Yamaha AS2J 'Drive' 1971
We just recieved this bike from Germany and it's in great condition given its age. We also got it real cheap! A few weeks ago a new bike showed up on www.ebay.de, it was listed as Yamaha BJ 71. The BJ standing for Baujahr, year of construction. The only reason we found it is because we got a tip about it. Obviously pretty much no one else found it and it went cheap!In the same way we made the AS1 'Drive' during the summer we're going to restore this one to good usable condition rather than absolute mint. We're in luck that the bike is in good condition, that just means we have to replace fewer of the original parts!
10/26/2009
Well, this bike was every bit as good as we could ever have imagined when we got it! We took it apart and put it back together again with a quick change of cylinders and pistons, a piston ring had broken inside the right cylinder and scraped it. Fortunately it's nothing worse than what can be fixed with a re-bore so in the end we'll end up with a spare set of .50 oversized cylinders. Something quite amazing is that it still has the same tires that was put on it in the factory, what probably happened was that the piston ring broke and instead of fixing it they simply put the bike in storage and forgot about it, bad luck for them, great for us.
Anyhow, we put the bike back together and decided to take it out for a test drive! The great thing is that it looks almost like new, it hasn't got the same perfection in details as the complete restorations but it will still do well at shows and we can drive it around a bit without fear of wear.
We'll take it out on a longer trip sometime when the weather is right, at the moment all the days are gray and rainy so it stays inside for now.
Anyhow, we put the bike back together and decided to take it out for a test drive! The great thing is that it looks almost like new, it hasn't got the same perfection in details as the complete restorations but it will still do well at shows and we can drive it around a bit without fear of wear.
We'll take it out on a longer trip sometime when the weather is right, at the moment all the days are gray and rainy so it stays inside for now.
AS2J 'Drive' 20091025
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09/14/2009
We've just recieved the bike from Germany and it's looking good! It has got 7000km on the meter and you can tell that it's the real mileage. So far we've only just taken a quick look at it and checked the major parts but everything seems to be in good order. A bit worried about the right cylinder, it's not giving proper compression, might be a problem...
The best thing about this bike is the fuel tank, it looks almost brand new! The colours aren't faded and the surface is still good, there's no rust to be found anywhere!
The best thing about this bike is the fuel tank, it looks almost brand new! The colours aren't faded and the surface is still good, there's no rust to be found anywhere!
AS2J 'Drive' 20090913
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