Lum's Honda Life (Moped NZ)

[Shakotom 6,327]

Can get 3.50-10 white walls for $59 each plus postage on the tard

[Raizer 14,154]

 

Need to figure out why it smokes so much...   Valve stem seals maybe

 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Thanks @Raizer! 

 

Yeah I did some stuff and things. Not finished yet but when I am I’ll update this thing. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Haven't done anything with this lately. Has a semi different trajectory now; finding a Honda engine. 

Seeing the original Chaly which started it all was a cool moment on my most recent trip. Made me want to get this thing back to it's roots with a Honda heart. 

I'm keeping everything it has; Ape hangers, front disc etc. 

I've found the engine I want as well.  Honda Wave 125cc 4 stroke. 4 speed semi. Can get a 57mm BBK for it which would make it 140ish cc. Also; found a way to get an engine for it but it involves approximately 20,277 kms of travelling to get it and it won't be here till next year. 

Once the engine is here it's full strip, repaint and it's final stage for at least the next few years. Sick of having more than one bike and not using more than one bike. On a mission to cleanse my stash and keep only the worthy. 

So; stay tuned for 2019 when Callum finds out;

"$350 Lifan vs. $5000 Honda engine. Which is best?" - coming soon to a build thread near you. (Honda $$ ain't a typo either)

OG Chaly me and my daughter rode together, her neighbour still has it wasting away:





**Fun fact; 50cc bikes don't ever get entered into the Thai vehicle registration systems, don't require plates and actually aren't too popular over there. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Well; late last year I bid on a 1963 Honda Basketcase on Trademe and won! I went and picked it up from Auckland, the old owner turned out to be a cop with an obsession for old Honda's. He had a couple of Benlys, an old C110 and a couple of first edition Goldwings. 

I picked up the bike and it looked like this:



It sat there doing absolutely nothing for quite a while. Safe to say it was pretty chooched. 

Then one day I walked down the road in Kuala Lumpur and saw this:



We were late for something else and just walking passed so I took a quick photo and added it to my google maps in order to find it the next day. 

The next day I found the street, there were about 5-6 shops basically the same beside each other. Which is where I met this kind lady:



I waltzed into her shop and pointed to a set of wheels; not realising each could be made model specific. They asked what model I owned and I said Custom, they said no no no what model; I decided it was a Honda Dream (common small bike); not realising there were about 4-5 different kinds of Dream. We ended up walking around the street together finding the right kind of wheel set up, I pointed and said YESSSS. Then waited for about 20-30 minutes while they gathered all the stuff. 

Here's me waiting:



And here's everything I got; I think I ended up paying around $250 for the full kit, excluding those shocks. 



Upon arriving home I started to blast the frame which was damn tedious with a small cabinet:



I slowly started piecing things together:





Then I got a good mate @Kass to do me up a nice seat inspired from the low back, 3 tier Boso seats I've grown to love. The whole point is to have the rear (3rd) tier the highest. 



It ended up looking bloody spiffing. Check this!



I stole the motor from the Chaly to get this thing going so the Chaly is sitting dormant at the moment. 

The aim was for a semi pretty bike I can thrash the fuarrrrk out of so with minimal work it was ready for a rattle can, mixed thanks to @GuyWithAviators who also helped with alot of the assembly and fitting. The wheels took about 1.5 weeks of nights after work in the shed to get fitting perfectly. 



It ended up like this; I rode it around the eastcape and it did damn well. A few things came loose but nothing really stopped it permanently. The biggest scare was loosing my rear rim valve at 90kph whilst tucked trying to catch the rest of the pack who'd opted for a detour around a closed road. My tool dry bag fell of the back, went between the rim and locked it up momentarily then spat tools across the road, whilst I went from 30ish to 0 PSI in the rear in seconds. After about 5-600 metres of fishtailing and wiggling my ass more than a happy dog; I managed to keep it up and pull to the side of the road. 

Add a tube and it made it home. After inspection from the Eastcape ride; there are certainly a few places for improvement but overall it's a nice wee machine and I'm happy for summer cruising on it. All thats needed now is passenger foot pegs and the OG exhaust to be fitted eventually. I love the fake Yoshi but it's loud and needs a repair from the new hole I made in the side of it. 

Thats my long story short of the '63 Honda.

[MopedNZ 4,036]

On 15/11/2018 at 10:51, MopedNZ said:

Whilst it's been an absolute dream; it's not my dream bike. So the '63 Honda will be leaving the fleet early next year. 

About to fit a NOS exhaust and repaint the tank; then it's up for grabs. Letting OS know first. A lot of time and effort has gone into this build including a 20,000 KM round trip just to get the wheels. 

125 Lifan powered with 2000 KM under it's belt; this thing is pretty damn stunning and so so so fun to ride. With a massive tank you won't need to be so cautious of each fuel station you pass. It does a good wheelie and it's actually never done a skid - meaning I've really loved this thing. 

If anyone is keen then get at me before next year. This will go on Trademe in January.

[GuyWithAviators 5,552]

42 minutes ago, MopedNZ said:

Whilst it's been an absolute dream; it's not my dream bike. 

What bike would you say is your Dream bike? 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

2 hours ago, GuyWithAviators said:

What bike would you say is your Dream bike? 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Next in line is this beast. 

Sold the green Honda. Thinned the heard and it feels good. 

Aiming to get a proper Honda heart in this thing, a few little shiny bits and maybe even some nice paint. Would be nice to have a bike that’s always ready to ride again. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

SO!

New build/re-hash commences on the Chaly. Got my genuine Honda heart incoming, it's cleared customs finally and will be here soon. That engine will get a bit of a make over after being ringed out of it's mind for 2000+ KM. I got wide wheels for this beast. Wider than anything easily available on the webernet. It took months of conversation through translate and my crappy thai skills to make it happen. 

When we finally met the fella that builds them, he apologised for being so difficult to communicate with. He said he gets tonnes of foreigners messaging asking prices and noone progressing with anything that he ignores most of us now. With a population of 60 mill +, the Thai market is big enough to sustain his work and to sell to them is much easier due to the language being the same etc. He spoke literally no english except a few words including 'MY FRIEND'; as loud and excitable as possible which he would announce when we turned up. Just a hint for those hunting parts in this part of the world - though it might be 'cheap' in the scheme of things. It doesn't mean parts are nearly free. I've paid a fair amount for the work involved. From our broken conversations it seems like people would expect old mate Thai chaly king to build a full wide wheel kit, front and rear for around $200 USD - ain't gonna happen. Also shipping is an absolute killer. I had 45kg of stuff OVER my 30kg luggage allowance to get home, which proved to be not super cheap but definitely worth it for me. It helps to not be such a penny pinching Kiwi in this instance and focus on the end result. Money always comes around etc etc. 

So with those bits here and the engine almost here, it's time to transform this thing. I mock fit the wheels last night and the changes that are needed are glaringly obvious. Most notably the lack of slam. But a mate who just picked up a Chaly and I plan to go to town on this machine very shortly. End goals are not really anything like the below photo. I'm looking forward too it!

***also; yes these forks, swing arm and wheels "bolt on". But that doesn't mean you can just change them over and be on your way in a few minutes. There will be hours of fettling ahead, making a little more space here and there for clearance. 

Excitement begins!


 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Finally got all the engine stuff here. Wooooooo. Will play with the new carb tonight, make her run so I can hear the exhaust and also heat the oil for draining. 

Will get the engine started on next week. Looking forward to all this stuff coming together. 

Bike is rolling at the moment, front end is happy, rear needs a couple things made slightly shorter/moved out of the way before I'm happy. Will get it rolling and running nicely then tear the thing apart and finally do nice paint on something I own.  WEOW. 

Exciting. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Getting there. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well - or so they say. I usually come from the 'if it works then meh' school of thought but it's been nice to do this along side the mechanic at work and learn a thing or two about the engines I love.  

I've never claimed to have much mechanical knowledge. I mean, I can do basic things; clean carbs, bolt/unbolt things. I've done a few 2T top ends too. I understand whats happening with motors and such, but I've never been super confident with going gung ho and ripping stuff apart. 

So basically when we were in Kuala Lumpur I had a shop I knew from my last trip, I approached them on our second to last day in the city and said in need a big bore kit for my motor. 15 minutes later there was a plastic bag on the counter, I paid and went on my way. Back in NZ it turns out they've done fairly well with the kit. Nothing was missing at all. I decided to get race head with considerably bigger intake and exhaust ports. New racing valves, valve springs etc. The piston size went from 49.5mm to 53mm - the largest without enlarging the casing I think?

Here's the cams side by side:




A bit of porting work:



Pistons side by side:




Notice the writing, I might get some extra HP's with that!



Assembly was going pretty well today till we ran into something I had been thinking about when ordering parts a while ago. Basically I found a +2.4mm stroker crank online for my motor, but decided not to get it as I didn't know the site that well and thought I could always go more HAMMMMMM about the engine later down the track. 

After assembling the thing to this point, we clicked on a tiny issue. 

Here's TDC at the moment with the new gear:


She's sitting a bit low in the barrel! Guess how much by? Around the same same amount as the stroker crank is longer. 

Weeeeelllllll fuark. Could just shave some meat of the barrell and/or head but if I ever rebuild it down the track with a crank that would mean things wouldn't line up in future. So instead of going half pie, this thing is delayed for a month or so. Gotta save a few weeks to get the crank money and then wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive. 

Then split the whole engine, vapor blast everything, and rebuild it with new crank and crank bearings etc. (eye roll @ more $$  )

So; long story short. I spent $5000 ish going to Thailand and getting a Honda motor that I'm now completely rebuilding, which will end up as only around 50% Honda parts. And I couldn't be happier! 

Anyway, thats about it for now. All I can do is hurry up and wait for the time being. 

Here's a bonus pic of my bigger holes. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Another semi boring update but I try talk about this to people and lose their interest pretty quickly; so writing down feels like I've got it off my chest. 

Ordered the crank from www.ynebikers.com - these dudes stock everything and a half for the Underbone or 'Kapchai' bikes in Malaysia. I have known about the site for ages but was building up the confidence to throw them money without knowing what will happen; ended up buying the crank and new auto clutch+auto housing as the old one is pretty worn. The auto clutch and housing was on the shelf, but the crank they ordered when I ordered it, finally 3 weeks later it's actually in the post. Communication skills and patience are pretty vital when doing dealings like this. It's not aliexpress or webike. It's a random dude in South East Asia in busy retail shop trying to fit your needs in when he has the time/when he remembers.  Being persistent and reminding the shop politely about your order goes a looooooong way. 

Here's crank: 



Hopefully they've packaged it well. Hah. 

Kinda nice really, most sites like this leave products up and then when you checkout the cart and pay; you get an email a few days later saying that isn't available anymore. Where as these guys made sure they could get exactly what I wanted. When I bought the head and valve springs from another site I got a bit tucked as the one I wanted wasn't there even though it was advertised as in stock. They ended up sending a different brand which wasn't an issue I had just got my mind set on the other sold out brand. 

I placed my last Aliexpress order (hopefully) for the build last night. New indicator switches and a few other goodies coming. Once that and the crank arrives all the parts are here. From there it's getting the guards sorted, possibly widened. Getting my ignition mounted. Possibly a new pipe made up too. 

Here'es the bike as it sits now: 



Originally I was going to aim for full Thai/Japan spec slammed build and I really do still love that style, but having a bike just for city use seems pointless to me when I only plan on having a couple of bikes all up. So I've decided to go way taller and chunkier with the tyre choices. Rear for light dirt/gravel nangs and the front is just a wide fat boi to soak up the road ahead of me. 

Plans from here are:

- Split and re-assemble engine when crank arrives. 
- Get all metal bits glued up with a pro metal glue-er
- Re wire whole bike
- Do a tyre popping skid and ride for a few days in that state for a shakedown.
- Rip apart, get everything painted. 
- Re-assemble - ride forever!

Thats about it really. 

I'm Callum and thats my shit yarn. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Someone once said "when stubborn people try to build engines with random parts from random countries with no schematics; there are bound to be problems" 

That someone was me, just now. Because fuq. This has been interesting. I seem to be doing one update a month at present which suits me because any more and there wouldn't be much to update about. 

Alright, so carrying on from the last post the Aliexpress stuff has mostly arrived now. Just stupid stuff like horns, grips and switches. I got an LED tail light too which is stock shape so now it's gonna be LED all around which I'm excited for. Turns out CT110 headlight buckets fit the Aliexpress 'daymaker' lights. 



Retaining the original headlight ring, they fit in pretty nicely. I like it anyway.

Engine time. So. Crank came, but had no bearings or crank timing gear attached. After getting through a backlog at work it was finally time to attack my motor yesterday. 

It was stripped and in half pretty quickly. When we bought these bikes they looked pretty tidy but had clearly been tickled up to look more presentable for sale. My bike had 28,000 KM on the odometer, but it doesn't really mean much when speedos are everywhere and easy to buy. Splitting the engine proved it's done quite a bit more than the odometer. But it's been pretty interesting comparing castings and tolerances to a pitbike motor as the "GN5" or EX5 100cc motor was the base from which most pitbike motors were originally developed from. My motor is a Japanese built version. In 2004 production moved to Malaysia and Thailand respectively. With both countries producing their own version of the motor for the exact same model (had a different name for each country, Dream in Thailand and EX5 in Malaysia).

In it's lifetime it's seen some heeeeeeaaaaat. Check this out:



Ignore the bearing in that photo, was a new one that turned out to be the wrong ID. But the new limited edition 'gold' casings are awesome huh? I imagine this is from the whole life of the bike; though sustained nangs for 2,500km only a thousand or so RPM below red line probably didn't help. By the end of the trip both of the Honda had a bit of oil leaking from old hardened seals etc.

We got to this stage and all was going well, new clutch plates, new auto clutch bell and assembly. New bearings in the motor. We had re used the original 14T crank timing gear and pressed it onto the recently acquired crank. Looks like this:



Except that photo is of a different one as mine was inside the motor before I got a photo. I also was given a new cam timing gearwith 32T up from the original 28T and a matching cam chain. When it came time to throw the head on, all was going well till the cam gear went on. the cam chain wouldn't sit on the gear properly. I ripped apart a 160cc pitbike motor here at work (which is the above photo) to find that it had the same 32T cam gear, and then the crank timing gear was 16T - mine's 14T. SO. Due to me learning as I go with this thing, I hadn't realised the crank was bare and had no matching crank timing gear supplied. Of course the 14T original one doesn't work with the new cam set up so I'm currently stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

Motor as it sits now:


I've enquired with Darren at Shore 50's who was most helpful, ripped apart a CT110 motor to find they have a 15T crank timing gear but still not a 16T one. I have found a 16T crank timing gear on alibaba that will suit but the minimum order is 1000. Trying to get a 'sample' to see if I can get around their minimum order. I've asked the Malaysian shops I dealt with if they can help but I'm currently waiting for them to wake up and see my message. None of the sites I use have one listed. BUT as a last resort I have found a different aftermarket crank which has the bearings and 16T crank timing gear already pressed on. If only I had seen that earlier! Ah well. Progress is progress and the amount I have learned has been amazing. 

There are heaps of positives; I got to replace all the parts like this:

 

There was quite a few worn out consumable bits inside the motor but they've all been replaced. Taking apart that pitbike motor also gave me another little win in the way of this:



Finding a flywheel half the side and weight of my original one that still has power for lights etc. So hopefully this will allow more aggressive neutral nangs at intersections. 

From here it's again hurry up and wait. Either:

a: Alibaba is a legend and supplies me with a sample crank timing gear and problem is solved. 
b: Malaysian shop can supply me with a 16T crank timing gear and problem is solved. 
c: Gotta buy a whole new crank (not actually that $$$, just annoying)

Oh, the piston is still about 1mm shy of being flush with the top of the barrel at TDC - so that will probably be sent off to get shaved down for max leg braking compression. 

Stay tuned and see what happens in the saga of my $99999999999999999999 Honda motor. 

[DB8-TypeR 2,635]

Break the bank and order a twincam head! 

Cant wait to see this complete

[MopedNZ 4,036]

46 minutes ago, DB8-TypeR said:

Break the bank and order a twincam head! 

Cant wait to see this complete

Hahaha not this time. Trying to stick with parts the locals have access too and can afford so I can 'replicate' what they're doing with their engines in the biscuit wheel underbone bikes. 

Never seen any kind of run through in English language on doing up these motors so hopefully all my mistakes can make it easier to do this in future for others. May even pick up another motor or two on my next trip if this works out ok. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Faaaarkin’ finally! 

 

Only took 6 months and parts from 5 countries. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]

Getting there. Will find some words later on and give a full run through when it’s done. 

[MopedNZ 4,036]