Black Widow - restauration (1)

This is what the original model looks like. A 1975 B-type. It is a picture of a Dutch bike, that is in pretty much original condition. Don´t recall who the owner is. That is how my bike got his name, because of the original black color.

Being on a very low budget I painted the frame with spray cans. Very very wrong. The front part of the frame gets a lot to endure from water, dirt and especially salt in winter that is thrown up from the front wheel. Living by the sea, with the healthy salty sea air may be good for humans, it certainly isn´t for bikes. Next project I´m going to have the frame powder-coated, to my knowledge the cheapest and most enduring coating you can get under these difficult circumstances.

I tried out the original 34mm fork legs, but I wasn´t happy with the slab yokes being slightly bent, and I wasn´t impressed with the fork sticking, because the legs were slightly bent.

I replaced the original nylon bearings by a bronze aftermarket set. These don´t fit in easily, and do not try hitting them with a hammer as they will break. The best way is using something to pull them in gently. Cooling the bronze bushes in the freezer and heating the rear fork in the oven may help a lot too. You have to check if the axle has a nice fit, if not use a reamer of the correct size to get it right. But be careful to get the reamer in in line with the bushing on the opposite side!

I cleaned up pieces, restored them, painted them and put them on the frame as needed. Surely not the best approach, but this was my first project and I found this was the best way for me not to forget stuff. If you can set your mind to it, it will go a lot faster if you take all pieces needing paint and doing that in one go. But remember, this was a giant puzzle, I wasn´t even sure everything needed was there!

I decided to respoke the wheels myself, as the only company that specializes in this sort of job is 300 Km away. I didn´t want the local dealer to do this, as he didn´t seem to know by far what I meant with respoking a couple of wheels, and he quoted a ridiculous amount to have it done. The spokes were badly rusted and the aluminum was badly corroded.

In front the aluminum rim when I was finished with it. Mind you, a lot of painstaking hours went into this!

New bearings were installed. Always a good idea, as they can easily be ordered from local shops. I swear by SKF, when I can get it. They are much cheaper than the ones you order from Yamaha. (They supply Koyo, a Japanese make) I always use the type 2RS1, which means they come with double sealing and lifetime greased. They are slightly more expensive than the open type, but they will last a lot longer. The separate sealing on any wheel is crap, as dirt can and will get past when cleaning with a high pressure cleaner, and when removing the wheel. The bush in between the bearings almost always has a hole for lubricating the bearings, and as nobody really does this anyway the only thing passing through that hole is dirt.

Respoking the wheel was not as easy as I thought. I strongly advise to leave this to someone who knows exactly what he/she is doing! I got it right ... eventually. Getting it in line as it should took me a long time, but I got there. Only problem I have is that I don´t have the feel how tight the spokes have to be. I think I over tightened them. When I stopped after a ride I sometimes heard the spokes make a light sound, as if they were relieved of too many stress. Anyone had that? Still trying to figure out what that can be!

Fred Hill posted these tips on rebuilding wheels on the micapeak mailing list:

About : rebuilding wheels

Scotty, save your money, rebuild them yourself. Certainly use stainless
spokes, they cost more but they ain´t gonna rust out. Take photos of the
wheels and measure the lateral rim position before you tear them down. Be
sure to get the correct spokes, there are differences in head angle that are
small but critical. Install the layers of spokes that go in from the outside
first. Be sure they all cross over each other the correct number of times.
True the wheel by remembering that tightening a given spoke moves the rim
locally towards the side that spoke comes from. Use the swingarm and front
fork as assembly jigs. The first wheel you build will take you a
considerable time, the next will be easier. You will have learned a new
skill, saved a few hundred bucks and will be in a position to bill others in
future.
Fred Hill, S´toon.

> I want to replace the spokes on my 78. Does someone on the list know where
I
> can get new sets cheap? UJ, did you mention a source for getting those
when
> I was at your shop earlier this month? I can´t remember. Anyway, there a
> shop here that estimates it will run somewhere around $190 each wheel to
> install the new spokes and true the wheels. Is that a good price?
Something
> tells me it´s pretty high.
> Thanks,
> Scott

I had the springs from the rear shock absorbers rechromed as the hydraulic damper still worked fine. It cost me a pretty amount of money, I wasn´t exactly happy with it and after a short time they started to rust again. I find the original Yamaha rear shocks are virtually indestructible, as opposed to some big aftermarket names I tried!

The bike was starting to look like something now. The front wheel was temporarily put aside, as the slab yokes were not as original as I thought, they came from a XS500 and the distance between the holes for the fork legs is slightly smaller than original. No way of fitting the front wheel without slightly bending the fork legs!

Wow ... a lot of difference ... I put on a seat ... a beautiful seat, though. I think I really need to cut down taking pictures. Well, it always seems unimportant afterwards.

I got these exhaust pipes from someone after he sold his XS. He welded a balancing pipe in between them, (bad idea anyway on pipes that are hardly muffled) but used ordinary steel pipe. And he left them standing upright, in the rain. He thought they had totally rusted.

To my astonishment I wiped the rust clean off with chrome polish, revealing nice bright chrome underneath. It seemed the rust from the balancing pipe came down with the rain, but didn´t affect the chrome. I removed the balancing pipe, and had a plate welded over the holes by a professional welder. By the way, those pipes are still on the bike, but now polish can´t help them anymore :( They still do not leak, so changing them is NOT an option, as I really like the sound of them!)