Workshop

Malcolm Thomason loves his MZ, but its going was definitely better than its stopping. He looked at the front brake with an engineer’s eye… Everybody knows that the Supa 5 front drum brakes are rubbish. Don’t they? But why? The front brake is the same size as the rear one, and that can lock the…

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Neil Cairns didn’t have the correct special tool to hand when he replaced the fork seals on his AJS single. So he… improvised… If you plan on keeping your old bike for a while and want to work on it yourself, then it seems sensible to build up a stock of the particular tools to…

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Derek Pickard looks at the stock MZ250 carb situation, tries the alternatives, finds what works and gives the details of how to make your ETZ run super sweet… Let’s start with a few hard facts: The BVF carb as fitted to the MZ two-strokes can only be considered ‘average’ in its metallurgy and machining. It…

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As Alan Goff discovered recently, it’s not always easy fit a new set of shock absorbers to your classic bike (particularly if you have just the one set of hands). He built a special service tool to take the strain… Alan Goff recently rebuilt his Triumph Tiger Cub (you’ll be able to read all about…

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Bennet Longman was so frustrated by the electrical shortcomings of his Ariel Square Four that he developed his own alternator conversion. So now he can ride at night with excellent illumination, without having to rev the engine senseless… Owners of the alloy-engine variants of the Ariel Square Four will be excited by the possibility of…

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Decoking MZ and CZ Exhausts and Baffles How would you remove the carbon from an Eastern Bloc two-stroke exhaust? Two RealClassic readers explain how they tackle the task… In recent issues of RealClassic there has been some discussion about removing the baffles from an MZ silencer. I’ve owned and ridden MZs for around twenty years…

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A combination of modern materials and time-honoured techniques can cause problems when it comes to assembling the bottom end of a classic British bike. RC readers debate the how and the why of it… In RC128, Ian Copcutt excellent article about rebuilding a Triumph triple showed how a micrometer is used to determine correct big…

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One front drum brake not good enough for you? DBD Brian grafted two BSA 8” front drums together to improve the braking on his Gold Star. Here’s how he did it… This is a conversion I carried out on my Goldie about ten years ago. As you can see, it’s two Goldie eight inch brakes…

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Many classic bike specialists run a technical helpline, and they’re often asked exactly the same question. So we investigated: what’s the most common technical question asked about Norton Commandos…? Some technical questions crop up time and again. Most classic bike specialists are happy to help their customers by providing this information and now they’re sharing…

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Even the best classic bike won’t corner correctly if its wheels are out of line. Les Howard has come up with an ingenious high-tech method to ensure one wheel follows the other, exactly… I’ve owned motorcycles for over 40 years, and repaired or renovated lots of them. Out of the all the maintenance jobs that…

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