(All photos enlarge when clicked)
As much as I love my Honda CM400A, it is a semi-auto (no clutch) and so I am not getting any experience in co-ordinating clutch operation and gear-changing.
If ever I gain my full license I want to be able to widen my choice of 'bikes and, apart from scooters, there are not many automatics out there. You can count them on the fingers of one hand, in fact.
The CM250 that I bought - back in September as a non-going project - is in pieces whilst I try and source a replacement 430-pitch rear sprocket and chain to mate with the drive sprocket on the CB250 engine. So I can't use that and anyway, it may just end up becoming a stock of spares for the CM400A.
So I decided to buy a small 'bike with a manual 'box.
But it had to be a classic, in good condition and less than $2,000 including delivery to Canberra.
Just before Christmas I bought the two-stroke Suzuki A100 seen here.
It is a 1980 model, but these 'bikes were manufactured with only minor changes for almost twenty years, so the latest model is similar in appearance to the earliest. Here is a link to some brochures.
My bike is not 100% original. The rear shock absorbers have been replaced with YSS units and the handlebar with a cut-down Renthal item. The top end has been rebuilt (slight overbore, new piston & rings), brakes redone and new tyres fitted. Finally, the bike was repainted red over black.
It looks the goods, in my opinion, and the first ride was a real eye-opener for me, as I had not ridden a fully-manual 'bike since doing the Stay Upright course back in August.
Co-ordination of clutch and throttle was practised up and down the driveway, first gear only.
Then, when I had become familiar with the friction-point, I took it out into the cul-de-sac where I live and did figure 8's, looping back and forth and around as I familiarised myself with the low-speed handling and gear changing between 1st. & 2nd. and back again.
That went on for about half-an-hour.
The next morning (Boxing Day) I launched myself out of my street and into the Big World, doing a few laps around the suburb and actually changing up and down through the gears.
Neutral is indistinct - maybe the selector detente is worn - and there were a couple of times when it revved it's head off as I idled along in what I thought was 2nd. but was actually No Man's Land!!
Along one of the local 80 kph stretches of road I did see an indicated 80, the little engine buzzing away at untold revolutions (no tacho), the wind whistling through my raised visor and a couple of cars ambling along behind me.
The experience is totally different to that when riding the Honda.
The CM400A cruises along; the Suzuki definitely does not cruise!
I will continue to practice on this little machine but I would like to have the gear selector looked at, as I think it needs to be more definite in its operation, certainly in that area between 1st., Neutral and 2nd.
When I pop it into a gear, I would like to actually feel it go there, not be left wondering!
Wow - what a little ripper!
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised if can actually much improvement in the neutral selection. A bike that age is likely to have not much better than what you have now, even when it rolled of the production line.
Regardless - thats one very cool little Tiddler!
Thanks for the admiring glances, mate! :)
ReplyDeleteAlso for advising on the gear selection. I suppose it's something I'll just have to become used to.
Well, practise makes perfect (so they say) so I'll jest keep at it when the mood strikes.