Turbo Time!

Our Allen helps out a mate with his Z1-R Turbo. If only we all had a Millyard as a mate, eh...

- Allen Millyard

Its feels strange to me, not attending shows or riding to bike meets, but I have been riding my Z1 Super Six quite a lot and have now clocked up 650 miles. I’ve had a few issues with chain run and squeal from the brakes, but more on that another time!

My friend Neil Haworth called round with his 1978 Z1-R Turbo for me to make a stainless steel exhaust and sort out the jetting of a new Mikuni 44mm pumper carb that he had bought to replace the standard fixed jet Bendix carb. The existing exhaust pipework that came with the bike was in poor shape, and was originally from a GPZ1100 drag bike so the exhaust headers were longer. When fitted, the header would hit the front mudguard if the forks were compressed. The first thing I had to do was make the headers fit the bike by cutting about 50mm from each pipe, then machine up new stubs to weld back on.

The headers then fitted tight to the frame and cleared the mudguard at full compression of the forks.