A Low Down Dirty Shame

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Motopsycho

This is not about motorcycles, although it does involve roads. Two different roads in two different counties in S.C. that I travel regularly. They do have a few things in common, both are rural roads, both are located within a mile or two of county waste disposal sites, and both of these roads have been used as dumping grounds by thoughtless idiots who think it is okay to dispose of their garbage on other peoples property without compensation, or regard for the taxpayers either.

Estate Road, Florence S.C.

Estate Road is a relatively short dirt road between Old Marion Highway & Koppers Road in rural Florence county. Despite the fact that a waste collection site is literally just around the corner, this road has apparently become the dumping site of choice for people who just don’t give a shit about the environment, the property rights of their fellow man, or how much the citizens of the area will eventually be screwed out of to clean it up. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. If you are one of the people dumping on this road you should be ashamed of yourself. If you can’t take your garbage to the dump, just store it on your own property.

Now let’s roll over to the next county over, Darlington S.C. Home of the Darlington Speedway and birthplace of the NASCAR superspeedway. Traveling towards Hartsville on Billy Farrow Highway You will see Auburn School Road on the right, it travels through a fairly decent lower middle class neighborhood, that although a couple of the homes are suffering from the abandonment & neglect brought upon by current economic conditions, is actually holding up nicely.

Auburn School Road, Darlington S.C.

What has happened here is especially shameful due to the fact that the perps actually dumped commercial garbage from a profit making enterprise into a ditch on the front of someone else’s property. Did I mention that this is about 2 miles from the main county waste collection site. Yes they charge a small fee for the disposal of commercial truck tires, but that is just the price you have to pay for doing business. If you can’t afford it perhaps you shouldn’t be in business. Hey if I had my druthers we’d have a perfect libertarian utopia where you would pay for disposal of all your own garbage according to how much you or your company actually disposed of with out your fellow citizens, who might not wast as much as you, being forced to help pay for it. Here are a bunch of tractor trailer tires dumped next to the street by some jackass too lazy & stupid to drive 2 more miles to get rid of some old tires.

< Auburn School Road, Darlington S.C.>

To make it worse since this dumb ass mother trucker, has made this nice neighborhood street into an illegal tire dumping site, other idiots have followed the lead and started throwing out car tires there now.

< Auburn School Road, Darlington S.C.>

Do they not realize that residents are allowed to dispose of a limited number of car tires at no cost? Less than 2 miles from where you threw this out? I would like to find you and beat the stupid and lazy out of you. As for the truck tires like I said disposal of business waste is part of the cost of doing business, if you can’t afford it, you should not be in business.

Now if you can’t get to the dump or if you cant afford to take it I have no problem with you storing your garbage in a proper & safe manner own your own property until you can afford proper disposal. However when you take it out and throw it out beside the road you are stealing from the owners of the property it lands on, and from all of your fellow citizens if the government sends out a crew to pick it up.

And that’s a low down dirty shame….

The Fog Thief A Psyco Product Review!

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Motopsycho

Hello Everyone,

I was contacted and asked to review a rather unique device designed to prevent face shield fogging. Since cold weather riding is the best test of anything that claims to prevent fogging inside of a helmet, I told the maker to ship me one to test and in their generosity they also sent me one to give away to a lucky reader. I’ll tell you how you can win a Fog Thief of your very own at the end of this review.

We start out on a chilly Good Friday morning, according to my local weather babe on t.v. my hometown was supposed to be at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, but I think whomever keeps that particular thermometer must keep it under a heat lamp. Here is a shot of my car’s rear windshield at 6:30 a.m. 34 degrees my ass.

thick frost on my car windshield this morning.

Yesterday when I got home from the office a fedex package from Montie Design the firm that is helping to develop and market this product, was waiting for me with two samples of the Fog Thief. It is a very simple design, imagine if you will an upside down snorkel. The mouth piece seems to be directly modeled from a scuba mouth piece, but instead of a hose leading to a tank there is a u shaped plastic snorkel that simply points down and out of`the bottom of your lid. Such a simple seeming idea you wonder why you have never seen it before.

Now if you are not used to using a snorkel or scuba gear this will take some getting used to. Initially it would trigger my gag reflex after a few minutes, but I got used to it. The mouth piece is top grade neoprene rubber and very tough, I am sure you could eventually chew through it, but you can really clench your teeth on it without any damage to the mouth piece or your teeth.

The company brochure claims that it will work with all helmet designs and it worked with mine but it was a very tight fit, that shifted the position of the Fog Thief in my mouth. On the plus side the tight fit meant that it was not necessary for me to keep my teeth clenched to keep it in place.

: A product of FunProjex!; For this test I decided to try a different approach and go offroading instead , this mint condition ’99 Arctic Cat 300 4X4 just happened to be sitting in my shop this week. This is as fine a utility atv as you can find on the planet and makes a great trail crawler.; With your helmet on the Fog thief is barely visible.

the Motopsyco on a 300 4×4 Arctic Cat

With your helmet off or open the Fog Thief looks kinda ridiculous.

Can you spot the walrus in this picture?

Does it work as advertised? Yes it does, as long as you remember to breathe through your mouth. A couple of time I got excited and forgot to do this & fogged up my shield. Readers with a sharp memory will remember that I used this helmet to test an anti-fog spray a few weeks ago, but to make this test fair I cleaned the shield with plain soap & water to remove the anti-fog spray. After about twenty minutes or so I was able to relax & get used to it but occasionally did have to stop and wipe away some saliva that leaked out around it. Chances are that if you use an open face helmet with a shield, or any other helmet that has enough room for the Fog Thief to sit squarely in your teeth this probably will not be a problem for you. I really think the fitment and usability will be different for each individual and the only way to find out is to try it for yourself.

It worked well for me but I did not always remember to breathe correctly, every now and then I’d have these little moments and forget. You know how it goes, you spot a little hill & get a little air, Yeehaa! Then you forget and exhale through you nose, oops fogged up again. Oh well you can’t do too much playing like that on this kind of atv anyway.

coming home on the Arctic Cat ATV

Every new item has it pros and cons, let’s start with the cons;

1. Definitely requires some getting used to especially if you have never used scuba or snorkel gear.

2. Fits better under some helmets than others

3. Requires a certain amount of self discipline or nose plugs to use successfully

Now let’s go with the pros;

1. If you do your part it works as advertised!

2. Top quality materials

3. Made in the U.S.

If you are a serious cold weather rider, snowmobiler, or or any kind of racer and you have trouble with the face shield fogging this just might be the solution you are looking for. For more information or to purchase one to try see the Fun Projex website

Now for the give away; I have here a brand new never used Fog Thief that I will be giving away on April 20th 2013. All you have to do is click the Facebook link at the upper right hand corner of this page and like the motopsyco.com Facebook page and leave a comment with the words Fog Thief in it. Alternatively if you do not have a Facebook account or don’t want to use it you may leave me a comment below, but please remember that comments are moderated and may take a day or two to appear. If you have already liked my FB page & would like to enter the drawing, you can just leave a comment as described above.

On April 30th my lovely assistant will draw one lucky winners name from a hat and I will send that person a Fog Thief of their own to try out!

Peace Y’all

‘Psyco

Peace Y’all

I took this shot while out test riding the Fog Thief & wanted to share it with you.

Why Can’t I Let Dead Dragons Lie?

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Motopsycho

What I see anytime I see an old Japanese classic left to rot…

Here we go again, I knew this old Honda was bad news the first time I saw it. Years of abandonment & sitting out in the weather had taken a severe toll on every single piece of it, how often do you see a rust hole in the top of a gas tank?

To make matters worse it is a 1980 model the first year Honda started using that sway backed horse looking frame designed to get the seat closer to the ground in hopes of getting more people into riding and thus increasing sales. And yet here it is sitting on my lift as I am evaluating its potential as a custom possibly a cafe racer. The S.C. inspection sticker on the fork is dated 1988, and this was probably the last time it was on the road as S.C. did away with inspections soon after. The carb float bowls were completely gummed up and one slide was frozen in its bore. But the residue cleaned out okay and corrosion was minimal leading me to suspect that it was pre-ethanol gasoline in the carburetors!. It actually fired up and ran after a fast & furious carb cleaning. Heck I even wire brushed the original spark plugs and stuck them back in as they all 4 spit great big blue sparks during my initial testing.

It actually was kind of anticlimactic, this ancient corroded cobweb covered corpse fired right up and ran like a Honda. I felt like some necromancer in a fantasy story that had prepared a powerful magic spell to reanimate the dried bones of a dead dragon only to have it sit up, yawn and say, “well that was a nice little nap,” before I could cast my spell.

It did smoke a little but there were no strange noises, not even a cam chain rattle. Since the engine is very rough looking cosmetically and I like to be as close to 100% sure about my motorcycles as possible,the next step in this evaluation is to pull the engine from the frame & take the head off and have a look inside. If all looks fixable I start renewing this bike in earnest beginning with an engine overhaul.

Although I try to kid myself that I am still evaluating this thing, I did purchase a set of wire wheels that I spotted on Ebay at a good price, & to crank it up I bought a new Shorai LFX battery for it. Experience tells me that I should wind up with around 3-4 thousand dollars in a motorcycle that might be worth 2 grand at the most. :O

Shorai LFX the best motorcycle battery money can buy.

Help here I go again 🙂

Random Tech Tip, Vintage Carburetor Intake Boots & Clamps

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Motopsycho

Today’s post is about those annoying rubber boots that attach your carburetors to the spigots on the head(s).

dry brittle old carb boots

Often on old project bikes these are hardened and brittle, most of the time you can get the carbs out but it is almost impossible to get them back in. One thing that greatly helps is to take a heat gun and heat them up to soften them. Some people on the net have removed them and placed them in very hot water. Regardless of the method a small amount heat will help get them soft enough to reinstall the carbs. Just do not use an open flame or you will end up with a charred & useless mess. On some motorcycles these bolt to the head and on others they clamp to spigots cast into the head. If you are dealing with removal of old intake boots from a set of spigots like shown in the picture above prepare to be very patient. Don’t just grab a big screwdriver & start prying! First loosen & completely remove all of the clamps, then twist and pull them by hand until they will at least wiggle & turn on the spigots. If they still won’t come off you have to decide if it is worth the risk to pry them off. Choose your leverage points very carefully, if you have any doubt at all about being able to remove them safely or if you are working on a rare or valuable antique or classic machine this is where you break out a good sharp utility knife & cut them off. The cooling fins and other castings on most motorcycles are very thin and will often break before an old piece of dry rotted rubber will,so better to be safe than sorry.

intake manifold clamps

Also be sure to look at the clamps when removing the boots. They are not just straight rubber hoses, often one end is bigger than the other, and the clamps are 2 different sizes as on this Honda CB650. The intake manifolds only fit one way but they have directional arrows on them, the clamps are not marked so be sure you note which ones go where.

That’s all for tonight, until next time have a fantastic life!

The 2013 Charlotte International Motorcycle Show Part 2!

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Motopsycho

Nicky Hayden #69 Ducati Corse 1000cc

Welcome to the second installment of my pictorial review of the Charlotte International Motorcycle Show. For the second post I have actually decided to treat this as a product review, because in a sense that is exactly what the IMS series is, a product produced to entertain and inform motorcycle enthusiasts.

I thought Mahindra made tractors

Danny Webb #99 Mahindra 250cc

There were displays from all of the major manufactures except for Kawasaki & Yamaha. This did lead to a lot of Facebook grumbling from fans of these two marques. Yes I wish they had arranged to be there, but in this economy it is understandable that some companies have had to curtail such activities. Still there was plenty to see. Harley Davidson even brought in their “demo bike on a treadmill” setup for people to try. The Polaris Corporation set up a display for their recently acquired Indian brand. Of course the first one I made a beeline for was the Ducati display!

One of those stunning Ducati Girls

The boys from Ton Up N.C. had a fantastic club display with a couple of Tritons and some other fine vintage iron, for everyone to admire. On the other side of the hall were the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, and the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club.

Moto Guzzi V7 Racer

Honda CB1100

Two of the vendors there were for the new lithium technology batteries. I was so impressed with this technology that I have actually become a dealer for the Shorai LFX line so be sure check back here soon as I will be setting up an online store to sell them and will have a link and review posted here.

There were some leather & t-shirt vendors, & of course lots of insurance companies. We got to check out a lot of new lids jackets etc.

Finally the retro bike we’ve all been waiting for!

The XDL Street Jam show was worth the price of admission all by itself. I greatly enjoyed trying the “Pit Stop Challenge” contest which involved changing the rear tire on a Grand Prix race bike, my time was 24 seconds by the way. And of course as you can tell from my pictures the custom bike show was awesome.

Whiskey Tango 650 Yamaha Chopper

Tennessee Rose 650 Yamaha Chopper

Details,details, details!

Arlen Ness Digger

another Whiskey Tango XS650

So many super cool details on this BSA.

When was the last time you saw one of these?

And now for my favorite group the custom crotch rockets.

one of 2 Suzuki Hayabusa Sweepstakes bikes!

The other Suzuki sweepstakes prize.

Speedworx Enterprize 2009 Honda CBR1000

Fantastic from any angle

Black Widow Suzuki Hayabusa

Now this is a Kan-o-tuna. The 1100cc motor turns it into a shark.

Out of all the Harleys there my favorite was this give away Sportster built by Roland Sands.

I’ll take mine in flat black please…

Regardless of what a few whiners on the net have said it was well worth 15 bucks. Hell earlier this year I paid $20 to go to local show that was so dead I left after 20 minutes so to me this one was fantastic. Yes it could have been better; I personally would have liked to have seen more club or custom shop displays, and since there was plenty of space left in the Convention Center an open custom & vintage motorcycle show in addition to the invitation only J&P Cycles Ultimate Custom Builder show.

Mrs. Psyco & I actually sprang for the VIP tickets. It worked out great for us since we are early risers anyway. We got in early & had a little guided tour & got a preview of the XDL show so to me it was definitely worth the extra money, especially since I was pushing my lovely wife around in a wheelchair due to a very badly sprained ankle. We’ll be going back next year.

Even with the giant insurance commercial that dominated a large area of the floor (don’t bitch if Progressive didn’t sponsor this event it probably wouldn’t happen at all), this was still a great way to kill a few hours & meet lots of interesting people and learn about new motorcycles and accessories. So it was worth the few bucks to get in & I am happy to recommend that you try to attend one near you next year.

Existential Motorcycles The March 2013 Website of the Month

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Motopsycho

Existential Motorcycles is a different kind of motorcycle website. It’s run by a gentleman in N.C. whom repairs & restores motorcycles for a living. While it is in some ways an advertisement for his business, when you read it you realize that it is so much more. Articles like The Wretched Truth About Restorations, and So You Think You Want a Custom Cafe Racer, tell a kind of truth you may never read anywhere else.

I really like the following quote from his home page.

“My shop is in an over-sized two-car garage attached to my home. My work is a calling, in the theological sense of the word. Ethical and moral questions arise every day – they are hard, sharp, unambiguous and unavoidable.”

There are people who can work on motorcycles, and there are people who can write really well. When we find someone who can do both we should pay attention.

Peace Y’all

Another Junkyard Dog! 1980 Honda CB650

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Motopsycho

Man this thing is a raggedy P.O.S. I ought to have my head examined for bringing it home.

seriously rusted out motorcycle fuel tank

bleeping rust

But I’m a big believer in if your gonna seriously customize something you ought to be fixing one up, not tearing a nice one down.

1980 SOHC Honda CB650 before

Before I even pushed it in the barn I popped the rotor cover off of the engine and made sure the engine would turn. If it hadn’t turned it would have gone on the trailer and headed to the steel mill.

Here’s the right side.

After verifying that the engine was actually free, I pushed it into the barn, hooked it up to a battery, and did a compression test on it. All four cylinders had compression but the range between the four was a little more than I would have liked, about a 4o psi variation, but that variation may be due to it sitting for so long. I’ll go ahead and check the valve lash & clean the carbs to get it running again, then even if it seems to be running alright I’ll do another compression check just to be sure the engine is sound. I already have a set of wire wheels coming for it!

Peace Y’all

Blaze Anti Fog Spray & Wax Another Psyco Product Review!

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Motopsycho

twas a dark & cloudy morn

Good morning everyone, it is 8:05 a.m. on a cold grey morning here in the hinterlands of Hartsville, South Cackalacky. The temperature is just above freezing (mid 30s) with the occasional light spitting of sleet & rain. I just got back from a motorcycle ride and have a report for you. Everyone knows the best way to keep your motorcycles carburetors clean and ready to go is to ride the damn thing all year round whenever possible. I am not as hard core as I used to be but even in the bleak midwinter I try to keep it on the road enough to keep it running. Besides when the engine is sucking in really dense cold air it seems to scream at me with a whole new level of ferocity that makes me want to twist the throttle harder & harder, damn the frostbite to fingers it feels gooood!

Where I live the winters are generally mild and most of the time the midday temperatures range from 40-60 degrees Fahrenheit But to take advantage of the afternoon temps on my commute home I sometimes have to leave the house while the thermometer hovers around the freezing mark and the frost is thick on the ground. and most of the time this means I have to ride with my face shield up because it fogs up so much. So picture this, a 30 mile commute, in 30 degree weather, with your face shield up and old Jack Frost gnawing on your nose like a puppy on an expensive pair of handmade leather shoes. Even I am not enough of a masochist to say I enjoy this.

This story starts off innocently enough last week at the International Motorcycle Show in Charlotte when I heard this natural born snake oil salesman calling out offering to clean my glasses for me. He did the little routine where he cleaned one lens and put them on a humidifier to show how great the stuff was at preventing fogging. Normally I ignore these people but all of these cold mornings have affected my brain so I decided to listen to him and actually purchase a kit to try.

The Blaze Antifog cleaner kit with microfiber cloth with my glasses & helmet.

To be totally honest my glasses have never actually fogged up during my morning commute. The helmet I use is an HJC CL-Max modular helmet that I have owned for several years now. I have been very happy with it so far, but I did cheap out & get the plain Jane face shield with no tinting or antifog properties.

Following the manufacture’s instructions which can be found here

I cleaned my glasses first

Then did the exterior of the helmet with the spray. In the past I have always used Pro Honda Spray Cleaner on my helmets. It definitely is the best thing I have ever found for dried bug removal and is safe on polycarbonate plastics unlike most household glass cleaner. But it has no antifog capacity at all and is actually meant to be uses as a cleaner/detailer product for your bike not your lid.

The Blaze spray worked really well for cleaning the optics, but it took a little more work to scrub away the dried on bugs than I am used to.

removed face shield for thorough cleaning

After all of my lenses were nice & shiny I put it all back together to wait for morning.

Then today I got up nice and early put on my riding gear, went out to the barn and coaxed the Minimum Ninja into life. While walking to the shop I was able to fog the shield by deliberately blowing air upward toward it. Not perfect but hey normally time I step out the back door on a cold morning it is completely fogged over.

a little foggy but not bad

Riding out the long dirt road that I live on to get to the nearest asphalt I was able to leave the shield closed and was not blinded by the fog.

This is not a fun curve for a sportbike when it’s the least bit wet.

When riding very slow or stopped for more than a few seconds I had to crack the shield open to keep it completely clear, but never had to raise it up more than a smidgen.

further down the road

Here’s a shot of that gloomy overcast sky. Normally I would have preferred to try this out for you on a super bright sunshine filled, but freezing cold clear morning, when the glare from the low hanging sun reveals every flaw in your shield but it didn’t happen that way.

a gloomy morning at the crossroads

My final verdict on the Blaze Antifog cleaner products? Well it’s actually positive but mixed. I really need to check it out in a variety of more conditions, but normally this morning I would have been riding around with my faceshield open just to be able to see, so that alone is a great thing. It’s not perfect, I still had a little fogging when stopped or at very low speed but as soon as I began moving it went away. Perhaps with continued use it will improve more, at this time I only have applied it to my shield once. At 25-30 bucks a pop for the kit, it is rather expensive, & I would like to see it around $19.99 or so myself, but it does work. It’s up to you, if you were blind what would you pay to see? I do recommend removing the face-shield and using something made for painted surfaces to clean the rest of the helmet. Not because this stuff will hurt it, but because it is expensive and there are other products such as the Honda cleaner, that do a better job of removing thick caked on bug guts.

If you are a year round rider and do not have a factory anti-fog coating on your face-shield or goggles you might want to try it out.

Let’s Ride Y’all

I had to include a picture of the Minimum Ninja!

The 2013 Charlotte International Motorcycle Show Pg.1

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Motopsycho

XDL Street Jam at Charlotte International Motorcycle Show

Hello Dear Readers,

Last weekend the lovely Mrs. Psyco and I attended the 2013 Progressive International Motorcycle Show at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte N.C. Since it was my first time attending this show I wanted to share my experiences with you. We are morning people and like to pretend we are children of privilege so I sprung for the early admission VIP tickets. This worked out very well for us as two weeks ago my lovely wife slipped and fell in the kitchen on our way out the door. It turns out that some ladies shoes are probably far more dangerous than motorcycles. The first picture above is from the XDL Street Jam show.

The Diavel made me do it!

A couple of years ago one of my very first blog posts was about the introduction of the then brand spanking new Ducati Diavel. Well I finally got to see one in the flesh and throw a leg across it. It fit very well and everything seemed to fall perfectly into position for me, plus with my but firmly on the seat I was able to put my feet flat on the floor. Now I really gotta go get a demo ride on one. The fine people at Ducati Greensboro provided the bikes on display at the show.

Gary Nelson’s Cafe/ Scrambler CB750 was my favorite bike at the show.

Moving on to the show bikes in the J&P Cycles Ultimate Custom Builder contest. The above 76 Honda CB750 is the coolest thing I have ever seen. At the risk of sounding conceited I’ll confess that up until now my all time favorite was my very own Yamaha XT600 supermoto that I featured in an earlier post. But Gary Nelson is one of the most talented vehicle engineers to ever live. Just look at all of his work in NASCAR. No wonder this is my new favorite custom motorcycle of all time.

The Brew Racing CB350 Racebike

In 2011 Brew Racing Frames was my listing as website of the month for December. Nothing is more awesome than seeing a genuine for real racing motorcycle entered in a show like this against all of the pampered show bikes. Enlarge the picture below for it’s racing pedigree.

Brew Racing CB350 Credentials

Triumph Scrambler

Here are a couple of beautiful bikes from the Triumph display, one new & one old.

nothing classes up the joint like a beautiful old Triumph.

One of the most interesting things on display was the Tharo EV Scooter by a division of Tharo Systems. It does have a much more realistic MSRP (around $4200 or so) than most big electric scooters.

Tharo EV electric scooter

Of course since I just love old rice grinders the VJMC booth was my favorite club/vendor display stand at the meet.

Check out this old CL450 Scrambler.

There’s a soft spot in my heart (or is it in my head?) for old scramblers of any make.

Honda CBX1000 six cylinder

The six cylinder Honda CBX was the epitome of early ’80s muscle bike development. But with introduction of the GSXR soon to come the original musclebike era came to a close in the mid “80s with only the Mighty V Max soldiering on alone until the beginning of the 21st century.

side view of CBX

That’s all for now, but check back soon as I will post some more pics and my analysis of the good things, and the shortcomings of the show.

Junkyard Dogs: 1989 Yamaha XT600!

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Motopsycho

Theft recovered 1989 XT600 right side

Hey Y’all

It’s funny how except for one 1999 750 Honda Nighthawk, all of my bikes seem to have started off as junkyard dogs, that’s just the way I roll. Several years ago I picked up this Yamaha XT600 that had been stolen, thoroughly trashed & left for dead in the woods for several months before being found.

Left side of salvaged 89 Yamaha XT600

I was hoping just to clean the carbs and replace the missing pieces but as fate would have it at some point the bike had thrown a chain & busted the engine cover & then was driven until it was completely out of oil.

The head was destroyed due to oil starvation of the cam journals. I wound up buying a complete TT600 engine and installing it with the original charging & ignition system from the XT engine.

It was too long ago for me to remember all the details but I took a bunch of pictures for you to check out now.

Then I started cleaning, painting & reassembly!

Yamaha 600 engine + frame

ebay seat cover kit xt600

I bought the seat cover kit from an Ebay seller and was very happy with it.

89 xt600 & XS650 Chopper

Up until this point I was just planning to fix up a nice dual sport ride for commuting.

But then I dragged home a YZF600 Radian, with a seized engine & no paperwork & the SuperMoto craze was just getting started….

Radian Wheels on XT600

The oil on the floor in this net picture is from me being clumsy & kicking over the oil drain pan.

I used the Radian’s front fender too.

Believe it or not with just some careful machining of the front wheel spacers from the Radian, it all fit together perfectly with the YZF600 brake rotor lining up perfectly with the XT600 caliper.

At this point it is almost complete. I did toy around with using the original tank for a while but decided to purchase an oversize new shiny plastic rust free tank from Clarke Racing it turned out to be some of the best money spent on this project.

semi- finished Supermoto Yamaha

Just for the sheer hell of it I initially used a pair of driving light & two great big chrome horns on the front trying to get a sort of “Predator” look to it.

Then I saw this Darth Vader looking fairing somewhere & decided I liked it better.

Black & Red 89 XT600 at night

Of all the bikes I have ever owned I regret selling this one the most. As with my XL500 I shared with you earlier this one was sold after a catastrophic crash on another motorcycle when I was not sure if I would ever ride again.

May the Dark Side of the Force be With You!

Welcome to the Asylum

Crazy About Motorcycles!

Author Archives: Motopsycho

A Low Down Dirty Shame

The Fog Thief A Psyco Product Review!

Why Can’t I Let Dead Dragons Lie?

Random Tech Tip, Vintage Carburetor Intake Boots & Clamps

The 2013 Charlotte International Motorcycle Show Part 2!

Existential Motorcycles The March 2013 Website of the Month

Another Junkyard Dog! 1980 Honda CB650

Blaze Anti Fog Spray & Wax Another Psyco Product Review!

The 2013 Charlotte International Motorcycle Show Pg.1

Junkyard Dogs: 1989 Yamaha XT600!

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