So, I received the barrels, and new Wiseco pistons, with rings, small end barings, gudgeon pins and circlips. With wiseco pistons you have two rings that are identical, the instructions for fitting are complete. You have to measure clearance between the power valve and the cylinder, plus measure the end gap on the rings by insrting them in the cylinders and measuring with a feeler gauge. Everything seemed within limits, and so the barrels, pistons, and head were rebuilt this morning, with no problems. New gaskets all around!!
After having decided on the full strip down and rebore, I obviously needed to remove the head, barrels, and pistons etc.. This proved pretty easy (as I remembered from previous lives), I still managed to round off a couple of screws – one holding the two power valves together in between the cylinders – particularly difficult to get a drill to, and the second was holding the power valve pulley in place, this one slightly easier to drill out. Anyway only standard for a Jap bike of this age (even new for that matter!). After having seen the number on the tops of the pistons +25 I assumed that I had some rebores to go before renewing the sleeves, however I assumed wrongly as the +25 turned out to be +75 (really badly etched) after measuring. I was really lucky the guy in the rebore workshop measured this before ordering the pistons, otherwise I would be selling perfectly good pistons on Ebay! Interesting to note that Yam pistons only go up to +50, and yet Wiseco’s go up at least to +150. I am using +100's, I only hope the longevity of the sleeve is not effected by the extra amount taken from it.
Hopefully I will get time to order my seat unit from Poly26 this week, so I can get them all painted together. Which will be the next task.
Well I took the bike to Yam’s for them to check what I had done to the pump, effectively the guy left the engine running for at least 5 minutes, the time for the pump to fill the oil tubes, and reach the carbs – I of course had not left it long enough and hence starved the engine of oil! The puffs of smoke I had seen must have been oil already in the engine, having settled to the bottom! Although the bike was OK, I decided to take off the exhausts to get a look at the state of the pistons, and effectively the left hand piston was quite heavily marked, a full top end overhaul is required!
It was getting near the first race, and I had never used the bike OR been on a circuit for a number of years. Time to find a track day! The nearest circuit to Grenoble is in fact “le Circuit du Laquis” , however they do not allow motorcycles and therefore I needed to look further a field. The circuit de Ledenon, is situated about 11 kms north of Nimes, about 2.5 hours from my house, and so on a blustery March morning the family (yes my kids and wife) accompanied me to Ledenon. The circuit organizes training days which are relatively inexpensive (16 Euros per 20 minutes), organized by sessions depending on your level (beginner or experienced).
When we arrived in the pits car park, to say it was windy would be an understatement, people who had camped had their tents blown horizontally! People were arriving, and leaving just as quickly! I queued up to book my sessions, a total of 4 as a start! We unloaded the bike, my son, Oliver removed the centre stand whilst I tried to get into my leathers (after a heavy Christmas – this was difficult!). We had difficulties starting the bike, which was strange, as I had charged the battery well the evening before, and I got busy checking that we hadn’t pulled anything loose when we tied the bike down! Eventually we managed to push start the bike, and I made it to the pit lane for the start of my first session. You have to imagine the scene a little, with me on my 24 year bike, with brand new leathers, amongst a crazed band of youngsters on everything from race prepared Yamaha R1’s to Ducati 999’s etc… you get the picture. After a very quick look at me and the bike the starter allowed us through in small groups, and suddenly we were OFF, I was quite happy staying towards the back especially as the wind was blowing me off line (what line?) at every corner, well at least 2 corners……
Coming up to a heavy left hander the bike suddenly started making a funny noise…. Clutch where’s the clutch….. sssszzzzz. Shit I think it’s seized! The nearest marshal comes running up flapping his yellow flag. I try to start the bike again (mistake) and it starts so I make my way gingerly around the track road. It stalls again, and I get picked up by the track van, and taken back to the pits, where I sit waiting for my pit crew to come back. Obviously with no centre stand I can not `park` the bike, and with the wind I don’t trust leaning it up against the car!! I am really pissed off this is not how I imagined it!
After some checking, I of course (clues are above) discover that there is no oil getting to the carbs…. BOLLOCKS…. I can not understand what the pump is doing but it is not pumping that’s for sure! OK what to do next. Having some sense for money I send off my pit girls (Carly and Lib) to sell me 3 other sessions, whilst I sink into depression….. I then had a brilliant idea! What if we take some oil out of the oil tank and mix it with the petrol in the petrol tank and see if I can start it? Not having bought any scientific measuring containers, we siphon “enough” oil, out of the tank to add it to the petrol, yes but how much petrol is in the tank, and what mixture should it be? Theses are all very sensible questions, to which I had no answer. The team made the decision to add enough oil, ---- until it smokes!!
Funnily enough, we kept adding oil, and it never really smoked at all…. But we got well past 3% (at least I think).
I had already missed the next session, and so we had lunch whilst contemplating the team strategy! Déjà vu… I ‘ve been here before, surrounded by huge bikes, with tyres a lot stickier than mine… here goes. FULL THROTTLE! The two afternoon sessions were conclusive. First conclusion – there are a lot of people out there quicker than I. Second conclusion – The &*^^%$# wind is too strong. Every bend against the wind was fine as it would push you into the circuit, the other side however was a matter of hanging on for dear life as you were pushed nearer and nearer the gravel traps – no fun at all! Well OK, I did have fun, but I really hope that not all circuits are on top of small hills in the direct force of the Mistral wind blowing it’s hardest.
In the mean time I had to be equipped with leathers (bought at Dianese – on sale!), boots (bought from M&P on the web), and gloves (a nice pair of YAMAHA R1 gloves that were also on sale – end of season). I decided to use my road helmet, as it was sufficiently new to meet the regulations, although I have an uncomfortable neck when I am in a racing crouch.
In France, you need to have Federation Francaise de Moto racing license category NAT A. In order to obtain this you need first to be a holder of a CASM (Certificat d’aptitude de Sport Mechanique). The CASM tests you on basic bike skills, plus the rules and regulations around a circuit – including flags. In order to apply to the CASM you need to get a local address of your regional representative, which for me was in the Dauphine. I phone this guy and he registered me for a CASM test, which I eventually took in a center in the nearby DROME area. Due to the fact that I had a current motorcycle road license I did not have to take the practical test, however it’s useful to know that if your kids want to take up racing of any sort they can go via this route.
In order to get the FFM license you need to be a member of a French Association affiliated with the FFM. The PROCLASSIC association is part of the FFM, and therefore they sent me all the necessary forms to fill in and the list of documents to provide. Basically you need to have, proof of identity, a CASM, proof of address, plus a document from your National Motorcycle racing association proving that you are allowed to hold a French license. To supply this, I needed to contact the ACU in the UK, and they faxed me the correct document basically stating that I had never been banned from having a racing license in the UK. I sent this lot off with the appropriate amount of cheques (!!), and I received my license a couple of weeks on.
I really wanted to go for a “classic” look, this to me means single seat, ducati 900ss half fairing and clipons. I sourced a racing fairing at POLY26, a relatively local fibre glass company, that makes everything plastic for thousands of different bikes. The guy who owns the place is really passionate about his business, and can talk for hours on the subject, I recommend it to anyone. That was the easy part, the difficult part was making a support for the fairing. I had to design and make fairing brackets, which were eventually achieved by using some local company welding skills, and my ingenuity with aluminium plating. The fairing comes in a rough grey colour “ready” for spraying, but this means that all the holes have to drilled not only in the fairing, but also in the visor – not for the feint hearted – one slip and you are doomed!!
Before touching the bike, I ran it up the road a few times, just to make sure that there was nothing terminally wrong with it. It appeared that it worked well (just as I had remembered), although it had a small oil leak from the clutch cover, and a weepy oil seal from the left hand fork leg. The next few weekends and evenings I spent stripping of all of the non essentials. The horrible road fairing went first, followed by the lights, indicators, mudguards etc… I then got down to stripping the forks and replacing the oil seal in the left leg, I replaced the front brake lines with stainless braided lines (which were part of the spares, from the guys racing bike). I also changed the fork oil, and brake fluid, and finally bled the brakes. Up to this point no problems.
The second major task was to stop the oil leak. I stripped down the right hand engine cover, which involves draining the coolant, and gearbox oil. The gasket looked OK, but I replaced it anyway, thinking that this was the cause of my leak. Anyway to cut a long story short, after removing the cover and second and then third time, and replacing the oil (with a browner colour), I realized that my leak was not gearbox oil, but two stroke oil which was making it’s way from behind the oil pump, and dripping down to under the gearbox. The two stroke oil was red, and my new gearbox oil was light brown! The only choice was to replace the oil pump itself, as there are no serviceable parts in the oil pump itself. On replacing the oil pump, I bled the pump, and attached the oil lines to each carburetor, leaving the cover off, as you still need to prime the oil lines using a special procedure.
Whilst on the engine, I replaced the chain, and gearbox sprocket, the sprocket on the rear wheel looked fine, so I didn’t touch it.
I was planning to make myself some rearsets, however with time running a little short, I purchased rearsets, and a replacement rear shock from Hagon (UK), these went on and the bike was ready for a test. In order to prime the oil ways, you start the bike and then hold the pump open (with your fingers) to maximum, which I did. After a couple of seconds the bike started smoking, and I took this as a sign that all was well and the lines were filled, to my dismay this was not the case – but we’ll get to that. I ran the bike up the road a couple of times and was well happy with my progress.
I was quickly set on the idea of getting a two stroke bike. The simplicity linked with the relatively strong performance were factors that pushed me in the direction of the YAM, the other criteria was the fact I had had both an RD400, and a RD250 YPVS, followed by an RD 350 F2, in my youth, and the excitement of hitting the powerband on these bikes was something I had always regretted, after having moved onto to four stroke bikes later on, even my current Triumph Daytona, although having more than enough power, can not beat a good old two stroke for excitement.
I started looking around the web sites in the “For Sale” categories, and soon came across Ebay, as the source for a good number of bikes. After bidding on a couple, I settled on a 1983 RD 350 YPVS with approximately 25K Kilometers on the clock, only problem was that I did not meet the sellers lowest price on my initial try. After some negotiation, which was difficult, as the seller was based in Stuttgart – Germany, and me in Grenoble France, we reached agreement, and I was all set. The deed was done in a rural part of Stuttgart, me handing over 1050 Euros, to receive in exchange a car full of second hand spares, plus the road going bike itself. With my son we loaded the bike onto a trailer (I had borrowed for the weekend), and filled the car with all the spare, some rubbish, but a lot of useful parts aswell.
The German guy had obviously had a racing career with a similar bike, but the model he sold me was his road bike, he started the bike in front of me, and offered me a ride, which I turned down based on the fact, that having driven 5 hours, I was not going home without it. With hind site I made a good decision.
On arriving home, we un loaded the bike and parts, and I made an inventory of the parts and begged them up, and put them into storage above my garage. I had already negotiated with my wife the fact that she would not be able to get the car in the garage for the next few months!
A bit of background first. I have had various motorbike since passing my test in the UK back in 1977, soon after my seventeenth birthday. I have always had a racing bug, which typically involved watching others race. When I was 21, my Dad, paid for my brother and I to do a track day with tuition at Brands Hatch, we raced around the Brands short circuit for 25 laps on stripped down Honda Super dream 400’s, I would fully recommend this to anyone thinking of taking the plunge.
In late 1986 I moved with my wife to France, and whilst continuing to ride bikes on the road, and watching racing at the trackside, and on TV, I never really did anything about my old childhood dream to race!
Now after another 20 years (yes!!), I have decided to do something about it, and hence the project that this site is mainly about.
Looking through the various websites in France about motorcycle racing you quickly understand that although the French have a great racing heritage, they are far from being extrovert about their accomplishments, and even worse there just don’t seem to be many related web pages to read through to get related information. After weeks of searching I decided to send of a quick email to Café Racer, a popular magazine, and miracles – they published my request, and gave me a couple of web sites and associations to investigate.
At my age (46 years old), I am not interested in becoming a MotoGP racer or killing myself on a hugely powerful road machine, and therefore I chose to look for the more “classic” oriented racing scene, which lucky for me, is alive and well, in the form of “proclassic racing” (proclassic.free.fr). in September 2006, I took my wife to one of the last races of the year on a small circuit “Le Vigeant” in the West of France. The weekend’s racing combines many different categories, from the SuperMono series, to the Roadster cup (mainly Hornets and Fazers), aswell as more classic racing with two series – the Proclassic series, and the Vitesse en Motos Anciennes series.
The Proclassic series has many categories, but largely these are bikes older than 1983, that can either be race bikes, or road bikes used on the track. There were a few entries with the type of bike I was contemplating, (Yamaha RD 350 YPVS) which seemed to fair reasonably well. The atmosphere in the pits was friendly, with complete freedom to wander around and chat to the participants, and their teams (mostly their wives, kids etc..). The weekend’s racing cost 10 Euros to watch, and to be honest was great value for money. I came back from the weekend excited at the prospect of being part of the scene, in the year to come.
