Yamaha FZ750 Restoration - Clip-ons (handlebars)

 I got a bent one!

So the left clip-on has taken a bruising at some stage, not to mention the rust. I initially thought it might be able to be straightened but it had flattened the tube where it was bent and would never be right however much you looked at it. Secondhand ones are few and far between, and expensive, and I didn't want to risk getting another bent one.

On closer inspection of the offending item, you can see where they are originally welded to the cast clamp. With a bit of careful drilling and jiggery-pokery, we should be able to get the old steel tube off the clamp itself. It was pretty solid but gave way in the end. 

I cut off the bad section and placed what was left in the lathe to take the outer diameter down enough to remove the threaded section that holds the bar end weights. Eureka!

All that was left to do was to go to the steel shop and pick up a length of 22mm pipe with a 2mm wall thickness. Pretty common, one would hope. Not in Australia it would seem, it's no longer available.

I then ordered some "Pipe Furniture" sections which were supposed to be 22mm O.D., but even they turned out to be 21mm. Bridgey pointed out the old handlebars on the ZXR project bike (more on that later) and it gave me an idea. A set of straight drag bars should give me the dimensions I needed. Then I remembered a load of factory-seconds bars I bought and stored a while ago. I already had the correct material in stock!

So this is how it looked. The end is pitted with rust because Yamaha didn't paint them right to the end. For obvious reasons on the throttle side, I guess, and then they just wanted them to look the same.

WD 40 - as important as the brew!

What do I reach for when I need to clean the bike?  

WD-40 


A friend of mine used to refer to it as "magic spray". It seems to be good at everything. From resurrecting remote key fobs on cars to stopping squeaking hinges in the house.
Yes, I use it for all sorts of things.


Back wheel covered in chain grease, brake dust and general dirt?  
A spray with the old WD and a wipe with a rag leaves it shiny and clean (just keep it off the brake discs).


Chain covered in road filth?  
I use WD 40 and a toothbrush (no not the one I use in my mouth - I use the wife's instead) and give it a good scrub, wipe dry with a rag before spraying with chain lube.  This keeps the chain looking shiny and new.  I've heard claims that it can ruin the O-rings on chains but I've never had a  problem. When I sold my Hayabusa, it was seven years old, had twenty-odd thousand miles on it and still with original chain and sprockets (which never seemed to need adjusting)  - so I must have been doing something right.


Plastics faded?
Yes, WD 40 breathes new life into old, grey, lustreless plastic panels, mirrors, mudguards (fenders), switchgear etc. A spray and wipe down with a rag soon has them shining in their original black gloss.


Tar spots on bodywork?
It'll dissolve those too.




And not only that, it lubricates cables, pivot points 
(footpegs, kickstarts), locks - the list goes on.


Make sure your garage has a can at the ready!

How to pick a restoration project.

So you fancy a project? Unsure of the best way to go about it? Or even what sort of bike to try and restore?

The best advice I can give is this - don't buy something with the intention of "doing it up" quickly to make money. That's not a restoration, that's buying and selling.

A proper restoration, not necessarily concourse, can easily turn into a money pit and more often than not, you won't get your money back - not in the short term anyway.

It's not about the money or the time you have to put in, it's the love of it. Taking something that looks fit for scrap and turning it into a useable bike that looks as good as new, if not better. What's more, you'll be learning all the time - this in itself should be enough to keep you going through the months when you've had enough. Believe me, there will be times when you've had enough.

So what bike should you choose?

Something that appeals to you, possibly even something obscure or rare - it's your choice but you have to like it because you'll be spending a lot of time with it. If you can't bear to look at it, you're never going to put the effort in.

Think about what you want to do with it when it's finished. Ride it? Sell it? Look at it?

If you plan to take on that Europe trip you always dreamed about, choose something that is big enough to cope. That BSA Bantam will struggle two-up, with luggage, popping to town let alone thousands of miles through country after country.

If you want to sell it afterwards, look at the prices they go for now and do the maths. Bear in mind you could easily spend a few grand bringing an old bike back to life. If you have to do a full restoration, getting back the money you spend is harder than you think.

If you just want to have a pristine example of something - it doesn't matter what it is. Just enjoy it.

This AJS Model 30 pretty much got back the money it cost to restore including original cost. That's doing as much of the work as possible, ourselves. So think about that. A couple of years spent restoring a bike and just about broke even when selling.

The hours spent can't be counted - it's a hobby and a passion. Nothing else matters.