The Bikeshite Thread

[thatsmacar]

On 11/25/2019 at 12:54 PM, Jerzy Woking said:

Then there was this Voge 500. Looked nicely put together and quite stylish for the price. Not sure what engine it uses, as I've not checked.

 

 

That looks like the Honda CB500F

 

http://www.chinavoge.com/index.html

[RED2stroke]

16 hours ago, RED2stroke said:

Hey fellow bike shiters, picked this up today. 1980 CZ 250 been stored since 1983, story is that the 80 plus year old owner put it to the back of his integral garage, many years ago, subsequent house alterations mean't that it became entombed, the ceiling was resting on the handle bars!  Tyres had to be fully deflated in order to get it out and with the assistance  of a short person it was finally freed.It is age seized but I have no doubt that it can be made to run.  Just goes to show what is still out there waiting to be found.

Took the seat off today, found this.....I think that there may have  been a furry lodger?

[martc]

[hairnet]

edit for price drop on zumo as ive bought a 346

 

[RED2stroke]

Yeah I like the rat look.......well hamster look maybe?

[somewhatfoolish]

Drunken eflog nonsense; I appear to have bought one of these. Pics when it arrives, No kollekting, the vendor is delivering.

 

 

[pilninggas]

Decat'd the ZX10R

Replaced the huge and heavy cat box with an aliexpress linkpipe (£30). Had to get an adaptor, as the link pipe had an M18 lambda boss, and the bike's lambda is M12.

Kept the OEM silencer.

[hairnet]

Only 2nd time rode bike on motorway

I hate winter

Pump up tyres and go for a.spin tomorrow

[Cavcraft]

2 hours ago, hairnet said:

Only 2nd time rode bike on motorway

I hate winter

Pump up tyres and go for a.spin tomorrow

Is that because you've never ridden anything fast enough to go on one?

 

 

 

Lambretta still playing up, favourite is the cheap shit rubber air hose. It's as soft as warmed up dog shit on a hot summers day, so sucks itself in when you rev it. New hard rubber one ordered, plus looks like it's going to end up having a better 22mm carb from Scootopia and then probably another £3M spending trying to get it to run, ride and handle again.

[hairnet]

no 

only backwards and forwards to work since bought - 85 on motorway and 50+ mpg while it does it - at least its not a surrendering primate avec fromage

mine will start in the morning

 

[hairnet]

went for bimble - planned on 40 miles ish one just a loop till film was on

went out wasnt cold but even tho they said dry it was still damp

got pez gave up and now eating pancakes and drinking tea after 17 miles

what a wuss

 

[PiperCub]

NEW ADDITION TO FLEET!

 

Well, finally found what I was looking for as a cheap Jap winter hack/emergency transport/bounce around locally bike, not hard you'd think but round here is not a biking area at all and such stuff is very hard to come by (tons of 600+ expensive stuff if you want it).

So what is it? It's a Honda NT400 (1988/F), yes a grey import/JDM bike and all the better for it as shows in the general build quality and condition after 47Kkms (30K miles) and near 32 years. The only issue is the name of the NT400, it could have been the Hawk GT as in the US but no, let's call it something real stupid and slightly embarassing for those who remember the shit late 80's boy band, Yup, it's a BROS............ Nice of Honda to put it on bloody great 72-point type on the tank, thanks for that! Guess what's going to be facing a heat gun in the near future and a date with a simple old Honda logo. 

 

Anyway, will post some pics of this thing here when I can be arsed to take some.  It it is small and narrow being a V-twin, ideal for town work, feels like a faster version of my old Honda 250RS I had 30 years ago. Not something you'd want to do big miles on but then I don't, I only want a local hack (& I only work 13 miles away). It rides very well, stops smartly and is plenty quick enough - I have the LC to scare myself with so don't want or need a big powerful bike any more, been there, done that. The bike looks and feels/rides like a faster version of a big 125 or a 250 to be honest, I suspect most would think that's what it was. 

This is what MoreCrapthanNews thought:

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-reviews/honda/bros-400/1988/

Given I only paid about £650 for it with a bunch of stuff thrown in (manual, cover, spares etc), I am well pleased, it needs nothing spending on it, tyres, chain/sprox/brakes/battery are all excellent, has had a basic service and I'll service it fully in the spring but for now, for the little use it'll see 'til then (I have my medals for winter riding so don't take shit for that!) it's fine. It's quite a simple thing really, a V-twin, carbs, water-cooled, single disc F & R, chain driven unlike the UK NTV/Revere which was shaft driven and a natty "RC30-like" as they say, single sided swingarm. So the kind of ideal old school cheap bike I was looking for to keep in this role for some years to come. Expected to get a 125-250 but these are either unknown Chinese makes (may be good or bad IDK) or are too new or too expensive so this one popping its head up was a pleasant surprise. 

Oddly, about 13-14 years ago, I was in the market for the 650 version of this (not the UK one, the grey) but they were super rare even back then prob due to Jap licencing laws so I never found one that wasn't massively overpriced. 

Will post pics and more info when I use it more. Stay upright Bro's (see what I did there? No, never mind). 

[155V6]

^I used to see those in Grey Bike magazine when I had my GSX/R 400 & thought they looked good fun ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PiperCub]

Sadly enough, I've still got a bunch of 'Grey Bike' mags from the mid '90's, must dig 'em out now I guess! 

[hairnet]

• i had a revere (for 3 months)
• 110k ex riding skool bike
• let me down twice in two weeks and due to working shifts then couldnt afford that (5am starts so no public transport) so it got fcuked off

[Aston Martin]

Fuck sake, they've announced a 300cc version. The 125 isn't enough.

 

Think that's my summer sorted. ? unless it's £3.4 million.

 

They've learned from the Piaggio MP3 as this can now be driven with a car licence.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

In biking news, I've moved house and have gained a garage. It's a bomb site at present as it's acting as an overflow while we sort bits in the house but the VTR no longer has to live outside, and I might be able to start fiddling with the CB200 project......

Also, I took the VTR to work on Christmas Eve. Heading home I accelerated up a greasy bus lane. This caused much brown trouser, as the rear stepped out to the right so far I hit full lock counter steering, then it snapped the other way before I got it back into shape. Thought I was going to high side but through some miracle stayed the right way up. Legs locked solid with adrenaline!

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[tobyd]

After replacing the tank petcock and putting the carbs back together to stop the SV draining fuel into the intakes I thought it would run reasonably well.

It does not.

Its fine once you are off the pilots but slow speed manoeuvring is a pain and its tickover is pretty lumpy. So something must be done. Thought it was certainly the carb sync being out after manhandling them and cleaning them out but try as I might I couldn't get the front cylinder to overpower the rear using a DIY water manometer thing which has worked well enough in the past. I could get the rear cylinder to very quickly outdo the front or slowly outdo it but no amount of adjustment would balance them. hmmm. So something isn't right. Sadly that meant checking the valves. SV650s are shim-under-bucket engines which makes this job a bit of a pig.

Since the bike was partially in bits anyway it wasn't as grim but still involves taking a lot of bits to pieces to check the clearances then all the cams out to measure the old shims if they are off.

And they were. All the exhausts were borderline or tight and 3 of the intakes were borderline or tight. predictably, only 1 shim can be moved and thats to the sole intake that isn't off. All the sizes but two were 'off' (insomuch as not ending 0 or 5) so I have a suspicion these might not have been checked in a while. The two that were 0 or 5 were the best of the (bad) lot. One had been put in backwards (most of the lettering had rubbed off) so I assume its been done at least once. The front intakes were tight so that might explain the sync problem, but not that it didn't have this issue before I messed with the carbs...

Still the plugs looked a good colour (but were loose) and the CCTs even seemed ok. The rear-most CCT you have to remove by feel which is a lot of fun.

Should be plenty of smiles refitting the tensioners then retiming both cylinders. Then I can go back to finding out why the thing won't sync... I'll get the two carbs even

One day I'll also sort out the front downpipe but it think its corroded into place enough that its not going anywhere.

Update! The carb won't sync because the throttle linkage is ovalled at either end so the sync screw is just adjusting fresh air... 

[Jerzy Woking]

I can state that the valves were not adjusted during my two periods of ownership from 2014, nor in the period between I did not have it.

Sorry to hear you are having issues with it-I thought all the niggles had been sorted when the weird electrical issues I was having were cured.

 

[Cavcraft]

Nothing too exciting, but a nice sunny day, so whizzed the Scomadi out for a blast. Went to J&S Accessories to look at a new helmet (didn't have the size I wanted) so came back into town, stopped by the river and  had a cuppa and a chat to a lad on some sort of Harley Davidosn lookalike Kawasaki 1500 thing.

 

 

Have started looking at FS1Es again recently, they're just stupidly priced now though and seem to have gone up again since I last looked a few months ago. Surely they'll have to bottom out eventually? Been offered a Triumph (Trophy 1200, I think) and a Jap 750 (spares/repairs) as a straight swap for the BMW. Having a  think about it, but neither float my boat, really.

[UltraWomble]

The Trumpet is a nice bike but the ~Bimmer is nicererer

[Cavcraft]

Agreed, but a (modern) British bike is an itch yet to be scratched. Rather wait 53 years for the 'new' Bonneville to come into our price range though. 

[strangeangel]

I'm amazed no-one's offered you hard cash for that BMW yet. Maybe it's that old chestnut of it actually being too cheap?

 

[Mudster]

On 12/29/2019 at 4:51 PM, tobyd said:

 

One day I'll also sort out the front downpipe but it think its corroded into place enough that its not going anywhere.

Update! The carb won't sync because the throttle linkage is ovalled at either end so the sync screw is just adjusting fresh air... 

 

If it's anything like my DL1000 I wouldn't bother. I ended up drilling,  helicoiling and fitting new studs and copper nuts on the front cylinder downpipe. Didn't bother trying to get the rear downpipe off as the engine needs to come out for access if the bolts snap..

I also had 7 of 8 valves tight at 16,000 miles. I left some tubing attached to the vacuum take offs going to under the seat and capped off. Can sync the throttle bodies without taking off the tank now. 

[twosmoke300]

Did that to my Sv650 too 

[hairnet]

Epic fail

These feckers.were supposed to.come off

The nut bit with the thread needs swapping over too cant do that cos don't have two 14 spanners

Horn got fitted tho

Fail at adjusting the chain as don't have socket big enuff previous honda was 24 

Set only goes that far

PARP (( not windtones sadly @PhilA )

meep

 

[Cavcraft]

Will defo have a couple of 14mm spanners here, Hairnet. You passing anytime soon?

[plasticvandan]

New Year's Day so me and my dad managed to go out this morning,I took my 54 Ariel and he rode his 54 Panther for the first time

 

[doug]

Any more photos of the Panther?

[tommytwo]

Those red windtone horns are absolute rubbish., made in China to a price. I put a set on my Rover and they lasted all of 9 months. Stripped them and they were red with rust inside. Water gets into them and thats it, it cant get out. Avoid!