Bought a Chinese 125cc :D

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So far so good, only problem I have had other than the rear brake hose is one of the exhaust bolts, got my hex bit stuck in it after it was removed.
Heated and cooled them and they gave way in the end.
Brake hose was ordered, should be here by Sunday, hopefully the cylinder and piston parts too.
Got to pull all the other parts off the frame and clean/decrease it all ready for kurrust/hammerite treatment.

 

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Just stop it stop it now

I take it you are not a fan of Chinese stuff.

 

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Been a bit chilly in the garage so not been in there much recently. However, last night I stripped and cleaned the swing-arm, before giving it the kurrust treatment.
Then did most of the exhaust too. Should be able to give the swing-arm a few coats of paint today if it gets warm enough in the garage. Just a couple of places that need a second application of kurrust.

There is a lot of surface rust and bubbled paint on the swing-arm. Removed as much of it it as I could. I also knocked off a few of the little welding droplets that were a bit untidy.

All my top end rebuild stuff is here. Got some Suzuki and Chinese parts to see what's going to work best

 

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Attacked the swingarm!

Looking a bit dirty - Gave it a de-grease, and brushed it down.

Some Kurrust and sanding where needed.

Quite a lot of surface rust inside the swingam!

2 coats of kurrust in there (shown after first coat) where I could brush and let it flow inside, and shook it about too hit as much as possible.

Kurrusted the exhaust after wire brushing with the drill. Only done one half so I could move it about. Will get the other half done shortly. Plan then is to VHT it, and maybe wrap it, as this will be a fairweather bike. So it "should" only be used in the dry, to stop it corroding into oblivion. If not, new exhaust time

Swingarm, swinging with its masking on bearings

Add a light hammerite coat. Only got one small run in the first coat where I was a tad over-zealous with spraying down the open end. Should be easy to sort

Currently drying, so will check it out later, see if it needs a final coat, or just sanding and re-covering the run I made

 

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Cracked onto a few niggly little bits earlier:

My new chain adjusters were in much better nick (and also in the correct number of pieces!) compared to the old ones, but still looked a bit crinkly, and tatty. Decided to give them some treatment whilst sorting out the stand, as they would both need painting.

Ground them down a bit, wire brushed then, sanded them back to get a decent surface

Laid out ready for paint

Side stand was looking very messy. Same again, lots of crinkly paint with rust underneath. As it came off the bike below

After cleaning, and hung up for paint

Then I painted all the bits in the usual hammerite matt black. Touched up the swingarm in a couple of places at the same time, along with the side-stand switch arm (masked bit stuck into swinarm hole to keep it up for drying in this pic)

First coat on first half of the exhaust.

Some parts building up, not shown is the new clutch cable, and rear brake line.

Bike as it looks now! Errk, what have I done!

Next up is to finish the exhaust, and then get to work on removing more from the frame to give it a hammerite coat.

Then its rebuild the motor, and start putting it all back together with new bits where needed

 

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Yup, found the cause of compression issues!

Piston was fine but then the issue became apparent..

New valves on order

 

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Oh, and yes, I realise that the "side stand" i painted is the rear brake. Not sure what I was thinking.

Just got some new dowels coming for the cylinder, and decided to get a different piston as the one in the kit was slightly domed, not flat like the existing one.

More pics incoming once I get my flipping ftp sorted.

 

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Ok, so I did some more work.

Knocked up a prototype parts tumbler to try and clean up some of the small parts more easily:

Only used some sharp sand I had lying about, and did it for 30 mins.

Parts before they went in:

And, as they came out:

Some parts came out great! The plastic part, and the exhaust bolts were greatly improved. Could do with a little longer, but I think I need to get the sand drier, or wetter and use it for longer to get the best results. I will also look to get some proper media to help with the heavy deposit removal.

Now I know it works, I will make it a little more portable and less cumbersome!

Chain adjuster plates looking a little nicer after their final coat.

Quite happy with that.

Rear wheel is looking a little cleaner, and ready to go back on the bike. Debating masking up the disk, and treating/painting the centre black to make it look bit neater if I get around to it.

Needed to pull the caliper off the mount to tidy it up. Mount first, will get around to the caliper later.

Cleaning up the mount.

Will paint it shortly.

Got to tidy up this lot next:

Any tips on cleaners for brake hoses?

Exhaust is all done. Not sure I am going to keep it this colour, but it should protect it at least!

Did the same cleaning treatment to the chainstay protector. I also got a bunch of new stainless washers to replace the rusted ones shown in the tumbling parts, as they were way too far gone to be saved.

Got to clean up the under arch plastics too:

I have the new valves, grinding paste, waiting for the grinding dowel to turn up also.
I also have had to order a valve tool, as it was not working too well with my G-clamp method!

I had a problem with getting the right piston, I stupidly ordered the older suzuki spec piston with a domed top. Had to change this for the flat top modern one, which means the piston rings don't fit! So ordered new piston rings specific to the new piston. Lesson learned there. Only actual physical problem I have had with the engine so far is the removal/replacement of a location dowel. Cant get it out of the old cylinder, and can I cannot find the specific replacement. The two I ordered supposedly for this engine are too small and flop about

I am told I can rebuild without the problem one if needed, but I would like to get one to be sure all is ok.

Hopefully by the weekend the engine will be able to go back in, and I can do a quick tidy-up on the rest of the frame/parts and test ride it.

 

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Block ready to be fettled:

New piston with rings fitted:

Installed

New cylinder

Installed

Replacing valve

New valve in - lapped with coarse, then fine grinding paste to get a seal.

from the top

Block is now all back together:

Compression shows PSI is up at over 125, however the valves were well out.
So quite happy with that for now.

Put it back into the bike, along with the other cleaned up parts, then fitted the new clutch cable and rear brake hose and started it up

It would only run on full throttle, at about 2k revs, and was very noisy. Adjusted the exhaust valve a couple of turns, tried again, 4k revs, again another couple of turns, 5.5k revs, almost idling. I have given up with the feeler gauges, and will just do it by trial and error, as no matter what I do, i don't seem to get a meaningful feel from them. Should just be a matter iof adjusting both, and see how it runs. Getting better each time I adjust at the moment.

 

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Rode it today for the first time down the street!
Adjusted the intake valve as close as possible to the supposed 0.08mm and it did indeed work, turns on, idles and drives.
It's quite slow, so I guess further adjustments are needed, but I will call it a success so far
Not ridden since the summer so was feeling a bit odd being back on a bike, stalled 3 times pulling away
It's also clear the rear brake needs bleeding properly. Tried it myself and it's just not easy to do, and my easy bleed will not fit it. Going to have to rope the Mrs in to pump the pedal for me.
Once that's done, it's time to get down the local car park and remember how to ride properly.

 

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Cleaned up the front a bit

Removed all the crud, and prepared the rear caliper for paint whilst it was off the bike:

Stuck some bolts in when I was cleaning to stop stuff getting inside:

Couple of coats of Hammerite

Putting the rest of the rear brake stuff together. Generic Master cylinder was a near perfect fit, and looks great! Just had to chop down the threaded bolt, and transfer over the brake light switch from the old one.

Caliper mostly done, not bad for a quick job! Was not going to take the caliper fully to bit, so the bolts got a coating too!

Got it all back together and bled properly. Took a while, but I got there in the end.

De-greasing a lot of the engine to make it look as new as possible.You can see where the VHT paint on the exhaust refused to set on in the really cold weather. I think that part was nearest the door, and got very cold when the rest was drying, Had to sand it all back, and re-sort it before it got wrapped.

Starting to look ok! Oh, and it can actually stop properly now too

Also fitted LED sidelights, Osram Nightbreaker Laser H4 Bulbs, and a new NGK plug. I even whited out the tyre writing whilst I was waiting for the caliper to dry.

Exhaust, front end wrapped, and fully painted again. if it rusts away to nothing, good excuse to buy a new pipe

I am going to order a generic heat shield for to replace the original one that was bolted to the location points in the mid-pipe, Should be able to drill some holes, and bolt it in with the original bolts.

I actually managed to snap the other cover off by accident, i guess the rust holes were indicative of further rot throughout the whole part


Bike is riding a lot better now, and now seems to be viable method of transport at current speeds. I need to adjust the exhaust valve a bit further I think, and then it should be as fast as it can be, until the new top end loosens up a bit.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Brilliant work, tyre lettering and red caliper made me laugh! But looks like you're having a lot of fun!

Thanks

Indeed, the red caliper on the front was standard! Just needed tidying up a bit. Along with all the alu parts which were oxidized.

The tyre writing, what can I say.. Watching paint dry is boring..

I just ordered some hammerite red to repaint the springs. I am told from various forums it's well up to the task. We shall see! I also decided I will try and neaten up the rear shocks as some of the alu parts are also well oxidized.

Everyone has been fun so far, except the exhaust wrap, that stuff is NASTY! Even with double latex gloves (oo-err) it still gets to the skin

 

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New plug went in, no issue there (not that I expected it to), started second time, first time I had lights on, and it seems the battery is not quite up to delivering the cranking volts, with the higher Wattage bulb. Not a big deal.
I think I need to slightly adjust the idle speed for the cold, and remember to use the choke!

I got some spring compressors delivered yesterday, so going to see if I can get the springs off a shock to clean it them up a bit. I have researched, and apparently Hammerite "straight to rust" is good on springs too. So I will give them the treatment and see how it looks. Also got to try and clean up the alu bits, as they appear to have quite a bit of surface corrosion.

 

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Been working on the other bike today, so not looked at the springs yet.

Debating if I should sell it when I finish and ridden it about a bit, and see if I can get a spares/repairs Japanese 125 and rebuild that too. Using what I have learned from this bike.

 

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So, I rode the bike to work today.

Got 2 mins from my house, and it cut out... Could I get it re-started?? NOPE... It does help to turn on the fuel tap! Started, and away I went. 50mph was fairly easy to get to, and there is more to come for sure, with some adjustments.

Exhaust wrap was a bit smokey after the first run, and when I parked up, someone asked me if it was ok, but otherwise seemed fine.

Rear brake needs a bit of adjustment on the slack bolt, but otherwise, it held up very well to the 9 miles of country lanes and a river crossing

Not much left to do on the bike to do now. Got to fit the generic exhaust shield (next to right foot) when that turns up, then remove and re-paint the springs, which i have all the materials for, just delayed as I wanted to ride it today.

 

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Is this a mid life crisis

If it is, it started it at 16. Always building or rebuilding something!


You can see the plasti-dip failed on the lower panels, so will need to look at a harder wearing plastic type paint. I heard good things about truck bed liner!

Oh, and those pics reminded me of the foot-pegs and main stand, both need work

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Looks great cleaned up really nice keep it up

Ps I've done the fuel tap thing a million times to the point I've nearly phoned me mate to pick me up always forget about it

Glad it's not just me


My generic Ebay chrome heatshield came in the post.

The mounts JUST lined up!!

So I drilled some holes, and bent a couple of washers in a vice to fit

Looks a little bit better than the original rusty thing, and only cost me £7 and 10 minutes of faffing


The footbrake just needed a few mm adjustment to stop it fouling (which it did on the original shield anyway!)

Oh, and my spring compressors will not fit between the springs, so may need to make my own with some threaded rod and some metal bits! So not painting the springs for a little while yet.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

looks tidy, must be a good feeling to get it all refurbished!

Yup! Was great riding it to work for the first time. Always slightly nervous getting up to speed on something you have rebuilt! Nagging doubt you might have forgotten to tighten something or left something important off...

For £150 it wouldv'e been fine until the MOT ran out but you obviously know what you're doing and have some fun tinkering with it so regardless of it being chinese, I'd say it was worth the money

I'm half tempted to look and pick something cheap up myself to learn/tinker with

Do it! I am totally self taught, YouTube helps a lot and there is so much information out there on the net that you can't really end up stuck

Just remember that any job that can be done by a garage is done by normal people, and you are a normal(ish) person, you can learn to do it with a bit of reading and thinking!

Oh and there is a wealth of cheap and perfectly useable tools out there that you can get in a couple of days from the usual places. So if you can't bodge it simply, get the proper tool, and it becomes easy.

 

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Finally managed to get a finish on the side panels that I liked after quite a few coats and a couple of sanding sessions.

Not perfect, but I know enough now to make it work on other panels when/if I get a nice bike.

Used bumper repair paint in the end as it seemed to be tougher than most.

Just working on the footpegs now. Tidied up one of the passenger ones and gave it a quick blast of clear to help stop oxidation going forward. Removed the rider ones tonight and will use the same method on them with a few improvements. Should look nice and clean again.

Sneak peak at the first cleaned up one vs an untouched one.

 

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Just an update on the bike.

About 200 miles in now, many rides, and has been reliable so far. I got some new (more) mirrors, which caused an issue, as one of the threaded holders was knackered, Ran a tap through it, but it was not playing ball. So I epoxied it in, and seems to be working fine so far. Having the full sized mirrors really makes riding feel a lot safer.

I think I will drop the oil shortly, as the engine should be bedded in now with the new parts, and just trying to work out what sort of oil is best! Clearly, i need a motorbike oil as I have read about the gearbox requirements so just nicking some from my car supply is out of the question.

Castrol 4 cylinder stuff seems highly rated, so will probably go that way. Filter was purchased ages ago in anticipation of this.

Really enjoying riding, but need to work on figuring out grip levels, as I am being ULTRA cautious when the road is damp!