Willard's vintage Hotsaw Builds

[Willard]

Nathan Big Mac, I need some helpful advice. It's getting down to the nitty gritty of tuning my YZ125 bikesaw.
I PMed you.

 

[jacob j.]

Nathan Big Mac, I need some helpful advice. It's getting down to the nitty gritty of tuning my YZ125 bikesaw.
I PMed you.
View attachment 342727

Nathan's the man to talk to when it comes to bike motors @Bigmac

 

[Willard]

Nathan's the man to talk to when it comes to bike motors @Bigmac

Yes I totally agree, Nathan has given me some valuable information over the last few years of these projects.
We got the cylinder head squish straightened out. Now I'm just going over the small fiddily stuff.

 

[Willard]

Now hopefully for the last time I can now reassemble the saw.
Got the fuel line routing into the tank straightened out. Only needed a 50 cent grommet not $20 worth of fittings, Lol.
The return fuel line is right above it and the barb nipple to the right is the chain oil discharge.
I've used this Silicone spray for years, great stuff.

 

[Willard]

Got the 1982 YZ125 up and going yesterday plus bought some 20"-22" x 16 ft dry white spruce logs to test today. Squamish BC Loggers sports coming up this weekend. 14 members of my family will be there making the 3200 mile round trip drive.

 

[Willard]

Can't seem to be able to post short videos here.

 

[Bigmac]

Can't seem to be able to post short videos here.

You need a hoisting service, like YouTube

 

[Bigmac]

Got the 1982 YZ125 up and going yesterday plus bought some 20"-22" x 16 ft dry white spruce logs to test today. Squamish BC Loggers sports coming up this weekend. 14 members of my family will be there making the 3200 mile round trip drive.
View attachment 344307View attachment 344308View attachment 344309

Looks great! Can’t wait to see her run!!

 

[Steve]

Got the 1982 YZ125 up and going yesterday plus bought some 20"-22" x 16 ft dry white spruce logs to test today. Squamish BC Loggers sports coming up this weekend. 14 members of my family will be there making the 3200 mile round trip drive.
View attachment 344307View attachment 344308View attachment 344309

Been following you since the beginning, this is super satisfying for me! I can imagine how satisfying this is for you!

 

[Willard]

I think I'm now fully recovered from the Squamish BC logger sports trip 2 weeks ago.
3,500 miles included through some of the roughest mountain roads on the planet along with 95° heat.

So the morning of race day I'm in the competitors parking lot doing a final dial in making sure it starts on the first pull. Put it into a 22" block to set the carb and everything looked good. Was about to put the square file to the chain when I noticed gas dripping at a good rate onto the header exhaust pipe. Right there panicking I thought I'll have to cancel the event and just enter the tree felling which was classified as World Championship.
I got time so I took the saw apart to get at the leak. It was leaking at the fuel line grommet at the tank. Grommet must not be fuel resistant. Luckily I had a tube of good old Seal All in the tool box. Got it all back together and it dried quick in 95° heat.
Now no time to square file so I put the 7/32 round file to it.

I was then putting my YZ125 bikesaw in the staging area and noticed a 330 big bore bikesaw sitting in the group.
"What's up I said" the answer was
last September the decision was made to drop the 140cc class and go "open".
Wow news to me wish someone would have told me. It has only been 50 years they had the 140cc rule
Anyways I'm cool with it. The 125 was ripping well beyond my expectations.
Even though this was my first competition entry in 30 years I wanted to make my 14 family members who also made the trip proud.
Anyways my daughter's video shows the end result . I swore the 22" Douglas fir log was the lowest to the ground of the 6 positions.
Over half the competitors DQ'd for cutting out or saws not starting.
I took my time made my 2 complete cuts even though having a saw leg snag twice in the first cut.
Took 4th place and got a $200 check! Former Stihl Timbersports individual world champion Stirling Hart came in 2nd with his 300+cc big bore.
The last event the Tree felling I was not so lucky. Got a DQ for forgetting to put a high step in the back cut.

 

[Willard]

 

[Willard]

My grand daughter was proud of her grandpa on Instagram.
Last pic new plans for the YZ125 with 17" bar and .404 50AL chain.

 

[CR888]

Congratulations Willard, just to build a saw like that, deal with Murphy's law with everything that can and does go wrong is a huge win. To compete, make your cuts and get a check is a serious win for a first time in 30 years. Seriously WELL DONE!!!

 

[Willard]

Congratulations Willard, just to build a saw like that, deal with Murphy's law with everything that can and does go wrong is a huge win. To compete, make your cuts and get a check is a serious win for a first time in 30 years. Seriously WELL DONE!!!

Thanks CR888, Over the years with me trying to get my hotsaw and now 2 extra up and going I think you, Steve and Kevin Smith have been supporting me the longest. Thank you I really appreciate it.

There was alot of pressure right to the last few minutes at that competition. The grand stands were sold out, the very well organized show was going like clock work.
That saw had to start in that high heat and my family who traveled so far were all there watching, it was make or break

 

[Willard]

I highly recommend anyone to visit Squamish's 66th annual loggers sports next year. Best show I know of and with big expensive Douglas fir wood.

 

[Willard]

Here's the chain I ran in that 22" Douglas fir. Would have been better for pine not dug fir with that 7/32" quick on the spot file job. Should have grabbed the 5/32" file and go for the "Baby C"
Won't take much to bring it back with a raker file then finish up with the chisel bit tri file. Still lots of sharpening life left .
I don't piss around anymore with stoning the sides.

 

[slackinoff]

@Willard - I just got caught up reading your thread. That was really cool to see the video of you competing! I wanted to say thank you to your granddaughter and you for sharing that. Also all the great build pics along the way. What are the plans for next season? I'd love to see more of this.

 

[Willard]

@slackinoff thanks. This is only the start of things to come.
I'm presently getting the CR250R up and running for May long weekend 2023 at Kaslo,B.C loggers sports. Very similar to Squamish but smaller. Hotsaw event there is cold start 2 cuts in 22" pine, my 30 year old son will be running the YZ125 and I'll be running the CR250 (261cc).
A world famous Honda CR500 builder guru just finished up my cylinder and head and the 1984 CR500 hotsaw will be up and going over this winter.
Now that I'm retired and sold my tree service, my family and I plan to make road trips to competitions throughout California and the PNW. Also Minnesota, Wisconsin etc. over the years to come.

 

[Willard]

Here's some pics from Squamish Loggers Sports last August long weekend.
First is Karl Bischoff who I competed with back in the 1980's. Karl still chops butcher block at 67, he's 3 years older then me. His grandsons and granddaughters also chop here at a very young age.
Some log birling and a climber doing a hand stand 80 feet up.

 

[Chainmale]

Always enjoy seeing an alert pop up for this thread.
Cool to see this journey and the work you've done