alfalfa

Late last year one saturday night I got sent a very interesting marketplace link by bad influence @anglia4, for a 74 Yamaha V50 that was 20 minutes down the road in Inglewood. No price, make me an offer. I messaged old mate immediately with what I thought was a decent price, he came back with a counter and "please come and take it away so everyone stops messaging me". Turned up the next morning and it was mine! He said that he'd had over 300 messages by the time I arrived to collect it .

The Mrs happened to be away for a girls weekend while this all went down and the timing worked so well that I picked her up from the airport with the trailer and scooter still hooked up. 

It had lived many years as a dairy farm workers commuter which then got abandoned on the farm to pay off a debt or something. It sat there for a year or two until the owner decided to get rid of it. He'd kept it running so when I arrived to check it out and pick it up it started first kick. Fuck yeah.

It was pretty grot from sitting on a farm, cow shit and mud caked on the underside, bunch of surface rust, old cracked tyres, switch blocks busted, a couple of blown bulbs and and no rear indicator lenses. Battery is poked but like all good old bikes it runs fine without it. Ignition barrel is hotdog down a hallway loose so the key on a bungy clip so when it falls out every time I go over a bump I don't lose it.

Cleaned all the crap off, threw some new Vee (for Victory!) rubber on it, new sparkplug, and a couple of new bulbs and started riding to work errday. Man it is fun. Max pest potential. GHFWII.

Fastforward 6 months and @anglia4 and I decided to take our mopeds to the V8 supercars for some pest action. I thought I should probably get it registered before this. Popped down to VTNZ, filled out the form, bit of chitchat with the office ladies and a shiny new moped plate was mine. Too easy.

Great weekend at the V8s was had, we did some pesting around Taupo and had them parked in front of the campsite which got lots of great comments.

No major plans for future upgrades. A PW80 or V90 engine would be rad but I'm pretty happy with it as is.

Yeah my stock V50 goes great, speedo reckons I get up to 65ish on the flat and has no problem keeping up with urban traffic which is perfect for commuting/pub and general residential pesting. I have approximately zero interest in lifan (2 strokes 2 many!) but am keeping an eye out for a V70/90 or a PW80 donk to bolt in.

I really need to update my thread with some V50 pics and miscellaneous tales of woe...

I'm looking for something diesel and somewhat cool to tow our old caravan that isn't a boring as fuck ford ranger .

My current daily is a 3.0R Legacy that has heaps of power to tow it but I'm not sure the suspension is loving it. Replacing it with a comfy, reliable daily and tow wagon is the dream. W164 ML could fit that criteria quite nicely...

3 hours ago, anglia4 said:

Oi, don't get distracted by mercs... Just go and hit buy now on that Jaaaaaag

It's too late I already have several ML's saved to my watchlist you'd better hope @HumberSS has tales of woe for me 

A+ I don't know how I missed this thread when you first posted it but keen to hear GL320 tales!

Shit man I can't believe you're 0/3 for foot pegs!

That paint job is awesome A+

Yellow fever

Vacuum petcocks: why?

The vacuum petcock on my V50 has one job to do and it refuses to do it. I've pulled it apart and meticulously cleaned it several times and no bueno.

Has anyone got one that works reliably?

Is my best bet to replace it with an on/off/reserve version that hopefully fits the tank or just bung in an inline between the petcock and carb

Excellent work my friend!

Simmer down buddy, your V50 is gonna look better than mine after all this 

@david661 whoops sorry I missed that in your last question - Engine # is A7A-421115 - matching numbers with the frame.

My petrol tank has a sticker on it with pictorial instructions for washing/oiling the air filter, with some kind of Hindi or indian script underneath the english. I'll get a good photo when I get home and add it to this post.

Hey buddy - my frame number is A7-421115. Very close to yours!

From a bunch of internet searching apparently Yamaha imported a few containers of these bikes to NZ in the mid 80s from India/Taiwan and sold them as 'retro' bikes. Hence when looking up on the NZTA database the YB125s mostly appear as 86-87 models - the year they were first registered.

Have been riding the V50 around a bit since fitting new tyres last week. Great fun. Front brake is currently atrocious, cable is super stiff and the return spring in the front drum hasn't got enough grunt to stop it dragging if I adjust it to where it actually stops. New cable on order. Luckily the rear brake goes hard though, unfortunately the brake sensor isn't working so I have no rear stop light.

Once I get those sorted and figure out why the indicators and headlight aren't working I'll do the MR2B thing and get her legal beagle.

Also has an occasional drip from the carb fuel overflow, unsure if the float needle seat is bad or the vacuum diaphragm tank petcock is also not sealing properly when the engine isn't running.

Leading link fork is so good/terrible, I can't imagine the suffering that doing eastcape or similar on one of these would be 

You're such a sicko  excellent life choice

Looking good! How do you find the leg shields - do they make a decent difference in the wet?

Also - if you ever feel like selling again I want that rear rack!

@Berlina96 It's comfortable at 80-85 indicated. I can get it to 95 km/h on the flat if I tuck a bit and really wring its neck.

I think I'm still one size too rich on the main jet as it would previously get to 100 indicated before it seized.

Those speeds are all straight off the speedo - I haven't checked accuracy with a GPS yet.

On 30/11/2023 at 10:32, locost_bryan said:

Used to be a common thing with Italian cars to have the pedals offset and the steering wheel too far away, Aussie motoring writers used to refer to it as the Ape driving position for people with long arms and short legs. 

The Italian ape driving position is 100% real, in my old Alfa Romeo 75 I used to run the seat all the way back and inclined all the way forward and it was still not that comfy for long distances

Anyone who was wearing a gopro, I'm super keen to see some footage!

The Pomarangai Road is probably the best piece of road I've ever been on.

Several near-death moments were had. The YB125 was a fantastic choice for the adventure. Even after spending what seemed like 500 of the 600 kms at full throttle the only thing that failed was a headlight bulb and my sub-par rear rack fabrication skills.

Thanks everyone for making the effort to come and ride with us despite the near continuous rain, that was a 10/10 3 days. Great times great yarns let's do it again.

Also how good is the patch???

13 minutes ago, anglia4 said:

When we see a headline like this in New Plymouth we will all know what you were doing today.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/498871/sewer-line-collapse-causes-13m-deep-sinkhole-in-auckland-s-parnell

Oh man there is some shit I could tell you about our pipe networks that would make your toes curl

It's definitely getting a bit hard to concentrate at work

I've just emailed out a .kml file of the entire route to everyone. You should be able to upload this onto your GPS navigation device of choice and follow it along without needing cellphone reception.

I've done my best to make sure this matches the route notes and maps in previous posts but google maps can be a pain in the ass. You'll end up at the same place every night so don't be too worried. If in doubt follow the route turn by turn instructions to stick with the pack.

Cheeehooo

13 hours ago, Gyrocket said:

Hey fellas, we have had a couple pull out of our group

Does anyone need accom because I've got rooms booked that will now be empty

Cheers!

Hey buddy can you send me a PM or reply email back to anglia4 with names of who's pulled out so I can update the starter list?

I'm keeping an eye on the forecast and it's getting better each day so don't let that put anyone off at the last minute!