Richard's '88 Tenere resto project

There’s a lot of it about at this time of year, brought on, no doubt, by excessive exposure over the Festive Season to the temptations of eBay. Buying old nails with a view to restoration, that is.

Wilfing away over the New Year, I spotted for sale a bike that, when new, I really fancied. Not that I ever came close to buying one, going for an ugly  KLR 600 instead. This time around, one look at the seemingly presentable 1988 Yamaha XT 600ZE Tenere pictured was enough to get me interested and, suitably fired up on port and Stilton cheese, I placed a bid. Which won.

Meaning I had to drive all the way to Herefordshire in pissing rain to pick it up and avoid a serious dose of negative feedback. The chap selling had given an optimistic description of the bike, which I expected. Calling the front sprocket “a bit worn” was, however, going a bit far.

So what was I getting? The bike is basically complete, with all plastic panels in fair condition, good wheel rims and even the original toolkit. The motor was in pieces, its place taken in the frame by one from an XT600E. And here’s the rub. This model of 600 Tenere, the 1VJ, was known to be the least reliable of the three types, suffering from overheating and the fifth gear wear also usually seen on the original 34L type.

Seems the seller had bought the beast hoping to overland it, had then heard or read about the gear problem, had stripped the motor to check and had found, naturally, a shagged pair of fifth gear pinions. These cost a bit, so he obtained an E motor with reliable gearbox from a breaker, got as far as getting it in the frame and then lost heart.

Which is probably just as well, since the swap is not the straightforward affair he seemed to expect. The electrics aren’t the same, so the Ten stator and rotor must be fitted to the E motor. The gear ratios differ, which is fine if you know what final drive to fit but less so if you don’t. And then there’s the fact that he’d have ended up with what looks like a rough old lump in his overland bike. I wouldn’t want to use it without a rebuild – just to check.

But that’s not what I intend. Ideally I want to use the original crankcases, not least ‘cos they have a number that matches the frame. So, I’ll be stripping the E lump to see what is useable and, with luck, fitting its gear clusters to the Ten cases along with the barrel and head. The barrel was the other weak point of the 1VJ, the threads prone to stripping. The later twin headlight model had a redesigned head which continued into the E. See where this is going?

It all depends on the condition of the E parts, of course. And there’s another question. Should I go for the “ground up” restoration, respraying everything including the dented tank? Or for a renovation, leaving the bike mechanically excellent but with the patina of age, neglect and abuse left largely intact? Let’s see how the motor goes first.

By Richard Hallett