The Bikeshite Thread

[gtd2000]

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

 

The small capacity increase seemed to give more torque, my SS50 was certainly better into the wind as 72cc, even two up with skinny teenagers. My 18st Father as a pilion was funny, laughing his head off as l struggled to keep the front wheel down.

I found the standard bike frightening in rush hour traffic, hardly able to keep up and pulling out of junctions was suicidal. I remember valve bounce down Priest Hill Old Windsor at about 45mph. Less than two weeks later I fitted the C70 top end and it would go steaight to 45mph and valve bounce on the flat. With the C70 front sprocket it would get up to 50 quite easily and a bit faster downhill.

I eventually had the 5 speed gearbox, bigger carb and front disc off a later bike on there rescued from a river. With the ports opened out, early C90 inner valve springs, heavier clutch springs and extra plate it would get to the holy grail 60mph, most of which was done in 4th revving the granny out of it and it would just about hold the speed in top if wind conditions were favouable. It really needed a slightly bigger back sprocket to drop the gearing a little.

I managed to slipstream a coach on a dual carriageway once and coaxed it up to 65mph for a short while until it pulled away, the engine was singing its head off and l had to back off at one point as I was catching up. A rev counter would have been nice.

The only two mopeds I could not keep up with  locally were Fantics, a GT Super Six and Caballero Enduro, they were faster accelerating but about the same speed on the flat and once the gap was there no amount of tucking in was going to let me catch up. A friends FS1E DX was faster as it had a YB100 engine, that used to be fun riding about together.

When I was running around on the Fizzy, I had no idea at all about the possibilities of doing any modifications other than fitting an "expansion chamber" or box as it was first mentioned to me. I couldn't see what putting a "box" on an AP50 exhaust would do but my pal said it would be making his ped run faster!🤣

I remember another pal, who sheared the front end off his Yamaha V80 and thinking that the engine looked very similar to the unit in the Fizzy but as that time I simply assumed that all bikes had dedicated parts and that was all you could use! 😆 He wanted £`15 for the remains, at the time but I had no ability to repair it, so didn't think about it.

My little Fizzy would do 40MPH, if I was sitting bolt upright and 46MPH, with my head on the clocks. The fastest I ever saw on the clocks, was 56MPH, down a pretty long and straight hill but I knew nothing about fitting a slightly bigger front sprocket either.

Back then, I wish I knew an H100 engine would go in an MT or MB frame and a YB100 could have easily become a Fizzy! 😉

[Stinkwheel]

What I have been doing today. Swapping it to the powder coated frame so it eventually looks better 

[andyberg]

No matter what, it will always be great, it's a 2 stroke 😁😁

[RayMK]

I've never ridden a Fizzy.  The only 50cc machines I've ridden are as follows:

Raleigh Runabout.  It was a friend's machine. He let me have a go on the private roads on a housing estate.  It was the first powered machine that I had ridden.  Despite its grandad looks, lack of suspension, single speed, centrifugal clutch and probably tiny power output it impressed me.  It seemed much faster than my pushbike.

Peugeot BBCT (1967).  Bought brand new in Roermond, Netherlands about 2 years after the Raleigh experience.  It had front suspension and fractionally more power than the Raleigh. 30mph barely achievable. 25-27mph typical.  I passed my BFG test on  it and rode it every day to get to school - not far - RAF Wegberg to Rheindahlen, about 2 miles, if that.  I even took my friend on pillion (cushion on the parcel carrier and accessory footrests added) to Nideggen and back from Rheindahlen (70km each way).  A year or two later I rode it back from Germany to Nocton Hall, Lincs, taking two days. Also did Nocton Hall to Braemar, Inverness and Portree and back for a 10 day holiday.  I've not ridden it since 1982 but still own it. It last ran when my son was about 15.  He's now 44.

NSU Quickly.  Bought by my brother - his first powered transport.  When he bought it we still lived at RAF Nocton Hall but Dad was posted to RAF Halton shortly afterwards, before my brother had organised his licence or insurance. I was volunteered to ride it down to Halton for him as I had a provisional licence and my Norwich Union 'Rider' policy covered me on any bike up to 250cc.  The Quickly made a lot of buzzy fuss to reach nearly 30mph.  I think it had 3 gears on a handlebar change.  Halton was achieved but the vibration had loosened many fittings and fixtures, some of which had to be tightened several times en-route.

Mobylette 50V.  Bought 2nd hand to commute the 10 miles each way when my Peugeot had become unreliable and a bit later when my 3 wheeled transport burnt to the ground.  The 50V had a CVT and under favourable  conditions could reach 40mph.  Hill climbing was disappointing.  It required pedal assistance to get up Amersham Hill in High Wycombe.

Suzuki AP50.  A rather poorly example owned by a relative.  It would barely run and I was tasked with fixing it in the 1980s.  I got it to start reliably, run fairly reliably but I could not get more than 42mph out of it.  Having proper gears at least enabled it to tackle Chiltern Hills much more successfully than my Mobylette or Peugeot.

All seems to be a long time ago!

[catsinthewelder]

@RayMK 

1 hour ago, RayMK said:

Peugeot BBCT (1967).  Bought brand new in Roermond, Netherlands about 2 years after the Raleigh experience.  It had front suspension and fractionally more power than the Raleigh. 30mph barely achievable. 25-27mph typical.  I passed my BFG test on  it and rode it every day to get to school - not far - RAF Wegberg to Rheindahlen, about 2 miles, if that.  I even took my friend on pillion (cushion on the parcel carrier and accessory footrests added) to Nideggen and back from Rheindahlen (70km each way).  A year or two later I rode it back from Germany to Nocton Hall, Lincs, taking two days. Also did Nocton Hall to Braemar, Inverness and Portree and back for a 10 day holiday.  I've not ridden it since 1982 but still own it. It last ran when my son was about 15.  He's now 44.

Christ, makes our LE-JOG effort on 125s look like amateur hour!

[RayMK]

46 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

@RayMK 

Christ, makes our LE-JOG effort on 125s look like amateur hour!

Being young and foolish helps!  I also did Nocton Hall to Fair Oak  (near Eastleigh, Hants) at least three times on the Peugeot - to see my friend, the one who endured the Nideggen trip.  Fortunately, old age prevents  me from doing such things now but there are still odd days when I certainly feel daft enough.  I enjoyed your LE-JOG trip a while back.  Doing it on a 125cc bike in today's traffic is brave enough, but on a 2nd hand Chinese 125 is heroic.

[808 Estate]

The Interceptor has arrived.

[Sham]

I do like these - looks lovely. They ride well and sound great too.

I was tempted but was put off by the short service intervals.

[Cavcraft]

Bloody hell that looks nice.

[Stinkwheel]

Wasnt sure of the styling on these from press shots, but that looks ace. I still have this minor bugbear that all the enfield engines dont quite produce as much power as you might expect compared to japanese machines. But i did get a ride on a himalya recently and that model for sure isnt as bad as i first thought and i liked it.

[808 Estate]

Service interval is shorter than Japanese bikes. But as the tappits are screw and locknut rather than shims, it is commensurably cheaper. Agreed HP figures dont make headline reading, but theres a ton of low end grunt and the motor is very tractorable which makes up for it in a really pleasing way. Now to get a 2-1 exhaust and shave 30lbs of its weight.

[Cavcraft]

1 hour ago, 808 Estate said:

Service interval is shorter than Japanese bikes. But as the tappits are screw and locknut rather than shims, it is commensurably cheaper. Agreed HP figures dont make headline reading, but theres a ton of low end grunt and the motor is very tractorable which makes up for it in a a really pleasing way. Now to get a 2-1 exhaust and shave 30lbs of its weight.

Is that a r/h gear change?

 

Today it was discovered that a 40+ year old big 4 (cylinder) Japanese bike doesn't handle very well on tyres that are older than God's nan. Even less so when the front tyre is essentially flat. The FS1 is back from the garage after the throttle kept sticking, so put another couple of miles on to the running in/heat cycle. Itching to hit the magic 250 mile mark so I can open it up properly.  

[808 Estate]

3 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Is that a r/h gear change?

No standard L/H gear change. Just a rather small brake pedal.

[Cavcraft]

One's an exotic and highly sought after speed machine. The other is a Mclaren.

Actual LOLZ at the Mclaren as it seems the MOT ran out in April.

[Snake Charmer]

27 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

One's an exotic and highly sought after speed machine. The other is a Mclaren.

Actual LOLZ at the Mclaren as it seems the MOT ran out in April.

I had a pair of those handlebars on my Raleigh Chopper. Always thought the MX cross bar was odd on a road bike.

[Cavcraft]

The last ones (supposedly quality replicas) were even bigger. Pretty ridiculous to be honest, so at least the ones on it now are a lot better. 101 miles on the run in, now the nicer weather is here though I'll try and use it more.  Tidied the wiring up at the back using some fancy* tape from Temu, next up will be fitting some proper fuel pipe clips and I reckon the plug is due a replacement, but have some new ones here. The tank (one of those shite new Indian replica versions) sits wrong which messes with my OCD when I look at the photographs.

[Fat_Pirate]

Checking out the 6-cylinder loveliness at Sammy Miller's museum earlier today, I think I'd have gone for the Benelli back in the day.  Way out of my price league though, but this was a bit more wallet-friendly:

I've got a real itch for something properly classic to play with, but the oldest bike I've ridden was from 1999 so I'd have no idea what I'm buying/doing.  I just love the look of it, and for me that's 90% of the purchasing criteria!

I sent this photo to my wife and she was very impressed with how amazingly boring it all looked, and how pleased she was staying at home.

[Shadow]

Here are mine.

mine is the BKing on the left.

[Jazoli]

1 hour ago, Shadow said:

Here are mine.

mine is the BKing on the left.

Quite a rare bike yours, not seen many in the wild as such.

[Snake Charmer]

On 09/05/2024 at 11:45, Cavcraft said:

One's an exotic and highly sought after speed machine. The other is a Mclaren.

Actual LOLZ at the Mclaren as it seems the MOT ran out in April.

McLaren number plate should be 9 MOT!

Love the purple, I think the one my father bought burnt out was gold with SS side panels. When I look at any moped of that era now I  just see so much weight in all the steel parts compared with today's machines, how did they go so fast with such little power? 😄

[Stinkwheel]

52 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

McLaren number plate should be 9 MOT!

Love the purple, I think the one my father bought burnt out was gold with SS side panels. When I look at any moped of that era now I  just see so much weight in all the steel parts compared with today's machines, how did they go so fast with such little power? 😄

Modern mopeds and 125’s May have lighter components but are often as big or nearly as big as larger machines. Older ones were tiny in comparison, hence. Not as heavy as they look 

[catsinthewelder]

I reckon a modern moped weighs just as much,  you just can't see the metal frame under all the plastic.

Time for mild research 

According to this https://classic-motorbikes.net/yamaha-fs1e-fizzie/ a Fizzie weighs 70kg and has 4.8bhp

 

Honda don't currently make a 50 but the X8R I had years ago weighed 91kg dry and made just under 3 bhp standard but around 4.8 with a new CDi and exhaust.

For a current model, the Lexmoto Echo 

Weight 83kg

Power 3bhp

Max speed 28mph

 

[Cavcraft]

Nice little run out on the Lambretta this morning, probably about 55-60 miles to The Ponderosa and back.  It was packed out with Power Rangers, these two bikes were the stand outs for me, they looked amazing

The 20MPH zones were mostly dog shit, though one or two were understandable.  The average speed camera 50 bits are ok on a small, low powered machine (you can still have as much fun) but they must be pretty dull on a superbike.

[Cavcraft]

Whoops, this followed me home along with a Chinese 49cc scooter

[Dave_Q]

I remember trying one of those DNAs at the NEC motorbike show. Absolutely tiny aren't they.

NC700X, what do we reckon? I need another bike like a hole in the head tbh but looks a great way to just fuck the fuck off somewhere when you need to. I kinda like the half a Jazz engine + storage concept as well.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1490386881884977/

[hairnet]

do it

apart from normal stuff youd check

make sure it got at least one orig honda key

be also prepared to be bouncing its cnut off the limiter while you get used to it

theyre getting very cheap

[hairnet]

[Sham]

I really like and NC700X - typical Honda though, a little soulless, and I'd need a second bike for a few more LOLs

[grogee]

I've just booked CBT with a view to doing Big Bike test soon after. It'll be in Cubbington near Leamington Spa, middle of next month. 

If anyone wants to sell me short & fat man's motorcycle gear, I'm all ears. 

[Fat_Pirate]

My KTM broke down a few weeks back - riding along, the dash suddenly went haywire and it died; starter just clicked, had to be recovered home.  It turns out there's some problem in the battery - the positive terminal (bottom left and the one in use) shows considerably less voltage than the other side (top left), as if it's no longer connected to all the cells.  I swapped in an identical one from another bike and it fired straight up.

About 3 years ago I had a previous battery fail (a Yuasa) when the negative terminal became detached inside the battery, which I put down to vibration, but I'm wondering if there's an intermittent issue with the reg/rec that's cooking them.  Testing shows 14.0v at idle and 5000rpm, maybe it's happening after an extended period of running?