Stranger in a strange land -

Many moons ago, I used to ride a YSR80, which blew it's engine apart in the biggest way. When I got over here, I found out that there are a bunch of nutters who even race them. Well, I needed to get in on this, so I bought a YSR, converted it, and on October 31st, 1998, I had my first practice day, followed by my first races on the Sunday. While I came dead last, I didn't fall off, and I discovered that my poor little bike was a bit ill. Either that or everybody else was cheating :o)

I ran the bike in the stock class, as it's easier to keep the bike up to speed if it isn't tuned to the point that it's unreliable.

After several years of racing, the track that I used changed hands, and the new lessor decided he only wanted go-karts to race. Fine, it was time for a change anyway :o)

I decided that the thing to do was to try and get this (titled) bike street legal again, so I could drag knee leaving gas stations and suchlike.

The first thing to do was to take it all apart, and look at what needs doing.

First off, the kick starter. It's a pain bump starting the thing everywhere. Here's the engine, under the clutch cover. I need to get the kick start back in there, so I can start the thing without bumping it :o) The bad news is that I have to pull the clutch basket out to get all the kickstart bits in, but other than that it doesn't look too hard. I took the clutch out, and put the kick start gears in place. I just needed to find a washer and circlip to hold them in place, and all was good again.

Next up were the electrics - as it had been a race bike, the lighting coil had been removed. I needed to source a coil, and wire it in so I could charge up the battery (that only runs the lights and the horn). Rather than have to do any soldering, I managed to get a whole stator plate. I've got a manual, so I basically built a new wiring loom for it. I've put on some small Honda switches, and wired it up so I can turn the lights off - it's only a 6 volt system, so it needs all the help it can get. Even now I'm not sure that the battery is actually charging, so I tend to charge it every now and then with a plug in charger. The stock system runs the headlights straight off the engine unregulated - I might go back to that at some point, but it seems that it would get expensive in bulbs pretty quickly.

Next up was the frame, which was looking quite crappy - racing's hard on the equipment.

Here's me straightening out a tab on the frame that's been bent for racing - I used to ground it out. Of course, this means it's ground out, and the threaded hole is all buggered up. Off the top of my head, I think this is for the sidestand cut out switch, so I might not bother fixing it any further for now.

Having cleaned the frame off with Methyl Ethyl Ketone (even better than brake fluid, but use gloves), I hooked it to a bungee from the tree in the front garden and shot a thick layer of primer over it. Here it is, resting afterwards. I kind of liked the look of it like this, so if I ever get around to powder coating it, I'll think about a matte finish.

I got the engine in the frame, and the forks and swingarm back on. I spotted paint on all the scratches I'd caused getting the engine in the frame, and started throwing parts back on.

I got it rolling to make moving it easier, and side stand back on. I've also tightened up the engine and fork mountings, and mounted the clip-ons properly. This was when the wiring loom was remade.

Everything got bolted back on, and I even rode it. Since then, it's been apart and together several times to fix oil leaks and replace the oil pump with one that (hopefully) works. I needed to source a new flasher relay (a variable load one, as the stock one requires certain wattage bulbs to actually flash, and I can't find those bulbs). I had to get Vince to weld up the crack in the exhaust that was forming from scraping it one the ground on the right side :o) It got upgraded to 12V (via an ultralight regulator, new battery, LED bulb replacements and horn), and then I sold it to somebody who can appreciate it.