triton john

Tank full with a good slosh of 2 stroke oil in it even if it's a 4 stroke. Run engine with fuel tap turned of till it stops, if no fuel tap drain the carbs but never ever leave fuel in the carbs. Make sure when filling the tank it is full not nearly full any air gap is a potential moisture trap.

A lot of us from time to time have all sorts of grief with carbs and their internall organs being gummed up due to modern fuels particularly after a long lay up. Whilst it would be nice to have a monster size sonic cleaner it is a big investment for little return in the home shed/garage/workshop sooooooooooooo what to do ? I trawled around for some time to find a sonic cleaner at a decent price but to no avail. Then as luck would have it - bout time I had some luck - a mate who is a tattoo artist showed me the sonic cleaner he uses and it cost only £24 ! OK it's not big enough to get a complete carb in but you can take the carb apart and do it in stages. I have had a 36mm Amal in it with not too much trouble after stripping down and it works just fine. The company I got mine from is based in Tamworth - not sure if I can advertise them on the site - anyway its not hard to find tattoo suppliers on the web/thomsons phone book is it ? Just thought it might be worth passing on the info.

Bring on the snow that we got forecast for the weekend ! Need to go out and play on the XT and get away from her indoors.

Definately go with the biggest jet you have and take it from there. Using different cutaways will also help in different areas. Get the book Tuning for Speed by Phil Irving it is available on line somewhere to view as the book is about £45 and deals with just about everything regarding bike engines. Do not be put off that the book deals with older bikes as an engine is an engine the practices are the same now as when this book was first published. Phil Irving was the man behind Vincent and this book realy is a must have for anyone wanting to build a good engine.

Sounds like you have done everything at once instead of doing it stage by stage and getting each bit right before moving onto the next. Have you got loads of spare jets and slides ? Have you done plug chops with the engine under load ? With modern fuels it is harder to get a decent plug reading but it can point you in the right direction. I would start with the smaller carb and see what is going on and maybe try a different cutaway and main jets and needle position. When you have it runing better with this set up - cos you will - go onto the bigger carb and do the same and maybe go down a tooth on the front to bring it on the pipe earlier. There are basics when doing this sort of thing but it takes a lot of time, patience, experience and money to get things right.

Put a Bransden on it and forget all the grief that comes with points. For a fit and forget bit of kit the Bransden takes some beating and for the money well worth it.

Started round about age 8 watching the scrambling on Saturday afternoon on BBC. Then pestered dad for a bike ! Age 9 dad turns up with a bike for me only snag it is in 2 teachests and a sack. Dad said you want a bike son you can build this one up and gives me some old tools and a bench at the back of the garage. 5 months later and my James Cadet was ready for the fields. Dad stood behind me and instructed me how to build the engine get rid if all the paint on the frame re paint it etc etc - best lessons I ever learnt. The James was used and abused for a couple of years then got replaced by a Bantam with a Todd head which also got used and abused, this then went the same way as the James and was replaced by a Tiger cub which also got trashed - see a pattern here ? - As I was working before and after school by this time I saved up and my field bike at the age of 14 was a Triumph 500 with a trials sidecar ! By this time I was being taken to race meetings up and down the country with a bloke dad worked with who raced a Triton then a Rocket 3 and various other Brit iron. This I decided was the route I wanted to go down. Coming up to age 16 I wanted a ped but dad decided I needed putting off this idea and arranged for his mate to take me a serious blast on hi BSA Road Rocket to cure me. This realy backfired on dad cos I was realy hooked now. So a Fizzie was aquired for my 16th along with my ACU road race ticket. My race debut was at West Raynham - an American air base circuit - in some of the worse rain I can remember. I entered the the 500 vintage race on my T100 ridged and also the open 500 race ! Results were 3rd in the vintage race and 10th in the open. So by now I was even more hooked - watch out Barry Sheene ! Still tooling around on the Fizzie and collecting all sorts of stuff a race kitted YDS 7, Rickman Meittisse, couple of Bantams and a Manx. Coming up to the age of 17 I dug the Triumph 500 and sidecar out of the garage ( dads car now resided in the street ) and sorted it for the road with L plates. Also a RD 400 was purchased in the crate for the next season. Now it all gets a bit hectic buying and selling to get the money to go racing and going to work and trying to get into the nickers of any girl I could ! I had a serious clear out of the garage and regret it to this day if you see what money some of the bikes I had fetch now. Anyway the road transport gets upgraded to a Guzzi Le Mans then a Jota then a 900ss then another Jota which I ended up racing and a Honda 900. As for the racing the RD 400 lasted a season - just - and was replaced with my first TZ a 350. Road bikes were still coming and going as were race bikes. Along the way a Mk 5 RG and a Mk 7, a Maxton TZ 750, P&M Honda, Rob North R3 etc. My road bikes were now becoming shitier and shitier such were the demands of racing big 2 strokes. Fast forward to the new Millenium and the 2 strokes have gone apart from a DT 250 and I settled down a bit but still racing but classic racing now. The classic racing mostly on the continent is good fun and sort of affordable. My road stable has now been replenished with what I consider to be good stuff - it's all personal taste stuff and my race kit is affordable to run. I have a few projects on the go so I doubt I will get bored over the winter. So basically what got me into bikes is hard to put my finger on it sort of just crept up on me but my dads mate taking me out on his BSA certainly helped.

Firstly make sure the colortune part that replaces your sparkplug is clean, use the brush provided and a bit of brake cleaner. Put a light smear of high melting point grease on the threads. Make sure your engine is warmed up and off choke. Fit the colortune and start up your bike. Check the colour at tick over it should be bunsen burner blue. Check with the mixture screw what hapens when you turn it both ways to get an accurate reading. Where the flame is yellow and just turning blue you are at the richest setting.When you have got the slow running sorted slowly open the throttle and watch the flame it should now go slightly lighter blue - leaner - this is fine. As you get to full throttle opening it will go back to being richer - darker blue to yellow - this is fine. If you get you mixture sorted at slow running the rest should be ok. A colortune is a usefull bit of kit but is not a difinitive. There are all sorts of parameters to consider but if your engine is standard it will help you balance your carb without resorting to messing around with jets, needles and cutaways. If you need any help feel free to p/m me.

Bide your time for a year and learn how to stay alive on the roads.

Is the pushrod worn in any way ie mushroomed over at one end ? if so this means the hardening has gone of that end. you can make another pushrod from silver steel and use caseknit on the ends to harden them again. As mentioned before is there a ball bearing missing ? It sounds like the pushrod is too short. An old way to help out the smooth operation is to cut the pushrod in half and put another ball bearing in the middle on assembly. This will give you a smoother operation and more adjustment. Keep us posted.

making a 50 fast will make it unreliable and hard to ride best bet is to put it and the money towards something bigger or just ride it down big hills lol !

I would use what is for your particular model realy cos lets face it Yamaha have got a bigger shed than we have !!!! Saying that I allways replace any nylon bushes with ones I make myself from Delrin.

New tubes everytime with new tyres along with rim tapes. Money well spent !

Get yourself a copy of Old Bike Mart ( fortnightly ) there are plenty of trusted re chrome for fork people on there. As it is hard chrome they will be ground after rechroming and this is all in with the price as will be seals etc. The companies that do this will talk you through the process so no problems. Some adverts pop up from time to time in Classic Bike, Classic Mechanics etc but Old Bike Mart is a superb paper that has more contacts than you will need and is a superb reference for all things 2 and 3 wheel related. Dont be put off that it is mainly Brit stuff. As for the anti dive - does it realy work anyway ? it was a 80's sales gimmick if the truth is admitted to realy. Just blank it off and I doubt you will see any difference. I am not sure of how your particular anti dive works but having blanked off quite a few versions over the years you should have no problem doing it. Why not do a pictorial and post it on the site ?

No Mervin never heard of that forum must have a look.

I am new to this forum although i have had Yams for years but most of my stuff is Brit iron ( my sign in name should be a clue ). I know not everyone has a lathe at home but most people know someone who has access to one. Regarding s/a bushes and similar bushes on frame work I allways use Delrin - an engineering plastic made by du pont. Whilst the initial cost may seem high of this material it far outstrips itself in the amount of time it lasts I recomend it to anyone. If anyone has the inclination to spoke their own wheels and has never had a go I can sen you a service/instruction sheet how to do it. Sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum but I just thought it would be handy for us all to share this sort of info. Being an old git and been messing with 2 wheels for over 40 years I have amassed in my grey matter lots of little bits of info that could be of use to others.

From experience over the years I have found that routing the cable is the main problem when fitting new or old cables. Allways check the route of the old one first before removal. Why people buy simple cables is beyond me though, making your own up is simple and a darned sight cheaper and its not rocket science is it ?

Try these http://www.mynetmoto.com/motorradreifen.cfm/lang/en/country/gb/motorcycle_tyres.html used them for many years and the prices are good.

Try any classic bike shop e.g. Armours in Bournemouth and by a blade for the size of wheel you have. Need any more info p/m me and I will help if I can - based in Angus if thats any use ?

Great bit of film. Some of the other films from that post are good too but the " how to bump start a bike " one is a bit suspect with its instructions !

As the heading suggests realy ! I want to put some pics of my bikes past n present on the site and gallery but need some help how to do so ! Thanks in advance.

Next time anyone goes to Austria be sure to go to the Grossglockner it is awsome. I did the classic race up it in 2008 and 2010 and cant wait till the next one.

I would put a few pictures on if I could work out how to !

I am needing some spares for my XT at the moment chain, sprockets etc but I am trying to date it so I can get the right bits. I have the Clymer manual for it which gives the codes for frame numbers to date it but I am not having much luck ! All I can find is the metal plate at the side of the headstock with numbers and letters. The logbook is nt much use as it seems the bike was registered later, I am guessing its an import as the clock is kph not mph. Any ideas ?

Hello everyone. I am a 40 something bloke now living in Scotland though I am from the midlands. Had some sort of Yamaha or other for most of my biking life from a fizzie to a tz 750 and most stations inbetween. Current road Yam is an XT 600 ( no laughing at the back please ) and its the most fun road bike I have had in years cos a> it cost me next to nowt ! and b> cos its just a good old hack and I got loads of spares with it c> the spare engine is going into another project.