These guys are ding bats but the bike is cool
Buying a new in the crate 1982 motorcycle
- Thread starter Coyote Chris
- Start date
I bought the first FT500 in the dealership I was working for. One of my most memorable bikes I owned over the years.
I previously watched that video. These guys buy vintage bikes and try to ride them back to their warehouse in PA.
In this video, they encounter numerous issues with getting this bike in running order.
I watched a different video where they were unboxing a 1980 or 1981 Yamaha SR500. That unboxing went a lot better.
In this video, they encounter numerous issues with getting this bike in running order.
I watched a different video where they were unboxing a 1980 or 1981 Yamaha SR500. That unboxing went a lot better.
coaster
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These guys are cool, I watch them all the time, neat making a living doing something you enjoy.
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I think they are silly but thats me. A bike like this would be cool....trash the tires straight away, put in a new battery, and have fun. And stay away from ethanol.
Now If I could just fine a 1980 Yamaha XV920 RH with the enclosed chain in a lithium grease bath and easy to set valves.....
Now If I could just fine a 1980 Yamaha XV920 RH with the enclosed chain in a lithium grease bath and easy to set valves.....
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2019
- Messages
- 550
- Bike
- 2010 NT700V
Nah, it's not just you. I've seen a bunch of their videos. It does seem like they are trying to emulate the goofiness of early 2000's Discovery car shows a bit. It's not at the level that would make me tune out though. At least they're not screaming at each other about fake deadlines. Whatever they're doing is working for them, as they have a decent subscriber count. They do seem generally interested in the history of motorcycles and preserving them, and not taking welders and cutoff wheels for stupid builds. Be it a trip to Wheels through Time with an engine they salvaged for a rebuild and buying in crate motorcycles and actually putting them together.
Just knowing that there is some motorcycle hoarder out there getting upset seeing a crate opened and the bike put on the road makes me smile.
Sorry, I just sold an '81 a couple of months ago:
I had it for several years, my boy learned to ride on it, but it was just collecting dust and I needed the garage space. The guy I bought it from claimed it was originally owned by Bobby Plump who hit the last second shot for Milan in '54, the team "Hoosiers" was based on. It's pretty rare that anyone has even heard of this model!
That bike was a rare bird even when it first came out. I wish you luck trying to find one.
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Cool! How many miles did you have on it? What did you get? Great shape. There were really only two major problems. The cam bearings were bushings and the starter would fail to engage so Yamaha came up with a shim kit for it. They were and are very popular in Europe.
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I dont need another hobbie! LOL! Just gave away a canoe today.....I still love the bike.
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I had the Virago 750 version....before the 920...it had a shaft.
It had 24k when I sold it for $1,400. It was in good shape but I had had to replace quite a few parts that failed while I had it. Starter always sounded like loose bolts in a blender but it always fired right up. It had good torque but you can see by the speedo that it was built for 55mph speed limits. That and the 80's suspension and braking made it more of a duty to ride to keep the fluids circulated than a pleasure.
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Ah, the memories. It was no speed merchant for sure, but with soft luggage and a Vetter windjammer, it was a great touring bike. I still cant believe how long we suffered through that 55 speed limit....I had forgotten that was an oil level light......mine never used any oil. I will have to look and see if I have any photos of mine in shoe boxes.....
Yamaha XV920
Long-Term Report
Let's Hear It For The Bike Next Door.
When Yamaha introduced its first V-Twins, for the 1981 model year, the XV920 was an obvious stepchild. Mother really did like the Virago 750 better, had in fact designed the Virago to look American and appeal to the American market; pullbacks, peanut tank, stepped seat and an engine configuration similar to you-know-who. Marketing plans for Europe, where other makes of big Twin are the norm, produced the overseas-only TR1, the same V-Twin with a larger bore, 980cc and with bars and seat and tank designed for high speed travel.
Meanwhile, some American dealers saw the TRI and asked for a U.S. version, so Yamaha reduced the bore, raised the bars a bit and presto, there was the XV920, parked off in a corner without so much as a fancy name to its name. Asked for permission to roll the 920 into an open space for photos so the 920 could appear on the cover, Yamaha officials complied, with reservations. Didn’t we know the Virago was the hot number, the one people would buy?
Yes and no. On the one hand the Virago has been a runaway sales success and the 920 has been less than that. On the other hand 11,280 mi. in 10 months have proven the 920 to be an excellent motorcycle. It’s fast, reliable, comfortable and economical. Our 920 has been ridden daily, rain and shine and hasn’t revealed one major flaw or suffered one serious derangement. It doesn’t draw raves from passersby and it hasn’t won any races. Sort of the bike next door, you might say.
Perfect? No. The 920 hasn’t proven to be the classic Big Twin, nor is the execution as simple as the principle led us to believe. There have been some irritating niggles, just like the nice kid next door drives you nuts by humming to himself or drumming his fingers on the table.
In review, the 920 contains some proven principles, as in big V-Twin and chain drive, with some newly-proven ideas, for instance the single shock rear suspension. The engine is well oversquare at 92mm bore by 69.2mm stroke. It’s lightly stressed for long life, geared to cruise at a relaxed pace and has a pleasantly restrained exhaust note. In broad specification, the engine is like Yamaha’s 25CT Single, with a single overhead cam and two valves per cylinder, although no parts interchange. The frame is a backbone of welded-up stampings with the engine hung from it and the shock tucked inside the tunnel. The generous tank has style and the rear of the machine is unusual; a balcony for the luggage rack, tool bag and papers cantilevered aft of the seat, with the rear fender close to and moving up and down with the rear wheel. The drive chain is fully enclosed (an old idea whose time has come back) and the chain lives in a bath of lithium grease. The forks have aip assist, not linked, which is too bad, and the rear spring is coil with air assist and adjustable damping. Brakes are disc/drum, >
tires on our bike were Bridgestone, 19 in front, 18 at rear, tubeless. Nearly all the test results were median, as in test weight of 519 lb., 60.5 in. wheelbase, 49 mpg, 200 mi. between fillups, quarter mile results of 13.06 sec. at 99.44 mph and a flying half mile of 112 mph. Good solid stuff.
Because bad news is all that makes news, there are no shocks or surprises in the bike’s log. The rider never fell down, never got lured into trouble. The engine fired up every time and didn't need oil between changes. Heck, the battery didn’t even need water, not once.
That kid is humming again . . .
Here’s the log:
We didn't care for the high bars or the low and understuffed seat, so the bike got Kawasaki KZ750 bars the day after the formal road test was completed. The seat went to a local shop for another two inches of foam in the valley, plus new cover, $75 and worth it.
With break-in completed and the oil changed, there were two mild complaints. One, the clutch dragged, not enough to interfere with starts and stops, but enough so downshifts had the feel of forcing the gears out of and back into position. Two, at low revs, below 2500, the engine bucked like Old Beezlebub or whoever the famous rodeo horse was. Cold it was terrible, warm it was damned annoying, but neither of these was quite bad enough for us to get around to fixing them. Interpret that as you will.
2700 mi. The front brake’s master cylinder is low. Why? No leaks, no seeps, no loss of lever. Topped up, the cylinder never did this again.
3300 mi. Aaugh! A puddle of oil (grease, actually) on the driveway. The chaincase is leaking. Grapevine intelligence tells us this wasn’t uncommon on the first 920s and that the leaks were caused by incomplete machining of the metal sections over which are fitted rubber bellows. Easy to put right, by smoothing off the metal surfaces, but in our case, fiercely tightening the clamps on the bellows reduced the leak to a smudge remov able when the bike was washed.
Meanwhile, sometime in here, the caps for the air valves on the fork tubes fell off. Never seen again, not replaced, no big deal. We ran atmospheric psi through the test period. The forks are smooth and didn’t bottom under normal use, so there« didn’t seem any need for pressure.
The regular rider, meanwhile, noticed that the sidestand kept getting longer. Every week the bike leaned less when on the stand. Turned out the air assist in the rear shock lost pressure, which should be between 30 or 50 psi for normal riding^ Again, all it took was a shot with the air hose every week or so. We used the shop compressor in short squirts, rather than >
pumping like mad with a hand pump and hearing the pressure escape while trying to get the dratted nozzle off. Progress, they say, but those antique old spring/ shocks, one on each side, were less trouble.
4900 mi. and another struggle with technology. It was time for checking valve clearances. The owner’s manual didn’t give clearances. It advised the owner to see his dealer.
Good advice. One of the selling points for the basic Twin with rockers is that the valves can be set without having to remove the camshafts or buy special tools.
And so they can. But in this case, doing the work isn’t the hard part. The cylinder heads are tucked well into the frame backbone, behind pipes and airboxes, etc. After removing the tank and looking at how hidden the rocker caps still were, we took the 920 to the local dealer. We have a charge account, which helped in the decision. The bill was $16, reasonable, but even so, owners who wish to do it themselves should know that if they could do ar XT500 in half an hour that doesn’t mea the 920 will take an hour.
6500 mi. Righteous anger. The 920 ha vacuum petcocks, the kind that turn themselves off and on. The right one began squirting gas. The petcock has two metal sections, a plastic valve between them and two nylon-like gaskets attached to the valve section. One of the gaskets was frayed.
There are no parts for this petcock. You can’t buy just the gaskets on the center section. Instead, you spring for a complete new one, $21 and if you’re clever you’ll be able to Permatex the two metal sections together and ride like that for the weeks it took the new petcock to arrive.
During this time one of the guys needed a gasket for the old-style Yamaha petcock. on his Vesco tank. Cost 40 cents and it was right there on the shelf. May the dog of simplicity lift his leg on the lamp post of progress.
6700 mi. and the shift lever fell off. The nut holding the bellcrank to its post was gone, taking with it the bushing between post and crank. Our man popped into 3rd by hand, rode to the shop and jury-rigged a bushing, well, it was gas line chopped short, for the three days it took to get that little item. Then all was Loc-Tited and gave no more trouble.
7200 mi. brought the first chain adjustment. The enclosure and the grease bath seem to work. It was the first time the chain needed adjustment. (You check by" unscrewing a cap and peering into the mess.) The adjustment was the last one needed and the only difficult part was removing the cotter pin from the axle nut, because the stylish upswept left muffler is in the way.
8800 mi. turned up some old-fashioned work. The righthand turn signal quit, both sides so it wasn’t bulbs. Our classicists suspected the automated self-canceller but no, it was plain old corrosion on the switch contact points, from being left out in the rain. Just like happened to Ariel and Panther electrics.
Conclusions. That’s it. The list of troubles is niggling. The bike steers fine, still has the original plugs, bucks just as it always has, stops on dimes. Mileage has varied from the high 40s to the low 50s, no better or worse. The rear tire will need replacing in another 1000 mi., maybe, bu¿ other than that we’d zap the rear shock and head for the other coast tomorrow without a second thought. Q
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Check out the duct tape on the seat
I have a certain fondness for these 1980s Yamahas. When I was in high school, I restored a 1980 850 Special that had been caught in a fire at a dealership, while still in the crate. It was quite a project to strip it down to the frame, repaint everything, and replace all the burned/melted parts. It ran and looked great when done, and the triple sounded sweet! Put many miles on it, eventually sold it to pay tuition, I wonder where it is now?
These things always sounded like this while cranking, they had a chain drive starter and the noise was the chain slap while cranking.
This mod by Norman Reedus started as an '82 XV920:
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Here is one virago starter fix,,,,but in my 40 year old memory, I remember just the starter shims