Sweet NOS R5 Pin

It's not too often you see promotional stuff for a 34-year-old bike... so I thought it was kinda cool when I came across this Yamaha R5 lapel pin. Nifty, eh?

Transmission Fluid?

Sorry it's been a while since my last post - things have gotten busy around here...

Joe Hill wrote in with some excellent questions about the R5 transmission fluids:

The question I have is the transmission. Where should the fluid level be? Is there a way to drain the fluid and replace it? And what type of fluid does it take? I checked the trans fluid today, (the plastic cap and dipstick on the right side of the bike sitting on it) and it looked very low. I could see a gear. The guy I bought it off said that it was reciently changed, but other things he told me were done to the bike turned out to be false. I think it needs fluid but I don't know how much it holds or what type. I also need to know if there is an easy way to drain out what is in it to make sure the correct amount gets put in.

Well, Joe, I checked my trusty manual, but found nothing in the transmission sections, nor in the specs section listing capacities. I found it under the "Removing the Engine" section, of all places:



As you can (sorta) see in the photo, there is a single bolt in the underside casing of the transmission, just in front of the arm holding the driver footpegs around the exhaust pipes. This is the drain plug. Take it out to drain the tranny fluid.

The manual goes on to say:

- Warming up the engine will quicken draining the oil.
- The amount of oil is 1500cc (1.6 qts). Motor oil SAE 10W/30 should be used.

Seems pretty simple. At first I thought the perhaps the Autolube system was responsible for oiling the transmission as well, but since the specified oils are different, this cannot be the case. It must just be a self-contained oil bath, and it's probably a good idea to drain and replace anyway. After seeing this, I'll probably wind up doing this myself!

Hope that helps!

Rearsets! Rearsets!

For my Big-Three-Oh-Birthday-Bashtacular, my super-cool friends decided it would be best to mark my three centuries of non-stop-rocking this planet with some cool vintage rearsets for the R5! How freaking cool is that?

They haven't arrived yet, probably because there's not much demand for obscure early 70's Yamaha model rearsets at the moment... but I was awarded the instruction manual so I can drool over those puppies until they actually get here. Photos of said sets, installation and all their shiny, rear-set-y glory will be posted as it all goes down. Stay tuned...

Uber-special thanks to Brian, Michelle, Jim, Angela, Russ, Jessica, Lee and Jenna!

World's Fastest Indian T-shirt!

Paul Crowe from The Kneeslider just wrote to inform me that I'd won one of the shirts from their World's Fastest Indian-t-shirt giveaway... pretty swank! The shirt also has "I'm fast" emblazoned on the back. Excellent!

Thanks Paul! Keep up the good work over at The Kneeslider!