Thursday, May 24, 2007

More on Martin's Gorgeous R5





A few posts ago I presented Martin's beautifully restored R5 road racer (see Martin's Gorgeous R5 April 13, 2007). I asked Martin to elaborate a little more on the bike, to tell me the specs, the restoration, the original history, etc... Well, he responded - check out the before and after above!

Here is a little of its' known history:

I purchased the bike in 2006 and it was in the condition shown [in top photo]. It was in running condition although all of the fibreglass was crazed.

The bike was originally sold by Granby Yamaha in 1970 and set up with the full sports fairing from new... The bike has only had 2 previous owners the first for 2 years and the 2nd from 1972 to 1980 when I an told he unfortunately died of cancer, the bike was then looked after by a friend who started it regularly and rode very occasionally.

On the day I collected the bike it started with no problems and I took it into my van to my local dealers where it passed its MOT test . So I arrived home with a fully working motorcycle after it had been mostly out of use for 20 years!

The 2nd time out the oil pipe came loose and it seized on one side. After some fantastic help from Governors Bridge Motorcycles in Atherstone UK (01827 712906) who had a brand new pair of 1st oversize Dykes type pistons in stock I decided to completely restore the bike.

The forks where slightly pitted so I sent them for rechroming and machining to Philpot's in Luton who did a great and speedy job, the barrels where rebored by Paul Jones at PJ Motorcycle engineers in Wolverhampton UK. I have used Paul for years and he is without doubt the UK's best 2-stroke specialist.

Finally I repaired all of the tank, seat & fairing myself. The fibreglass was completely rubbed back through the gel coat, then had several lays of finish re-applied to deal with the crazing. Mark Burgess at Jawell paints in Wolverhampton who I use regularly helped with advice, and the final finish was 1 coat etch primer, 1 coat high built acrylic primer, 2 coats of 2 pack white gloss which was hand matched by Mark to a sample of the original fibreglass colour, and the stripe is in 2 pack Rosso Corsa. The paint scheme has been based on Phils Read's 1969 factory bike.


Thanks for sharing, Martin!

Custom R5B For Sale



About a year ago, Jim from Salt Lake City wrote in to tell me about an R5 he had come across... Numbers-matching 1971 R5B that has had a fair amount of custom work done. Painted frame, engine, tank, headlamp and trim ring, sidecovers, as well as a custom seat. Also mounted are low bars, fuel filter, exhaust chambers, foam intake filters and rare matching left/right mirrors. Very cool - someone put some wrench time in on this one back in the day. Unfortunately the bike has not run in some time, but is not frozen up or rusted - just needs some time and TLC to get her going again. Looking for a good home.

Interested? Get in touch with Jim here.



Sunday, May 20, 2007

R5 from Denmark



Flemming Juel from Frederikshavn, Denmark, writes in to share pics of his beautiful 1971 R5B. He notes that they "they speaks for themselves"... and boy, do they. Gorgeous!