Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Yikes. Well, another experience to look forward to. If anything with this GN125, likely happening next week.

Had some issues with the battery, so the guy at the battery shop is filling and charging me a new one.

Although it does start eventually, it isn’t consistent and the multimeter reads barely 12.04V when fully charged off the mains. If it’s throwing a wobbly it reads barely 11.5V and starter button drops it through the floor. Wednesday it refused, so I took the bmx instead. Yesterday I had to charge it, warm up the shed with a radiator and turn on the dehumidifier for nearly an hour before it would think about starting.

Battery would be fine over summer months but definitely too old for winter riding. My replacement (picking up today) is a YB7-A wet, exactly the same as the original.

Out of stock, but the guy also had recommended a Motobatt sealed job, apparently better for cold starts?

Motobatts do seem to live up to the marketing when it comes to chucking out a tonne of power, I've used them more or less whenever I've had to replace. Bike before current one had some starting issues after I'd fitted the motobatt, and doing the solenoid test with a screwdriver blew the screwdriver out of my hand and across the car park

Nice. Did you do a little wee?

Yea shame Motobatt was out of stock at the company, or I’d have considered it. However the guy said - and I was happy to trust an ex-racer - stick to the original spec in a Japanese motorbike.

Considering the hard life this bike must have had, I wouldn’t want to surge any of the old circuitry. Maybe it’s worth considering on newer spec stuff.

20yo kiddo riding a Keeway cruiser, he was also waiting to chat to the instructor yesterday. Told me he had crashed it three times and been stolen once since April, and complained the alarm system professionally fitted was blowing fuses. One of the spills was filtering and a car not moving to let him back in, so he hit a traffic island. He was also blaming his tyres, wanting new ones. He also pays over £70 a month (for a £2k 125) insurance - down from £100 that bikesure wanted before cancelling his policy. He’s also waiting to hear back about joining the army reg’s.

He called my bike a lawnmower.

I like the small CC adventure rider storys so 50cc --90cc- 125cc and it seems a common thing to carry spare jet set for when your up in the mountain passes, when you only have 5-12 bhp to start with i presume the effects of thin air at altitude are a bigger problem quicker than with a larger engine.
The nutbars that go global on Honda Cubs make good reading, even if they have helped push up the prices for old clapped out C90's to silly money nowdays :)

If I could trust this GN125, I’d totally do it.

Custom myself some ultra-light waterproof panniers, get a set of alu pannier/rear rack rails brazed, and bugger off at 100mpg.

To be honest, already had plans to do it across Europe at least. Get low altitude lawnmower miles in before trying mountain passes!

Get the Mod1&2 done in Jan/Feb and see about a real adventure by the time spring comes about.

Love this whole vibe man. Small bikes are great!

Read a few adv forum posts. Seems that you need the mentality that’s come natural to me - sod the dual carriageways, take the most scenic rural route possible and don’t expect to get too far very fast.

I can dig it.

Old battery, fluctuated between 11.5v and 12.04 - lucky if I could get a start out of it.

New battery, filled and charged, ready to go, standing at over 13v. Fingers crossed for cold starts!

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Yeah small engined bikes are rad. Been eyeing up KTM dukes.
I meant what bikes do you think they are riding in that video you posted. I coukdnt make it out. Are they just stock honda or whatever 250s that have been customised?

Fwar! What a difference! The starter sounded incredibly positive, and the engine kicked to life much happier.

Neutral light never looked so bright, and before turning over the engine, tested headlamp and indicators, and they were immediately bright and relatively fast to tick on and off. Couldn’t say that before.

I don’t trust that old battery reading. It would drop like a stone under load.

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Solid shout.
Hate to say it, but this will be as minimal effort as can be, was too fucking cold to be tearing the block apart. I'm really hoping I just screwed up the pushrod adjustment. If not, I guess it's time to get at that basket.

I reckon it's just friction plates as the slip only seems to occur above a certain RPM.

@sacredhart not sure which vid you mean, i think they are all tagged in titles as to what bike.
The stories of bike are Yamaha 250 that i expect will have had some slight mods to frame and exhausts.

Another lurker on ADV :) love battle scooters :) and Thumpers and Olds Cool and having a giggle at the BMW GS nightmare threads.

All I’ve learnt in the past month from Yammie Noob and forums is never buy beemer

Yeah - measure the springs too. If they're original, they'll be getting tired. Cheap fix anyway.

Mx boxes last in hours, while road bikes last in miles. After having seen boxes rebuilt that have had clutch less changes I stopped doing them. Have had cars with straight cut gears and no synchromesh so changing with the clutch required double de clutching or rev matching.

Agree - plates and maybe springs - easy and cheap - all the best things are.
Loving my SV.

Not the foggiest. Oil changes still come out clean with no swarf which is a miracle. If it calls for it, might do the whole basket.
@hanford The bikes are cockroaches. So far it's been more reliable than the Tiger with 4x the miles.

If it's not snatchy or juddery, there won't be anything wrong with the basket. If it is you can just gently file the tangs a little to get rid of the grooves, though obvs not with the bike on it's side...make sure to polish smooth with wet and dry. :)

Clutch is a 20 minute job. You just need a flat surface and feeler gauges to check the old steel plates are flat (if you're reusing them) and verniers to measure the springs. Seriously though, I'd just order new springs and friction plates and whack it back together. I've never warped a steel plate, even on my old 125 race bikes and those things experience clutch apocalypse every start!

I need to have another crack at my XR650R clutch - fucker is slipping again. In their infinite wisdom, Honda made it the weakest part of the bike - only 4 lousy springs holding 50+ hp in race trim. Needs all HD springs really but my hands are getting so fucked I can't abide heavy clutches.

So at least it wasn't cold today. Out come the tools.
Springs bang on tolerances and the plates are remarkably flat without even minor gouging. Feelers agree. I'll be replacing them come spring, but everything is super clean inside the basket.
Anyway, that can't be it. Bit of a chin wag and I was thinking that with a won clutch, there would be some either abrupt gear drops or sudden loss of power. This was non of it, gradual from 4k up.

Let's reassemble. Reinstalling the worn drive and notice the clutch cable bracket is alarmingly worn out..touching the sprocket nut..which is about halfway threaded into the output shaft...

Picture the rest.
Luckily just some burring and no substantial damage to either sprocket or shaft splines.
I suppose I don't really trust anyone to work on my bicycles, so not sure why I trusted someone to tighten that nut for me.

What's the spring rate on the XR's clutch? 4 heavies & off road must be a ballache?

Rather you than me! Agree with the sentiment - I’d prefer the skills to do this all myself to avoid someone else half-assing a minor/critical component.

I got just shy of 75 miles in today.

Puig ‘mini’ windshield arrived from Louis Moto in Germany, so fitted it ready to test.

Out of Swindon, hitting almost every country road south of the A420 to as close to Oxford as possible, then over the top and back. Had to do about 15-18 miles of the A420 though, to avoid probably 20 miles extra in detours (or repeating villages).

As soon as I joined the road it was super busy. Had a couple people overtake while I was doing 50 in a 50 zone so thought better stretch legs and have a breather. Aldi lorry had kept well back, which I really appreciated, so pulled in at first opportunity. Pics from the BP garage.

For a small windscreen it makes a big difference. Need to get the exact angle right, but really helped. 15 or so miles of 50mph I was happy to have something to hide behind. The little engine really wanted to go faster... until there was any kind of incline. It also wanted to get blown over. The open road felt very exposed at times.

Got some MX/enduro style hand shields coming from M&P’s ebay shop, hoping that will get rid of the worst of the wind chill and my little rat will still see some miles over the real winter.

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Like the glove warmer :)

Waste not want not ;)

before you know it you will be stuffing foil wrapped jacket spuds or a Greggs cheese and bacon puff down there :)

Gonna fashion a Ginsters pasty sleeve

So 10 years ago this attempt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4DE3r-x7FM

Sunday night is Guy Martins take on that jump over the swiss border :)