TY175 gets an injection of progress and Mark’s Guzzi lives!
With progress stalled on the TY175, Gez swallows his pride and ropes in a mate to get things moving again
S the TY175 has slowed to a glacial pace. With summer ticking away already, something needs to be done to get the project back on track. That something comes in the shape of my mate Keith Alderman of Motolink Yamaha Spares (01526 344443). Keith’s helped me out with all manner of projects in the past and I’ve managed to talk him into doing a bit on the TY in between his regular work, leaving me to source the remaining parts and specialist services needed to get the bike up and running.
Already the engine is back in the newly powder coated frame, the carb and airbox are back in place and the polished yokes are installed in the frame with new taper roller head races. And I’ve also splashed out on an alloy Majesty style tank from Holtworks (holtworks.co.uk). But while Keith has been bolting up the frame and engine, a couple of little niggles have surfaced.
The first one is that, sometime between getting the frame blasted and the powder coat being applied, the rear subframe has had a bash to the rear and the mudguard mounting bracket has been bent. It’s no big deal to straighten it and re-weld it, but the powder coat has gone on over the damage. I’ll have to try to touch it in with some black paint.
The second issue will need a bit more ingenuity. The beautiful Holtworks Majesty tank was originally supplied with no rear fixing point. Tony at Holtworks, correctly, told me that the original Majesty tanks were held in place at the rear by the seat. That seemed a bit hit and miss to me (oh why do I overthink things?), so I asked him to fit weld on a tab at the rear of the tank to accept the standard Yamaha mounting rubber. Tony’s done exactly what I asked, but the extra length of the Majesty tank means the mounting point in the tab is too far back to mate with the mounting pillar on the frame – so it’ll have to come off again. More work for the long suffering Keith.