I have loved and ridden motorcycles since before I had a drivers license. This page documents the trials and tribulations of keeping old motorcycles running.
1986 Yamaha SRX-600, This is an air-cooled single cylinder 600cc cafe-racer that I bought new in the eighties. About 375 lbs. and 45 hp. Not real fast, but it CORNERS! well. Wonderful track bike.
- From October 2015 to January 2016 the SRX was with Marc Beyers at OCD Motorcycles in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a rebuild.
- This included a top-end job and new cylinder base studs, a known failure point on this engine
- Currently it now needs new headset bearings and a new tachometer cable, but it is doing well for a 30-year-old motorcycle.
- It has a dry sump motor with all the trouble that implies, including all the oil leaking into the sump from the oil tank after the motorcycle has sat for some time. It’s usually very hard to figure out how much oil is actually in the engine.
My resources:
- http://srx600.net/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/YamahaSRX600/
- http://www.thumperstuff.com/
- Marc Beyers @ OCD Motorcycles
1992 BMW R100GS-PD, my adventure traveling machine. It has been to Copper Canyon and through Baja California in Mexico and all over the western deserts. Its predecessor made it to Inuvik, NWT and to Alaska. These old BMWs are very simple and robust. I’d still take it anywhere and trust its reliability.
I bought it new in 1994. The Paris-Dakar model was not available in California, so I had the conversion kit mounted before taking delivery. However I substituted the metal R80GS-PD tank for the plastic R100 tank. It removed the lower fairing years ago because it cuts airflow to the bottom of the engines and raises operating temperatures. It generally carries the PD solo seat and rack, but I can swap the dual seat onto the motorcycle for passengers.
Outside of regular maintenance the Beemer has needed little
- New headset bearings
- New speedometer (a known weakness)
My resources:
- Marc Beyers @ OCD Motorcycles