OzVMX Forum
Clubroom => General Discussion => Topic started by: John Orchard on March 25, 2011, 11:57:55 am
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Hey Guy's,
I was just interested in what were your favourite mods were back in the day, mine were ......
Suzuki TM125L
Filtron airfilter.
Bassani exhaust or Terry Bryant modded (shortened) stocker.
Skunkworks rear suspension linkages.
Koni finned, alloy bodied rear shocks.
Preston Petty front guard.
TS100 kickstart lever.
ATF fork oil.
ATF gearbox oil.
B9EN spark plug.
Castrol R30 two-stroke oil.
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John, I think my fav mod was running Bel-Ray MC-1. Never really modded much but spent lots of time making sure things worked how they should ;)
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Not too many for me, but definitely the old Preston Petty guard and headlight, ATF in the forks, Bassani or EDC chamber, Koni or Boge shocks and Holden valve springs in the forks, and big wide solid alloy bars.
I had a DT250A with Konis, EDC chamber, big bashplate, trailer light on rubber flap for a taillight, TY headlight and Petty hex grips. I thought that was so cool!
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I agree with Doc. Not any modifications as such. Back when I raced I had the belief that Yamaha knew much more about their bike than me or DG or Boysen, etc did. I would spend money on tyres. The suspension, I would set up as best I could. The carby would be tuned. Then just ride the thing. Get it running as it should.
Cheers, Grahame.
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On my RM125B it was bigger carby, Mototek ignition, long travel S&W shocks, Metzeler tyres and Tony D Preston Petty front guard.
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I'm one of those blokes who live by the credo "the slower you are the faster your bike must be". I hotted nearly every bike I've owned but I kept my Maicos surprisingly stock in comparison. To use my MC350 square barrel as an example, here's the basics from 40 years of ownereship.
*Replace brittle fibreglass fenders with aftermarket plastic items. (then Pacifico now DC opaque)
*Replace tank with alloy version. (then '74 Lyta Vic Eastwood....now 77 AW or '74 narrow coffin)
*Replace shocks (then Koni steel and then finned alloy....now Works Performance and currently YSS)
*Replace full width front brake (then conical DT2MX Yamaha.....now 77AW conical Maico)
*Replace original bolt on cross bar handlebars (then and now Inter-Am solid alloy)
*Replace slippery tubular pegs (hen home made serrated mild steel...now Wheelsmith steel)
*Replace Carburettor (then 34mm Mikuni ....now 38mm Bing from a Husky)
*Replace stock points ignition (then stock points....now PVL)
*Replace original big clutch with later small dia version (then, '74 Maico 440 small dia...today '81 Maico forged basket and Barnett plates.)
*Replaced stock pipe numerous times with '74 440 Wheelsmith pipe and the current Peter Reynolds fatty being the only pipes that made any noticable difference.
Back in 1973 or so I had Gary Treadwell blueprint and champfer the ports without modifying them very much. Later on in the 90's I had the head machined to replicate the Magnum era "square wall" combustion chamber but the perforrmance difference was minimal. I used Castrol TTS oil for 20 years when on Petrol and Catrol R when on methanol and only had one engine failure, in 1991 when the inlet manifold rubber came adrift and it sucked in a whole bunch of Dargle sand. I now use Motorex.
I have a few little personal mods like Wheelsmith fork dampers, Vintage Iron springs, Wheelsmith air caps, Wheelsmith brake stay/chain guide and brake pedal, Webco gas cap, alloy airbox, Twin-Air filter, alloy Boyd and Stellings swingarm and later alloy back hub but stuff is just bling that has little bearing on the bikes performance. They're just the folly of an old Maico tragic keeping his pride and joy looking pretty. ;D
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My favorite mods are usually
1. change the swing arm to something old and weird or convert it to mono shock
2. change the tank to something else
3 then finally actually change the frame completely
4. plus trick forks get extra points
In fact normally I start with a single part like swing arm or tank and work from there.
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Back in the day I had no money and the local shop had bugger all stuff. I did put a Torque pipe on my TT500 and it flew. Amongst a sea of peers on YZ and RM80's I was a legend . The girls loved me and the boys hated me.
Thanks to mature finnancial decisions and ebay I have another TT500 this time with a Wiseco 540 kit, DG steel swingarm, solid alloy bars, White brothers pipe, Pro fab tripple trees, Pro tec fork air caps and oil tank cap, OGK natural colour hex grips, I'm trying to build the bike I couldn't when I was 15. Now, if only I could order a new Dick Mann frame....
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Sometime in the 1980's it must have been all the rage to toss your motor/tank/frame and suspension for something from an earlier version or just drop an XT 500 motor into your perfectly good YZ.
Being an inter-bred hillbilly, I didn't get to see it that often.
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Ran into an irish guy at wonthaggi races with a yz 125 that had full air shocks no springs.I looked at my RM125S and made a set af air caps with hoses and small air res and a guage removed springs added oil and ran these forks for around three months. Chris Oldfield won the 125 race at christmas hills on this bike, other mods were skyway muffler port job and jetting by Highway Motorcycles Me! 275x21 front 410 supper digger on rear. alloy bars those heavy solid things waffle grips. God i loved that bike..... sold it and got rm125 six speed god i hated that bike, well not hated but i just wasn't as sweeeet as the old "S"
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Generaly clean ports up.
Replace reeds with boysen
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other than a bassani pipe and Bert Kingston kit on my XR75 I saved like mad and bought a Mugen ME250 kit for my 1980 CR250 when I couldn't afford an 81 model?
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Never went too radicle as reliability and cost was always priority nd it was always a road registered trailie.
Dress the piston and clean dags from ports.
Change stinger to a chrome VW beatle one.
1" intake manifold extension.
Rejet stock carby to suit.
Preston petty's front and rear and clip on headlight.
Yokahama super digger on the back or a trelleborg if we were riding hard gravel.
Air caps double fork seals and nice soft grips .
S&W koni or mulholland shocks.
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other than a bassani pipe and Bert Kingston kit on my XR75 I saved like mad and bought a Mugen ME250 kit for my 1980 CR250 when I couldn't afford an 81 model?
Aha!! Rossco what a coincidence I was only reading the Trail and track magazine that you wrote your article about the Mugen kit on your 1980 CR,last week.I knew it was you!!
Nice work.
I wonder what happened to your old bike?????
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And before I get tarred and feathered for changing tack on this thread,I will add my ten cents.....
I reckon the best mod I have done to my vintage bike is rebuilding the engine-bottom end up.
So many of these old girls get a new piston slapped in,and are then considered "rebuilt"
Apart from that,my personal favourites are the adjustable struts,twinair single sided airbox,and Ceet safety seat I added to my "old girl":
(http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu317/suzuki43/FordellVMX2010038.jpg?t=1301095325)
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Craigy - don't now where there is a copy of that mag do you - looking for one - would be nice???
Sold the bike with a spare pipe for $750 - :'(
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I didn't do stuff all either. First thing I did was put duct tape on the tank and guards to protect them ::), Boyesen reeds, better set of bars to replace the standard licorice and change the fork oil. My bikes would look very plain. Shit actually with the red duct tape on it.
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Simplicity was part of the attraction back in the day. Maintain it well, keep it mostly standard, ride it all weekend and do it all again in a weeks time. Little fuss or bother and no major rebuilds on the side of the track just so you can say that your bike is usually very reliable. Oh for those good old days. :'( :'(
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Craigy - don't now where there is a copy of that mag do you - looking for one - would be nice???
Sold the bike with a spare pipe for $750 - :'(
Rossco,PM me your address old mate,and I will send you my copy.
Cheers Craig
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Supercharging. Belt or direct crank not fussy. Tim754
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I've owned a bike running an Answer Roost Boost ;D
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Fox Shox. Quite simply, a set of Fox Air Shox not only transformed the handling of my 79CR250RZ to be ultra adjustable & predictable but they gave it that unmistakable Factory look!!
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domino throttle / PVL / new carby/ Yamaha cables.
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would have to be them later model fork caps on the RM125 that gives you so much more pace for the nationals ha ha ::)
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Waaah ! My DT360 :'(
Fork damping kit, Mulholland shocks, mild port cleanup, Bassani pipe and up 2 on the mainjet, TY speedo on the back of the fork leg, junked the clocks and indicators...
The morning I ran it in the oil pipe screw to the carb manifold came out and it seized. Let it cool down, got it going again and within the hour had a head-on with a farmer in a Morris 1100 on a blind gravel corner.
While pulled down for rebuild, it got stolen...waaah... :'(
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Hey Guy's,
I was just interested in what were your favourite mods were back in the day, mine were ......
Suzuki TM125L
Filtron airfilter.
Bassani exhaust or Terry Bryant modded (shortened) stocker.
Skunkworks rear suspension linkages.Koni finned, alloy bodied rear shocks.
Preston Petty front guard.
TS100 kickstart lever.
ATF fork oil.
ATF gearbox oil.
B9EN spark plug.
Castrol R30 two-stroke oil.
Were those skunk kits rising rate or falling rate? From what I've read they were supposed to be rising rate which would have been a pretty good mod back in the day (with the right shocks), but I reckon they were reducing rate given that the angle of the shocks increased as they are compressed.
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After just studying a tech drawing of the linkage, I have come to the conclusion that it is still 'straight rate' as per the original set-up, but the leverage ratio was nearly 2:1 making the stock spring way too soft.