunlop tt100 kicks up some serious amount of moisture from the road (no mud guards on this bike). Aluminum tank form Japan and custom made rear frame work. 2" drop in the front and clip on´s creates a very small and powerfull machine.

Karl decorated the parking lot with his low ride german master peace. He is planning to build a bike in the same style in the near future...

Lost torque

To get a good garage feeling for next weekend we will display one complete bike and one in bits and parts... Well, the truth is: During the summer I thought that I got better and better at driving my bike - but in fact it was the bike that gradually lost it´s power:( The plan is to bring back the original torque and a bit more. High comp components are thought of. Depending on the diagnoses either the valves or the piston and sleeve will be replaced. This is the nature used bikes. Getting to know their history and temperment.

It will be a fight against the clock. Hoping to get the bike running before the first frost in the end of october.

September BBQ

Welcome to recyclemotorcycles autum patry. Bring your food - we have the fire and the entertainment.
Take a picture of your motorcycle in the photo studio, or mingle with an espresso in the bar. There is a vegtable garden in the garage - but we will talk mostly about motorcycles, design and trends. Late night = movie show.

For more info contact : design@larsg.se

Getting colder

In a world full of naked motorcycles I find it intresting to sketch fairings... or is it the cold wind? As always I get stuck in the seventies. Found a fairing on a japanese websight and modified the shape and size  in my mac. I don´t want anything else than the front screen. The tail should be light as a feather - same backlight and rear fender to keep a low budget. To my suprise the original gas tank fits in perfect with the concept. This will be the winter project. Wooden prototype and fiber molds. Hopefully, it will be possible to produce more than one fairing..:)

Good old days

It is easy to like an SR - and the only man that can say "I´ve got one of these bikes..." without getting my correction is my father. He drove BSA and Jawa´s in the Swedish army 45 years ago. Have not driven a motorcycle since then. It took him one circle of the village to sort out the gears - then he took of. Didn´t see him for a long time - almost missed the afternoon coffe. He is still smiling...

Bell

Back to my first helmet. I wonder if it is my head that have changed size or if the bell helmet just grew a bit bigger. Any way - it looks a better on both the head and the handlebar. Got a dirt track visor on the way from US.

wheel bearing

The good thing with an SR is that it looks good even when it is broken. When I got the rims of for painting, last winter, I recognised that all the seals were missing. Got some seals from Japan but didn´t change the bearings (bad idea). The bearings had taken to much beating from the water braking in. Yesterday I felt a small gap when I shook the back wheel. Fortunately the local Yamaha supplier told me to get some standard, sealed, ball bearings instead of the origoinal ones. - Swedish SKF is cheaper, and in stock next door to us. Thakyou mrs lokal supplier!

If you ever had trouble dismounting the metal sealer - here´s a tip. M5 bolts fits perfect into the holes, and they make it easy to lift the metal plate - even with a new rubber seal fighting back. Standard part is good. No problems to fit the brand new ball bearings into the 27 year old wheel...


...not so easy with the motorcycle lift. Bought the lift and rebuild it in order to fit the low design of my bike. It has been cut and welded in so many new and strange ways that I dont realy trust it. As I lift the bike, it starts to tilt a bit to the right - very nervous owner. Must find a better way before I get a dent in the gastank and a hole in my wallet.

Party with bikes and friends

The recyclemotorcycle BBQ was a success. Both the photo studio and the film was apritiated. So now I'm aiming higher. In September it will be a rerun - only bigger with more people and bikes. Yes - this time, we used small grills, but we will start the large 1.5 square meter barbecue in September.

Some say it is difficult to distinguish a sr400 from an sr500. I say - just to look at the driver.The typicall 500 owner is mostly one bit happier than the other. Fredrik´s black tracker is fitted with a 18" front tyre and a muffler that, in a generous way, amplifies the exhaust sound:)

Two years of surfing has created some large picture maps on the mac. The common theme has been small and few cylinders and an "I dare to use my bike even if it´s raining" style. The style and the bikes is still rare in Sweden - hoping to catch up.