Drew's "BIG" project

Back in the days when colour had yet to be invented and dinosaurs needed a way to impress girls and get to school (c1977), Mr Honda decided, for one reason or another, to produce a moped which looked like a proper bike and didn't stink like a Flymo (not you Garry, I'm sure you smell great). Out of the Big H factory popped the mighty CB50J. A 49cc OHC 4-speed bristling with almost some horsepower, a disc brake and a chrome megga. The British version also arrived with a neat little single seat conversion, (possibly due to our 'no passengers for 16year-olds' rule) and it looked pretty good. It was also tiny- you'd trip over it thinking it was still 20ft awayLuckily my Big Bruv bought one of these off a friend who, given his future maintenance record, failed to destroy it. As almost everything a younger sibling receives is hand-me-down, I was well chuffed when, having finally made it to the pimply age of 16, Big Bruv sold me the 'Ped for £10 more than he paid for it.Off came the standard air filter and on with the S+B with chrome end cap which unleashed an immeasurable amount of horsepower but sounded ace. The front disc was cable operated and was not bad if you tested it immediately having adjusted it (again), but soon became ok-ish when the car in front jumped on the brakes. Change the oil every 1000 miles and the odd new plug and it absolutely never broke down. It always started first kick, even in any of the worst motorcycle- unfriendly weather. And after I crashed it. Twice. The headlamp and battery were poor- applying the brakes unfortunately meant half the electricity destined for the bulb at the front came out of the one at the back, rendering the rider virtually blind approaching a tightening bend in the dark. To teach it a lesson, I crashed it into a field. I happily spent the next two-and-a-half years chugging around North Norfolk, to and from work and to sixth-form where I successfully failed to impress any girls on the ever reliable 50J. Then I finished building my GSX250, and so endeth the life of The 'Ped. Until...... I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it (Gibbo's rule- never sell a bike) so it sat in boxes in my shed for 16years. I got bored. I looked in the boxes. I was no longer bored. I want a cafe racer, I thought. Hmmmm. Hacksaw and welder out, let's get started. First things first, I made some (very high) rear-set footrest hangers, using the remains of a bike my mate used to reshape a Rover 25. Thanks Keallo. Made a cable operating mechanism for the rear brake as wherever I moved the linkage meant going over bumps would apply or release the brake. Don't fancy that much. Removed the rubber swingarm bearings (thanks Mr Honda) by intricately burning them out with a blowtorch and sent the whole lot off to the outlaw Andy Wales for grit-blasting. Once it was back, on with the black Smoothrite. NEVER follow the instructions, it went on like black water and promptly ran off like black water. Once that was sorted, time to plonk all the bits back together. It was nice having a project so small I could build it on my bench.

Had the forks re-chromed by A M Philpot, a friendly helpful bunch of folks, new headrace bearings, rear shocks and new rear rim (Dave Silver is a good source of new old Honda stock). Hagon sent me some beautiful shiny new spokes and I sent the rear hub and brake plate off to Gibbo and Son Eng. Co. where junior Gibbo worked his blast- tank magic. New wheel bearings (luckily NOT rubber, thanks Mr Honda) in and time for some knitting. Never laced a wheel before, so I used the still assembled front as a pattern- piece of cake. This is easy, dunno what all the fuss is about. Front hub off to Gibbo, lovely clean front hub back from Gibbo, assemble. Eh, what's going on? Why can't I make this one work. Five attempts later, the front is a wheel at last. Purely because the rear hub was wide enough meant I could unwittingly start in the wrong place and still complete it. Top tip- start with the spokes on the inside of the flanges or get someone else to do it... Wheels on, ace- bars on, one big white-faced tacho and time to scoot it around outside and laugh at its complete lack of size. Neat

Engine time. 49cc is never going to excite anyone so the original reliable engine retired to a shelf. E-Bay lightened my wallet but sent me a 'good, rebuilt' XR80 engine (identical crankcases so will fit in 50J frame). Apparently, a 'good, rebuilt' engine needs a new cam chain, cam sprocket, piston, rings, exhaust valve, cam chain guide. Glad I looked inside.... Incidentally the 50J engine was rated at a max of 2-2.5bhp, the XR80 a more healthy 7.5-9bhp. At the very least, power will be tripled so 40mph could become 69mph..... Oh bloody 'ell, better sort the brakes- it'll need a good front one more than Gibbo needs cake. Rear drum was fine, so down to Burto's for a hydraulic caliper and master cylinder. After much rummaging, said bits were found. I need to mount the shiny little caliper somehow- the original was in front of the fork leg, but as that looks not all that tidy and will slow down the steering (????) I'll put it where it should be. Oh dear, nowt to bolt it to. Except one original mount and a vastly over strong mudguard mounting point. They'll do. Off to Gibbo's (again- the coffee is pretty good here) with a lump of aluminium and a cardboard template. 5 hours later and having reduced a lovely great piece of metal to lots of chippings and a bracket, I bid farewell to Mr G's Swarf Emporium and do another 1 1/2 hrs on my lathe making more of what look like Metal Mickey's pubes.

The finished bracket looks ok, fits well and is very solid. It ought to, it took long enough. That's about as far as Project Ped has travelled so far, lots of other niff-naff and nonsense to complete but hopefully it'll be coming out to play in spring 2010. If you want an genuine original Honda 49cc racer, there's currently a 90mph 1963 CR110 (4-valve DOHC 8.5bhp @ 14000rpm) for sale on t'internet for a measly £37605. Sorry if you've fallen into a coma through boredom, but Adi made me type all this- he's standing behind me with a large stick as I type. Keep it rubber-side-down.

Gibbo and yet another fun packed summer!!

Long ago when my eyes still worked and two cylinders were considered a "multi", a few of us decided to resurrect the NNMCC and arranged to meet at the Scottow Three Horseshoes for a brave new start. We turned up in encouraging numbers to discover a dark, very closed pub. Unperturbed we shot down the Jolly Farmers and thus began the reborn Bike Club. Much oil has fallen on the garage floor since then but last week we found ourselves outside the very same pub in an all too similar situation. This time we shot down the Skeyton Goat, for the simple reason it was the first thing that came into my mind, and the representative sample that managed to find its way there were made welcome and so a quick vote around the table fixed the venue for the foreseeable future. A big Thanks to the folk at the Shoes for all the support they've given and we wish them well and I for one am sorry that all the hard work didn't bear fruit for them. Thanks also to the Goat for making us welcome, I'm sure we can go on strong in this new home.
I've had a busy bike year but have probably neglected my Club duties a bit due to the amount of work involved in rebuilding and prepping bikes. I love pottering and fettling in the bike shed and I spend much more time fiddling with bikes than riding them but even for me the pressure at times made me question if I was actually enjoying it! (I was really!! my "estranged" wife wasn't) I was invited to join someone else’s run to Monza and Le Mans in May and thought it would be nice to tag along for a change without any responsibility. A new Blade, GSXR600, B King, R1 SP and my Daytona made an interesting group flying in formation across France to get over the Alps (or the Dolomites, I'm never sure where one finishes and the other starts). However we never got over as all the passes were still snowed up and after a bit of makeshift sledging on a pallet we went through a 16km long tunnel to burst out into warmth and southern Europe. There is nothing I can add about Italian driving/riding that you've not either read or experienced!!! Monza WSB was terrific, we were right on the bend of that horrific crash, it was the worst I've seen live and it’s a miracle there were not more serious injuries. GOD IT WAS HOT. Paul was doing a great impression of a Crab Stick by the end of the day. The route up to Lemons took us through an entirely new part of France for me, and a stop at Monaco for a blat round the already set up F1 track. The principality Police were very polite when they advised us that two laps were enough and we really should be going now! Up through the middle we had to see the "Sky Bridge" and decided to approach not on motorway but by riding up the "Gorge Du Tarn". This turned into one of the best rides of my life. Awesome scenery, considerable danger and more bends and bumps than on an extremely bendy bumpy thing with added twists and lumps.Gary (another "club" member) pissed off into the distance, Steve wrestled and squirted the B King like a goodun and I contemplated the cost of replacing smashed carbon Dymags between demented grins. A long wet day finished the interesting central part of France until we arrived at the amazing Route 66 Bikers hotel. Qualifying for a piece all of its own let's just say you have to go there. An old coaching/hunting lodge this range of buildings now has a bar unlike any I'd seen, loads of indoor parking and wacky old school accommodation with fine food prepared by women brought in from the village. At this point, and to celebrate completing a difficult day, I broke my own no drinking rule and therefore can't vouch for the full English breakfast other than to say it looked fine when I handed it to Steve.
Moto GP at Le Mans was a bit different to Monza, GOD IT WAS COLD!! How can one week and a few hundred miles be so different? Also the racing was not brilliant with the silly bike changing thing going on to confuse everyone (well alright maybe I was the most confused) and Mr Rossi finishing in a very uncharacteristic place. Edwards duffing Toseland up at the end did little to lift spirits either. Back at the excellent camp site Steve and I decided to make a dash for home that night and we took about10 hours to get back, at one point queuing with hundreds of bikes for over an hour to get fuel, the only dry bit was on the ferry! I took the precaution of wearing every tee shirt I had with me and just about avoided hyperthermia but it was not a pleasant end to the trip. The others who didn't have to get back for work made a swift safe return the next day, job done! You'd think I deserved a rest after that but no. The very next weekend was the Classic Burn Up at Cadwell Park where I was to ride the recently completely rebuilt Triumph 250 and 500. Neither had turned a wheel in anger for 15 years.The 250 had taken far too long over winter and was only just ready (or in fact not) but the 500 with its fancy new ignition had been pushed up and down the road to no avail and did not join us at Cadwell. It later transpired that the rather confusing marks lead to the rotor being 180 deg out, much later, and after much more pushing and head scratching.The 250 was far from sorted also as the clutch key sheared and then once fixed I discovered third gear was rather like an MP's scruples when filling in their expenses form, i.e. entirely missing.Noise testing was interesting, the outer end of the added baffle was increasingly squashed and then finally the inner end suitably mullered to match allowing us to scrape through. How many people can there be close enough to Cadwell for noise to be a serious problem? And anyway that's not noise its music! My very old ,in both senses, friend Stuart was having much more luck with his incredible tribute to 1960's Honda racers hitting something like 18,000rpm and having a trouble free day. Even getting photographed for an article in Classic Bike magazine. The quality of work on his 250cc four cylinder RC162 has to be seen to be believed and make my little darling Triumphs look like the "shed racers" they are.This run was really a test day for our proposed trip to La Belle France to ride in a Classic event about 50 or so miles south of Calais and although I had a bit of work to do we felt we would be OK to go. Although still not running, the 500 came along to Croix St Ternoise just to look pretty. With my 250's rebuilt gearbox, fettled clutch and every spare nook and cranny of the van filled with optimism, we set off to impress the world.With no noise testing the 250 ran so much better baffle free and in fact went better and better as the weekend progressed. Meanwhile Stuart and his Honda were being almost worshipped. Even dyed in the wool Brit fan that I am I have to confess it sounded awesome circulating the wonderfully tight little track. From some view points you could almost hear it make a complete lap, its high pitch howl most distinctive. How often do you get to hear four separate open meggas at 18,000?The whole meeting was so friendly and well organised we will definitely go back. We even had some supporters come all the way over to join us who very kindly turned up in the mornings with fresh cakes strapped to their bikes. Bikes may splutter when low on fuel but I completely fail to function when deprived of cake.