Although intended as a “witty ” title,
the post actually is indeed
about an XT model “C” yamaha
and several of its stablemates.
The owner of the 3 XT,s featured
is non other than my pal
Nick Lowings
seen in the past on this blog
racing his Grinnall Scorpion.
Now Nick never does anything in halves!
2 Scorpions,
3 Lotus Sevens
3 Lotus Elises
2 Davrian racecars
Now 3 XT 500s
(and another one in the planning stage)
No mean mechanic,
and a paint sprayer
who would put most pros to shame
Nick enters “enthusiastically” into each new project.
He is very quickly “up to speed “
on all the salient points,
-suppliers,
experts,
specialist knowledge etc;
He uses owner clubs forums to great effect
and is very quickly
an authority on any given project,
-albeit the projects keep changing!
(a bit like Mr Toad!)
In attempting to find a modern bike
that had the attributes
of the British 500 singles
of his youth
Nick settled on the XT 500
as a suitable replacement.
A 2 valve, air cooled 500 single
in a traditional Twin shock frame,
complete with drum brakes
(and a KICKSTARTER!)
His 1st XT was this 78 “E” model.
He fitted road tyres ,
a Kand N filter
and a free flowing
Predator exhaust
to improve performance
The rest remained as standard
(apart from better shocks and fork springs)
Having gotten into the subject
it wasnt long
before he found out
that the 76 “C” model
was the one to have!
Being Nick,within a very short time
he had located a complete bike
with a spare motor
in the south of France,
and picked up the sorry looking package
for 800 euros!
Some fine restoration
resulted in the bike seen here
Apparantly it is one of only 200 imported
by the French concessionaire
Jean Claude Olivier
(an early Paris/Dakar veteran)
The bike features the original vin plate,
mounted low down on the saddle tubes,
(rather than on the headstock
as normal practise)
a white headlight
(only supplied to showroom models)
and nickel plated footrests.
(enthusiasts will note the exhaust
-a stainless steel exact copy of the original
supplied by a Dutch firm for a mere 900 EUROS!!!!!)
I love the little oil temperature gauge
that replaces the oil filler cap!
Having gotten a “utility” XT,
a special collectable XT
next on the list was a competition model.
A TT500 scrambler was sourced!
An engine rebuild followed
including a highly recommended modification
-a double oil feed to the rocker box,
where the exhaust valve can suffer
from oil starvation on original examples
(KEDO-Germany are XT part suppliers that Nick recommends)
Longer shocks were added at the rear end
and beefy Yamaha IT 490 enduro forks up front.
This has meant that the new forks
now touch the original tank
when on full lock
- a problem solved
by replacing same
with an Ebay sourced
YZ 125 tank from the mid 80,s
(seems an awfully complicated modification to me….!)
Is that the end?
HELL NO!
He is now sourcing a frame kit
to build an HL scrambler replica
this time.
He is in discussions
with an Australian supplier!
Well at least he has a spare engine
to start off with!
Oh and he,s building a new house,
starting a company supplying secondary oil filters
as well as setting up
a French distribution company
for a specialist brand of American oil products…….
No rest for the wicked!:P
Posted by Peter 
Posted by Peter 