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The return of the Cafe Racer


Dunkield
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A couple of times I have eluded to the fact I have working on this project in the background for some time now, 18 months on and off in the end.

You know how it goes, you have an idea, see what seems to be right start and it later turns out to be nothing of the sort ?

Anyway, short version is, it's all over for now at least as it passed the MOT this week having been off the road in a million bits for some time.

This is the 'as bought' picture that got me interested in the first place, I was looking for a Kawasaki two stroke triple but this just caught my eye.

 

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Once I started pulling it apart, gently at first, it became more obvious (hence part of the delay) that it needed to be completely stripped and built from the ground up again.

So it ended up looking like this

 

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I got the grinder out, as you do, and removed anything I didn't feel was absolutely necessary, bearings were removed and then the frame went to blasting and painting satin black and build up process began. I don't have a workshop as such to took over the conservatory for a 'short' while. Didn't fancy or need a motorcycle table long term so I made an organic one out of ply.

 

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Then it was complete re-wire - probably the worst bit, or certainly my biggest challenge, even though some work had been done by the previous owner

 I asked about regarding wheel building, and most said 'if you are handy you can do it yourself, just take your time'

As I am quite handy I gave it a go, and they were right, they came out just fine.

 

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From then on it was just case of getting everything cleaned, rebuilt, painted and assembled.

Lots of waiting for others to complete work and lots of time shopping online.

Didn't take hundreds of pictures in the end, maybe I should have done, this is it 'finished' which apparently is only ever a temporary state.

I want some more black on the tank to break up the white but that can wait for now, I need to get out and enjoy it for a while.

I only did a top end refresh on the engine, bores honed and new rings but it still needs a little time to settle in, once it has I will get it dyno'd as it the jetting still needs some tweaking.

 

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Thank you.

In order:

Its Z560 B3 1979 - I am always mindful of the fact a clean matching numbers bike has been chopped, but it was already hacked about when I bought it.

Rear shocks are TEK - basically Ohlins copies at about 1/10th of the price, but they did they did fully adjustable in the height and rate I wanted, and are nice to deal with.

I didn't have room to store (or frankly the budget to buy) a fancy hydraulic bike table, so that was built and flat packed after for a fraction of the cost. Riding it off was the only hairy bit!

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43 minutes ago, Dunkield said:

Thank you.

In order:

Its Z560 B3 1979 - I am always mindful of the fact a clean matching numbers bike has been chopped, but it was already hacked about when I bought it.

Rear shocks are TEK - basically Ohlins copies at about 1/10th of the price, but they did they did fully adjustable in the height and rate I wanted, and are nice to deal with.

I didn't have room to store (or frankly the budget to buy) a fancy hydraulic bike table, so that was built and flat packed after for a fraction of the cost. Riding it off was the only hairy bit!

That will be the one with the HyVo inverted cam chain then. When you were re-assembling it did you notice any galling on the tapered plunger of the tensioner as these were prone to sticking. If there is any just dress it lightly with some fine emery,,grind about 1/8" of the tapered end to give you plenty of adjustment in future and assemble the lot with plenty of Copper Grease. Its the inverted bucket cam follower with the small shims on these and I still have dozens of these shims knocking about if you can use them. If you do need to adjust the valve clearances, once the cam cover is off and the motor is set at TDC, zip tie the cam chain to each sprocket, take the tensioner spring and plunger mentioned before out and unbolt and carefully lift the cam you are working on onto the top of the motor to give access to the cam buckets. No lost valve timing this way! A good strong magnet for lifting the cam buckets off is useful too. 

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1 hour ago, Velocette said:

That will be the one with the HyVo inverted cam chain then. When you were re-assembling it did you notice any galling on the tapered plunger of the tensioner as these were prone to sticking. If there is any just dress it lightly with some fine emery,,grind about 1/8" of the tapered end to give you plenty of adjustment in future and assemble the lot with plenty of Copper Grease. Its the inverted bucket cam follower with the small shims on these and I still have dozens of these shims knocking about if you can use them. If you do need to adjust the valve clearances, once the cam cover is off and the motor is set at TDC, zip tie the cam chain to each sprocket, take the tensioner spring and plunger mentioned before out and unbolt and carefully lift the cam you are working on onto the top of the motor to give access to the cam buckets. No lost valve timing this way! A good strong magnet for lifting the cam buckets off is useful too. 

Its the single cam chain motor and yes I spent plenty of hours getting the shimming spot on, so I too have a few spare shims now.

I glossed over a lot of the rebuild process here as I wasn't sure how interested people would be.

So, as bought it fired on 3 cylinders and smoked badly until warm, this was partly worn rings but mostly no gap on one valve until hot. 

Let me find some more pictures (this is actually good for me as they are all over the place)

Hopefully the before and after sequence is obvious :)

The 'jugs' were honed, pistons all cleaned up, new rings, head/cam cover etc vapour blasted and painted satin black.

Valves lapped in, valve clearances gapped up properly and then all checked and assembled as per the workshop manual

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Piston broke, as the sayin' goes

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after

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I can provide advice based on a first timers good and bad experience. I rebuilt my first car (I had to) when I was 18, and have tinkered with stuff ever since, but have never done a motorcycle, so I just jumped in.

It’s not that scary you just need space, time and money.

If you look at what superstars like Allen Millyard achieve, it puts doing this sort of stuff into perspective.

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1 hour ago, Dunkield said:

It’s not that scary you just need space, time and money.

The great thing with bikes is that you need much less of all three of the above, compared with cars, and you can usually tuck it away, in a shed, out of the sight of your beloved so that all the cutting remarks about "piles of scrap" can be avoided until the big reveal when it is finished.

Unless, of course, it is a "special"

They are never finished. ?

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Cleaned one of those Z650 engines in the dish washer one night, as l picked up the block all the liners fell out on the kitchen floor, had no idea which one was from where so stuffed them all back in at random before it cooled down.

Ran ok after assembly though, and then some thieving person of out of wedlock status nicked it, many moons ago.

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I have to agree about the space comment ameteur, if I had the space I would have done another car, so this would never have happened

PS somethings never change ?

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Although these bikes aren't actually worth that much, theft is one of my biggest fears, i won't be going anywhere where it will be left out of sight without my big lock and chain.

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  • 4 years later...

Stumbled across this old post looking for something else, jeez it seems like a lifetime ago 😊

Anyway the punchline to the story was I improved the bike over the following few years.

I even got it accepted as an entry into the Shed Built Row at the Bike Shed Show 2020 but of course that was cancelled.

Some time later I sold it on, it's new owner rode it into the Bike Shed London not long after and got it featured on their IG page. 

 

montage.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

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