ALIVE!

So after so much speculation as to what could possibly be wrong with my bike (condenser? points? coils?), it turns out that the battery was shot and wouldn't hold a charge. Mike over at Hiway Cycle was nice enough to fill up my new battery with acid and charge it up... and first kick she roared back to life!

Apparently, the ignition on the R5 relies completely on the battery for spark. So, a bad battery = poor spark. A good, fully charged battery should be able to run the bike for a few hours or so, with no lights on.

Anyways, looking forward to a nice long riding season.

Great mail

Sorry, been a while... PRIMER has been keeping me busy...

But that hasn't stopped the mail from coming in... Just got this great message the other day, had to pass it on:

Dude, you're my hero! My first motorcycle was a 1969 Honda 90 purchased for $200 in the summer of 1973. I was 15 and full of piss and vinegar. A year later I sold the Honda and bought a 1973 R5C. When I bought it it had a sissy bar and ape hanger handle bars. I yanked those off right away and put a set of clubmans on. The kids at school kept asking me, "Isn't it hard to steer with those handlebars?" Anyway, your restoration looks just like my Yammie looked over thirty years ago. I'm inspired. I might just try a resto myself!

Sounds familiar! Glad I can help inspire - I say, get that bike back out there!

Sweet NOS R5 Pin

It's not too often you see promotional stuff for a 34-year-old bike... so I thought it was kinda cool when I came across this Yamaha R5 lapel pin. Nifty, eh?

Transmission Fluid?

Sorry it's been a while since my last post - things have gotten busy around here...

Joe Hill wrote in with some excellent questions about the R5 transmission fluids:

The question I have is the transmission. Where should the fluid level be? Is there a way to drain the fluid and replace it? And what type of fluid does it take? I checked the trans fluid today, (the plastic cap and dipstick on the right side of the bike sitting on it) and it looked very low. I could see a gear. The guy I bought it off said that it was reciently changed, but other things he told me were done to the bike turned out to be false. I think it needs fluid but I don't know how much it holds or what type. I also need to know if there is an easy way to drain out what is in it to make sure the correct amount gets put in.

Well, Joe, I checked my trusty manual, but found nothing in the transmission sections, nor in the specs section listing capacities. I found it under the "Removing the Engine" section, of all places:



As you can (sorta) see in the photo, there is a single bolt in the underside casing of the transmission, just in front of the arm holding the driver footpegs around the exhaust pipes. This is the drain plug. Take it out to drain the tranny fluid.

The manual goes on to say:

- Warming up the engine will quicken draining the oil.
- The amount of oil is 1500cc (1.6 qts). Motor oil SAE 10W/30 should be used.

Seems pretty simple. At first I thought the perhaps the Autolube system was responsible for oiling the transmission as well, but since the specified oils are different, this cannot be the case. It must just be a self-contained oil bath, and it's probably a good idea to drain and replace anyway. After seeing this, I'll probably wind up doing this myself!

Hope that helps!

Rearsets! Rearsets!

For my Big-Three-Oh-Birthday-Bashtacular, my super-cool friends decided it would be best to mark my three centuries of non-stop-rocking this planet with some cool vintage rearsets for the R5! How freaking cool is that?

They haven't arrived yet, probably because there's not much demand for obscure early 70's Yamaha model rearsets at the moment... but I was awarded the instruction manual so I can drool over those puppies until they actually get here. Photos of said sets, installation and all their shiny, rear-set-y glory will be posted as it all goes down. Stay tuned...

Uber-special thanks to Brian, Michelle, Jim, Angela, Russ, Jessica, Lee and Jenna!

World's Fastest Indian T-shirt!

Paul Crowe from The Kneeslider just wrote to inform me that I'd won one of the shirts from their World's Fastest Indian-t-shirt giveaway... pretty swank! The shirt also has "I'm fast" emblazoned on the back. Excellent!

Thanks Paul! Keep up the good work over at The Kneeslider!

Yamaha R5 Owners Map!

http://www.frappr.com/yamahar5owners

I've set up a Frappr! Map to help locate all the R5 owners out there... follow the link above and get yourself on there!

From now on, there will be a mini-map located just before these blog entries, so that you can browse around and not have to leave this site...

This stuff is pretty neat!

Metallic Orange Paint Solution

I've gotten a bunch of email from others looking for the orange metallic paint that's used on the R5... as far as I could discover, it was officially called "Mandarin Orange" and was used on the 71 and 72 R5s... see these documents:

1971 R5B (656k PDF) - Mandarin Orange over white
1972 R5C (756k PDF) - Mandarin Orange over black

You'll need the free Adobe Reader to view and print these files. Thanks again to Don Q for this info.

Well, after rooting around a little on the r5yamaha Yahoo! Group, I found a response posted by the always-helpful Ed:

There are no codes! House of Color has paint that will get you there. here is a link:

http://www.hokpaint.com

I have restored many early Yamahas and the orange you need is a candy shot over a silver base (fine grain) black is black as long as all the black body parts are the same black . I.ve gotten a dead on match to this color on my 71 R5 and I've matched the candy red on my 65 YDS3 and the candy blue on my 66 YM1 using these paints. the color varies depending on how soft or heavy you spray it on.Thats how candies work,all the metalics are in the base coat and the color coat is translucent so more = darker. I hope this helps. Ed

So there it is... no quick and easy bottle touch-up for me. O well - hopefully this info can get in the hands of some more people who need it by posting it here.

Looking for the Orange Metallic Paint

Mike wrote in to inquire about the metallic Mandarin paint on his (and my) bike:

Saw your site and your great old bike. I have an old U7A scooter with the orange paint. I would like to do some cosmetic painting and I wonder if you could tell me where you got your paint; if you did.

Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck finding any official paint... so I thought I'd turn the question loose on you guys... anyone tracked some down?

Message from France

Xavier wrote in from France:

Hello,
Thanks,
Your website is great.
Go on this way.
Here's a pic of one of my RDs.
I love those bikes.

And here is Xavier's beautiful example: