My other road bike
Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 5:37 pm
After seeing the great job DaveSP2 made of his CB400 Super Dream, I thought I would share my project bike
it is a 1976 KH125A1, and it has only done 7500miles!
Eagle eyed will see the last tax disc was in 1996, and it had sat in the back of someones mums garage since then.
Although I got it started after a good carb clean and replacing all the foam seals on the paper element air filter [Foam had just turned to powder and was going in the carb!], it only got be 3 miles before it died!
Took the magneto cover off and what smelled like turps poured out, the crank seals had gone dry & brittle and stuck to the crankshaft then ripped the seal lip off.
Managed to get all the seals, main bearings and a gasket set either from e-bay or my local kawasaki shop [they had all the o-rings for the rotary disk valve in stock!
]
I rebuilt the engine in a couple of nights.........so easy to work on an air cooled 2 smoke single.........only had to remember that all the phillips screw were made of chocolate back then, and always use the impact driver.
Only cost me £30 in parts!
Then once I got it running, it has taken another £70 to put new tyres on it, and the rest of the work has been polishing the rust spots off all the chrome and Autosol on all the aluminium cases and fork legs.
Plus a bit of a rewire as there were some melted wires and the indcators failed the MOT.
Oh forgot that I also had to refurbish the cable disk brake caliper as it had corroded solid
It makes me smile when I ride it as you just hold the throttle full open all the time and try not to loose momentum. Like when you were 16 / 17 with your 1st moped
Great for getting in and out of Birmingham, I feel like I can give 100% attention to watching the traffic, and if I get in trouble it feels like I can put my feet down and pull the bike out of the way.........combination of it being light / small / not very powerfull and a sit up riding position.
These photos were from the day I took it for its MOT after the rebuild. Those were the original tyres [just a bit perished and shiney], and the rack is now removed.
it is a 1976 KH125A1, and it has only done 7500miles!
Eagle eyed will see the last tax disc was in 1996, and it had sat in the back of someones mums garage since then.
Although I got it started after a good carb clean and replacing all the foam seals on the paper element air filter [Foam had just turned to powder and was going in the carb!], it only got be 3 miles before it died!
Took the magneto cover off and what smelled like turps poured out, the crank seals had gone dry & brittle and stuck to the crankshaft then ripped the seal lip off.
Managed to get all the seals, main bearings and a gasket set either from e-bay or my local kawasaki shop [they had all the o-rings for the rotary disk valve in stock!
]I rebuilt the engine in a couple of nights.........so easy to work on an air cooled 2 smoke single.........only had to remember that all the phillips screw were made of chocolate back then, and always use the impact driver.
Only cost me £30 in parts!
Then once I got it running, it has taken another £70 to put new tyres on it, and the rest of the work has been polishing the rust spots off all the chrome and Autosol on all the aluminium cases and fork legs.
Plus a bit of a rewire as there were some melted wires and the indcators failed the MOT.
Oh forgot that I also had to refurbish the cable disk brake caliper as it had corroded solid
It makes me smile when I ride it as you just hold the throttle full open all the time and try not to loose momentum. Like when you were 16 / 17 with your 1st moped
Great for getting in and out of Birmingham, I feel like I can give 100% attention to watching the traffic, and if I get in trouble it feels like I can put my feet down and pull the bike out of the way.........combination of it being light / small / not very powerfull and a sit up riding position.
These photos were from the day I took it for its MOT after the rebuild. Those were the original tyres [just a bit perished and shiney], and the rack is now removed.