Kickstart

I would agree on power levels, but smaller engined sports bikes with more sensible power have disappeared. 600cc sports bikes are pretty much unavailable now, and partly that is the kind of thing I am talking about. Original CBR600 was the kind of sports all rounder I mean. It evolved into the CBR600RR which was great for those who wanted and out and out sports bike while the more sensible F version was allowed to whither, moving back into being a faired version of a cheap naked bike (OK, being a bit damning there!). Suzuki did the same with the GSX600, giving us the GSXR600 while allowing the GSX600F with be replaced with a cheaper cruder version which was allowed to whither. Kawasaki did the same with the ZZR600 and Yamaha with the Thundercat. All sports bikes replaced with race replicas, with the sports version just being left pretty much unupdated. If I wanted a faired sports bike now there is very little choice without buying something with close to 200hp in race replica bodywork, except some low powered A2 market bikes, or some even lower powered learner bikes. My current regular bike is a 675 Street Triple. A bit over 100hp which is fine by me (although honestly I would prefer the power delivery to be a bit peakier). The sports bike version of this is now dead, but the middle ground bike between the naked Striple and the race rep Daytona never even existed. Striple with a better pillion seat, sightly lower bars and a useful but sporting fairing, etc. Could even put the mirrors on the fairing so that they are useful (unlike the Striple ones which seem to be an afterthought assuming that people will pay for tiny little bar end mirrors!) Afraid the adventure style bikes just don't appeal. All the best Katy

Something I think of as looking awful! But maybe I am showing my age. The "sports tourer" seems to have been abandoned, with the market going for distance optmised bikes or more extreme race replicas (no objection to either for their purposes) or naked bikes. The sports bike to be ridden daily seems to have been abandoned - FZ750, GPX750, VFR750, even the ZX12R All the best Katy

A near neighbour in the 1980s had an early Porsche 911 that they were restoring (a very long term project). Bought at little more than a year old for their honeymoon it had punched the front suspension through the rotten inner wings on a bumpy road All the best Katy

I agree. A lot of modern bike have (to me) a very bity design. Lots of little bits poking out. The Skorpian is far smoother and integrated. Although I might prefer it with a 2 stroke engine! All the best Katy

Found this picture of the prototype, with the Rotax engine. Don't know why they changed for production. Presume the Rotax engine was more expensive, plus at the end of its life at that stage (Rotax did build a small batch of this engine with a DOHC cylinder head) with them moving to the liquid cooled 650 single in Aprilia and BMW guise. They still appeal to me. Never noticed before but looks like the prototype used Yamaha TZR250 wheels and brakes (and maybe even the swinging arm). If you look at the direction of the wheel spokes you can see where the rear wheel was turned around to cope with the chain on the right on the Rotax engine 🤪 All the best Katy

Hiya Saw a Talbot Alpine today on the road. Tidy enough. All the best Katy

MZ had the Skorpian, and the prototype had a Rotax engine (and a glued aluminium frame). Production model used a Yamaha engine. They also gad their own parallel twin 4 stroke engine that was well regarded. All the best Katy

Yes and no. Leaded petrol was pretty much phased out over about 15 years, and on a regularly used car unleaded will wreck some valve seats. Occasional use not so much of a problem (and you can always get the head rebuilt with hardened seats eventually). Octane booster can be used to bump up the octane rating if you want to avoid the loss of power from retarding the ignition. But this is very different to no fuel beiing available. Sure you might be able to do an electric conversion if petrol isn't available, but to me that completely changes the character of the vehicle. Even if done, keeping the weight and weight distribution the same, still a lack of gears, clutch, and completely different torque curve. So the ICE vehicles are only reasonably viable while there is a convenient supply of liquid fuel available. Not a massive issue if that fuel is, say, alcohol based as changes to cope with that won't massively affect the character of the car. All the best Katy

Difficult to know what will happen with fuel prices. If pure ICE cars are no longer sold from 2030 and hybrids from 2035 then fuel sales will drop. This will no doubt result in an increase in prices due to a loss of bulk savings, but also might result in a reduction due to over supply. Not sure we can know for quite a while. However suspect what will cause problems is when fuel supplies become harder to find, and hence petrol / diesel vehicles cease to be really that viable as transport. At a guess this will happen around 2040~2045. Suspect for trips up to a tank of fuel (car / bike shows, etc), no great hassle as fuel can just be bought mail order (just as some specialist race fuels are now). All the best Katy

The GSX600F came out in about 1988 I think (same time as the Slingshot GSXR750). Often called the Teapot - from some angles it looks like one. The one I am fiddling with is a 1997 bike which is the last year before they "restyled" them - but which turns out to have a fair few unique bits for that year. The Teapot was Suzukis attempt to compete with the early CBR600 but with a large effort to reduce the cost. The engine was in effect a small bore version of the GSXR750 engine, steel frame, fully enclosed bodywork (so they could save money with less careful finish underneath), etc. YSR was still running its original tyres. From 1986..... Wet weather was, err, interesting! Tyres now are some scooter race tyres - I doubt they will last that long but then the bike does very few miles so not too bothered (I have had it 14 years and done under 4000km in that time on it). All the best Katy

Hiya Yep, that kind of crystalised carb gunge is a pain, but to be expected. This is white, still a bit soft and mostly resembles toothpaste. Bike still runs with it, but it upsets the running at various revs - presume as it moves around a bit and changes exactly what it is blocking. Once the carbs are out it is very easy to clean out. But on the power valves the carbs have the 2 stroke lines going onto them, plus a balance pipe for the choke (which is very easy to get off - a nightmare to get back on because it keeps getting itself off again!). Further while it is a tube steel brake, most of the electrics live on a plate immediately on top of the carbs. My current idea is to swap to some different carbs with independent chokes (doing away with the annoying extra pipe). For the 2 stroke pipes I intend to transfer those to mount on the reed blocks, hence no need to disturb them when taking the carbs off. These 2 changes alone will make taking the carbs off far easier, and possibly will mean I can just unclamp the carbs a touch and rotate them in position to access the float bowls. I have a set of carb to fiddle with for a friend. From a Suzuki GSX600F. Bike has sat for a while and when they tried to restart it one carb flooded. We assumed they needed a good clean but surprisingly (buy a lottery ticket level of surprisingly....) they are pretty clean inside. Possibly just some seals inside and / or the needle valve. Fingers crossed. All the best Katy

I always fancied a YSR50. They are pretty useless as a form of transport, but great fun. It does 50mph flat out. Most of my bikes are small 2 strokes. The TZR in the picture needs an MOT (which is easy enough). The RD needs an MOT, but could do with the carbs sorting out - and still undecided what to do. The carbs suffer from something looking like toothpaste around the atomiser tubes - presume corrosion from water. While cleaning the carbs is easy, getting them on and off is way harder than it should be for a tube frame 2 stroke. As to not finding stuff - I lost a key for over 15 years and finally found them in a spare petrol cap in a crate in the garage! All teh

My immediate thought when I looked at the photo was that they were in a rough area and someone had nicked the wheels! All the best Katy

This is probably a big factor. A road death or serious collision is treated as a major event (and investigated as a possible crime), with reopening the road now of far lower priority. Previously such an incident might well have been dealt with by sweeping up the debris and reopening the road ASAP. Hence the impact on the general public, and how noticeable such events were was a lot more limited. All the best Katy

My little YSR50 gag bike ("Baby Bike" - front in the below picture) is now mostly back together. I needed to rechrome the forks and fit new tyres so decided to powder coat the frame, etc, at the same time. Now mostly back together, with yesterdays gentle job being refitting the wiring loom, etc. Only real issue with the wiring for the aftermarket rev counter. Hopefully have it back on the road soon. And see how it goes with some modern pretty sticky tyres. All the best Katy

Good luck finding someone to report it to. Police unlikely to be interested unless someone injured. Then they find out that the insurance is terminated after a claim, hence X years free insurance making it viable becomes X months insurance! All the best Katy

Biggest CB100N problem was the cable operated front disk brake. Which went out of adjustment very quickly. Proof that someone at Honda had a sick sense of humour! All the best Katy

Probably easier to just put a turbo on a Hayabusa basic engine. Possible to get around 1000hp with a LOT of work and a not particularly long engine life (they will give around 250hp pretty reliably with just a bolt on kit and no internal work). Maybe....... Friends who know a lot on Hayabusa tuning have spoken to him. Generally seemed to be that with the work done it will be quite a way short of that, but probably 500hp makes a nice easy round figure to claim. Years ago a guy used to come over from the Netherlands for top speed events on a Hayabusa. Frank (sometimes known as the flying dutchman). Once he was asked how much power it had and his reply was "don't know, dyno only reads up to 500hp". Could hear him a mile away at Woodbridge opening the throttle, revs go up a bit then through the roof as it broke traction, followed by closing the throttle and trying again - all at well over 200mph. Spoke to Becci Ellis and her team a few years back. She had about 480hp at the time (realistically less than Frank, but nicely developed to be more controllable so she could keep on the power without it suddenly breaking traction). Think the engine was in that spec when she managed ~264mph in a standing mile. All the best Katy

Came off the Bimota on the stuff about 15 years ago. At about walking pace in a straight line. Had my fingers wrapped around the throttle to stop me touching the front brake. The road was so slippery that the front wheel locked up without me doing anything! All the best Katy

The YSR50 gag bike I have does 50mph flat out. I certainly avoid dual carraigways on it, and generally stick to quiet lanes for anything other than a short distance. Not a problem around town, and I don't worry about a short bit of a major road where people haven't had a chance to get into bored mode. All the best Katy

This weekend was the Stafford classic bike show. Nice to be out and have a poke around again, even if the show is still smaller that before. Bought some spare indicators for the early Aprilias. They are easily damaged so tend to pick them up when I see them for reasonable money. Collected the engine for my Gilera NGR250 (1980s 250cc 2 stroke water cooled disk valve single). Pistons are no longer available, but a ktm piston is similar - engine modded to use the alternative piston and rebuilt (unusual engine and modifications - I wasn’t prepared to trust my abilities to rebuild it). Hopefully can get the engine back in the frame soon. Older bike wise. Last year I sent the forks for my Yamaha ysr50 gag bike off to be rechromed. When I got them back, looked at the frame and decided that the corrosion should be dealt with. So stripped the bike and had the frame, etc, powder coated. Bits back now, and partly reassembled - basically the bike is mostly a couple of large sub assemblies now, and I will finish putting it together soon. New tyres, chain and sprockets, pads etc, going in. Took the barrel off, and minimal blow by on the piston (does less than 4000km so not surprised - but when it does 50mph flat out it is close to flat out for much of the time), so not changing that. Ordered tyres for a Cagiva Freccia, and wheels just powder coated. Pain trying to find appropriate tyres. Bandit waiting for a few friends to be free so we can drop the engine out (heavy and awkward job). My Aprilia AF1 Sintesi is now run in. And wouldn’t rev out over about 7.5k. Swapped in a spare coil / cdi unit (combined unit) which made no difference. Checked the stator and it didn’t read quite right. Swapped in a spare that checked out fine with a multimeter. Started and idled beautifully. Went for a run - it wouldn’t rev beyond 3k. Not even in neutral on full throttle! Now fitted an aftermarket replacement stator , but not yet taken it for a spin. Stripped and cleaned out the rear master cylinder. More modern, at the end of last year I bought a Triumph Street Triple 675 (2016). Wanted a bike I could just jump on and not worry about modern fuels gumming up the carbs, etc. 2 weeks ago I popped to a friends house to drop off chocolate supplies , and on the way back a pheasant ran out in front of me. My brain thought “oh well, can’t do anything about that, too close”. But it launched itself into the air, missed the headlights and hit the clocks, then hit me in the chest (ouch….). Arrrgggghhhh. Oh well, looks down to see how quick I am going. And wonder where the speedo is! Pheasant smashed the speedo off and I had to go back and pick it up off the road. All the best Katy

I remember a story from a bike magazine back in the 1990s. A guy put a full race engine (750 race club) Reliant engine in a Robin to go racing. But the cars clubs said no, it’s got 3 wheels so it’s a bike. The bike clubs said no, it’s got a body, it’s a car. So he put it on the road, and was caught speeding at over 100mph. His excuse was it wasn’t flat out and the speedo didn’t read that high. Think a bike magazine performance tested it and managed to get 125mph from it. All the best Katy

I used to work for a company only 200~300 yards from the Westfield factory, and had a couple of bikes resprayed by a guy on the same industrial estate. All the best Katy

My old boss years ago ran the Westfield owners club. An Seight came along and they had a go. Said it spun the rear wheels up really easily. All the best Katy

I have a workshop manual for the Alfa 6 upstairs. I also knew a guy who did Alfa spares and had a spare Alfa 6 windscreen which he thought he had no chance of selling, until someone popped up on a forum I was on desperately looking for an Alfa 6 windscreen! A guy I spoke to in the USA 20 odd years ago was using the mechanicals to go into an Alfa 105 series coupe, as the 6 was the only rwd Alfa with the Busso engine and a front gearbox. All the best Katy