Honing GTR cylinders

[Toystoretom]

Is it possible to hone the chrome cylinders on a GTR? Ball hone or blade? Do you use anything special or just soap and water?

Thanks!

[Richard Clark BS parts]

Tom

All twin cylinder BS models have chrome plated alum cylinders, this is industrial chrome not shinny bumper chrome.

This industrial chrome is applied as to be a hard-long-wearing coating, This chrome bore should NOT be honed at all.

Clean with hot soapy water,  and reuse.  If a piston has seized and transfer has occurred, just rub off the alum, without
doing any damage to the chrome.

If the chrome has lifted or has deep scratches, then unfortunately the cylinder must be replaced or renewed

See my TIP section linked below for a bit of piston information:

http://bridgestonemotorcycleparts.com/index.php?topic=142.0



Questions? or need Bridgestone parts? call:

Richard Clark
812-944-1643  8am-6pm EST Weekdays

[Toystoretom]

Well, as you know, I am looking for some good cylinders or some that can be relined.

But for the life of me, I though I saw somewhere that you could hone these if necessary. I'm sure you know bunches more than I do about Bridgestone cylinders so I'll go with what you said  .....

I may have confused this with info from another forum (Like the Suzuki board).

[reed]

Toystoretom
Richard is correct you cannot hone chrome plated alum cylinders but what i will do is look out for cylinders for your Bridgestone 350.
I will let you know if i find some!
Thanks.
Reed.
PS i have a Bridgestone 350 gtr myself and i am always looking for parts in the USA and the UK!

[reed]

Toystoretom
Send me pictures of your cylinders and let me know what email numbers you need!
Thanks for posting the articles.
Reed.

[Toystoretom]

My pleasure (on the articles)! I love reading those old mags and I'm sure others will enjoy it as well. I think I found all the pages so we are good there.

Back to the topic at hand.... I have two cylinders that are just junk, I think the only way to save them would be to put a steel liner in them. One seized up so bad that the "skirts" cracked. There ain't no re-lining that one. The other has large pits in it that would have to be filled somehow before it was re-lined, I'm not sure it would be possible.

I did find two cylinders from a parts bike and one looks to be useable. The other has some corrosion spots in it and that was the one I was thinking of honing, but I guess not. The one with the spots has had some welding done to the exhaust flange, it may have been broken in an accident, who knows. If nothing else surfaces these would be my best bet, but I'm not in a hurry and something else may turn up.

BTW, the parts bike I found sat in an outside shed for a long time and isn't the best. It's missing a lot, no  gas tank, front fender, carbs. Someone pulled the motor out and gutted the transmission but curiously left most of those parts (which are now hopelessly rusty). The crank is locked but I was able to get the heads and cylinders off without too much fuss, go figure. My wife hates it, the cat likes it.

[reed]

Toystoretom
Re guarding your parts you need for your Bridgestone 350 gtr IE cylinders the more we talk about Bridgestone more people join
We will find more BRIDGESTONE IN BARNS AND GARAGES more bikes and parts for sale.
That's my opinion!

[Toystoretom]

I do believe you are right. It almost seems like there is a Bridgestone "Underground" made up of folks who don't own a computer or get on the internet, so I have found that it pays to be a little aggressive and follow up on rumors or call people I don't know but have been told that own Bridgestones. I don't like to make "cold" calls and bug people but ya gotta do what ya gotta do...

Right now I'm chasing a lead about a guy who supposedly has 90 bikes and will only sell the lot as a whole. I don't have room for 90 bikes...

[reed]

Toystoretom
I have room for more bikes i buy bikes all the time maybe more Bridgestones!
Anyway good luck with the deal.
Thanks.
PS hopefully gtr cylinders.
Reed.

[reed]

Toystoretom
Did you get cylinders for Bridgestone 350gtr or 90 motorcycles!
Thanks.
Reed.

[Toystoretom]

No... as far as I know the 90 bikes are still there, and I have no idea what models they are. There may be zero GTRs in that bunch. I did find another GTR and snapped that up. This GTR actually turns over and has compression and is fairly nice. It may be a runner, I will find out this weekend.

That puts me at the rusty St. Louis bike (the one that needs the cylinders), The Fort Worth bike (nice bike but stuck), the parts bike (out from the shed) and now the Tama Iowa bike. The St. Louis bike is interesting because it has an original Missouri title from 1971.

I've seen different numbers talked about here and there as far as how many GTR's were made total (anywhere from 9000 to 11000?) and how many were shipped to the States (around 3500?) and you know that a good percentage didn't survive to 2010, but there are still some out there if you look. You just can't be too picky on their condition....


And feel free to correct me on production figures. I know that some of the Brit manufacturers were way off on their numbers, I have no idea how accurate the Bridgestone numbers are.

I'm hoping to get some some of my customer's stuff done early Saturday morning and start on the Tama Iowa bike. That bike was sold at auction up in Minnesota in the early 1990's and came out of an estate sale. It's not real clear what happened to it up until about 2 years ago when it went back through the same auction house and a Bridgestone collector from Tama Iowa bought it. He likes the little Bridgestones but always wanted a GTR so he bought it. He said he never messed with it as he had too many other Bridgestone projects, but when I bought it from him it had gas in the tank that isn't stale and a battery that is starting to sulfidate but still holds a little juice, so someone has been playing with it recently (the last 2 years or so). It has been repainted a candy brandywine color that is very nice, but it's a little darker than the Bridgestone original candy apple on the other bikes I have. It actually has a chain guard on it, but it is cracked. The odometer shows just a little over 2000 miles on it.

The carbs aren't stuck, it shifts through all 6, the clutch pulls in, I dunno, I might be smokin' Harleys Saturday afternoon 

[reed]

Toystoretom
If you need any help with your gtr i am a email away!
I do a lot of carb work check out carbworx.com
I love my gtr all the bikes i have had z1 h2 etc the Bridgestone is
the best thing since slice bread!
Thanks.
Reed.

[Toystoretom]

Thanks Steve... You know I'll hit you up for help. You guys know more than me about these gems, but I need to try and get one going just to see where I am at. The reason I am trying to ferret these out is to have enough parts to make one roadworthy bike. I already found something weird (I think) on the Tama bike... the coil wires are crossed. The left coil goes to the right cylinder and the right coil goes to the left cylinder. The reason I was looking at that was that I noticed that one of the plug wires is all taped up and is about to come apart so I was going to steal a plug wire from another bike and the plug wires are routed differently (Left to left and right to right). (Twilight Zone music here  )

I'll know more soon. When I was 30 years old I used to stay up all night and mess with this stuff. Now I fall asleep at 5:30  ....

[reed]

Totstoretom
I road mine today for the first time down the road run Great!
Thanks to Mike Anderson i did not think i was going to get one.
I am over the moon with the bike.
Thanks.
Reed.

[old smokey]

Reed, you got a GTR going down the road?

[reed]

Old smokey
Yes the gtr is running strong very happy!
Thanks.
PS milkstone did the job.
Reed.

[old smokey]

Great news, and glad you found some acid rinse to use. It's fun to run out of speed limit before you run out of gears.