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Flauski's Suzuki A50 complete!


Flauski

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I have had soooooo many projects over the years and rarely can I say I have finished one to just how I want it.

1969ish Suzuki A50. Single cylinder, rotary valve, two stroke.

I was stoked to find it. In my opinion it is up there with the best looking factory 49cc motorcycles next to a Yamaha RD50 / Honda CB50. Made a conscious decision that I will build it for me to keep.

Sold here in NZ as an A50, some markets an AS50, some an AC50. They even did a high pipe version in other markets.

 

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Pretty rare bike here too. I got it in 2020, in a bulk deal of three bikes; A50, AC50 + A100 on the cusp of the first lock down.

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This is the orange AC50 tucked in between the A100 and A50 on the trailer:

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The AC50 had a smashed headlight (unique) but sourced another per below and got a new battery before selling it.

 

I def prefer the grey tank of the three Suzuki options. Has the best looking tank IMO of the 3 Suzuki 49cc options with A/AS/AC moniker.

 

Blue A100 on the trailer turned out to have a poked engine so ended up selling it in parts:

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A while later I found another blue A100 on Facebook marketplace with a rebuilt engine and a spare engine. 

This is the other A100 I bought with the rebuilt engine but I swapped in the spare engine (it came with) and sold it.

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When I got the A50 home, I cleaned the carb in my ultrasonic then squirted in some fresh fuel. Checked oil / pump and it fired right up.

It was very grubby having sat in a shed for a long time but had the perfect amount of patina. It was also missing the battery side cover.

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First start up running on a syringe worth of premix fuel + oil;

 

 

 

 

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Registered it and putted around on it for a while.

Then the engine started making bad knocking sound so it gave me the motivation to start the A100 conversion.

 

Knocking A50:

The A100 engine was from a much newer model and had been rebuilt by the previous owner (but it had sat for a while.) All the cases had been polished but the aluminium had started to go chalky and corrode. I polished it back up.

I was very suprised that the A100 engine all bolted straight in the A50, no frame or pedal modifications needed at all. I did have to do a tiny bit of wiring.

I wired in the more modern A100 style loom which included a rectifier rather than the original using the battery to rectify voltage setup. I also had to rewire the ignition at the outputs on the key barrel were different.

 

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At the same time I replaced a lot of the necessary consumable items - tyres, chain, sprockets, wheel bearings.

I did a full oil system flush. Boy that was a prick, trying to bleed the oil line from the pump output to get it feeding back into the engine. It took using suction from a brake bleed kit to suck it as far as possible up the line first as there was not enough pump pressure / suction to get oil going vertically up the line. I even replaced the oil pump with another to ensure it wasn't an issue with the pump.

I had to replace the speedo unit with a later model one as the glass on the original was smashed. It took some modifying as the original unit had much longer mounting posts. Turns out the speedos for this model are unobtanium.

I also had to try find a battery side cover. They are a unique shape to the other A/AS/AC models.

Turned out to be a very difficult task worldwide. I first found one through a Facebook group, thanks to a pilot in Belgium.

 

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Then, as luck would have it, I struck it lucky when when I found another A100 on Marketplace in Norsewood and it was black! The rest of the A100 is a project for another day :) The A100 has a larger headlight/nacelle/brake/forks but the rest is essentially the same.

The headlight is a unique shape, hope I never break it! It is even different from the AC50 headlight which is also unique. I managed to find two NOS AC50 headlights through CMSNL and used one / sold the other to be able to sell the orange AC50 above. I also managed to get a NOS air filter chrome side cover from CMSNL.

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Next up, after bolting in the engine was sorting an exhaust.

I had an original tidy A100 exhaust but always kind of wanted an expansion chamber.

Saw a fella on a Facebook group "Jupri Muffler" advertising custom A50 stainless steel expansion chambers in Thailand. I thought they looked good and I liked the upswept style. His exhausts didn't look too Aliexpressish for my liking.  

Got in contact with him and told him what I wanted.

I got concerned when another fella in Oz had one made and the pipe out of the head was reduced down in pipe size to go into the expansion chamber. He warned me away. His also didn't fit quite right and had some holes in the welding. Jupri also sent me some videos of his work which was essentially welding on a tiled floor with zero safety.

It was a real battle with broken English, I sent plenty of pics and measurements. I asked if he used a 'jig' and he had no idea what I was talking about. He did send me a lot of prayers and kept referring to me as friend in our really long messenger conversation lol.

I tried screwing down the price knowing they love a good barter but even at $250 landed in NZ it was a good deal.

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Anyway, $240.00 NZD later and a real punt, I got one made. I had to bend the rear mount a little but other than that it fit not too bad with some tweaking. Not sure I would risk it again to be honest.

I then had to source a kick start as there was no way a factory one would clear the pipe.

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Thankfully it showed up.

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As you can see, no way a standard kick start will work:

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Started shopping around / researching and took a punt on a couple.

Lucky I found a generic Chinese spec melted down Toyota Corolla on Trademe that had the same spline size and only cost $20.00. 

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https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/motorbikes/parts-for-sale/foot-pegs-mounts/listing/3309928740?bof=jeLx7anO

 

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Wowzee thats some custom mods! I considered doing the same.

I tried clocking the lever around as far as possible first. It worked but meant kick starting was a challenge, had to stand at the front of the bike holding the handle bars and just push my leg forward. It worked but was way too awkward :grin:

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Voila

Had to buzz down an edge on the kick start after kicking it once and it ever so slightly dinged the exhaust.

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Then I proceeded to take a ton of photos. Don't have any of the other side of the bike because it's all about the exhaust baby!

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I managed to track down some replica OEM Suzuki stickers for oil tank and side cover and applied.

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That about finished it off. Don't have anything more to do to it. Took it to DGR Wellington in May and it ran like a boss.

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