Having seen the beautiful jobs that everyone else is doing on their various TZRs, I thought it would be a good opportunity to offer my antithesis. The 1KT that I dragged home in boxes of bits is now back together again.
It looks awful. I've not done anything with the cosmetics other than to clean the worst of grime from the bodywork. Paintwork is all original, and it has obviously been crashed. Lots. The top fairing mount is bent, and the two exhausts are nowhere near in line with each other.
And the thing is, I love it. I've rebuilt, carefully, the suspension linkages and bearings. The brake calipers were stripped, cleaned, cleaned again, polished, cleaned a bit more, and rebuilt with new seals. The engine has had new pistons, rings, powervalve seals, crank seals, gaskets, etc. So, everything that makes it go, stop, and do the twiddly bits in between should be in good condition.
Once I've crashed it a few more times I may well take it off the road for a proper job, and sort out the cosmetics. But, for now, all it needs is a damn good seeing to. And once my finances have recovered a bit, it'll be MOTd and making a nuisance of itself on the local roads. Can't wait.
Some pictures at https://nronketti.wordpress.com/ - and there will also be pictures in next months Practical Sportsbike mag - they sent a photographer down a couple of weeks back for some piccies for the upcoming 'sub £1000 restoration' feature. Although I fear the word 'restoration' may be overly ambitious here. It's really just a case of getting it vaguely roadworthy again.
Wish you all a safe and peaceful 2016. Actually, sod that. Wish you all a smoky and fast 2016.
Neil, forgive me for asking - but the last time we saw you here, you were heading off to join the TZ club if I remember correctly. Did the TZ's bleed you dry ?(emotionally & financially) O:-)
Yup! I raced in the GP class for a couple of years, and had a great time. I'm glad to got the chance to use a TZ250 in anger on a racetrack, but I noticed that I wasn't enjoying the racing so much, and it was obviously costing me a fortune. So, I went back to TZRs for a season, and then ended up with a complete change for my last year - a GSX-R750 in the UK endurance series with a couple of mates on the team.
It's great to have another TZR in the garage at last - I've been after one for a while now. This one is definitely not going to be converted to a racebike though. I'm way too old and slow for that these days :)
Well, I finally got my finger out and MOTd the old girl today. It passed first time, which was good. And my first ride on a TZR since, um, 2003 or so was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me :)
A couple of advisories - there's a bit of play in the rear suspension linkage, and the chain was a little tight. Not bad I suppose for a first MOT since bringing the thing home in a box.
It's not all beer&skittles though. It's difficult to ride on small throttle openings at low speed around town - hunting and surging pretty badly. I have a feeling it's either the needles up the swannee, or I need to run a leakdown test. I suspect the latter - my guess would be the carb rubbers are letting air in. Is there a chap here who makes leakdown testers?
But despite this, I have a massive smile on my face. It's so bloody good to be back on a TZR again. It's been waaaaaay too long. Now, back out to the garage to sort out the chain and suspension linkage. And I may just sit there with a beer and look at the thing for 20 mins.
hi I had a leak down kit made by maccas on here
read your article Practical Sportsbike mag nice and spent less than I have on my 4dl
Latest installment in the rebuild is now at https://nronketti.wordpress.com/ if anyone is hysterically bored or suffering from insomnia. Quick precis: Passed MOT, first ride was good in places. The leakdown tester from maccas is brilliant. Within two minutes I'd found a leak that would otherwise have taken hours, and probably involved a lot of impressive bad language.
It's going to be a brilliant summer :) Bring it on.
Excellent! Putting the £££s into all the right places and not worrying too much about stuff that can be tidied up as and when you think it deserves it. My kind of rebuild 8).
I guess a quick update is in order, seeing as I've been catastrophically lazy with regard to documenting what I've been doing...
So, firstly, the intake leak was fixed - the carb rubbers had split where the balance pipe fits. I'm pretty sure that what happened is someone has used it in the past as a handle to pick the engine up with. I know this from experience! It's something I did on one of my early TZRs. Anyhow. Fixed that up with some glue and sealant, and all seems well in that area. I also cleaned up the mating surfaces of the reed cages, as there was a bit of old gasket hanging around which wouldn't have done much good.
In more exciting news, I spoke with Martin77, and a few days later a large box containing a pair of his pipes arrived on my desk. I put a few coats of lacquer on there to try to stop the worst of the rusting, and nailed them on with a pair of Tyga end cans. And, it was immediately apparent that not only had they cleaned up the midrange a touch, but also they come in about about 7 or 8kgs a pair lighter than stock pipes, and sound marvellous. So far, so good.
Next up was the programmable powervalve controller that I'd wanted to try - my mate Rik (ex YPM champion, ex GP250 champion, annoyingly fast on anything with wheels) had one going spare. Which is odd, as he doesn't have a TZR. So I plugged it in, and gave it a whizz up the road on stock settings. Then reset it for a more aggressive program to get the valves fully open earlier (the pipes peak at about 9.5K, while the powervalves weren't fully open until 10K!) and spent the next three days smiling like a loon. I later got it on the dyno and found out that just swapping the program gained and easy 4bhp at the top and with benefits from about 6K upwards.
Sadly, something has killed that programmable unit, so that's going back to be repaired. Instead, I've modded the stock 1KT YPVS unit to get the valves fully open by about 8600RPM. At the same time I lifted the needles a couple of notches as it was running slightly lean with the throttle about half open or so. That's cleaned the fuelling up nicely, but I'm tempted to stick a larger pilot jet in there and drop the needles back one clip, to try to tidy up a little cough just off idle. It's not bad by any means. But that's the problem messing with carbs. Once you start, you just keep chasing ever smaller improvements.
All in all, it's pretty good right now. The pipes, and YPVS work have definitely made it feel cleaner and faster to ride. Really need to get it back on the dyno to finish the setting up, but that's more time and money that I don't have at the mo. So, right now, I'm just going to ride the spuds off it. Up to Cadwell next week for a trackday with a group of mates. Should be good.
As always more stuff and photos at https://nronketti.wordpress.com/ - clearly it's no longer the 'sub £1000 resto' that featured in the magazine a few months ago - the pipes made sure of that! But I reckon that it's now pretty much the roadbike that I wanted from the start. Light, good tyres, good brakes, good suspension, and a crisp motor.
Nice! I like your blog, you have been at it for ages! 16 years and still going has to be a record of some sorts :o 8)
Great write up!
I too have been considering a programmable powervalve controller, but haven't pulled the trigger.
Glad you wrote about that bit.
I had mine repaired and altered from the nice chap in Athens( Nick at 2T racelab), the controller had failed completely.
It has been put back onto the bike and everything is now making noises which is a bonus, cant say about the differents settings for it at the moment as the rest of the bike is still in pieces