YAMAHA TZR250
For their Spa endurance event the little Teezer needs some powerful lamps up front and a test session.
Tony Greenslade and Team Allspeed return!
The major change to the TZR250 for 2019 is the addition of lights. We did think about fitting an original Yamaha headlight and upper fairing, but anyone who has tried to ride a TZR250 in the dark will know how bad that single 60w headlamp is! So twin spotlights seem the route most of the teams go. They must be period appearance, so fancy LED lights and projector headlights are out of the question. To give the bike a bit more of a TZ look and to make it a bit different we have fitted a F3 replica top fairing. The TZR250 was raced in Japan in their domestic Formula 3 championship. This was very popular with the manufacturers
in the 1980s/1990s and it led to a host of race kit parts you could buy for the TZR. All these parts are not allowed in our ‘normal’ race series and if they were, they are very hard to find and therefore expensive when you do.
However, the top fairing is reproduced by a guy in Finland and I just had to have one! It fits to the original fairing lowers, so no problems there. We have made a fairing bracket out of mild steel. As we normally use an alloy bracket, we do not think this would be up to the job of fitting headlights to it as well. The F3 fairing is very close to a TZ fairing of the same period. It gives the bike a much wider and rounder bubble for the rider to get in. This will be very helpful on such a fast track as Spa-francorchamps.
With the fairing fitted and a screen brace made to hold it all nice and tight, the headlight fitting is next. We have gone for an alloy box with the two spotlights bolted to it. This allows us to move the lights around a bit on their fitting brackets. Maybe too much; this is something we can only tell once we have them on the bike and can try it. We have made the bar bolt on via the single bolt that holds the fairing to the fairing bracket as well. This will allow us to take the lights off when not needed. The bar is braced via a single bar to the cradle as well. Fingers crossed it all works. The rear light is a bit simpler. We have fitted an FZR400RR rear light unit flush to the TZ seat unit.
I went for this light as it looks almost the same as the factory endurance rear lights used on Yamahas in the 1990s. It also allows us to use a standard Yamaha bulb holder as well with two rear lights bulbs, so there is a spare if one blows – all part of the endurance rules and regs. With the fairing fitted, the bike is complete. The wiring for the headlights is still to be done, as we still need to work out how we are going to power two 80w headlights! Finally it’s early March and we have the bike at Brands Hatch for the first BEMSEE race meeting of the year. We have entered the EDI Asia Formula 400 sub 64bhp championship with Ben Miles riding. This series allows us to race the bike with the new fairing and see how it all holds together. We are also using the meeting to set up the new Maxton suspension and give Ben a chance to blow the winter cobwebs away.
It’s a dry afternoon and Ben takes the TZR out for a practice session with the headlights attached. He is getting a lot of strange looks riding through the paddock, but, well it might get dark early! First session done, and the bike feels good and the headlights stay attached. Only one issue, the headlights attracted the attention of the marshals and we are told off for running them. Then the rain starts and Ben decides he is happy with the bike so there is no point running it in the wet. We will wait for race day to see how it performs. Saturday (race day) dawns. With BEMSEE you have a 15-minute qualifying session first and this decides the grid positions for the first race. The bike is going well and Ben ends up ninth on the grid and the leading sub 64 rider. The sub 64 championship is exactly as it says. It is designed for riders to be able to run a Formula 400 machine in fairly standard form.
The full-blown 400s can be expensive to build and run, even more so now they are classics and so parts are hard to find. Ben lines up for his first race of 2019. Flag drops and they are away. He is running well and moves up several places. I’m on the pit wall with a pit board. We don’t normally run a pit board. We learnt last
year that this is a must-have in Endurance racing, so to get Ben used to looking for one we are going to use it at Club races as well. To be honest it is a tool we now have and would be stupid not to use it anyway. If it only helps him gain one place this year it will be worth it. Second lap and he is still making places up; he crosses the line and all is good. Third lap and no sign of Ben! At Brands Hatch the view from the pit wall is restrictive, so I have no idea what has happened to him. I then get a text from Claire. He has pulled off the track at the third corner. I get back to the paddock to find the fuel tank off the bike already.
The bike felt like it died on Ben and he is thinking it may have nipped up. Not good for our first race. We set about stripping the top-end to look. The cylinders we had modified by PJ Motorcycle Engineers with O-rings instead of the original head gasket. It is an easy job to take the head off and see what has happened. But nothing… It all looks like new in the engine, so maybe it’s dead spark plugs or an electrical issue? I hate these sorts of things: we could end up chasing the problem for several meetings until we find the issue. At this point, for some reason Mark Dunne, who is helping us all weekend, leans on the throttle, twists it and says that it feels strange? Problem found! One of the throttle cables is broken. We use a TZ250 throttle with a cable going to each carb.
The left-hand one has broken. That’s why it died on one side. What a relief. We have a spare set of cables, so all back together and we will be ready for race two. The grid for race two is decided from the lap times set in race one. Ben’s time was poor as he only had one flying lap. He starts from 21st, back on row seven. There’s only one way he can go from here. He gets a great start and makes up loads of places in the first couple of laps: 10 lap races today, so you don’t have much time to get through the traffic. He gets to 9th in a few laps, but doesn’t make up any other places. Racing against the 400cc four-strokes is hard work.
They are quicker down the straights, but hold the twostrokes up in the corners. So you need to be committed in the turns to gain places. In a flash the chequered flag is out, and he finishes 9th overall, and 2nd in the class. Day 2 and another two races give Ben two more runner-up trophies in the class and a highest finish of 5th overall.
A good weekend’s riding and most importantly the bike is performing well. We go home happy and ready for the rest of 2019. The other big news from the weekend was that we had confirmation of our third rider for the Spa Endurance race. We are pleased to welcome Peter Branton to the team. Peter has raced for many years (too many if you ask him). He took part in the original Yamaha TZR Challenge when the bikes were launched. After a few years retired from racing he came back to the paddock in 2018 to race a TZR250 in the Yamaha Past Masters Championship. Mainly just to get his signatures to allow him to race in Europe on a Classic Vincent that an old sponsor has been building for him. That all went to plan, and he ended up winning the championship in a very commanding manner. He was almost untouchable all season and he’s a great racer and most importantly a top bloke. He’s pretty quick on a TZR as well. Peter is back out on his TZR again this year, as well as racing the Vincent and an old Exactweld 250cc, so he will be a very busy man in 2019. Right, jobs to do next month are the power/charging system. Plus we have a new engine to test that we sent to John Floyd from Floydy Racing to tune for us.