Hi,
The work on the first blue AS1 is done, we chose to keep the tank that we had before since it better matched the paint on the rest of the parts so the colour is not quite original. All the screws, wires and electrical wires have been replaces with fresh NOS ones. The difference might seem small at first glance but the whole thing feels better than it did before! We'll make sure to get a new gallery up as soon as possible.

At the moment we've got a number of bikes waiting to get photographed, the plan is to snap new pictures when the museum is done. Until then we haven't got any good placed to take pictures. It's not just the regular Yamahas that are waiting to get photographed but also a Honda CB750 and a couple of other surprises!

We've also continued work on the orange AS3. Unlike the AS1 the AS3 has been out on the roads and need more work.

We received a new AS1 from Germany. It was a real bargain, it wasn't listed properly on ebay and would only show up on ebay.de. As such it was a fraction of the price it would normally fetch. The seat is surprisingly fresh, apart from a small tear in the cover all it needs is a cleaning. The base is completely free of rust as well!

A few weeks ago we had some pictures of regalvanized parts, a lot of them were from old used fuel taps we had collected. Since then we've reassembling them with surprisingly good results. It's hard to believe that they're used. They're fixed with new gaskets and filters, the aluminium parts has been cleaned with acid and the plate has been regalvanized.



/Joacim

Hi,
As I mentioned last time the electricity in the museum is fixed, all the needed light fixtures and wall sockets are there now. During this week the floor and climate control guys will get to work with that. Given that it is an old farm building, all the power needs to be up to spec to handle harsh environments with lots of dust and moisture (not that we'll have a lot of either...), therefore all the switches are linked directly to relays in the sealed box on the ceiling to cut power completely when you hit the switch. First time I turned the light on I was afraid I the fusebox had exploded, those relays are NOT quiet!

We're taking another look at a few of the projects we did back in the start of the site. We did them before we really had access to all the parts we have today so a lot of the small details are a bit off. It's mostly the nuts and bolts we've used that are the wrong model, newer ones with markings on the head and plastic non-slip discs. The blue AS1 is actually the first project we put on the site, we were almost done so it's just the final few steps that we have chronicled.  We had restored the orange AS3 before we started the site.

We'll strip them down and make sure they're up to spec with the restorations we do now, some parts will get replaced like the bolts and we'll probably repaint the frame for the AS1 but they're mostly good.

And on that subject: the AS2J from france that we got a few weeks back is done! We've had to replace some parts like the meters and the handle but the majority is just the old parts with a good layer of cleaning and polishing. Sometime in the past the bike has probably been in a light accident that destroyed the original meters and damaged the housing for the front light.

Now that it's back together we took it out for a test: the engine runs perfectly, it's good in idle and it revs smoothly all the way up to the top. On the short street we drove it on it hit 70kh/h without problems and lifted the front wheel of the ground. Not bad for a 40 year old bike!



/Joacim

Hi,
Well, have we got great news today: the electricity in the soon to be complete museum is now wired and working! This brings us one step closer to getting things up and running. If all goes to plan the floor will get cast during this week. That means that pretty much within a month we could have everything ready. Expect lots of pictures (though not today, forgot to bring the camera...).

What we do have some more pictures of is the AS2J that arrived last time from France. We stripped it down, polished and cleaned everything along with replacing a few odd bits with original Yamaha parts. I think this is the first time that we have ever had a complete bike laid out in parts at once,  usually we have to wait for parts that are away to be restored.  The working time between the first photos to the last ones is less that two hours, assembly really flies when you've got everything prepared in advance!

Just a word of advice with the Flickr slideshow below: the slideshow I can embed on the site only has low resolution images with heavy compression meaning that most of the detail is lost. If you want to see a sharper version in higher resolution - click the name of the gallery next to the Flickr logo in the top left corner of the slideshow and it will take you to the pictures on Flickr. You can also press the name of the gallery right away before starting the slideshow and it will take you to the pictures.




/Joacim

Hi,
Today we received a brand new AS2J from a seller in France. There's quite a difference between this one and the last few we've received mainly that this one is not a heap of rusted parts! The paint isn't even faded by sunlight. On top of that it started with the very first kick when we got it.

We've also got the engine block for the AS1 project back som getting polished so now we can hopefully make some progress with that. At the same time they fixed our engine block we sent a few pairs of cylinder heads along to see what the result would be and I have to say that they look better than I expected they would. When we sent them off they were some of the worst ones we had, spraypainted and dirty, but they look pretty much like they're new now. They are slightly more shiny than NOS parts but nowhere near as bad as they can get in some cases.

We also got a big load of parts back from getting galvanized with a new layer of zinc. It cost a grand total of 250 SEK (about 25 euro) to get all of them done, a bargain to make old parts look like new. The main problem is that you have to clean them and strip them of their original coat of zinc completely before they can put a new layer on. That takes a whole lot of scrubbing and some work with acids but the end result is worth is. Now we just have to find the time to do this with all the parts in our old screw drawer...

Today we're trying out something new: instead of hosting the pictures on the site using the regular gallery we're going to try hosting them on Flickr. The gallery of pictures is embeded below!



/Joacim

Hi,
The bad weather recently and the fact that the holiday is over means it's time to get back to restoring bikes and not just driving them!

To start off: we've received a number of new bikes during the last few weeks, we still haven't decided what to do with most of them but in order to get more parts ready to send to Smethurst for chroming and various other restorations, two of them have been disassembled. You can read about the process and check out the pictures of it in the projects tab. Since we haven't decided what to do with them yet they can be seen directly if you press 'Projects' or follow this link to them!

Earlier today we also got a shipment of parts from the US: a whole batch of NOS steering adjusters!

News 20100803

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Unfortunately we're still waiting for the final pieces for both the blue AS1 project and the 'Titan' project, hopefully we'll get them soon.

/Joacim

Hi!
Today we have an update of the 'AS3 'Titan'': some small touches to bring it closer to completion.

As I wrote a while back we received a huge load of Yamaha guides from our friend Graham a little while back. Since the last few weeks we've been hard at work digitizing them. Since they're fragile you can't mash them in a scanner and get it done that way, instead we're taking pictures of every page of every guide using an old video support to hold the camera. Originaly it was used to get companies logos into commercials by filming them with a camera, it works equally well with still images! We've managed to get through a big part of the guides but there's still plenty of work left.

Unfortunately that will have to wait a while: Ole has already gone away on holiday and I will as well in a few days. We'll both be gone the coming two weeks, in that time we'll be a bit slower than usual with answering emails but don't worry, we will keep an eye on the inbox!

News 20100705

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/Joacim

Hi,
We've got two new updates, one on the AS1 Blue2 and one on the 'AS3 'Titan''!
/Joacim

Hello,
At last we've got the engine for the AS3 'Titan' ready so the project can continue, you can check out the latest progress in the project! There's nothing more holding that project up now so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

We've also had a bit of luck: we have managed to get our hands on 38 NOS checkerflag emblems! We had completely run out of original checkerflags before we found this batch. Even though finds like these are getting rarer, good things are still out there hidden away in storage.

News 20100613

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On top of that we've received a whole bunch of pictures from our friend Robson in Brazil from a classic motorcycle meet in Rio de Janeiro: sunny weather and shiny bikes!

Robson Brazil

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/Joacim

Hi,
Unfortunately we haven't made much progress in the projects as of late, we're waiting on the engines for both bikes. Hopefully we'll get the engine soon so we'll be able to finish the projects.

In the meantime we've been sent pictures from people we've been in contact with from both sides of the world. During the spring we've been helping our friend Martin here in Sweden restore his AS1, well, it's all done now, just in time for the season!

Martin AS1

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Coming in from the opposite side of the world, Rob from New Zealand has sent us pictures of his CB750F  from 1980 and CBX1000 from 1979, two real beauties!

Rob Honda

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In the week I'll start the work on digitizing the guides, starting with the crossover guide, we'll start seeing results!
/Joacim

Hi,
A few days ago we received a shipment from England, not only was there a few AS3s that we'll cover in a while: there were something far more precious as well!

Over the past few years, almost from the start of Yamaparts, we've had help from Graham Head in the UK with all manner of things concerning the bikes. In this last shipment Graham sent all the parts lists, rider's manuals, service manuals and a number of even more rare documents including a very rare old numbers to new numbers list. It's an absolute mountain of guides for every Yamaha bike from the late 50's and 30 years ahead including a number of them that Yamaha themselves don't have left.

The entire collection of guides will be kept in one piece and get digitized, come summer I'll start the massive work of turning each one of them into PDF-files.

News 20100510

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Until next time!
/Joacim

Hi everyone,
I thought we would continue naming the updates after colours that are vaguely related to them, at least for the time being. Tonight we have an update for the 'Titan' AS3, since last time its flasher lenses has changed colour and the wheels have taken on an out of the ordinary look as well. Check it out in the update!
/Joacim

Hi,
Today I did not only bring my camera to the soon to be museum, I managed to get some pictures inside while the sun peeked through the clouds! As you can see, the entire roof is painted, the roof-girders and pillars still remain to be painted white. The three out of four doors in the pictures are getting removed (with a fifth one not pictured, fire safety!). The rear door will be left in place but screwed shut and a new wall built inside. The two inner doors will be completely removed.

The floor also needs to be recast. On both sides of the middle path were feeding troughs cast in concrete. Since I didn't have access to any heavy tools, I and a few friends hacked everything away bit by bit with sledgehammers. It was hard work but quite fun in small doses! That left the edges of the middle path rough and jagged so the entire floor will be cast to the highest existing level of the floor to even everything out.

Now that the ceiling is painted next up is getting an electrician to install all the lights!

News 20100418

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Another piece of fun news is that our friend Per in Norway has sent us more pictures of his bikes! This time of his AS1C and AS3, check them out below!

Per AS1C and AS3

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Until next time!
/Joacim

Hi everyone.
Tonight we have a new update on the second blue AS1, check it out in the project section!

I'm proud to say that we're yet one step closer to opening the museum. The entire room is now painted, what's left is a bit of work on the floor and some additional electical work. All in all it's starting to come together. Sorry but no pictures of it this time, last time I was there with the camera it was too dark outside to get any decent pictures.

Until next time!
/Joacim

Hi,
Today we have two new updates for you, one on the second blue AS1 and one on the special Titan project! Check it out and have a happy easter!
/Joacim

Hi everyone!
First of all, big thanks for everyone who visited us at Yamaha Center during the Yamaha days this past weekend. It was great to meet so many of you. For those of you who didn't get the chance to visit, either because you had other plans or because you're on the other side of the world, we've prepared a special photo update of the event!

On top of that we also have an extraordinary story to tell. Below is Kristian, he works at Yamaha Center Helsingborg. Little over a month ago he was competing in a roadrace in Spain when suddendly, on the fastest straight of the track, the front wheel of his bike locks up!

At over 240 km/h he was thrown of his bike and skid on the pavement for more than 200m. He suffered many bruises and broken bones. After all that he's back on his feet again and back at Yamaha Center! It's great to see him up and running, we all wish him a speedy recovery.



As you can see below, the place was packed even though (of maybe because?) the weather was bad.

News 20100330

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/Joacim

Hi Everyone,
A quick update I forgot to write about last time: this weekend it's time for Yamaha Center Helsingborgs annual Yamaha days event with special offers, events and test drives. Once again this year we will be there and show a few select bikes from our collection. If you're close enough to drive I would recommend a visit, it's always great. Check out this link for more information.

At the moment I'm away at a course about running a museum, yet another step on the path to open the museum!

Check out the pictures from last years Yamaha days below:

Instead of that: check out the pictures from this years event above!

/Joacim

Hi,
We have a new update on our second blue AS1 project. A while back we started the project based on our previous AS1 'Drive' project, we decided to do a complete restoration. Well, now the time has come to begin, we've just got the frame back from paint and have begun our work. Check it out in the project update.

On top of that we've received new pictures from half a world away, from our friend Ross in New Zealand. We've had a few updates of his progress on his Yamaha YL1 over the months. Well, now that time has come, the bike is fully restored! It's a real pearl.

News 20100321

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/Joacim

Hi everyone!
Tonight we have a new update on the ''Titan' AS3', check it out!
/Joacim

Hi Everyone,
After two weeks pretty much spent on the road and with work up over the ears it's that time again, time for another update! Since the last update I've not only been stuck on a train in a snowstorm, we've also got a whole lot further on the museum.

The entire ceiling is insulated with mineral wood and prepared for drywall. So far we've even managed to get about two thirds of the drywall in place! We've also build a new wall around the waterpump and accumulator of the property. The next step is to get the remaining one third of the drywall in place, plaster over the screws and get a layer of paint on it. When the weather warms up enough we'll cast the floor. Then all that is left is to run the electricity and get the motorcycles in place. It's not done overnight but we're getting there!

On top of that the guys from Yamaha Center were here today and delivered three new objects from the UK including one of Andy Noble AS3s with 3000km on the meter. They also took the last two AS2Cs (the red and the orange) along with the 'AS2 'Drive''. We really need to get the museum up, we're running out of space!

News 20100304

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Until next time!
/Joacim

Hi,
Happy valentines day, hope the day has been good to you so far! Today is a day for the heart, that is why this day is the perfect day to unveil our latest project which will be our main focus the coming weeks. We're doing an AS3 for the band Titan, a young melodic rock band with great potential! This project will be a bit different from all our previous projects and we hope it will help them! Check out the project update.

Be sure to check them out at www.titantheband.com or www.myspace.com/titantheband. They're a new band and as always with new bands it's a struggle to get out and get heard, so do your part if you like them: send the links to your friends, coworkers and families. And if you really like them you can purchase their EP 'Steps' and help some musicians out! Links to stores can be fount below. Take a listen to two of the tracks from the EP below as well!

CDON, Target Records, AOR Heaven, Rock Avenue Records





/Joacim