This blog is going to be an ongoing updated progress report of one of the bikes that I'm rebuilding, at present I own 6 bikes, 3 of which i am in the middle of rebuilding in one shape or another, I recently picked up a 1995 Yamaha RXS100, which i intend turning to a café racer, just for fun.
Yes, i know it's a small bike.
But, a project is a project.
If you take a look at the photos below you will see there is quite a lot of work to be done even before any rebuild starts.
I will record each part I need to replace or buy and add the cost and hopefully my expenditure does not exceed my exceptions for this bike, I know I will have to make the bike roadworthy first, and that is my main aim at the beginning of this build.
The cosmetic part of the rebuild to make it all nice and shiny will be at the very end of all the other work that needs to be done on the bike, and I will ask for opinions and in what direction I should go with the bike and please feel free to criticize.
But just remember I know where you all live :) , ( that’s joke by the way ), I only know were some of you live :).
I have already made a start with the bike, but this will be a long-drawn-out project, I still work full time, I have chickens, 1 dog, 1 goat that likes to eat caravan’s and 5 horses and a wife to spread my time over, so when I get a chance I will update this blog and of course my life experiences to record.
Even when myself and my friend Phil George picked the bike up on the outskirts of Swansea city the wheels refused to move and I will explain the reason why the wheels were so solid and refused to move in the next part of this blog.
( Photo 1) . Picking the bike up in Swansea, June 2018, as you can see it needs some attention, and not just a squirt of W.D.40.
( Photo 2 ) . Picking the bike up, June 2018.
( Photo 3 ) . Picking the bike up in Swansea, good view of the flat tires, June 2018.
( Photo 4 ) . Picking the bike up, June 2018, 20,688 miles on the clock.
( Photo 5 ) . Picking the bike up, June 2018.
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UP-DATE- ONE
It has been a full year since I picked this Yamaha up from Swansea, and I have spent many, many long hours working on this café racer project.
I have also shared my time with this bike refurbishment on two other bikes ( Honda CB 650 nighthawk, 1982 ) and a ( BSA 174 bantam, 1966 ) and they are both at different stages of rebuilding.
I have also acquired two other bikes in the mean time a ( 1977 Suzuki GS 400 ) which I gave only £20 for and I was given a 3 year old Chinese bike a ( Sinnis sc125 ), whatever that is, mainly because this type of bike is of low quality, and from the look of it poorly made, and the Chinese using cheapest materials available.
This the bike would not pass it’s very first M.O.T. with numerous faults, the guy asked me if I would take the bike away for free as it was not worth him paying someone to sort it out for him.
He bought a older Honda instead which was in better condition.
Never say no to a freebie.
( Photo 6 ) . This is what the wheel on the Yamaha looked like when I first picked the bike up.
After getting the Yamaha home I inspected it more closely , I could see straight off I had my work cut-out with getting this bike back into a serviceable state of repair .
Firstly when we dropped the bike off at my house we had to literary drag it into the back garden and then leave it next to my wooden double gates at the bottom of the garden, this was a long way from where I first wanted to put it, my back garden is 145 feet long.
It was impossible to move the bike any further into the garden as both the Yamaha’s wheels refused to move an inch and both tires were flat, there had been no air in these tires for some time.
First I attempted to remove the rear wheel just so I could work out what the issues are with the wheels.
Firstly I had to remove the rear wheel spindle, which was completely rusted tighter then a Scotsman’s wallet.
Using lots of W.D. 40 and a large hammer I finally removed the spindle after nearly two hours effort.
The drive chain was one solid piece of metal , none of the links moved they were all rusted shut, this was the first thing I though may have been stopping the wheel turning, but that did not explain the problem with the front wheel.
After I removed the chain using a slim chisel and a lump hammer using extreme force the links came apart, there was no other way of removing the chain, it was Naffed anyway.
After I removed the chain completely the wheel still refused to turn.
By the time I un-sized all the other nuts and bolts that connected the wheel onto the swinging arm it was starting get dark, the whole exercise took me over 6 hours and all I had achieved was removing the rear wheel.
Once I had the wheel away from the bike, I found that the brake hub was stuck solid, so ok now I knew what the problem was.
In reality the brake hub should have been able to spin around by just using some slight pressure.
But this brake hub was not going anywhere.
In the end I needed to remove the sprocket mounting which I intended in doing anyway and then after taking the rubbers out, I put a long screwdriver into the holes that held the rubbers in place, then working my way around the wheel hub I hit the screwdriver with a hammer using the screwdriver as adrift I finally managed push the brake hub out a bit at a time and then finally the brake housing released its vice-like grip and it fell out from the housing.
( Photo 7 ) . You can see the brake shoe stuck to the bottom half of the brake hub.
The problem was obvious once I could see inside .
One of the brake shoes had welded itself to the inside of the housing preventing the wheel from turning and holding the brake hub in place .
I had the very same problems with the front wheel , the problem again was exactly the same issue with the brake shoe sticking to the inside of the wheel housing .
The front wheel was somewhat harder to remove because I didn’t have the advantage of drifting form the opposite side , this time I had to tease it out a little at a time.
When I finally had both wheels rotating freely , I tempted to pump the tyres up , they had been flat and sitting in one place for 10 years or more , I was not expecting the inner tubes to be in any condition to hold any air after all this time but to my surprise once I filled them with air they stayed up.
So with both wheels were ready.
I replaced them back onto the bike after cleaning the rust off everything and either greasing or oiling all the parts that I removed I then pushed the bike to the back of the house where I could give it a good going over with my pressure washer.
Everything I had done on the bike which was basically removing the wheels and making them turn had taken me more than a week just to move it 100 feet and believe me this was just the beginning.
W.D.40 and a heavy hammer are lifesavers
( Photo 8 ) . This is the condition of the brake hub when I first removed it from the wheel and no it does not suppose to be in a condition like this.
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UP-DATE TWO
OK, so the wheels finally turn , this makes the bike easier to work on as I can move it around to suit what I need to do next.
I had a good look around the bike and made stock of what was missing and what would possibly need replacing.
I did not have a seat or a front mud guard when I picked the bike up also one side panel was missing.
to get a better look I removed the tank, just to see how the hidden parts of the bike look as they had been protected from Swansea`s salty air.
( Photo 9) .This is what I found under the tank .
Every single screw, nut and bolt on this bike was totally rusted in place , even under the tank .
The frame itself was rusted, but solid enough to still be roadworthy, it would need extensive de-rusting and treating with anti rust solution before it gets painted, but first I would need to remove the various nuts and bolts.
I attempted to remove the air filter box, it was only held on by one screw, the were three other screws that once were used to keep it in place, but they had already giving up the fight and had rusted away.
( RUST NEVER SLEEPS )
It took me almost 10 minutes using an impact screwdriver and a hammer to remove the last remaining screw, the bugger refused to move.
I took this opportunity to measure the bike for a new seat which i would buy off E-BAY.
I left the tank off the bike.
I still need petrol so to deal with this problem i made a separate petrol feed by using a plastic shampoo bottle and a length of petrol proof plastic tube , I then fitted the gravity feed petrol reservoir inside a metal cage bird feeder, so I could hang it up higher than the bike so there would always be a constant flow of petrol to the carb.
( Photo 10 ) . The homemade petrol feeder, when this photo was taken I was Measuring the length of the tube that I would need to use and because the petrol inlet on the carb is small on a low CC bike, I had to fit a smaller tube inside the larger one so it can be used on any size bike.
Once I had finished with the petrol feeder, I paid some attention to the tank.
The filler cap refused to open, so after a good dose of W.D.40, and some Persuasion from a flat end screwdriver I finally released the bloody thing.
The cap will need replacing.
The inside of the tank looked pretty clean, with very little surface rust, I already had a solution to this problem ( White Vinegar ).
Pour a small quantity of white vinegar inside the tank, shake the tank around a little so it touches everywhere inside the tank, and it will after a short time remove any rust that has built up inside, and once the tank is cleaned out, the tank would be fine to use every day as normal.
The petrol tap was sized up solid but after a soaking in W.D. 40, it worked well with no problems .
( Photo 11 ) . Inside the tank, and the naffed petrol cap .
If I have any more grand-kids I'm going to see if i can have the little rugrat name W.D. 40 . :)
All the tank needs for the future is a total respray and that will happen once i decide what colour the bike will be.
I fitted the petrol feed to the carb and attempted to start the bike .
The Yamaha fired up with only three kicks and ticked over without missing a beat, not bad for a bike that has been sitting idle for ten years.
The exhaust has more holes in it then my grand-dads string vest, I was a little surprised at the state of the silencer as this is a two stroke bike and they tend to rust on the outside, because the internals of the silencer are saturated with two stroke oil they do not normally have this degree of corrosion, there were little rusted blow holes everywhere all along the length of the silencer, i was not to worried about this as i intend replacing it with an expansion chamber, so no loss there.
A week later when it was my weekend off, I removed the clock assembly, which on closer inspection was in a reasonable condition, it did look if it had been abused a little or taken some kind of impact at some point in it`s life, but generally didn't look to bad a condition.
I have decided not to put the clocks back on the bike, I have a Suzuki A100 speedo which is an old/new stock item that I have had for many years, a friend of mine ( Brian “ Mule “ Morgan ) gave me the clock when he worked as a bike mechanic in Two Wheel Services in Bridgend.
I have had the Suzuki speedo in my possession since the 1980`s.
I will need to make a bracket to fix it on to the top steering yoke, but that is not a big problem and can be sorted out with little effort.
I jet washed and cleaned all the ten-year-old oil and dirt off the bike, this took me ages, I don't think the bike had been cleaned for many years before it was taken off the road.
I removed the tank badges and dismantled the inner rear plastic mudguard also the grab-rail and the rear tail light assembly.
The next step is to remove the front end as most of the rear end has been cleared of bits and pieces.
The front end will be left until the next day when I am off from work, whenever that time comes around.
( Photo 12 ) . The petrol cap, before it was removed. the tank is in near enough perfect condition and considering the state of the rest of the bike, the tank as coped quite well with the salty Swansea air.
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