Motorcycle Restoration Blog by Evan Fell

Hi All!

The site has been a bit dormant lately while I've been preparing for an all out epic motorcycle adventure. It's about to begin and this site will be ground zero for all that the trip entails.

This site has been getting lots of traffic lately which is flattering to say the least. As a result I now receive emails on a daily basis from visitors who have questions about their bikes or motorcycling in general. I am happy to answer these questions and they are part of the reason I put this site together in the first place. It brings me great satisfaction to know that I can share knowledge and help others enjoy the hobby I have grown to love so much. I am doing my best to respond to as many emails as I can, but am sad that some have slipped through the cracks. I plan to take a more structured approach to your queries in the coming months and I might even start responding to them here on the website.

Hopefully you can all rest soundly in the fact that despite the slow going recently I have in fact been working on many great bikes. All of which I will post about over the next few days!

Until next time, keep the rubber down.
-Evan

I love how passionate Harley riders get about their bikes, but most of it doesn't make much sense to me. Harleys have been proven over time to be extremely expensive, labor intensive, and prone to breaking down. I'm all for having an old Iron Head motor bike for bar hopping, but if I had to cruise across the country I'd much rather take a $200 Japanese bike from 30 years ago.

I just stumbled upon some Harley arguments on a forum and thought this one was particularly interesting. Please excuse the authors poor grammer!

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when harley sued the jap companies for sound ,they tried to copy write the exhust note! what a bunch of pussys!
then they sued for looks... and it was proven that harly stole the looks from indian and excellsor and 3 others!
and as for v twin "harley" motor...it was stolen and copied from Jason A Preswick.
harley sued everybody under the sun! the sued a shop called the hog farm! claiming hog was a harley copy write and that shop was not a dealer.once the jugde found out the shop has had that name longer than harley was in business he told them to go fuck thems.

if harley had more enginers than lawyers,they would have a better bike!
buy the way a honda golw wing is made 95% in the US vs. 60% of a harley!
so much for an american bike! the forks.japan,wires, grips ,lights,shocks,tins,black box, tiawan.......and more.

just so you know,i am a certfied cycle tech from MMI and i works in a few harley shops and have built 3 bikes(helped on 7 others) that got into easyriders mag.

yes i love harleys ,i just hate all of that mine is better than yours bull shit.it makes me sick.there is a reason you can buy a 1970 honda cb 750,that has been sitting for 10 years...clean the carb,new oil ,plugs..and ride away!
its called better enginering.

the only bike in the world that needs more attention and work..and tune ups... is ducati..but atleest they go fast!

-VTF

is a thing of beauty.

I've been able to enjoy riding the KTM over the last month. It's an excellent trail bike just like my 1999 KTM 300exc was. The Marzocchi 45mm conventional front end is proving to be a good choice and has nice performance offroad.

I love to wrench on bikes, but its also nice to get out into the mountains and just ride!

I'll be damned if the bike doesn't look good to boot!

So I finally got my XR600 out for a good shakedown run. It still needs a few things but is reasonably ready for some good riding. I put 80 miles on it last night of mixed riding; highway and back roads. It is quite comfortable on the street. On the highway it cruises comfortably around 65. It'll certainly do 70-75 without much trouble, but it's much smoother in the slow lane.

I just spent 4-5 hours on it tearing up the trails in the mountains of New Hampshire. The mountains are NASTY right now.... snow, ice, mud, slop, rocks and garbage. . . . . I dumped in countless times, got stuck twice as many. I got marooned out in a giant water crossing. The water was up to my knees and the bike was sunk way down in the mud. Took all my energy to fight that bike free and get it out of there. I summited a couple peaks for some awesome views... hit a couple dead ends. . . . ended up on a couple trails that were just impassible by the XR. The front end skates everywhere because the tire is far too road biased... and the front suspension is much much much too soft. It's reasonable for putting, but as soon as you push it, it pushes right back. Threw me off a couple times. . . . .I will say though, the motor is excellent. It's ability to just point go is incredible. The bike is nearly uncontrollable due to tires and suspension over deep rock washes and thick mud.... but the motor just goes and goes and goes. It's extremely tractable at low RPM in every gear. And the torque is there to just launch the front wheel up and over everything. I was hopping 18" logs with ease because of the grunt of this bike. On my KTM I'd be feathering the clutch to hurdle those same obstacles. . . . . . The KTM however would dominate this bike up and down everything without question. There were a few extremely steep (near vertical) sections with loose gravel and mud that I really wanted to attempt, but the XR just isn't the bike for that. The KTM would have been feasible in those areas.

Anyway. Fun day. I was drenched in water and mud from head to foot. I initially was sad I didn't bring a camera, but I'm quite sure I would have both drowned it and smashed it.

Bottom line - even though its old, its still a quite capable bike. The gnarly stuff is tough, but the motor doesn't skip a beat. (Remember, I have the 600R motor in my bike!).

In just over 4 hours today I tore down the bike, replaced the motor, cleaned the carbs, flushed the oil, lubed the cables, cleaned the throttle, adjusted the brakes and inflated the tires. The replacement motor starts easy and runs well. I can't wait for the morning so I can go ripping around.

I spotted this for a reasonable price and couldn't resist. The motor in it is junk I'm told and has no compression. Though the bike came with an XR600R motor to swap in!!! The XR600 motor has a smaller diameter bore and longer stroke than the XL600 motor that comes stock on these dual purpose bikes. As a result the XR600R motor produces less peak horsepower, but WAY more torque for gnarly off-road conditions.

Just like the TT350 this bike is a single cylinder with dual carbs. They produced this bike in dual carbs for several years and then switched it to a single carb as technology improved. However, the early dual carb motors produce more power than all other Honda 600 singles. In fact, top racers in later years would swap the old style heads and carbs onto their more modern bikes.

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I just can't seem to get enough of Dual Sport bikes lately. I've owned around 50 street bikes in the last few years, and very few off-road bikes. I've got the off-road itch and I can't shake it. That's why the last couple pages of this blog have been nearly all off-road bikes rather than my usual vintage streetbike projects. I used to dirtbike all the time when I was younger, and also when I had my first KTM 300exc a few years ago. It's just more fun that street riding, but can be difficult when you live in the city, like I do.

I've been working on lots of bikes over the past few weeks. I got this TT350 nearly ready to be a good dualsport ride. However, I spotted a deal on an XL600R and couldn't resist. As a result I just sold this bike.

I really liked this bike, it was tall, comfortable, and quite peppy due to the six speed transmission. However, I've always had a soft sport for Honda XR's and just had to have it.

When I first started cleaning carburetors I always did a very meticulous job. I would carefully remove each piece one at a time. I would note which carb body each piece came from so not to mix anything up. I would soak and clean and soak and clean the carburetor rack and internals until they were absolutely spotless. It worked great.

However, overtime I realized I could do an equally effective job in a matter of minutes. Through the years I have torn down probably 50 different carburetor racks and each time I do it I do a seemingly more carless job. . . . . but I'm actually much better at it overall. You wouldn't want to see how I organize them now! It isn't pretty.

This is the PVL Coil and CDI combination unit from my 1994 KTM. This is an upgraded unit from stock and is very difficult to come by these days for less than $500. This unit has the CDI components built right into the coil creating a much more reliable unit that provides better (and more tunable) spark. A very cool upgrade for any off road competition bike.

You can read part 1 by dropping down a few posts.
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So I was under way and headed towards Kentucky on the GS. It was a cool late fall night and the weather was good. I figured that by leaving at such an odd hour I would avoid traffic, but I wasn't so lucking. Around 1:30am I entered into the NYC area and immediately got stuck in a construction zone. The traffic was backed up as the highway merged into one single lane. The motorcycle quickly died on me. It didn't like to idle, and it was hard to keep it running at any reasonable rpm, so it stalled. Repeatedly. The bike was hard to start when warm due to a small air leak in the intake manifold. Most warm motors will fire right up with a little throttle, but this one didn't. The choke had to be on full and it took some cranking to nearly flood the motor, at which point it would roar to life and rev to the moon.

I stalled and restarted the bike many times and eventually made it through the construction zone and back to open road. The highways in the New Jersey area are terribly rough and not ideal for motorcycling. Hitting pot holes and bumps is unavoidable. The luggage behind me would shift forward with every bump pushing me up onto the gas tank. I should have tied it down better. But there was no time to stop and make adjustments, I was in New Jersey, and no one has ever wanted to stop in New Jersey if they didn't have to. So I just rode with one hand on the bars using my other hand to hold back the luggage as best I could. It was tiring and difficult to say the least. Who knew a small case full of clothes could be so heavy!

As soon as I hit Pennsylvania it started to rain a little bit. I pulled over at a gas station to refuel and I went inside for a plastic bag to put my camera and phone into so the water wouldn't ruin them. My leather jacket is of no protection in the rain and in fact, it soaks up water like a sponge. The attendant at the counter was a nice older gentleman who warned me "I hope you aren't traveling west." To which I replied, "Actually, I am." "There is a big storm coming through right now, you might want to wait it out," he advised.

I thought on the mans words for a brief minute, then grabbed the bag, threw in my electronics and hopped back on the bike. Hey, I'm not afraid of a little rain!

A few miles down the road the rain began to get heavy. It was now about 4:30am and I was beginning to get a little chilled. The rain quickly soaked through my jacket and fleece shirt. I could feel the water pooling in the seat. I began to get cold. At this point however the biggest problem was visibility. I was on the highway in the dark and in the rain, and the little GS headlight put out barely enough power to light my path.

As I entered Maryland the rain became torrential. Sheets and sheets of rain pounding the street and filling it like a river. I was now entering the mountains, I would not see another major town for several hundred miles. The roads were empty, no lights anywhere, and my headlight was too dim to read the signs as I drove past. At higher speeds I could feel the front wheel begin to hydroplane, which is terrifying. I did my best to find a good balance between driving safely and making good time - after all, I wanted to complete 1,000 miles in 24 hours so I couldn't slow down too much.

The key to driving recklessly or in awful weather on a motorcycle is to be extremely on edge but NEVER make any sudden movements. Every muscle in your body needs to be tensed ready to compensate for sudden hydroplaning effects, corners, or gusts of wind. You never want to touch anything with more than the lightest pressure. Acceleration, braking, and cornering should be the most methodical movements you've ever made. Gentle and easy. It is also more important to prepare your body to absorb debris and potholes rather than planning to avoid them. Always keep your front wheel facing directly forward.

The early morning winds and drenching rains made me completely freezing, but there was no stopping. As day broke I prayed for sun. After a couple fuel stops the sun eventually came and the rain began to soften. I emerged on the other side of the storm cold, wet, on edge, and exhausted - but triumphant!

More to come. . . . . it gets worse and the story gets better! The most dangerous riding I have ever done in my life is yet to come.

Here is a Suzuki prospector ad from back in the day.

The Suzuki TC125 is a really cool little bike. I bought this as a project to fix up but decided to sell it because I have too much going on in the garage right now.

Suzuki made this bike in a number of different sizes and gave them all interesting names like "Prospector". I am blanking on the other models, but I believe it was a TC100, a TC125, a TC185, and a TC250.

These bikes are very cool, great little reliable 2 smokers that pump out a reasonable 13 horsepower. They are extremely easy to work on, get great gas mileage, and they are even able to cruise at highway speeds. This TC 125 has an 8 speed gearbox. It's actually a standard 4 speed transmission with a reduction gear which can be put into use to create a High and a Low operating range. It's designed that way to match the demands of both off-road and highway use.

Really, the only downsides to this bike are that it uses a 6 volt electrical system. The perfect bike for running errands and cruising around back roads and trails. I love it.