Bought a Chinese 125cc :D

Malt_Vinegar · 22 Feb 2018 at 08:37

It may come to that!

Exhaust covers off.. Looking a bit worse for wear, need some sanding back, wirebrush and Kurrust treatment:

Same on the inside, at least with the wire brush and Kurrust.

All done, and ready for VHT paint, at least for now, till i find a better way to protect them.

First coats of VHT silver. Not sure on the colour, may go black, but it will keep them fromt rusting for a few minutes at the very least

Malt_Vinegar · 22 Feb 2018 at 09:08

Oh, then I went for it

Rear Swingarm off, and you can see the exhaust starting to look a bit more together, also got a wrap to cover up the actual exhaust, once its been brushed, kurrusted, and painted.

With that lot out of the way, there was nothing keeping this in place

Waiting on a cylinder and piston kit for the original Suzuki GS125 engine this was copied from. I figured it might be a better quality going forward, provided it fits... Should be fun, seems to be the same principle as the monkey bike motor (4 stoke 49cc).

Looking a bit lightweight!

Only casualty so far is a rear brake hose, which is easily replaced, and seeing how easily it broke, it would have gone sooner rather than later anyway!

Quite a few little rust spots all over the frame, some areas might just be dirty. I will have to get everything off the frame, and give it a proper clean, and see what we have.

Plasti-dipped a few of the plastics, not sure on this yet, but I had some lying around, so gave it a shot.

The new clutch cable arrived, along with the exhaust wrap i mentioned earlier.

HoneyBadger · 22 Feb 2018 at 09:49

Looks like you're having fun!

I'm currently working on a Chinese "Keeway superlight 125" that I bought in December for me and the mrs. I'm secretly enjoying it and it's so easy to work on!

tom_e · 22 Feb 2018 at 18:09

arfoll said:
You make it look so easy, I'm very jealous, hopefully will have a garage soon and be able to do things like this!

Once you get over the initial fear bikes are generally very easy to work on but a garage would definitely make it easier, I'm stuck doing it in the back garden which is fine in the summer not so good when something needs doing at this time of year

Malt_Vinegar · 22 Feb 2018 at 19:25

arfoll said:
You make it look so easy, I'm very jealous, hopefully will have a garage soon and be able to do things like this!

Thanks! In all honesty, I know very little about bikes. I have rebuilt a little vintage monkey bike over a number of years which may help a bit. However, in this case I am just working it out by doing and using the time in the evening when the family have gone to bed. I think you just have to be methodical, and take it one step at a time, and hope it all goes back together at the end

I do have to get a move on though, as my MG is sat on the driveway. Weather has been kind so far. I think I need a proper cover for it to give me some more time working on the bike.

HoneyBadger said:
Looks like you're having fun!

I'm currently working on a Chinese "Keeway superlight 125" that I bought in December for me and the mrs. I'm secretly enjoying it and it's so easy to work on!

What work are you doing on it? Is it the same K157FMI engine?

HoneyBadger · 22 Feb 2018 at 19:56

I’ve pretty much replaced all the wiring, but that was more due to the previous owner thinking he had more skill than he did. I’ve replaced all front and rear indicators, rear brake light switch and rest pads/pegs. I’ve also done a service on the engine, but noticed a sheared bolt in the cylinder head where the exhaust clamps on so will have to try and drill it out.

Then it’s just sorting some body work in terms of painting. This is on a 2015 model which has about 10k on it. Got it as a Christmas present for the mrs as we both passed our CBT in December of last year for £800.

Been out on it tonight in fact as Mrs HB managed to lock her keys in the car at work! Thought I’d give it a run as it hasn’t been out the garage for 2 weeks due to bad weather!

Not sure if it’s the same engine or not...

Beans on toast Dave · 22 Feb 2018 at 20:32

yours looks exactly the same as a Keeway rkv 125

Malt_Vinegar · 22 Feb 2018 at 20:52

challengedavid said:
yours looks exactly the same as a Keeway rkv 125

It's the same bike from what I can tell

Gamefreak501 · 22 Feb 2018 at 23:52

Freeman said:
I guess the front wheel does have red rim tape so that adds a couple BHP.

Ha ha! My Japanese bike has blue rim tape, it's started coming off after an ACF50 treatment, so it's coming off tomorrow morning. Next job is to sort the fork dust seals.

In respect of Chinese bikes, they don't tend to resell very well but for the price of 3 tanks of fuel in a car, it's worth a punt, plus it will probably be nice and easy to work on when it sneezes in the bitter cold of a British winter (it will probably be fine to be honest).

If it behaves reliably though, I'd say you've got a great bargain.

Dogbreath · 23 Feb 2018 at 12:58

Malt_Vinegar said:
also got a wrap to cover up the actual exhaust, once its been brushed, kurrusted, and

I would strongly advise not wrapping a mild steel Chinese exhaust, it will rot away in no time at all.

Malt_Vinegar · 23 Feb 2018 at 13:21

Dogbreath said:
I would strongly advise not wrapping a mild steel Chinese exhaust, it will rot away in no time at all.

Ahh, cool, will avoid that then! Thanks

Rilot · 23 Feb 2018 at 14:09

My ex Mrs had a Chinese bike similar looking to that. The main issue with it was that all the metalwork was of such low quality that bolts would just strip when doing any kind of maintenance. I always hated having to do anything to it.

Malt_Vinegar · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:12

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.

wedrum · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:14

Just stop it stop it now

Malt_Vinegar · 23 Feb 2018 at 22:18

wedrum said:
Just stop it stop it now

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

Malt_Vinegar · 1 Mar 2018 at 06:41

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

Malt_Vinegar · 2 Mar 2018 at 08:20

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

Malt_Vinegar · 2 Mar 2018 at 23:47

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

HoneyBadger · 3 Mar 2018 at 00:47

Looks like it’s going well!