Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

JIS screwdrivers! True facts - worth noting that Halfords didn’t include them in their kits back in the day. Which you’ll be aware of once you’ve had to drill out the float bowl screws on any Japanese bike ever.

Especially as they are made out of cheesy kind sentiments anyway.

Comedians.

Spot on mate. Even worse here with all the sun. I’ve got some hose from a mate that builds movie bikes. Good still after a couple of years - it’s fucking excruciatingly expensive by the roll though. Still my biggest prob at the moment is the havoc fuel does to carbs and injectors - fucks stuff in months that used to take years.

Near Gloucester - Tooting once or twice a month.

Not far from me then!

Interested to see if you buy it!

Stupid question wonder what the rubber gaskets fuel pipes are like in brazil where they have/had very high ethanol fuel?

Trip down memory lane. Found some old photos of the Zed and my old MadMaxLandrover :)

Zed 250 CSR single or a "C" 17bhp thumper against the twins 27bhp

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It did get brighter as I resprayed it and the shade of yellow came out a lot brighter than it was in this picture.....

Got the reggo so going to ping that up on the MOT checker see if it's still alive :)

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Johnson Motors do some really nice t shirts, great fabric and the colours are very 60yo hipster dude. Try looking on the Urban Rider website they have a load of that kind of thing.

Anyone using/used a Schuberth C3 pro? It gets great reviews for noise and ventilation and I have a 20% off voucher for sportsbike shop which makes it just about affordable.

That's a good thought, will look into it.

Wera make a very good ph1 and ph2 screwdriver that are closely accurate for jis 1 and 2 (shimano use those sizes too). Think they are about £6 each.

Fell down a rabbit hole, apparently Engines Only do big bore kits up to 190cc for these piddly 125’s..........

No extra top speed but more power low and mid?

Not worth the hassle of going big-bore yet.
Pass your test first.

Basic in's and out's of BB kit.
More power, higher fuel useage, if anything is weak in your clutch/gearbox/drive system it will most likely fail. In general avoid anything for sale thats been BB'ed but is listed and sold as still a "125cc" with 180 kit. Voids any insurance if not declared and should be on V5. Loads do it to scooters.
Better off trading the 125 for a 200/250/300+ for the extra power :)

You sound like every forum post out there (mostly of the guys who haven’t fitted them!)

It’s more rabbit-hole for the sake of research. Plan to pass the test, but wondering longterm whether if I keep the 125 I can squeeze a little more out of it.

Of course, if I had the space and money I’d buy a 600-750 touring machine and be done with it.

Oh and while researching, my GN must be one of the first/oldest surviving. Apparently they were released Aug ‘93 and mine was registered Oct ‘93.

Clearly that makes it a collector’s item and worth more.

The kits have purpose and say you have a newish bike to start with, pass your test then just want a few more bhp's then they make sense (more so on 2 strokes) as a cheap'ish way to more cc's. Very popular on 50-100-125 2 stroke scooters.
Good way for more power for track days and racing too, look into the murky world of big boring a Honda C50 for racing :)

On an old bike with high mileage then it's a bigger project with a higher possibility of failure due to worn parts and unknown history of previous riders, as yours may be the oldest one left you would be a hertic to modify it :) unless your reliving teenage years and can't afford the insurance of going from 100 to 180cc or bother with updating the V5 so you don't pay more VED or insurance then Bore up and film it when you first start it :) (it may involve fireballs)

Forum Winter project perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQEzt5smYw4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1mrutEpus

Ahaha for sure!

Friend who works for a particular cobbler is currently bike-less, but loves the 80cc wheelie machines more than the 400-odd beast he bought and sold shortly after. I can see how the kits are more for him, than me.

But all those Made In Japan stamps on every remaining piece of the bike makes me want to keep as much as possible. Shame some things like indicators and rear lights have already been swapped out for shit.

I started sewing the new seat cover, had a play with added foam pleats. Will see how it turns out.

Always fancied one of these:

Reminds me of the piaggio ciao/si of my younger years.

I don’t know much the kits are but my CBR600 was £1500... The carb versions are often available for less or you could possibly find a VFR for similar money which is more ‘touring’ and less ‘sport/touring’.

Looks like the Chinese kits, likely made of cheese, are barely £100. The EO kits made in the US cost as much as another bike, at nearly a grand. But then you are buying an almost entire new engine. Definitely not worth the money to me, but worth an evening of research.

Is your CBR comfortable for long days?

For me 2-3 hours and I need a good stretch and a walk. It’s not a full sports crouch but your legs do get stiff. I imagine touring bikes with raised bars and lowered pegs are usually more comfy but the SV650 I did my DAS on had these and wasn’t!
Probably also depends on the pace/terrain - sitting on a motorway or crawling along behind traffic is worse than ‘making progress’ on windy country roads.

Thanks for the insight! I suppose this is why motorcyclists can be serial bike-swappers whilst looking for that perfect setup that doesn’t exist.

In other news, a bit wobbly as I was working without a real pattern and on the excuse if it works I’ll make a second better one:

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You could make tank bags, some of them are hard to find these days. Looks well made to me, my own effort on a Kawasaki KC100 was dangerously slippery! You can relax about the bikes, hopefully you have many years of bigger bikes ahead of you. It's amazing how the opportunities open up after you've been riding for a few years. The ratty bike years are great fun though.

I saw a lot of ‘tank’ bags on ebay, they all looked a bit naff though.

Bit of a shit ride to the mechanics this afternoon for the carb/valve service. Left the house and the left indicator seemed erratic. Bike felt okay as could be, though.

Hadn’t charged the battery (which was clearly on its way out) and with lights on at dusk the bastard bike stalled on me on a bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic dual carriageway. Refused to start again.

Fortunately traffic was crawling. Couldn’t get it to start so pushed it the 100m to the McDonalds car park.

Had chavs laughing and videoing me out their car window, so that ticks off ultimate embarrassing stall.

No joy waiting in case engine was flooded, barely got a turn over out the starter. JUST managed to catch the 24hr Bike Recovery guy, who came and picked me up and dropped me to the mechanics.

Asked them to add a new battery to the list of clearly overdue maintenance.

Hopefully the mechanics will sort it all out!

But back to tank bags, any examples of what people actually desire?