70 R5, some minor stuff & brief history of 'Barney'

[m in sc]

So, I've had possession of this bike, going on 11 or 12 years now.  It was originally supposed to be repaired for somebody else, but we struck a deal and back in 2014 as all mine. The original plan was, my ex wife wanted us to do a project together, I told here if she actually came out and helped, she could have it.  well.. you see where that landed.   

admittedly, it was a bit ratty when i got it, forks were 2" over stock, and didn't match each other internally. had been crashed on the left, and the RH side cover was long gone... but something about it i liked.

I got it running in '15 ( i think), but that was it.

fast forward to late 16-early 2017, and i put some focus on it. it never had the stock airbox since i had it, so stuffed a y boot on it. had broken baffle plates, cut the pipes and repaired them, and found an original paint side cover.

im also running rd350 baffled in the stock pipes.

had the seat redone, and last year replaced the tatty stock tank with an NOS one. Mind you, i've been riding it steady since early 2017. and it -always- ran great. replaced the clutch, crank seals (yay r5), and put on a vintage smoke dyna, and some correct forks, also swingarm bushings, etc.
there's tons of little things ive done with it over the years.. but have -never- had the top end off, of the cases out of the frame. compression has always been spot on, and i'm 99% sure there's wisecoes in there, the cyls have def been off and it has that 'forged piston rattle' at idle.  One day i'll pull the top end. Just not today.

So, since its basically all stock and sort of a rolling restoration of sorts, I eyeballed a stock NOS gauge bracket john @ economy had on his 'used/closeout' page, and had matt dump it in with one of his many orders for his RD400 project.  i also had some new gauge isolators from yambits for an R5/DS7 on hand.


recently i found an early R5 airbox lid and airbox in really nice shape, so i figured id try it out on the R5. 

carbs were w the y-boot & K&N set to

40 pilot
1.25 on airscrew
169-00 jet tube
middle clip
140 main. and its been there for years and ran great.

so, few nights ago i decided to restockify the bike.

took carbs off, set to stock 1970 settings which are:
40 pilot
1-3/4 out
169-00 jet tube
4th clip
110 main

( the 72s are different for some reason though)

I have to say, the midrange is def stronger, but no change in top end performance whish surprised me a bit, figured it would go down.

its also quieter riding.


heres some pics. all the 'stock takeoffs' will be transferred to the 72 DS7 if they are better than whats on it, or the 72 R5 (which def isn't stock).

I also painted the airbox lid with wrinkle paint and cured it in the shop toaster over. helps keep stuff from sliding, and wont scratch up.  200 degrees for about 40 mins or so.

gage mount and rubbers, nos and new top. cant see it here but the bottom one has a slight bend to it.  did i need it? no, but its nice.



those damn d cup washers and hairclips. washers are origina, cleaned and painted, clips are i think as well. original gauges.





airbox in with a NEW filter. if you have never put an R5 box in... its challenging at best. makes the rd ones look good/easy.

lunch!



lid on w new strap.  also, in the seat uprights, i have a band of velcro across them to keep the tool kit from sliding back.



here it is w the new airbox to carb runners as well. its no show bike, gets ridden too much for that. but its pretty from a few feet off.





heres an early pic on its 1st fire up back in 2014-2015? or so.

















 











 

 

[Kawtriplefreak]

Excellent 

[Striker1423]

WOOP!

[dgorms]

Nice Mark, remember I got plenty of R5 bits..................D

[msr]

Man, I love that bike. So smooove.

[lawnboy]

love it. How'd it get the name "Barney"?

[kramdua]

100% awesome.
if you are talking about fred and barney in the flintstones. fred was always the loud mouth and barney was the silent one in the background ready to strike. just a thought and i am probably way off. 
great job and look what your x wife is missing.

[m in sc]

ha.

the ex actually used to troll the bike nights on occasion, for abut a year after we split up. The 1st time she saw Angie and I roll up on it 2 up there was an interesting look on her face. But thats another story.

the name.

'which bike?'
'the purple and white one'
'is that 'barney' purple?'
'yes'

... and it stuck.

[kpke]

What a great story about your Barney. Sounds like it's a great running machine, but then I think all of your bikes are. It's kind of nice to have a go to rider that you can hop on and not be overly concerned with maintaining show quality appearance.

[TPR5]

My R5 is purple also ...

[Evans Ward]

I'm a fan of Mark's "Barney". It is cool but all of Mark's bikes are cool! 

Now, with that said.    , I am NOT a fan of the new revamped Barney with his distorted head.  Have been told that the new Barney is more cartoon like.