So Close!...
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Bike is still running copacetic! I know I keep on about it, but it so often is OK for a day or so then reverts to being SNAFU’d
This time feels like the real deal.
I’m not convinced that the 3db CDI is terminally fuxed. I think it’s more likely a broken core on one of the two ‘feed’ wires from the stator source coil. I’ll investigate in due time…Got an 18T sprocket ordered to try, maybe even a 19T if it feels right for my riding ‘sty’ (
’s ear comes to mind!) I did have a NOS 55T rear sprocket as well, but it’s gotten up and walked off apparently 
Shame, it would of been nice to experiment with the gearing, what with all the extra low RPM torque at hand now…Got some ACF50 on the way too. Got to be worth trying…
Got to suss out how to keep this road running viable during these salty months!… -
@HOTSHOT-III Lovely looking bikes, very jealous of your ownerships. I just can't seem to get any smokers for a good price my end. My Yamaha is my only bike that actually works. Also, good shout on the Acerbis mudflap, my genuine one done a Houdini and that's exactly what I bought. Can't say I'm worried it's not OEM, I just needed to elongate the holes to get it to fit, it's a tad longer than the stock one but it's not hurting anyone.
Always Originate, Never Pirate!
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@Calum Thanks for your compliments bud, yes all 80s/90s two-strokes are expensive nowadays, looking at 7 grand for a well sorted TDR250 but I paid £1000 for my 1st one in 1993 as no-one really understood what they were at the time.
I guess I was in the right place at the right time but it came at a price in the form of parents etc. getting on at me to think about my future and stuff (my brother went straight through higher education, degree by age 21 but I walked out of school at 16 with no qualifications) but I just wanted to be around motorcycles. Got my fingers burned a few times trying to work for Honda and Yamaha main dealers as an apprentice, answering to a workshop foreman didn’t suit so eventually I ended up as a general dogsbody in a place which upset them all by selling grey imports direct from the US and Japan. Very low wages, I had mates at the time earning three times as much as me working for Mercedes, BMW etc., but they didn’t have what I had; some of the guys at the grey import shop were twice my age, ex-forces/prison etc. but I fitted right in and when there were errands to run they’d let me borrow their GSX-R1100s and stuff like that even though I was still a teenager. The boss was a laugh to be around as well, he was a bit of a barrow boy made good and we shared the same sense of humour. He once got me to record a Mr. Cholmondley-Warner style answerphone message for when the shop was closed, wrote a script and everything and we spent a whole afternoon doing loads of takes until it sounded exactly right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDcecbHnAs
I stupidly swapped the KR1-S for an RD500LC which was a big disappointment; only 5mph faster than the Kawasaki (which even today is I believe the fastest road-going 250 ever made, Performance Bikes Magazine radar gunned one on an airfield at 139.5mph about 5 seconds before it seized) and it was a big heavy thing with tankslappy 16” wheels and quite weedy suspension by today’s standards. The engine was a bit strange as well, both banks of cylinders were different and it was needlessly complicated for what it was. And you couldn’t really modify them unless you had a blank cheque book to give Stan Stephens.
The TDR250s were definitely the most fun out of all the two-strokes I’ve owned; all my mates at the time had RG500s, NS400s etc., much better on paper but in real life they couldn’t lose me anywhere. They all had a go on the TDR at one time and came back howling with laughter swearing they were going to go out and buy one the very next day but none of them ever did. You have to remember the French had only invented Supermoto racing a few years previously so in the 90s if you showed most British bikers a CR500 with lights, 17” wheels/road tyres and a dustbin lid-sized front brake they’d just shrug their shoulders and say “nah, don’t like trial bikes”. In 1994 me and my TZR250 buddy rode up to Donington for the Yamaha Owners' Festival which included free track use for Yamaha owners. We were very tired by the time we got there (we’d ridden 200 miles up there on Friday night after work) and ended up colliding exiting the M1 less than 5 miles from the circuit which broke his footrest hanger. The next day we went into the village, bought a MCN and found a Yamaha breaker at a place called Lutterworth 50 miles back down the M1 (which is where Frank Whittle developed all the jet engines in WW2) who had the part for £15 so I rode down and got it, and bought an 8mm allen key from a hardware shop in the town to change it (everything like this suddenly becomes easier when you’re not in southern England any more). On the Sunday (exactly 28 days after we’d been there watching Kevin Schwantz take his last ever 500GP win) we were out on the track waxing a lot of bigger bikes, including a particularly obnoxious married couple with matching brand new his ‘n’ hers YZF750s who camped next to us and made fun of our oily jeans, DIY repairs etc. which was very satisfying. Also met a guy with the same bike as me who had a huge “TDR” graphic on the back of his one-piece leathers and had a good battle with him for a few laps.
If I could live that part of my life again I guess I’d do a few things differently but one thing I wouldn’t change is being the proverbial young lad in a bike shop. Crap pay, no qualifications/future but it was a very special time, after being booted out of secondary school, going through the special education system and told I’d never amount to anything I felt valued, like I was right where I needed to be and you can’t put a price on feeling like you’re part of something.
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Sounds a tad more idyllic than a YTS
Life is better when things (& people!) end up where they’re meant to be. Makes for for a harmonious, balanced world, I recon.
Ta for sharing… -
@SpookDog Try 17 front and 51 back sprocket.
@HOTSHOT-III Nice story mate. You did what you wanted and that is the goal.
I would like to ride the RD, it's a 2 stroke dream for me along with the YZ490.I always try to set goals/dreams and go for them,not for money/power/fame but for the ride and the satisfaction of "yeah done this"
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I haven’t found a gaiter that doesn’t keep in wet. I’ve pulled them in the middle of summer and had dirty, rusty (seal clip) water run out. I even made drain holes but it didn’t seem to make any difference…
I might try the neoprene ones. If they fail I’m just gonna go with old fashioned dust boots, maybe with stonechip protection extentions. Just to keep the couple inches above the seal of the stanchion from chipping…
Edit: I’m going to try the neoprene ones. I doubt that they last long, but as long as they get me through the salt season (& I dry it all out before fitting) well sealed I’m okay…
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Bikes developed a horrible ‘snatch/shunt’ when changing gear under hard acceleration. Feels like a loose chain but isn’t. The rear linkage is the only point with wear.
Remember to get a bush kit for the rear linkage! Is an All Balls the one to get?…Also, I’m getting a lot of fuel mess around my petrol cap. The seal is actually fine so I’m guessing it’s the pressure vent in the cap?
Anyone recommend a decent replacement? Or are OEMs available?… -
@HOTSHOT-III hey man appreciate the memories. As a 25 year old struggling to get a 35 hour work week and is constantly seeing my piers drive nice cars, have mortgages and all of the rest of it it’s nice to be reminded life isn’t all about money and looking good for other people it’s going it your own way and doing what you love. I relate a lot to what you said and the weight on my shoulders feels a little lighter now. Thank you.
Also @SpookDog whats going on with your bike? I’d have thought she’d be sorted by now
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@Stevie-Wonder No worries dude, TBH reading about what's happened to you and @SpookDog has made me feel quite humble. Good on both of you for keeping on in there and turning things positive.
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I wouldn’t know where to start! It’s been a while and my memory ain’t that good 🤪
Bikes running really sweet at the moment. Toodling along at 5.5K rpm at 55-60 and picking up revs real nice. All is good apart from a ‘snappy’ bush in the rear linkage and my tires are a bit square.
I’ve got some old Bridgestone Battlewing tires that were on the bike when I got it three years ago, I’m thinking about putting them back on. Just to see me through till dry road season…I thought you’d passed your bike test? What with the Fzr or Fazer? CBT was £130 when I did it a year ago, where I am in Dorset. £170? Ouch!…
Nice to see you back on site here..
Keep on Space Trucking!
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Everything happens for reason and a big part of life is your outlook. If you have a positive attitude you’ll see the good in the things that happen and you’ll find more good things tend to happen. Every cloud has a silver lining!
@SpookDog thats brilliant, I thought I’d never see the day. I felt really bad for all the things that kept going wrong! I also admire just how many miles you put on the thing, I love to see people using them as intended not just being garaged.
And unfortunately not, I bought the fazer with the plans that I’d do my test and use it to ride to Scotland with my family to spread my grandads ashes at John O’ Groats. My job at the time then stopped giving me hours and I didn’t get the honour of one last ride with him to his final resting place. Something that unfortunately I’ve never had the privilege of doing. It’s not such a bad thing though, it’s a bloody long ride for someone who’s just passed their test and everyone else but my uncle bailed on riding. Even then my grandads GS750 chop that my uncle was riding ended up in the back of the van with everyone so even if I did ride and the fazer never gave me any troubles I could’ve potentially solo rode to John O’ groats only weeks after passing my test. I only ever got to ride the bike on a handful of occasions, once to the MOT station and on a couple ballsy blips on the road near where I live. The first time I ever hit triple figures was on that bike, I went to overtake two cars coming up to a nasty corner knowing full well that it could end very badly. I just looked up at the sky said a little prayer and made sure my grandad was watching then tucked in, squeezed and let her have it. I had no gear on, just a fox mx helmet. It felt like a matter of seconds before I was doing over 110. I’m not 100% sure of how fast I was going but I glanced at the clocks in between the two cars and saw the needle approaching 120. Scared myself a little bit after that as then I’d realised just how easy it’d be to hurt myself or lose my license. I didn’t ever realise at the time until a conversation with my dad where he pointed out that if you get caught doing over a ton it’s an instant ban. Possibly one of the biggest reality checks I’ve ever had. But damn do I miss that bike, it ran really really well.
Also you too @SpookDog I hold everyone on here with such high regards it really means a lot to hear all the nice things being said by you guys or even that you’d noticed I’d been gone. It caught me off guard and put things in perspective. Feels good to be back, I plan to do a lot less talking and lot more doing (sorry Callum, I know how much you love my wall of text’s
. As always I look forward for you being a part of that journey. As always ride safe. -
@Stevie-Wonder I was reading these the other day and was thinking...well at least he's put paragraphs in.
Anyway, for the moment you're therapeutically explaining your traumas and it's good for you to put it in writing, if nothing else then for your own sakes. This isn't Facebook, we're all friends here.
Yeah @SpookDog is a bit of a legend to be fair with his DT
I've had my DTR some 14 years and he's done more miles in one year than I have in the time I've had mine. Respect 
I must admit though, say what you will about garage queens @Stevie-Wonder....for me it ain't about riding. Don't worry I use my DTR, especially when times are rough it's a great way to lift your spirits. But for me it's more about the modifying/tuning/tinkering. I spend my time alone and I will go weekends without uttering a word but you'll find me in my workshop tinkering.
When I was 17, I saved every single spare penny I earnt. I took full advantage of living at home and the majority of my wages went into my savings. I've never been on holiday, I don't drive a car, I don't drink/smoke/drugs or go out on the razz in town. Every penny goes into my house, for me, the dream was owning my very own garage where my bikes could be cherished.
Sure, I got my full bike/car license, I'm a bike fanatic why wouldn't I, but it was never really about riding. Hunting eBay/Jauce for rare bits, modifying/tinkering, for me that's what this forum is all about. I get just as much enjoyment out of nailing my 125 smokers than I ever have on a big bike. The problem, IMHO, about 4 strokes, is that they're not fast and in order to be fast you need a 750+cc and as you described it's either a death sentence or a license banner. I've worked too hard for the things I've have to throw it all away now. I cycle 20 miles to work every day and I run or cycle most places that I need go within around 40 mile return trip. Annoyingly, my car (Mk1 MX5 Turbo) got crashed into the other week. The joke being someone drove up my private driveway, crashed into it and didn't even leave a note. I don't drive the car often (once a month to keep the thing ticking over) and when I do it's followed up with a wash.
One day I want to be as good as @HOTSHOT-III/@scrimsmustang/@oldman, proper craftsmen and build meticulous works of art
