Motocicletas de Mexico

Two of us from the shop escaped Pittsburgh winter for a week in Mexico. Tons of people ride tiny (by U.S. standards) motorcycles down there, and we loved it. Here are some photos of some of our favorites. Enjoy!

All the way from D.F. to Yucatan on a 200cc bike!

The ubiquitous Honda Passport

Honda Rebel - At 250cc one of the biggest bikes we saw!

Out Of The Office

It's vacation time here at Slagheap Cycles. The shop will be closed to the public from December 23rd until January 23rd. We will still be available by phone and email if you are interested in scheduling work with us once the shop re-opens. Look forward to some motorcycle-related photos from our various travels soon :)

Cafe Racers at the Shop This Year

 1980 Suzuki GS550

 1974 Yamaha RD200

1972 Honda CB350

Winter Motorcycle Storage

I rode my motorcycle out to Udipi Cafe today for lunch (great dosas!), and nearly lost some fingers to the cold. Unfortunately, it's getting to be that time of year when the bikes have to get put away. On that note, we are offering very affordable motorcycle storage and winterization. Here are the rates:

MOTORCYCLE STORAGE: $30/month

• Bike will be stored indoors and tarped to protect from dust/dirt
• Electrical outlets for battery tender (we can provide a tender for $5/month)
• Bike can be removed and re-stored at anytime, given reasonable notice, no extra charge
• We will pro-rate your charge if you are ready to ride mid-month

MOTORCYCLE WINTERIZATION: $50 + gasoline

• Powerwash motorcycle to prep for storage
• Fill gas tank and fuel system with stabilized gasoline, drain carburetors
• Fog engine cylinders with oil
• Remove battery and check condition
• Lift bike weight off tires and onto blocks
• Spray metal parts with rust prevention spray
• Spray plastic and vinyl with preservative spray 
• Cover motorcycle with breathable cover

MOTORCYCLE SPRING STARTUP: $50 + oil & filter

• Powerwash motorcycle
• Replace engine oil and change oil filter
• Fully charge and reinstall battery
• Clean & gap spark plugs
• Inflate and check tire pressure
• Lubricate and check drivechain
• Refill fuel system

Yamaha Valve Shim Replacement Tips

Here are some tips on changing valve shims on a 1990 Yamaha Radian. Enjoy!

Step 1 is removing the valve cover (lots of bolts!) and turning the engine to the correct position to measure the clearance of each shim. Remember to take the spark plugs out to make your life easier, and that only certain valves can be measured in each TDC position. The clearance is .11-.15mm for intake and .16-.20mm for exhaust valves. If any valve is out of clearance, you have to remove the existing shim and measure it, then order the appropriate replacement to get the clearance correct. The really useful tip that we learned in this process (that we will share with you here) is that you have to rotate the gap in the valve lifter...otherwise, it is almost impossible to get the shim out.

Here is a picture of the valve we want to remove the shim from. Notice, the gap in the lifter (outer ring) is far to the left, underneath the cam...that means trouble, since we are trying to take the shim out to the right side. The lifter will have to be rotated before the shim can be removed.

Now we have rotated the lifter gap to the right side - ou can see it in the front right. This will make it easy to get our tweezers in to grab that pesky shim. The important thing to know is that you have to do all this BEFORE you insert your shim tool, as once the tool is in, you can't move the lifter. Also, it has to be done with NO CAM PRESSURE on the lifter...the position of the cam lobe in the above pictures is perfect for having a gap between cam and lifter, but still the cam out of the way enough to get a tool on the lifter to rotate it around. So yeah, just put cam like that!

Okay, now our fancy shim tool is in, we have our super fancy tweezers from wallyworld, and that shim is coming right out... Again, notice the position of the cam lobe in all these pictures - in our experience, this was the ideal position for enough clearance for the lifter and the ability to actually reach the shim easily.

Voila! shim is out, ready for the number on it to be deciphered, compared to the chart in the Yamaha manual, and a proper replacement shim ordered. Contrary to reports, we had no problem with removing all the shims, waiting for the new ones to arrive, and then installing those into the shim-less valve lifters. In other words, you don't need to reinstall the old shims and do one at a time. That would be too painful!

Recent Bikes At The Shop

1974 Yamaha TX500 - The Precursor to the XS500, a dual overhead cam 8-valve twin in 1974!

1980 Honda CB900, first year of this bike with the unique hi-low gear dual transmission

1970 Yamaha HT-1, what a cute little 90cc 2-stroke...the perfect around-town classic

Carb Cleaning Surprises

We've cleaned lots of old, gunky carburetors over the years, but cleaning the carbs on a Honda CB350 yielded some extra surprises!

First was the inside of the float chamber...looking pretty bad!

But the bottom of the float bowl was much, much worse! What are those chunks?

But with a lot of carb cleaner, gasoline and elbow grease, we were able to get it all cleaned out. We replaced the float bowl gaskets and put it all back together. But upon filling it with gas, we noticed a leak! At first we thought it was a stuck float needle, then ruled that out and suspected a bad seal or a crack in the overflow tube, but further inspection showed that the gas was actually coming out of a really strange place...
See if you can spot it in this photo:

 Wait for it....Bam! The gunk in the bottom of the float bowl had actually eaten a pinhole through the aluminum float bowl. In the picture above you can look closely and see a small black dot. After further digging around, we enlarged it to the size below:

 We don't have the ability to do aluminum welding at the moment, so soldering was attempted but didn't hold. Luckily, there was a replacement float bowl on hand and so we swapped them out. After that, the bike was actually running great! The bike ended up being probably the strongest-running old Honda twin we've had come through the shop!