Re: Reminiscing the days

[benny hedges]

niiiice

first legal roadbike was a a50p suzi, without the pedals... fast as fook lol!
then i set it on fire (don't ask!) so me dad bought me a brand new suzi x1 50cc.
looked great but was proper slow.
first thing i did was bigger front sprocket and that got it up to 45, head on tank, then i fitted a polished kh250 carb, and like a Richard i thought boring it 1.5 max would make it faster...

it didnt. so i went to terry shepperd and got it ported proper - omfg!!! it flew!
but i got about 50 miles and a circlip came out and wrecked the bore.
not to be put off, i went to bill pope suzuki and went thru the microfiches looking for a piston with same size gudgeon pin...
i found a fr80 which is basically a suzuki 2 stroke version of a honda placcy.
drilled the ports deeper with ordinary drill bits, looked brutal! then bored it another 4.5mm, making it a whopping oversquare 72cc
had to cut the skirt down and drill piston ports etc, then took an angle grinder to the head, then draw file, then grinding paste on glass to get the magical 30 thou squish band...
packed the crank holes with cork soaked in oil..
bring on the power wheelies! that was a Very sporty bike.
next came custom micron and micron clip ons, home made rear sets... plus i tried to pop a dent out the tank by pumping it up with a footpump, suceeded in expanding the tank by a gallon!
i loved that bike and did over 80k on it with several rebuilds.

always been the same, can't leave awt standard!
it finally came to an end when i hit an alsatian at 60mph

used to look in awe at those kreidler 50s, doing over a ton, horrible looking long thin things but jeez theyre fast for a 50!

[cupasoop]

So when you were a teen, what did you ride and what did you get out of it ?

Girls

[Pete.L]

So when you were a teen, what did you ride and what did you get out of it ?

Girls

Nothings changed, now I just get them to take their teath out first if I'm lucky

Pete.l

[Beamish]

I also had an SS50 but that was never road legal, first road 50 was an RD.

[AMCQ46]

Good find, the petrol tank on the VanVeen bikes is an amazing shape!

Sad to say, my moped was a Simpson S50B.............basicaly an MZ, so no street cred!

Good thing was it was easy to de-restrict [and later You find out that MZ knew a bit about 2 strokes!] and then with ace bars, home made rearsets and a handlebar fairing added...............it still looked sh1t but it was mine and it could out run all the restricted jap bikes that cost 3 times as much.

they looked like this

that was not mine, mine was blue..........like that stops it being ugly!

if anyone else even remembers these I will buy you a pint!


The MZ ownership didnt stop there, as I raced one in the Formula Lightweight Racing series for a few years, and I think that was my most modified and tuned bike, but I did it all my self from books.
Converted from piston ported to reed valves
Fitted a YZ250 motocross piston and dropped the barrel by 10mm to get port timing correct for new piston.
Welded extra metal on cases & barrel then opened up the transfers
raised exhaust port
added 5th transfer at the back so it was ported like a jap motocrosser
Total loss home made CDI ignition
Lightend and stuffed cranks with cases packed out to increase crank compression
home made expansion tapers built inside standard looking outer pipes ...there was a rule that pipe had to keep stock outline.....Pipe fitted on other side as most tracks are CW
Carb bored out oval [again had to stick with std carb]
and new home made needles and tubes, as the wernt big enough anymore




Dont ask about the cat, it was a nut job

oh and I made the paddock stand from an old chair frame!

[benny hedges]

jeez mz made some pig ugly bikes in the 80s!
what was that dnieper thing????
i remember frodshams in warrington used to sell them.
did you see the 125 (may have been a 250) with the fairing..... the headlamp was mounted to the yokes so when you went round corners you were blind lol.
i swapped one for a xl100 field bike!

agree on their 2 strokes tho - they had massive finned cylinders and were very moddable. not the most reliable bike tho!
one of my mates had a garelli 50 and we all thought it was ace - it was like the 50 version of a ducati at the time