Post by dusty350 on Dec 29, 2019 17:44:30 GMT 1
Hi
It's 1986, and a 19 year old "me" spots an Rd400E for sale in MCN. I loved the look of the aircooled Yams, and had been desperate for one for a few years. My current ride was a Suzuki X7, but I wanted something faster and with a bit more attitude, and the 400 fitted the bill. I got a lift off a mate over to Warlingham, near Croydon to take a look. We arrived 5 minutes before the owner got home from work, so we waited outside. I heard him before I saw him, and as he rounded the corner into his road, he opened it up and power wheelied up the hill to where we were parked !! Needless to say, I was smitten, and I bought the bike there and then and rode it home !
It had been bought brand new by the Brands Hatch Race School, and used until the advent of the Lc's. It was sold to the guy I bought it from, who used it up until I bought it. He had fitted Microns, and it was running Castrol R premix. It felt like a rocket ship at the time - really quick and very loud !
I rode it around for a bit, but wanted to put my mark on it, so I painted the wheels and various other parts of the bike using Ripolin paint designed for woodwork ! Now before I go any further, here is a disclaimer ! It was 1986 - New Romantics ruled the music world, Wham! were pin ups for thousands of schoolgirls and shell suits were all the rage! I didn't do shell suits or Wham! but I did overdo the paintschemes on my bikes, but it was what everyone did, so mine only looks naff now, 33 years later !! My earliest pic to survive;
20191226_112948 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Before too long I decided to change the oil it was using for premix, to something more affordable and easier to get hold of. I did know that rinsing the engine of Castrol R was necessary before using a different oil to prevent gumming up, so I took the bike to Delta Motorcycles in Windsor, for them to do whatever was necessary. I picked it up a few days later, and one of the mechanics remarked how quick it was - he had test ridden it after the work was done. It was running really well, so the weekend came, and me with the "then" girlfriend on the back and a few mates all rode up to Boxhill for the Sunday afternoon. After doing the rounds in the car park down the bottom, watching the nutters race and wheelie on the mad mile, we rode up to the top. This is me with my mates girlfriend;
20191226_113214 by dusty miller, on Flickr
I was on a nightshift that night, so we left around 3pm and rode the M25 to get back so I could get ready for work. There was me, a 350lc and a Yammagamma SS stage 3 Pv, all caning it in the fast lane on the busy motorway, when all of a sudden, my 400 grenaded it self big time .
No indicators on that bike, so desperate hand signals got me across 3 busy lanes and onto the hard shoulder - it was a close call. My 2 mates who had been behind had got across and were on the hard shoulder about half a mile ahead of me, so me and the girlfriend pushed the bike up the hard shoulder to meet them. It was obvious the bike was fubar'd, so my mate on the Gamma shot off home with his girlfriend to pick up her works van - she worked for DHL and took the transit home at weekends. We had agreed that if I could get the bike to the top of the slip road at Jct 11 it would be easy for them to stop and pick us and the bike up, rather than commit to the motorway. So me and the girlfriend were left with my mate Mark and his 350 Lc. We started pushing the bikes up the hard shoulder - the 400 is a heavy bike, and I was sweating on the time - I hadn't been in the Fire Brigade a year at that point and didn't want to be late to start work. Mark was ahead of me, pushing his Lc when he stopped and pointed to some webbing that had obviously come off a truck. What happened next was one of the most stupid and dangerous things I've done outside of my Fire Service career The webbing was tied to Marks grab rail on his Lc, the other end went round my left side fork leg ! The plan was Mark would tow the bike. 2 up, to the junction which was about 2 miles away, saving precious time and energy. Seemed a good idea at the time !! We started off, slowly at first, but even then I realised how difficult it was going to be to keep my bike straight - I was fighting to keep the bars neutral as the webbing around the left fork leg wanted to pull the bike to the right and into lane 1 of the M25 ! Mark didn't realise my problem, and started to gain speed. I was now fighting hard to stay straight, but he just kept gaining speed. Since the bike had seized, I had inadvertently left the ignition on, so now my battery was virtually flat. I was desperately pressing the horn and flashing my lights but they were nearly dead, and I was shouting through my full face Alien helmet as loud as I could, but with the noise of the motorway, and Mark's expansion pipes, he never heard me . How we got to Junction 11 in one piece I will never know, but every second of the journey is burnt into my memory !!
This is Mark, and you can see my very dead 400 behind;
20191226_112911 by dusty miller, on Flickr
We got picked up, got the bike home, and I got to work on time !! Next day when I got in I stripped the top end for a look. The right down pipe spilled out loads of metal fragments as I removed the exhausts, and I knew then it wouldn't be good. The pistons had been fettled before my ownership. This pic is a standard aircooled piston on the left, then the surviving piston, and the wreckage on the right is what was found on the right side;
DSC02036 by dusty miller, on Flickr
The flailing conrod had spun round on the crank and taken an ugly gouge out of the well in the crankcase, and a large chunk from the barrel. The engine was trashed !
Luckily a mate had an Rd400e in his lockup that he had stopped using as he had bought a Moto Martin CBX6, so he sold me the 400 for £200 !! They were the days !!
I swapped the engine over and got back on the road within a week. More iffy painting took place, along with some more customisation, and a photo on the Long Walk at Windsor;
20191226_112856 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Allspeeds fitted to the bike now, which cost me £99 brand new from M&P in Swansea, and the red/white theme was getting out of hand !!
As the years passed, I messed about with the bike, trying all sorts of mods, as I'm sure we all did as kids. I wanted twin spots but didn't want Cibies from a Rally car ! I found these which had "Aprilia" embossed on the back - no one knew who Aprilia were back then ! And note the Z1300 Marzocchis on the back !
20191226_113304 by dusty miller, on Flickr
The "box" behind the spots which housed the wiring loom was actually a car polish tin ! I tried all sorts in the pursuit of perfection - some things worked, loads didn't !!
By 1989, I had owned my first house with the girlfriend who had survived the M25 with me, but it was a disaster. The mortgage was £120 more than my salary each month, we hated each other, and I had no money trying to keep the house afloat. We split, and sold the house just before I was going to default on it, so lucky in that respect. But I had been through the mill, and I had come through a nightmare. One good thing was I had managed to keep hold of the 400, even though other stuff had been sold in the attempt to stay solvent. Moving back in with my parents - I was now 23, I managed to get myself sorted financially, and decided to rebuild the 400 which was by now quite tired. I went to Nigel Hill - Saxon Racing - who cut out an Lc top mount from a scrap frame I had and welded it into the 400, for a Monoshock conversion. I wanted twin spots again and forward mounted instruments like a Tz, so he welded on a bracket for that at the front, and I fitted Pv forls and wheels as I loved the look of the early ones. Got everything powdercoated, and this is the rolling chassis in the garden at my parents house;
20191226_112559 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Before I fitted the wheels I had kept the chassis in my upstairs bedroom, and had bolted in the forks and swingarm etc. Had a hell of a job getting it down stairs due to the 180 degree turn on the staircase, but we did it ! I bought a brand new Yamaha tank in red/white from either Gambier Reeks or Rafferty Newman Yamaha on the Kings Road, Chelsea, cant remember which, and it had a slight dent in it so I only paid £32 !! Bought it home in a big Yamaha box on the underground !! A Tz seat was bought, and I had a local boat chandlers fibre glass in some extra panelling on the side to hide the ugly boss where the twin shock mounts had been cut off;
20191226_112815 by dusty miller, on Flickr
I had rattle can sprayed the seat and the front muddie, and when I rebuilt the engine I got Stan Stephens to do a 430 conversion, using DT175 pistons in shortened barrels. I moved to Reading with my girlfriend - now wife, in 1991 and the 400 came with us. We moved again in 97, to where we are now, and the 400 lived happily in the garage until 1999, when for reasons I cant remember, I sold it to one of my best mates for £1000. He hardly rode it - maybe a couple of hundred miles tops, and needing money for a bigger bike, sold it to his brother, Ian, in 2009. In the 10 years that Ian has owned it, he has done approx. 15 miles !! He has cared for it, and spent lots of money on it but not used it - sounds like me !!
During his ownership, Ian tracked down a genuine NOS petrol tank, and had it pro resprayed. The old tank had started to rot out after 20 odd years. The old engine casing had a broken piece of casting at the front mount, so Ian tracked down a nice set of cases in the US, and had them shipped over to the Uk, where Pjme then rebuilt the crank, gearbox bearings, seals, gaskets etc. He fitted a new front guard but had it resprayed in the design I had rattle canned it in years before and likewise the seat - pro resprayed and the old decals were copied and new one lacquered over. Ian fitted a Koso Tacho/speedo, new headlight and tail light, with some extra glass fibre added to the seat before painting to follow the curve of the light, which is a nice touch. Wheels were stripped and powdercoated in red and white, so no dodgy Ripolin on these. New tyres, and blue spots front and rear, the rear benefitting from a bespoke caliper hanger and torque arm. A new Hagon shock, new bars and switchgear, new rearsets from the US, and Ian made up some decent seat pads - much better than the race foam I used to use that would render you sterile after a few road miles ! e also bought and fitted new stanchions and internals to the forks.
The Allspeeds are my 99 quid originals. Chrome looks thin after all these years but they've done no more than 500 miles in their lifetime and never been down the road. I did stupidly cut an inch off the downpipe way back in the 80's, thinking they looked better, hence they don't line up with the frame bracket, but that's something I will address. The battery box is a large bracket for a stereo speaker I bought in Great Mills many years ago, and that too will get a proper engineered solution to tidy it up.
This long introduction to yet another project is to give you an idea of why I am taking this bike back. I sold it 20 years ago, and never expected to own it again. I took it in px from Ian who has my orange Lc hybrid now. I look at some of the things I did to the bike which are still there now, and cringe ! As a kid I had no idea about much, apart from how I wanted it to look. Many rebuilds later, I know I can do a better job. So I'm calling it "Triggers Broom";
20191229_103136 by dusty miller, on Flickr
20191229_103152 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Dusty
It's 1986, and a 19 year old "me" spots an Rd400E for sale in MCN. I loved the look of the aircooled Yams, and had been desperate for one for a few years. My current ride was a Suzuki X7, but I wanted something faster and with a bit more attitude, and the 400 fitted the bill. I got a lift off a mate over to Warlingham, near Croydon to take a look. We arrived 5 minutes before the owner got home from work, so we waited outside. I heard him before I saw him, and as he rounded the corner into his road, he opened it up and power wheelied up the hill to where we were parked !! Needless to say, I was smitten, and I bought the bike there and then and rode it home !
It had been bought brand new by the Brands Hatch Race School, and used until the advent of the Lc's. It was sold to the guy I bought it from, who used it up until I bought it. He had fitted Microns, and it was running Castrol R premix. It felt like a rocket ship at the time - really quick and very loud !
I rode it around for a bit, but wanted to put my mark on it, so I painted the wheels and various other parts of the bike using Ripolin paint designed for woodwork ! Now before I go any further, here is a disclaimer ! It was 1986 - New Romantics ruled the music world, Wham! were pin ups for thousands of schoolgirls and shell suits were all the rage! I didn't do shell suits or Wham! but I did overdo the paintschemes on my bikes, but it was what everyone did, so mine only looks naff now, 33 years later !! My earliest pic to survive;
20191226_112948 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Before too long I decided to change the oil it was using for premix, to something more affordable and easier to get hold of. I did know that rinsing the engine of Castrol R was necessary before using a different oil to prevent gumming up, so I took the bike to Delta Motorcycles in Windsor, for them to do whatever was necessary. I picked it up a few days later, and one of the mechanics remarked how quick it was - he had test ridden it after the work was done. It was running really well, so the weekend came, and me with the "then" girlfriend on the back and a few mates all rode up to Boxhill for the Sunday afternoon. After doing the rounds in the car park down the bottom, watching the nutters race and wheelie on the mad mile, we rode up to the top. This is me with my mates girlfriend;
20191226_113214 by dusty miller, on Flickr
I was on a nightshift that night, so we left around 3pm and rode the M25 to get back so I could get ready for work. There was me, a 350lc and a Yammagamma SS stage 3 Pv, all caning it in the fast lane on the busy motorway, when all of a sudden, my 400 grenaded it self big time .
No indicators on that bike, so desperate hand signals got me across 3 busy lanes and onto the hard shoulder - it was a close call. My 2 mates who had been behind had got across and were on the hard shoulder about half a mile ahead of me, so me and the girlfriend pushed the bike up the hard shoulder to meet them. It was obvious the bike was fubar'd, so my mate on the Gamma shot off home with his girlfriend to pick up her works van - she worked for DHL and took the transit home at weekends. We had agreed that if I could get the bike to the top of the slip road at Jct 11 it would be easy for them to stop and pick us and the bike up, rather than commit to the motorway. So me and the girlfriend were left with my mate Mark and his 350 Lc. We started pushing the bikes up the hard shoulder - the 400 is a heavy bike, and I was sweating on the time - I hadn't been in the Fire Brigade a year at that point and didn't want to be late to start work. Mark was ahead of me, pushing his Lc when he stopped and pointed to some webbing that had obviously come off a truck. What happened next was one of the most stupid and dangerous things I've done outside of my Fire Service career The webbing was tied to Marks grab rail on his Lc, the other end went round my left side fork leg ! The plan was Mark would tow the bike. 2 up, to the junction which was about 2 miles away, saving precious time and energy. Seemed a good idea at the time !! We started off, slowly at first, but even then I realised how difficult it was going to be to keep my bike straight - I was fighting to keep the bars neutral as the webbing around the left fork leg wanted to pull the bike to the right and into lane 1 of the M25 ! Mark didn't realise my problem, and started to gain speed. I was now fighting hard to stay straight, but he just kept gaining speed. Since the bike had seized, I had inadvertently left the ignition on, so now my battery was virtually flat. I was desperately pressing the horn and flashing my lights but they were nearly dead, and I was shouting through my full face Alien helmet as loud as I could, but with the noise of the motorway, and Mark's expansion pipes, he never heard me . How we got to Junction 11 in one piece I will never know, but every second of the journey is burnt into my memory !!
This is Mark, and you can see my very dead 400 behind;
20191226_112911 by dusty miller, on Flickr
We got picked up, got the bike home, and I got to work on time !! Next day when I got in I stripped the top end for a look. The right down pipe spilled out loads of metal fragments as I removed the exhausts, and I knew then it wouldn't be good. The pistons had been fettled before my ownership. This pic is a standard aircooled piston on the left, then the surviving piston, and the wreckage on the right is what was found on the right side;
DSC02036 by dusty miller, on Flickr
The flailing conrod had spun round on the crank and taken an ugly gouge out of the well in the crankcase, and a large chunk from the barrel. The engine was trashed !
Luckily a mate had an Rd400e in his lockup that he had stopped using as he had bought a Moto Martin CBX6, so he sold me the 400 for £200 !! They were the days !!
I swapped the engine over and got back on the road within a week. More iffy painting took place, along with some more customisation, and a photo on the Long Walk at Windsor;
20191226_112856 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Allspeeds fitted to the bike now, which cost me £99 brand new from M&P in Swansea, and the red/white theme was getting out of hand !!
As the years passed, I messed about with the bike, trying all sorts of mods, as I'm sure we all did as kids. I wanted twin spots but didn't want Cibies from a Rally car ! I found these which had "Aprilia" embossed on the back - no one knew who Aprilia were back then ! And note the Z1300 Marzocchis on the back !
20191226_113304 by dusty miller, on Flickr
The "box" behind the spots which housed the wiring loom was actually a car polish tin ! I tried all sorts in the pursuit of perfection - some things worked, loads didn't !!
By 1989, I had owned my first house with the girlfriend who had survived the M25 with me, but it was a disaster. The mortgage was £120 more than my salary each month, we hated each other, and I had no money trying to keep the house afloat. We split, and sold the house just before I was going to default on it, so lucky in that respect. But I had been through the mill, and I had come through a nightmare. One good thing was I had managed to keep hold of the 400, even though other stuff had been sold in the attempt to stay solvent. Moving back in with my parents - I was now 23, I managed to get myself sorted financially, and decided to rebuild the 400 which was by now quite tired. I went to Nigel Hill - Saxon Racing - who cut out an Lc top mount from a scrap frame I had and welded it into the 400, for a Monoshock conversion. I wanted twin spots again and forward mounted instruments like a Tz, so he welded on a bracket for that at the front, and I fitted Pv forls and wheels as I loved the look of the early ones. Got everything powdercoated, and this is the rolling chassis in the garden at my parents house;
20191226_112559 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Before I fitted the wheels I had kept the chassis in my upstairs bedroom, and had bolted in the forks and swingarm etc. Had a hell of a job getting it down stairs due to the 180 degree turn on the staircase, but we did it ! I bought a brand new Yamaha tank in red/white from either Gambier Reeks or Rafferty Newman Yamaha on the Kings Road, Chelsea, cant remember which, and it had a slight dent in it so I only paid £32 !! Bought it home in a big Yamaha box on the underground !! A Tz seat was bought, and I had a local boat chandlers fibre glass in some extra panelling on the side to hide the ugly boss where the twin shock mounts had been cut off;
20191226_112815 by dusty miller, on Flickr
I had rattle can sprayed the seat and the front muddie, and when I rebuilt the engine I got Stan Stephens to do a 430 conversion, using DT175 pistons in shortened barrels. I moved to Reading with my girlfriend - now wife, in 1991 and the 400 came with us. We moved again in 97, to where we are now, and the 400 lived happily in the garage until 1999, when for reasons I cant remember, I sold it to one of my best mates for £1000. He hardly rode it - maybe a couple of hundred miles tops, and needing money for a bigger bike, sold it to his brother, Ian, in 2009. In the 10 years that Ian has owned it, he has done approx. 15 miles !! He has cared for it, and spent lots of money on it but not used it - sounds like me !!
During his ownership, Ian tracked down a genuine NOS petrol tank, and had it pro resprayed. The old tank had started to rot out after 20 odd years. The old engine casing had a broken piece of casting at the front mount, so Ian tracked down a nice set of cases in the US, and had them shipped over to the Uk, where Pjme then rebuilt the crank, gearbox bearings, seals, gaskets etc. He fitted a new front guard but had it resprayed in the design I had rattle canned it in years before and likewise the seat - pro resprayed and the old decals were copied and new one lacquered over. Ian fitted a Koso Tacho/speedo, new headlight and tail light, with some extra glass fibre added to the seat before painting to follow the curve of the light, which is a nice touch. Wheels were stripped and powdercoated in red and white, so no dodgy Ripolin on these. New tyres, and blue spots front and rear, the rear benefitting from a bespoke caliper hanger and torque arm. A new Hagon shock, new bars and switchgear, new rearsets from the US, and Ian made up some decent seat pads - much better than the race foam I used to use that would render you sterile after a few road miles ! e also bought and fitted new stanchions and internals to the forks.
The Allspeeds are my 99 quid originals. Chrome looks thin after all these years but they've done no more than 500 miles in their lifetime and never been down the road. I did stupidly cut an inch off the downpipe way back in the 80's, thinking they looked better, hence they don't line up with the frame bracket, but that's something I will address. The battery box is a large bracket for a stereo speaker I bought in Great Mills many years ago, and that too will get a proper engineered solution to tidy it up.
This long introduction to yet another project is to give you an idea of why I am taking this bike back. I sold it 20 years ago, and never expected to own it again. I took it in px from Ian who has my orange Lc hybrid now. I look at some of the things I did to the bike which are still there now, and cringe ! As a kid I had no idea about much, apart from how I wanted it to look. Many rebuilds later, I know I can do a better job. So I'm calling it "Triggers Broom";
20191229_103136 by dusty miller, on Flickr
20191229_103152 by dusty miller, on Flickr
Dusty