My not so new rides

rzbill

The cheapest thing in an airplane is the pilot.
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Feb 16, 2017
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So yes, the title of the thread is an unabashed poke at Woodtickgreg's new beemer. Envy... ;) All in fun.

I did not know about this part of the forum until tonight so I thought I would share a couple of pics too.

I have a couple of /5 beemers. The toaster in the pic below is an R60/5 I've had since the mid 70's. Love this machine. A few mods over the years. Lightened flywheel, 2 into 1 exhaust (because my wife burned her leg getting off once during a date), Shoei fairing. A few other bits. The other is an R75/5 that was my dads and is rolling but still in restore mode.

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Here is my Ducati killer. :) 1984 RZ500N. Or it was when I got it in '88. I rode it bone stock for 15 years and then got a bug to update it and breath on it a bit.
The list is long. It took 4 winter sessions to do it all (riding it during the summer).
ENGINE - Ported, raised compression, GP pipes, bored carbs, adjustable ignition, adjustable powervalve controller.
SUSPENSION/Body- 17" wheels (pitched the goofy 18/16 combo from the 80's), Yam R1 upside down front end (needed to mod the steering stem for that). Single sided swingarm (that was a trick). Fox shock. Lightweight 528 chain and sprockets. GSXR clipons (the R1's hit the tank). Honda F4i mirrors. 90% of the body and paint is still original.
INSTRUMENTS - The R1 front end does not have a speedo cable so I had to go a different route. I obtained a GSXR dash, made a custom countersprocket nut and mounted the GSXR hall effect sensor on the countersprocket cover. This was all fine until I cranked up the bike the first time with the new dash and got a 2X RPM reading on the tach. I built a circuitboard (2x divider) and mounted it under the dash to fix that.


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Thanks Mark.
Nice to be appreciated.
The youngsters just say "Hey man, your bike smokes" :rolleyes:
 
Man very cool bikes, totally dig the Beemer! Oh and that Yamaha is smokin!
 
WOW +1!

Love that Beemer, takes me back. My R75/5 was blue with the same chrome and a Vetter fairing. It was so quiet and comfortable, like a car cut in half.

The Ducat looks like it's doing 160mph just sitting still . Thanks so much for posting.
 
The RZ500 has needed some TLC for a while in relation to the air filters.
They have been aging into fragility. Finally gave up the ghost recently.
Years ago I bought a nice kit from a Canadian gent whose business moniker was "The Mad Beaver"
That business has gone by the wayside and the filters from Uni were custom.
Called Uni but their minimum was 100 pieces @ about $26 each. Nope.
Here's a pic of their current poor condition:
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A good friend of mine designed a new air filter system for the Suzuki RG500 Gamma and also adapted it to the Yamaha RZ500.
I will promote him by saying I think he is the premier mechanic on 4 cylinder 2 strokes in the US.
Here is his website : http://lancegamma.com/
We have a joking rivalry that has been going on for years. I told him (and he already knew) how much it pained me to buy his kit. ;)

In order to integrate his kit (made for standard RZ500 carb throats) to the Mad Beaver system, I had to make a couple of brackets.
Nothing my Rotex mill could not handle. Today was the day since my wife was working and I was on my own.
Here's the brackets and some stainless 5mm SHCS that I drilled for safety wire since they are inside the filter.
I got done with the machining save the tapping. Was planning on making a trip to town for a 5mm x 0.8 tap but then I thought to look at my tap drill chart again for the drill diameter I used and the thread pitch. What do you know but a 5mm x 0.8 is really really really close to a 10-32.
Did a test hole to check. It was fine so I used my 10-32 tap and saved a trip.

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Heres a pic of the brackets and the main body of one filter housing.

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Snapshot of the bracket doing its duty. The stainless back of the filter housing is causing the mirror image on the left.

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Safety wire

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Left side filter in place. :)

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