Not T4 - yamaha SZR

[regcheeseman]

So I've wanted a SZR660 for ages, an odd looking bike, a parts bin special produced by the Belgarda branch of Yamaha. It never sold well and disappeared from the range pretty quick.


I think its got potential, light weight, a renowned chassis from the 250 TZR, punchy tuneable single cylinder engine - could make a great B road scratcher to embarrass bigger bikes with a surfeit of power.

An ideal basis for a project popped up on ebay, most listings are sold by people who believe that an original version is something people might want to pay a premium for.

This is the bike I bought...



looks ok... ish. The front fairing is fitted too high and at the wrong angle and looks strange, the tail section is too long and also looks wrong, but it has a new decent exhaust system and some performance carbs fitted and someone has obviously spent a lot of time on it.

So it turns up and the owner was really proud of the paintwork as I believe he paints narrow boats, but the problem is, it is brush painted, with enamel and you can tell from 20 yards. I wish I could brush paint that well but even if I could I wouldn't brush paint a vehicle.

Like I said I've been planning this project for a very long time and got stuck in, first thing was to get rid of the fairing,



So much better, it's taken all the visual clutter and weight away, I'll be going for a RD-LC / SDR/ R1-Z type look

Only now the too long rear end looks toooo looooong!

Busted out the spanners



And then the dewalt made short work of the seized engine mount bolts



The coolant flange on the engine put up a fight, had to collapse it and remove it in pieces



And there we are....

[regcheeseman]

Random update...

I went out to the garage and couldn't resist a peek under the bike cover and found this



We've been feeding them for a couple of years and currently have four regular visitors, no idea how this one got into the garage? But at least he/she likes my bike.

[TommyP]

Just let me know when I need to bid on it


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[frenchdna]

FFS Tommy. Will you please put the whiskey down. You can’t buy a hedgehog. The postage from Devon would kill it.

[arfur fox-acre]

FFS Tommy. Will you please put the whiskey down. You can’t buy a hedgehog. The postage from Devon would kill it.

Muh-wuhahahahahahahahahaha. Class.

[Activ8]

Random update...

I went out to the garage and couldn't resist a peek under the bike cover and found this



We've been feeding them for a couple of years and currently have four regular visitors, no idea how this one got into the garage? But at least he/she likes my bike.

Rare wildlife to see these days.
Top10 rare UK species
We have one family that ironically hibernates under the gas bbq.

[regcheeseman]

Not much left now



Started to clean the frame up in preparation for some welding, first up I removed the horrible plate on the side and then drilled out the factory and non-factory riv-nuts. Thankfully they came out cleanly, I found that drilling with a sharp bit and very light pressure worked quite well, only one riv nut snatched the drill and span in it's hole and that needed grinding and then punching into the frame cavity, thankfully the cavity has a large hole at one end so I could extract the remnants.



I now have some holes to weld up.

[S49]

Whats on the plate and what did the riv-nuts hold?

[regcheeseman]

Whats on the plate and what did the riv-nuts hold?

It's a data plate with chassis number on it, the chassis number is also stamped on headstock, I may relocate the plate elsewhere, unless I forget to...

non OEM Riv nuts held the brush painted ill fitting non standard fairing the bike came with, the OEM rivnuts held the original fairing framework and some random brackets/plastic crap - none of which will be going back on.

Stripped down, clean and light weight - think modern cafe racer, but not one of those trendy modern 'caff' racers beloved of the hipster trend*.

*whilst bored in WHSmith, I picked up a copy of 'built' magazine which is the hipster biker bible. Thinking I may get some design ideas, literally the second page I flicked to was a full page photo of some bearded twat with a handbag and the caption 'waldo is wearing a shirt from wackyfreeks and his bag is from gullibletwats' or something like that. I put it back on the shelf....I then picked up a copy of GT magazine which disappointingly had less cars in it than I was expecting???

[arfur fox-acre]

Is BSH still going? That was always the go to magazine.

[DubDick]

Good work Reg, keep it up!.

[TommyP]

....I then picked up a copy of GT magazine which disappointingly had less cars in it than I was expecting???

Paaaaahahahahahahahaha!


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[regcheeseman]

Very enjoyable morning spent with my TIG, very cathartic....



All but one hole welded in the right frame spar, then I ran out of argon.

Started to dress the welds down with grinding disc, then a flap disc and then finished with a sander which started to get warm and run slower and slower so I gave up. Very pleased with the results so far, can barely see where the holes where (apart from the three that I didn't finish)

The sander did expose a gouge in the top edge of the spar that was filled with chemical melt, so I filed that out and will drop some weld in.

The work on the right spar is purely cosmetic, the left spar however needs to be oil tight as it will become my oil tank.

[fife t4 new]

Did you make small plugs for the holes or build up the welds?

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[regcheeseman]

Did you make small plugs for the holes or build up the welds?

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One big hole got a plate, the others just got filled in, the beauty of TIG is the way you can build and work the weld about. you'd think you just blow holes in ally but it just fills in nice, work in a spiral and you fill a 10mm hole in one rev.