More Tokyo street spots

Some more Tokyo street spots snapped on an amble up and down the 311 between Haneda and Kamata. The Beemers and BSA were outside a Beemer dealership and a very friendly chap came out for a chat when he saw that I was paying an interest. I found it strange but admirable that a load of dusty (though good condition) classic rides were fronting a showroom full of very shiny modern BMWs. The Yamaha was outside a Kawasaki dealership and looked like it was perhaps the daily rider of someone who works there.

Unusual to see three 100RS together.

A distance shot on the Beemers.

BSA A65 Lightning. Looks like a 1970 model.

The Yamaha SRV250 was made
from '92 to '96 and is a really
sweet looking bike that never
made it to the UK.

Yamaha TR1 cafe racer

A bit of a break from the usual on this blog (but that's a good thing occasionally, no?) Yamaha TR1 based cafe / bobber spotted in Fulham, London. Looks like a blast to ride but seeing a bike with no mudguards brings out the latent old fart in me. I ran an Enfield bobber for a short while with no front mudguard, you think you are the number one in cool until it rains or you ride through some horse shite....

Many thanks to David Kenny for supplying the pics.

Out and about on the AG bike

A rare day free of rain and it seemed like a good opportunity to give the Yamaha AG its first outing since the Exeter Trial. The going was wet and a few 'water splashes' threatened to swallow the bike but overall very refreshing for bike and rider to get some exercise!

First lane I planned to hit was Pimperne Down.
On arrival I was greeted by this. Tree trunk, big
gate and no explanation. I got my phone out to try
and check if this was legitimate or not and couldn't
find out so headed to the other end of the lane to discover
that it has recently been converted to a restricted byway.
This however doesn't excuse completely blocking it
up in this way. Just another example of lack of funds
and will to keep ancient rights of way open combined
with landowners trying to keep the peasants of what they
think is their land...

At Wyn Green overlooking the Vale of Wardour. Thankfully
this beautiful lane along the Dorset Ridgeway is still open .

Very deep water holes that I had to negotiate my way around.

The pond at Tollard Royal.

Exeter Trial 2020

After an involuntary break from long distance trials (due to work - boo!) I was scheduled to be at home for the 2020 Exeter.

The entry form duly went in and plans were made to prep the Yamaha to pop its trials cherry. As they say to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail and I really did set myself up for a no start. I thought I would have plenty of time to sort the bike out over Christmas but I had underestimated the time that would be taken up with familial duties. The Yamaha AG has some wiring peculiarities introduced by owners over the years, I thought that a couple of evenings would be enough to sort them out. Very much not so. I ended up getting the bike mot'd the day before the trial and the best I could do was to get the horn and stop light working so it scraped through a daylight mot.

Normally a daylight mot would spell disaster for a long distance trial but our merry band had entered the day trial with a start at the Crealy breakfast stop and missing out the night sections. Fortuitous as it turned out.

Somehow it felt a bit of a cop out turning up to start the trial whilst the majority of competitors had been on the road all night and were taking the opportunity of the enforced hour break at Crealy for a power nap. However the difference for me in doing the day trial is one day away from home versus three so it really does make it a lot more accessible for those with families and or a busy work life.

Yamaha AG200 at the top of the first section. Matt and Dan
with the Ariel outfit in the background.

The first section on the day trial was Tillerton Steep and I was surprised how easily the little Yamaha rode up it. Mind, up until now I have been used to competing on a road going Enfield Bullet.

And a full view of Matt's rigid Ariel outfit. It's definitely of
'the right stuff'.

All went well up until Simms. Weighed down by two portions of cake prepared by the wonderful ladies at Islington village Parish Hall I approached with too much confidence and too little speed. The re-start was easy, I cleared the slippery slabs but by then had lost line and rode it up the bank on the steep muddy section after the slabs and came a cropper.

Rich on Beta Alp coming out of the Tillerton
Steep mudbath.

Confidence knocked I then fluffed the next section, Tipley Hill, and footed. Back on form after that though and the last section , Slippery Sam, was a clean.

One section down and here's my boot. And that's with keeping
it on the pegs throughout.

We made it to the end point in Torquay roughly on time. Sadly though no time for victory celebrations as I needed to get back to the van at Crealy before sun set. 

All in a great day's sport. The AG bike proved its mettle and didn't let me down. A big thanks to all the Marshals, helpers and organisers and I just hope it isn't such a big gap as last time until I enter the next trial.

Toby and Honda XT250.

This chap entered a Zero electric bike. Not sure
how he did.

One of several Dellows entered.

Another Dellow. Love them!

A trio of red cars at Islington Parish Hall.

MG and cat.

The approach to Simms. Fairly benign looking from this angle.

One very muddy AG200 after the last section.

Yamaha AG200 vs Beast from the East

For non-UK readers, 'Beast from the East' is the name British media gave to the cold weather system currently engulfing the UK on account of it coming from an Easterly direction and being particularly harsh for this time of year...

Round these parts we had a snowfall of slightly more than six inches: many other countries would consider that to be a minor flurry but over here it is a code red emergency. Seemed like a good chance to get out on the Yamaha AG and play.

Ag200 - no lights in the darkest month

I've perhaps rashly entered the AG bike in to the Motorcycling Club's Exeter Trial which always runs on the first Friday after New Year. The bike has received a few minor upgrades the last few days, more are planned but I thought I had better take it out for a short test ride....

The light is low but the AG bike is hi vis!

Not designed to blend in.

Cheap Chinese brush guards fitted to keep the wind off my
hands, protect them and hopefully help me stay a bit warmer
on the trial. They are awful quality and made of 'monkey metal'
aka mazac. One of the brackets broke as I tightened it up. Also
fitted is a route holder and sat nav bracket.

I wanted to see if the charging was working ok. Sadly it isn't

The new 6v Motobatt battery was drained flat at about 30
minutes of lights on riding. This bike has truly the worst
lights of any motorcycle I have owned (including a D1 BSA
Bantam which is like a floodlight in comparison). Some work
needed here.

Yamaha Agro200

Tired of fettling an old Royal Enfield Bullet before and after every off-road excursion I parted with it and decided to go Japanese. This was going to be a bike to get on and use that required a minimum of maintenance. So, perhaps unwisely, I saw a 35 year old farm bike for sale and somehow thought that it would be a good option.

I put in an offer, it was accepted. The bike arrived, I liked it.

There was a small wiring job to do that I was warned about. Turned out it was small in scope but massive in consumption of workshop time. Then after getting an MOT on the machine I found that it would only run sweetly with the choke full on.

The Yamaha AG200 hasn't really got a good angle. The looks
are best described as functional. No chance of losing it either
with the colour scheme! The bike proved to be so much hassle
to get working right it got christened the 'Agro200'.

An initial examination showed a perished and cracked inlet rubber as the likely culprit. This was duly replaced (not expensive but it had to be sent over from China). Job not done. One problem was solved but it still ran like a pig. The beauty of a British bike is that they were designed with maintenance in mind, the manufacturers were wise to the fact that they were making machines that required regular fettling: that means that there is plenty of space and everything comes apart fairly easily. Not so on the AG200. The carb is an absolute pig to remove.

After twenty or so times removing the carb and replacing it you would think that I might have worked out an easy way to do it, not so. I believe an easy way does not exist. Each time it came off I made a small tweak to the settings, the first obvious problem was a missing pilot screw. It was a frustrating process and not helped much by the Yamaha workshop manual which really only tells you that the carb is a carefully set up precision instrument and there is no reason to mess with it. Too late, someone else already had.

AG200 spares are not so easy to find in the UK but I did some investigation and discovered that most mechanical parts are shared with the TW200 and BW200, both slightly more common over here.

With no guidance on settings in the workshop manual I turned to a TW200 forum and found out that a suitable main jet size is a 120. My bike was fitted with a 102.5. In the only stroke of luck in the whole project I happened to have a good stock of different sizes for the Mikarb - an Indian Mikuni copy that was used on 350 and 500 Bullets. I popped a 120 in and finally sweet running was the result.

A couple of days later I hit the local green lanes. The AG200 is an ideal mount for the job, nice and quiet, fairly gently in power and very comfortable. On the road it will hum along at 55mph or so. It should be ideal for my intended use for it - long distance trials. I had forgotten what a hoot green laning is, note to self to do it more often.

Conditions on the Dorset Ridgeway were damp and muddy.

One of the key markets for the AG200 was / is
African aid agencies. The Agro200 must have
felt at home on the Ridgeway as it reminded me
of riding in the jungles of the Congo.

Good to finally get some mud on the Yamaha.

Yamaha AG 200

Yamaha AG 200.

I first got to know these Yamaga AG bikes when riding around Africa on my '55 Bullet 10 years back. I remember seeing them in showrooms and out and about. They were cheap to buy and look like they are made to take a beating. In Africa they are popularly used by charities as ways of getting out in to remote areas. They are even used with sidecars as ambulances in some countries. Over in Australia and New Zealand they are widely used on farms and sheep stations.

The AG stands for Agricultural and they first appeared in 1982 and are still made today in pretty much the same spec. They are rare bikes in the UK and this one came up for sale just as I had some money in my pocket from selling another bike and was looking for something to use to compete in long distance trials. I was riding an Enfield Bullet in trials, I had developed it to a point where it was fairly competitive and a good ride. Of course I then sold it. My new brief was for something light, cheap, reliable and low maintenance. In buying a 30 odd year old farm bike I pretty much failed failed on all these counts. I didn't pay a lot of money for it but probably plenty for a slightly knackered small Yamaha. It is fairly light but not compared to other small trail bikes and as for reliability, well it hasn't gone wrong much but then again I haven't attempted many miles on it as it is still running rather badly....

On the plus side the bike is beautifully balanced and should, when sorted, be a really excellent bike for long distance trials. Plus it has a bit more character than just another Serrow.

At home in the African bush, Australian
Outback or Dorset green lanes?

The AG 200 is based squarely on the XT200, the smaller brother of the cult XT500 off-roader. The engine is a sweet little 200cc ohc unit that is used in a number of other Yamahas notably the BW200 and TW200 and is very similar to the 225 Serrow. The rear wheel is 18 inch and the front 19. Essentially the bike is XT200 with added weight: it has a cute front rack above the headlight, a huge rear rack that could carry a sheep, enormous engine protection bars, a fully enclosed chain case and as catalogue spec it came with a large tubular handlebar 'fender'

Big engine bars.

This particular bike came to me with an electrical problem - a new indicator cluster had been fitted but the owner hadn't been able to wire it in. After working at it with a meter for a few hours he had my every sympathy. There are a lot of wires inside that headlight, perhaps they've been muddled up a bit over the years but they don't all work together as they should.... Took a while but sorted in the end. A test ride exposed some carburation glitches. First look showed a knackered rubber intake manifold. This replaced it was slightly better but not great. The carb is a Mikuni diaphragm type, spares are not easy to come by and a new diaphragm to replace the old and tired one is a bit pricey. In the end I've bought a regular traditional Mikuni VM slide type carb (though a generic Chinese one) that is for a BW200. The carb only cost twenty quid and to be honest it looks pretty good, how do they make and sell them for that price? 

There's no hiding with a bike this yellow.

The carb swap is still pending but in the meantime the bike runs fine with just a touch of choke. It's had a brief green lane run at which it acquitted itself excellently and has low enough first two gears that it can virtually climb a cliff. The little AG 200 is indeed so far shaping up to be an excellent long distance trials contender. It doesn't have a great deal of oomph on the highway but it will cruise along 55mph-ish. The bike was perhaps imported from Japan as it has a very irritating red light that appears on the speedo as soon as you top 50. That had me fooled for a while, I thought it was an oil light and the thing was getting starvation when revved hard.... had to look it up on t' web when I got home from the test run!

There we go. Should be sorted soon and hopefully that'll be the last of the maintenance on it for a while. I'm not going to give it anything like the punishment that would be meted out to it on an outback sheep station. It's different, some might say ugly but I would say it has a certian rugged charm. 

Neat front rack and very feeble 6v electrics.

Fully enclosed chain with its own guard.

Big tank for a frugal 200.

Transcends notions of beauty!

hmmm... must paint that horn black!

Back in Japan

I'm back in Japan again for a wee while for work.

Japan remains petrolhead heaven and customising is as popular as ever. Here's a few snaps of bikes parked around and about that are a bit different from those you see at home...

This is the Honda Solo. Looks like a custom but in fact this is as
it comes fully stock. Uses the Cub 50 motor in diminutive cycle
parts with retro styling. Very nice. At 6ft 2 I'd look like I was riding
a clown bike!

Other side of the Honda Solo.

Kawasaki Z400. The 400cc class is one of the most important in
Japan as there are two riders license classes - up to 400 and above.
 250s are also popular - below 250 and you don't need the
biennial roadworthiness inspection. 

Yamaha SRs remain amongst the most popular retros.

There's a strong custom fashion for a hybrid street tracker / sand
bike / hill climber look Tall suspension, wide tyres, high bars,
long swinging arm and bates headlight.

Two wheels, powered or pedal remain incredibly
popular.

The Honda Cubra is another retro 50cc Cub variant.

Another sand bike hybrid custom.

Custom super scoots are eternally popular.

This one is mild. Some are totally space age.

Honda Zoomer X update on the cult Zoomer. Personally I
preferred the old Zoomer.

Yamaha Vox retro scoot.

This unfortunate Vox has got a parking ticket. Not totally sure
what went wrong with their parking. Bit out of line?