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Rode my 400c to the vintage gathering in Knoxville last night (~20 miles one-way). Ran great, started 2nd half-hearted kick, idled perfect. Realized that it was only the 2nd time I'd ridden it this year. At 71, I don't ride as much, and do most of it on the Spyder. The old GoldWing and RD don't get enough exercise, even though I love them both. I'll be putting together a sale ad and new photos/video, etc. over the next couple weeks. Any inquiries welcome. Location near Clinton, TN. Not interested in shipping overseas.

Added a For Sale ad in correct section.

Wanted to alert those interested that my friend Patrick Deason is putting on his third Possum Gathering vintage motorcycle show at the Sevierville, TN fairgrounds May 12 & 13. Many, many vintage bikes (and vintage bikers), swap meet areas, and stationary engine show. If you might be interested in showing your bike, I may be a judge, and I do consider bribes.

Update -
Although I really don't think much rain will get here before Saturday evening, some people may be traveling to the show, so....   We will be canceling the bike show for this Saturday and using our rain date of October 15.   Hope you can still make it on the 15th!!
Lighthouse Christian Church is once again having a bike show in Powell, TN (just North of Knoxville). This year entry for all 'bikes is FREE and there are no classes - show what you've got. Top five recognized (across all bikes shown). Registration day of show. Address is 8015 Facade Lane, Powell TN. Attached is a map and flyer from the show. There are always a few 2Ts there from the Time Warp Vintage Motorcycle Club.

Unless something big happens, Tuesday June 28th will be the last gathering at the Time Warp. But, the bikes will still gather! Last meeting, it was voted to gather at Twisters about 0.7 miles North of the Time Warp at the corner of Central and Quincy. Has a nice parking lot, their food is popular, and they have invited us and will stay open later for us on Tuesdays. Of course, things may change as Dan gets little communication from the new owners in California. The club will be having its normal monthly meeting this Tuesday, also. Wishing Dan and Peggy an awesome retirement! BTW, if you are anywhere nearby, all are welcome to look at bikes, BS with vintage bikers, sample some of the coffee, tea, soft drinks, smoothies, sandwiches etc. that is available. And look at all of the great motorcycle and racing memorabilia that Dan has collected through the years.

Cross-post as Events doesn't seem to be visited.
Was an awesome show. No white linen tablecloths like out West. Food trucks selling such as cornbread and beans, tacos and pizza. Not at a high-dollar golf club (at a fairgrounds instead).


But! over 50 VERY nice machines all over 35 years old. I am going to try and share my Facebook album for it here. Photos are not edited and they are phone photos and some taken with my Sony camera that I discovered has a couple scratches right in the center of the lens.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5540089626024180&type=3

Was an awesome show. No white linen tablecloths like out West. Food trucks selling such as cornbread and beans, tacos and pizza. Not at a high-dollar golf club (at a fairgrounds instead).

But! over 50 VERY nice machines all over 35 years old. I am going to try and share my Facebook album for it here. Photos are not edited and they are phone photos and some taken with my Sony camera that I discovered has a couple scratches right in the center of the lens.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5540089626024180&type=3

Please tell me that the manual is wrong. It gives in-lb and cm-kg values for these nuts. Thinking it should be ~15 ft-lbs by their size and application.

Our church's 3rd bike show is drawing near. Right off I-75 in Powell, TN (a North Knoxville suburb). Bikes, crafts, food, good times. Stop by and visit! The Time Warp Vintage Motorcycle Club has made it an official club event for this year.

My left CMC joint (Very base of thumb) has some rather painful arthritis and I have to wear a brace on it to reduce pain. I can sit at a light or whatever holding the clutch in with little problem, but shifting up through the gears sometimes pinches my hand between the brace and the hand grip and the range of motion required passes through a painful spot. Is it Ok to speed shift (clutchless shift timed with slight backing off gas momentarily) up through the gears from 2nd on up to 6th (RD400c)? I intend to continue clutching on down-shifts, but with the narrow power band (even that of the 400) I find that I am shifting a lot more than on my old GoldWings. I have tried it a few times and it seems to be effortless and smooth. It sure makes the hand feel better, too.

RD400c, recently rescued and running. Starts 1st kick or won't start at all. Does NOT seem to want choke. As far as I can tell, it has stock jetting. I pulled the BBs and cleared the ports/plugged with set screws. I only have about 8.5 miles on it s far, but it ran real well (I'm being gentle on it while breaking in new rings). Thing is, it drips oil from the exhaust. Now, I have not had a chance to run it to temperature but once, so maybe not getting it hot enough and just building up crud in the exhaust. Wouldn't start when I took it off the trailer at the car show today, but during the show I pulled the plugs, wiped them off, and it started to drive it back onto the trailer.

Should I not worry about it not needing choke at all? It usually won't start if I choke it. I doubt the oil dripping is a problem except for the mess it is making?

A member of our vintage MC club is putting this on. Already has interest all the way from New Mexico, and several vintage magazines.

I have my painted, clear coated, wet sanded parts ready for decals. Bought from Yamatopdog on ebay. The tank decals came in top and bottom pieces for my '76 RD400c. Has anyone had experience in application and alignment of these? I've watched the videos and have very slightly soapy water in a sprayer ready along with all of the other tools. Just this final question before i plunge in. Unhappily, their videos concentrate on wrinkle removal (should not be much issue on an RD400c) and never address the aligning of two decals to for a single graphic. I've sent them a message via ebay.

These came with my RD400c, but obviously don't fit up (I already have a good working set. The face diameter is ~75mm and the bracket has 80mm mounting hole spacing. Wires from them are: 2 greens, black, brown, blue, and light green with red stripe in one bundle and a green and a brown in the other bundle. The light green/red has a female bullet connector, all others are male bullet. No labling other than the Nippon Seiki branding. Both seem to work fine (tested with my battery drill).

I did an endoscope camera inspection of the oil filter screen in the bottom of my oil tank, and it is shredded. Obviously no easy way to replace it (I'll remove the bits with hemostats hopefully). But, I would really like to protect the oil pump (and thus the engine). So, I searched for an inline oil filter or screen. All that I could find was for either jet skis or snowmobiles, and they are a lot larger than I care to mount.

So, I bought a cheap inline fuel strainer for outdoor power equipment from a local auto parts store and pulled it apart to see what it offered. It has a fine nylon mesh screen that appears to be thermal bonded to a frame inside. I put a few drops of Yamaha 2 stroke oil for injection into the basket formed by the mesh and observed that it seeped through fairly easily.

So, my options are to either use one of these filters inline, make one of my own design with smoking pipe screen for filter (readily available on Amazon and "head shops" now that legalization of hemp smoking is in vogue), or do without.

Has anyone attempted augmenting or replacing their tank-mounted screen? Do you think that the nylon would hold up (easiest solution)? I have plenty of syringes and Mighty Vac pump to purge any air from an added filter. If I made one it would probably be aluminum spun out on the lathe with a SS screen (brass also an option). Might do that anyway just as an exercise.

Photo is the available jet ski/snowmobile filter top and disassembled power equipment filter bottom.

Would one of you fine folks provide me with the measurement from the center of and RD400c (US version, if  it matters) seat hinge pin to the corner 90 degree bend? Either my Vietnamese seat has the wrong dimensions, or the seat hinges I ebayed are not right for the bike. The seat comes almost six inches from closing. That would require just a few mm adjustment, for which I plan to account by machining a couple small spacers to go between the hinge and seat pan.

This bike was removed because he wouldn't answer messages on it. Now he has relisted with no message link (but new photos). Why is he doing this?
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/451411215688896/

Out for a haircut this morning, stopped on the way at our local NAPA autoparts. Asked if they had B8ES and they had 5! I bought four and they said they could have eighteen more in a few days. Must be remaining in-stock in the stores. So I'll go ahead and install the resistor caps (when they come in from EC) for now, and when I run out of the non-resistor plugs switch to BR8ES.

With no B8ES plugs available, I'm thinking of trying to remove the resistors from a pair of LB05FP caps (replacing the resistor with solid copper) to enable running BR8ES plugs, which are readily available. I've swapped resistors in several NGK cap designs for GL1000s and CB750Fs with good success. My basketcase RD400c came with no plugs or wires (but does have coils). I also have the caps for attaching the wires to the coils from a left-over CB750F set. I also have access to good non-resistor wires.  I just think it would be stretching an old set of coils to ask them to fire through 10K ohm instead of 5 K ohm. I would just buy non-resistor caps, but can't find them in the 90 degree model.

October 3rd (rain date Oct 17th) 9am - 2pm @ Lighthouse Christian Church  in Powell (North of Knoxville), TN. We expect some great old (maybe some new) machines. Ride or trailer in, we don't care. Good church food and fellowship. Flyer and map are here:

So, RD400 seat hinges being priced high (low supply), are there any other Yamahas that have similar hinges that will substitute? I understand the XS 650s might - any others? I don't mind elongating mounting holes and such. I think that I will probably have to spring for a Vietnamese seat for mine as the set pan is quite rotten (and of course, missing the hinges).