Soldato
Sadly imho and experience, Chinese is crap.
Bought a Chinese 125cc :D
- Thread starter Malt_Vinegar
- Start date
Sadly imho and experience, Chinese is crap.
Man of Honour
To be honest even the cheaper jap small bikes are pretty rough general quality wise, the engines may be pretty bullet proof but all the bits around it don't age brilliantly.
Soldato
Nice bike.
In the interest of documenting everything, I had a little fiddle with the thing this evening. The clutch needs adjusting, it's still in the original position, and clearly has some slack, which might be affecting the starting, perhaps. 5 minute job, just didn't fancy it with cold fingers.
The motor is a K157fmi, so there are quite a few parts for it available from ali and other places like ebay.
Need to get a compression tester, been looking for one anyway for other stuff I have, so will grab something bike friendly shortly. I suspect it may end up losing compression, if not already based on what has been said so far about the strength of the engine! Found some piston/cylinder kits for under £60 so not too shabby if it is needed soon.
Now, I had the battery on charge for a few hours, and it was reporting as full, so I think that's probably ok. Will check the voltage tomorrow and see what its making then. It turns over very well, but wont start on it's own. So I will check the spark, fuel and air asap. Turned over consistently for a few mins (not more than 3-4 seconds each time, as I heard the starters don't like being run too long in one go. So, perhaps compression might be an issue...
Something is squeaking when I move it about, so I guess the brakes are rubbing or wheel bearings are dry? Will investigate further when it is NOT FREEZING outside.
Got a cover coming tomorrow.
Will try and bump it also, see how it actually rides if I get a chance before the weekend.
The motor is a K157fmi, so there are quite a few parts for it available from ali and other places like ebay.
Need to get a compression tester, been looking for one anyway for other stuff I have, so will grab something bike friendly shortly. I suspect it may end up losing compression, if not already based on what has been said so far about the strength of the engine! Found some piston/cylinder kits for under £60 so not too shabby if it is needed soon.
Now, I had the battery on charge for a few hours, and it was reporting as full, so I think that's probably ok. Will check the voltage tomorrow and see what its making then. It turns over very well, but wont start on it's own. So I will check the spark, fuel and air asap. Turned over consistently for a few mins (not more than 3-4 seconds each time, as I heard the starters don't like being run too long in one go. So, perhaps compression might be an issue...
Something is squeaking when I move it about, so I guess the brakes are rubbing or wheel bearings are dry? Will investigate further when it is NOT FREEZING outside.
Got a cover coming tomorrow.
Will try and bump it also, see how it actually rides if I get a chance before the weekend.
Some pics 
The new chain and sprocket set have arrived. Look nice and clean. Hoping to get the thing into the garage this weekend and have a poke about to see what else might need doing/cleaning up.
The new chain and sprocket set have arrived. Look nice and clean. Hoping to get the thing into the garage this weekend and have a poke about to see what else might need doing/cleaning up.
Soldato
It is February - those leaves should have been swept up months ago!
Oh the shame. In fairness, they were hidden behind the bins...
Soldato
Precisely. At that money it doesn’t matter if it’s a rotter or not, it’s almost disposable.
Indeed.
Ran a compression test on it today, 50psi...
No wonder it was hard to start! Dropped some oil down the plug hole and tried again, still 50psi... hmm valves need adjusting, or rings just so knackered the oil made no difference?
The same test on my 50cc monkey bike took the compression up from 50 to 125, so I guess that one is clearly down to rings.
I will see if I can get the car out of the garage and the bike inside to take a look at it today or tomorrow. I understand this engine is fairly similar to the Suzuki GS125 so will take a look to see if I can find some manuals for it.
If anyone else has any input, it would be greatly appreciated.
Ran a compression test on it today, 50psi...
No wonder it was hard to start! Dropped some oil down the plug hole and tried again, still 50psi... hmm valves need adjusting, or rings just so knackered the oil made no difference?
The same test on my 50cc monkey bike took the compression up from 50 to 125, so I guess that one is clearly down to rings.
I will see if I can get the car out of the garage and the bike inside to take a look at it today or tomorrow. I understand this engine is fairly similar to the Suzuki GS125 so will take a look to see if I can find some manuals for it.
If anyone else has any input, it would be greatly appreciated.
A bit more tinkering tonight..
The clutch cable snapped on me, looks like it was massively stretched and had frayed right at the handle. New one ordered.
Sprockets and chain are changed, tensioned the chain too and as a result found the wheel position adjuster has cracked on one side.
Had to file down the bolts holding on the rear sprocket as someone had lunched the top surfaces had to flatted down the metal folding tabs which had almost welded themselves to the bolts.
Tidied and degreased where I could along the way. Was going to adjust the valves but found I could not find my feeler guages, so.will grab some tomorrow to get that done check compression again and work out if I need a new piston/cylinder combo.
Also cleaned out a little bit under the seat. To reduce the muck content of the bike
Gives me a lot to learn, which is great, as it keeps me learning.
The clutch cable snapped on me, looks like it was massively stretched and had frayed right at the handle. New one ordered.
Sprockets and chain are changed, tensioned the chain too and as a result found the wheel position adjuster has cracked on one side.
Had to file down the bolts holding on the rear sprocket as someone had lunched the top surfaces had to flatted down the metal folding tabs which had almost welded themselves to the bolts.
Tidied and degreased where I could along the way. Was going to adjust the valves but found I could not find my feeler guages, so.will grab some tomorrow to get that done check compression again and work out if I need a new piston/cylinder combo.
Also cleaned out a little bit under the seat. To reduce the muck content of the bike
Gives me a lot to learn, which is great, as it keeps me learning.
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Some pics of all the parts before I work on them: This is what a chinese bike looks like after 11k miles and 3.5 years
Plan is to pull a lot off it, tidy up the plastics to start with.
Managed to get the compression up to 70psi last night by adjusting the intake valve, tried to do the exhaust, but was struggling to get any clearance even with the tappit removed! I guess I might have been just off TDC, or the valve is stuck? I can see it opening through the spark plug though, so not sure that's the issue. Will double check them both tonight hopefully. Otherwise, it's piston and cylinder time. Shame I can't use a 150 kit, as they seem reasonable, but CBT says no!
I will see if I can anti-rust the frame (kurrust) and re-paint it with hammerite rattle cans.. Its got rust spots ALL over it.
Going to remove the exhaust, and see if i can clean it up, and spray it with a high temp paint, at least where it is visible, then maybe wrap it if it looks a bit pants.The heatshield has taken a few whacks in it's short life!
I am also going to see if I can tidy up the scratches in the front plastics, and probably plasti-dip them.
Plan is to pull a lot off it, tidy up the plastics to start with.
Managed to get the compression up to 70psi last night by adjusting the intake valve, tried to do the exhaust, but was struggling to get any clearance even with the tappit removed! I guess I might have been just off TDC, or the valve is stuck? I can see it opening through the spark plug though, so not sure that's the issue. Will double check them both tonight hopefully. Otherwise, it's piston and cylinder time. Shame I can't use a 150 kit, as they seem reasonable, but CBT says no!
I will see if I can anti-rust the frame (kurrust) and re-paint it with hammerite rattle cans
.. Its got rust spots ALL over it.Going to remove the exhaust, and see if i can clean it up, and spray it with a high temp paint, at least where it is visible, then maybe wrap it if it looks a bit pants.The heatshield has taken a few whacks in it's short life!
I am also going to see if I can tidy up the scratches in the front plastics, and probably plasti-dip them.
^See? You're learning a ton from this thing already. Well done dude, keep us updated
Will do!
Here are the pics from the sprocket, pinion? and chain:
Got the cover off.. It was filthy, and VERY brown? Is that normal?
Lots of gunk came out of it, and you can see the old pinion gear (as i will call it),
Little bit cleaner, also cleaned up the inside of the cover panel whilst it was off. What is the little sensor in this pic? Gear selection sensor?
Wheel off, old chain and sprocket removed, i then cleaned up the sprocket seat/hub thingy a bit before re-fitting it.
These were a pain, they are used to hold the bolts in place on the sprocket and were so badly deformed it made it hard to get the darn thing off. Had to degrease then used my bench vice to put them back to something resembling new so they could be re-fitted. I think i might replace these at some point, but they look much better once i finished with them.
Wheel back together, and looking a little bit nicer. Gave it a quick scrub in hard to reach areas whilst it was in bits also, not fully clean, but will make it easier later to clean properly.
Back on the bike, with new chain, you can see the little clip thingies looking a little less mangled and brown too.
You can see how messy the swing-arm is also. Oh, and you need about 5 arms to re-fot the rear wheel properly, got there in the end, but I swore a bit.
