Mop Head

Great ride organised by @64valiant in Rotorua. The occasional egg/sulphur smell was a lush method to keep you wide awake and concentrating on a cool rainy day. 

 

I'm giving away a new AX100 clone engine to people on the Moped NZ facesmash group if any of you great people are on there. It's one of the main pinned posts and is open till Friday arvo. 

Yeah we saw a few of those come through when I was working in a bike shop. Always a good time when you're trying to figure out parts and the engine, the front half of the bike and the back half of the bike are all from different things. Good times! They do know how to lay down some nice paint work to hide the horrors though. 

Still waiting for the day someone in NZ makes one of these Vespas:
 

1 minute ago, cletus said:

3 year/20000km warranty is pretty good for a small bike, especially a 2 stroke? 

Agreed! It's impressive to see the differences in a market that is inundated with small bikes. And unlike Thailand most of the Malay advertising is in english so you can actually nerd out about it. 

Small tidbits:
- Much like Honda Thailand, the first dude that sold Hondas in Malaysia ended up building a factory and assembling Japanese Hondas before eventually making their own. It's called Boon Siew Honda and they have made some cool models over the years. 
- Yamaha sold their last new 2 stroke model in 2018, last time I rode there was 2019 and that model; the Yamaha 125ZR was fetching higher prices second hand than they sold for new due to the locals all loving them so much. 
- Modenas generally took old Kawasaki models and made them with slight changes. Which is interesting because Kawasaki small bikes are a rarity.

4 minutes ago, cubastreet said:

Cool I thought you'd try and get the same bikes to share spare parts but having different ones might be more fun.

That's probably a much wiser idea but there are tiny motorcycle shops in every town big enough to have a gas station and there are parts available for most things fairly easily. Half the fun on this trip is sending the fellas out into Kuala Lumpur to find a bike that they like and buy it. If we were in Vietnam or Laos or Cambodia we'd be renting for sure. But in Malaysia the second hand market is a lot more solid with reliable models. EG: In Vietnam there are fake Hondas all over the show that have slightly different things going on between them meaning finding the exact right parts can be a nightmare. But things are more sanitised in Malaysia so we should be ok. 

Also last time we took things at face value and were typically naive trusting Kiwi's - the bikes we bought looked amazing. But as we later found out that was due to brand new plastic sets, speedometers and other stuff. Anything that was visible had been renewed. 

Anything that wasn't on show had been ignored, which we discovered at the end of the trip with paint overspray on different parts of the bike after covers were removed. Along with my suspected broken 1 gear just being a front sprocket with not much life left in it causing the chain to slip. 

I'll be a bit more on the ball this time and inspecting things more thoroughly. 


 

5 minutes ago, cubastreet said:

That will be awesome @Mop Head what bikes will you be riding?

Yeah as @Indiana_Jones said, the smallest ones! We'll be buying bikes at the start and selling them back to dealers at the end. Having the bike in your name means border crossings are a breeze. Most are planning on spending $1000-1500 on a bike with a view to get at least half back at the end. 

In that category are a lot of 100's, 110's, 125's etc. Underbone style mostly with semi automatic gearboxes. The cool thing about Malaysia is they have their own brands and also they have factories for the Japanese brands so the market is flooded with options. 

I've got my eyes set (if I can find one at the right time for the right price) on a Modenas Dinamik - Its a 120cc, 2 stroke which took the design from an old Kawasaki model called the Leo Star. Added a photo to this post. They haven't been sold new for a few years now but I've seen a few around. We'll even be riding past the factory on the way back into Malaysia so it would be cool to visit on one of their models. 

If that doesn't work it'll just end up being some generic Honda 4 stroke of a small capacity. All bikes are getting mandatory top box installation and Malaysia's famous knee baskets to hold more guff. 

38 minutes ago, Nominal said:

How's that i-pace @Early jap nuter?

 

I also recommend the same with UBCO's. 

On 16/02/2023 at 14:15, Mop Head said:

Posted this on the Moped page, but also figured it was worth a blat here. Need to go film some more videos to then milk the content for another 4 years. 
 

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Keen to come ride bikes with a FOAMER/FOAMERS?

If you want to ride in 2024, now is the time to start thinking about it. 

Costs: 

You'd wanna book flights by August/September and they're likely $1200-1500 based on current prices. 

After that it's nothing but save save save save. Get some travel insurance sorted. Hurry up and wait etc.

Plan to take another 4-5K with you. (Bike/accommodation/fun money)

HOW:

Express interest at the idea of it. I'll likely be doing a loop from Malaysia, through Southern Thailand and back into Malaysia. Two incredibly beautiful areas of the world. Most just plonk themselves in Vietnam for a few weeks and thats good fun. But this route is incredibly varied, full of incredible sites and it's a part of the same route thats used for many RTW motorcycles. 

Confirmations will likely be mid winter this year. Thats just a commitment, and then a plan to buy your flight not long after. 

All bike guff/accommodation/parts aquisition/routes etc I can sort. 

Just turn up, choose a bike and ride.

I'll be going alone or otherwise. Feel free to consider joining. 

This is locked in now. Got a couple OS hoons coming. Only 1 other FOAMER though so I can't guarantee the exact level of pestage. 

I have ridden one of these a fair bit. Don't be scared of changing gears 82 times per kilometre. Especially into/out of corners and up hills. When I was at the bike shop we had a guy bring back the big brother (RZ50) after owning it a day because it 'wouldn't accelerate properly'. Turns out he would slow for roundabouts or corners and leave in 4th or 5th then wonder why it wouldn't accelerate out of them.

+1 on the tidying it up as is - Cafe racers are just discomfort disguised as 'cool factor'. But it's your bike at the end of the day. 

10 minutes ago, johnnyfive said:

Here's hoping, I reckon DX ones will be in their fleet till they're 100% ruined hah. 

Pretty sure I've seen NZpost with a couple though. 

As long as it's just engine damage, the rebuild for these is much more accessible than the NBC110's for us Kiwi's and possibly even worth doing. But I hear you. Everything will be broken. Lol. Looks like they drill straight into the nice rack for their panniers. 

Used CT125 market is gonna be ripe in a couple of years. 
 

Can use all the same parts as the grom engines. 143cc CT’s for everybody!

Some haven't ridden long distances on Small Bikes and it shows. The fellas organising this trip have aced it more than once now - and as someone whos also organised long trips, people saying hey lets do this and this and this and this is annoying. Whilst it might be fun to do extra stuff, wrangling a group of excitable men on small bikes is a mission in itself without people disappearing to see random stuff along the way. 

Just get an NBC110 and go do some mountain skids with cool people. Turn up with a bike, book some accommodation - they'll have the rest sorted. 

17 hours ago, xsinclairx said:

Closed without a bid. I wonder if this means the moped buy up craze is coming to an end? 

Not exactly an attractive prospect for those without a lot of handy skills. Many buyers are looks focused and will consider that bike to be a headache. Those that are happy to tackle a project don't wanna pay that much for it I guess. 

I sold my Chaly for $4k last year. Before then I hadn't seen much in the Small Bike world selling for over 3k. The second mine sold there were absolute shitters being listed for 3-3.5 or more. Mine had as much as I sold it for invested into it. It had mint paint, chrome everywhere and a new reliable engine. 

I think if a really nice bike came up that was realistically priced it would sell quick. As mine did. But when people list a stock Chaly (which suck to work on btw) for $3k and it looks not much better than the above - It's not surprising they don't sell. 

I paid $300 for one on TM years back in pieces with 2 spare engines and a few boxes of extra parts. 

My first time having any of my writing published. Quite cool to see it with that URL attached. 

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/story-behind-the-story-how-a-dealer-in-boise-invented-the-honda-trail

Hi Bike Spam. I was lucky enough to be involved with capturing Herb Uhls Honda story. If you don't know the name, he's the guy that took Honda's Super Cub and turned it into a trail bike, leading Honda to follow suit and create their own. 

He's in his 90's and it was awesome to be able to get the yarn on camera. 
 

Indonesian exhaust battles. 

I'm always waiting for someone to slam the bike into gear by mistake and chew half the fellas arms off. 

"You won’t find this beautiful retro bike as this affordable price! 5500 to 4000 now" - says the guy whos bike has been listed for a month. 

Sheeezuz theres a few A50/A100's listed. Old mate Mt Maunganui wanting 3800 for his is pushing it. 

1 hour ago, RUNAMUCK said:

I wouldnt call myself an advanced rider. (I've never ridden a bike a clutch further than around a car park/around the block)  but I've been riding pest and go since around '06.  So perhaps an introductory course might not be worthwhile?

Been debating getting a learners bike license.  Since I do ride over 50cc 5% of the time. S

Most because it would be piece of mind to have insurance.

I never rode with a clutch till I turned up for my basic skills and handling test. Booked 30 minutes of instruction beforehand. Clutch was easy to get the hang of because all the other bike things were quite natural. The dude hounded me till I checked my blind spots enough and I was good to go. Ride in a figure 8 a few times. Go click buttons on a computer. Job done. 

26 minutes ago, RUNAMUCK said:

I wonder if the scooter one is worth doing? 

Itll probably tell me to under no circumstances do all the things I enjoy doing. (Lane splitting to the front of the queue at every red light, and hole shot'ing everyone 2.8 seconds after the side light turns red)

Lane splitting is legal. If you say you do it a bit they will probably be keen to give ya pointers. 

Yeah does seem to depend on the instructor. A friend went on a bronze course in wellington and it was just some barry basically spending 8 hours telling everyone if they don't own a BMW they will never be a safe rider and they are just endangering themselves. 

He went on a silver course here with the same guy I used and was shocked to actually learn and get supportive feedback instead of an old bearded barry trying to find more excuses to talk about himself. 

2 minutes ago, tintin said:

Yes I know about the courses and they are booked out till middle/end of April 

If riding over the hill is an option, check out this guy. Did mine with him, has some availability in a couple of weeks. He has some great routes and is very encouraging. 

https://empoweredjourneysnz.corsizio.com/