Teflon-Mike
tl;dr
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Karma :  
|
 Posted: 15:14 - 29 May 2017  Post subject: |
 |
|
It's a bike old enough to apply for its own licence... that lives in a world of know-little 'Learners' who probably bought it on the errant 'Legend' that "you cant go wrong with a CG they is indee-struct-u-bubble....", likely to do nothing by way of maintenance, have daft ideas about tuning for more speed, and try and 'fix' stuff, only when it is unrideable, with cable ties and gaffer tape and off the wall ideas and notions rather than actual spare parts and know-how! In 17odd years it's probably had a fair few of them And one of them has stuck some very short off-road gearing on this one....
BEFORE we go any further.. what do you want to do here?
CBT s not a licence, its your first lesson as a learner. May let you ride a 125 unsupervised on the road on L-Plates, but intent of that bit of legacy legislation, s so that you can g practice' for the propper bike tests... not spend a couple of years dodging them....
Or, as is likely with an old 'project bike' spend a couple of years, being a crash test dummy, trying not just how to learn to ride, but all the rest like, folk leave dirt trail on the road round blind bends, and you aught to ride at a speed in which you can safely stop in the distance you can see to be clear.. On that one, the 'idiot who left a mud-trail' wasn't really the idiot, really, were they? You, 'LEARNER'.. probably should have known better, shouldn't you?
This is the school of hard knocks, you have chosen here, going it alone on a 125 & L's.. SoHK doesn't actually teach you how to ride, doesn't even teach you how not to ride... just punishes you for effing up and leaves you to work out the why's ad hows after... blaming whoever left the road slime, sort of suggests you haven't actually learned much from that hard-knock lesson!
Variable that the bike, is obviousely less than perfect; probably on crappy old hard compound tyres; rather wobbly on pretty crap nuder damped shocks, that wont have got better with age, etc etc etc, wont help...
IF you want to learn to ride.. then something that is as good as it can be, works like it should, grips like t should and leaves it pretty irrefutable, IF you have a hard-knock lesson, its something YOU have done wrong, not the bike... is, for as long as the bike survives more hard-knocks than you, going to help.
And old shit-heap, that has probably been hacked about the dirt; dropped, bodged and generally mistreated for a decade and a half, unlikely to work as it should, and trying to de-bug and fault find possible faults with the bike, could be a lot of great fun, and teach a lot about mechanics... IF you knew hoe the thing aught behave and what t should be capable of dong because before playing CTD you actually know how to ride..... other wise, it is the blind leading the blind, and a recipe for a lot of painful SoHK effups, from clusterfcuk problems, the largest being you don't know how to ride very well, and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, on a bike that aint that great, but at this point in time, probably has more road miles under its wobbly wheels than you do by a very very very long margin!
Like I said WHAT do you really want to do here?
1/ If you want to learn to ride... go take some lessons.
2/ If you want to get some early miles road experience and practice on L-'s... eliminatethe variables, and get a much newer, less botchered bike that eliminates variables
3/ IF you want to learn mechanics? Haul the thing in a shed, strip it, restore it; make it as new as you can, as standard as you can, and like the pictures in the Haynes Manual... return to top of list when 'done'.
I the meantime... you have dropped a 44t back sprocket for a 36t.. no mention of chain i that statement. Just reducing back sprocket diameter, you have shortened the chain run by 8 links! It's a 428 chain with a Half inch pitch.... that is 12.5mm per link; smaller sprocket then begs a chain 100mm/4" shorter! Haf o the top run, half on the bottom, that's still 2" of axle travel on the adjuster slot, probably more than the axle has adjustment travel! And it's doubtful it was at min adjustment to start with!
SO! silly questions first!
1/ What state are your chain ad sprockets in to begin with?
2/ When you down-sized rear sprocket; did you shorten the chain to suit? if so HOW!
3/ How have you tensioned the chain?
'98 or 2001 CG, OTMH aught be late Kick-only or early Duel-start model, with drum brakes front and back, and tin-bath full enclosed chain guard. There is a query in there, as to why you think that its a '98 model on a 2001 plate.... as it been rebuil? (old bike around new frame?) Was it a grey or parallel import? Why the discrepancy?
Meanwhile, does it still have the bath tub chain guard? If not, does it have any chain guard? Has the swing-arm section been removed, but the crank-case end left in place?
If some-one has gone to the trouble / expense of fitting very big rear wheel sprocket for off-road gearing; have they also fitted over-length shocks to jack up the back end, for more clearance / travel?
When you pulled the 44t sprocket; its a narky 'bush-cush'hub. Sprocket doesn't bolt to the hub, sprocket has four 'pegs' bolted through holes in teh sprocket that then slot nto metalastic bushes n the hub, and are usually a PITA to line up, IF you have taken the sprocket off properly.. ie removed wheel, removed the big circlip that holds sprocket on hub-flange, slid sprocket and pegs out of the drive flange bushes; moved pegs to new sprocket, trial fitted to align pegs, nipped the peg nuts, holding back of peg with a very thin cycle spanner to locate them on the sprocket, then removed to tighten properly with a decent size spanner on the flats on back of the pegs, then re-fitted, secured with circlip... and no I'm not talkng a forreign language...
But if you are following me, I will lay odds you are scratching your head and most likely thinking, "Err, no I just undid the bolts round the sprocket, dropped right off".. which s not uncommon the drive pegs often corrode into the sleeve in the metastatic bush, and folk oft kill the circlip or forget to refit...
At this piont, stuff possibility of drive sprocket float.. it is supposed to have some small float anyway; but f the back sprocket, the one you have changed isn't bolted up right, makes sod all odds really.
And more monkey-mechanics possibility... 44t wheel sprocket... what is the odds, that that was fitted, not so much because it was a great idea for off-road antics, but that the chain was already stretched to oblivion, and adding 4" of chain run around it conveniently took the axle back to the start on the chain adjuster... so it could get stretched even more! THIS sort of shenanigans is all too common on old learner-bikes!
JUST this one little niggle opens the can of worms on the whole deal, and you are likely to either be oblivious of so many faults, and likely to continue in manner of prev-owners, only fixing stuff, when it obviously needs fixing, and be in a mine-field of not knowing what's what or what should be what, and having to contend with however many PO's oft botched improvised repairs fixes and ideas of 'upgrades.
And on this one, there is a very very good chance that the out-put shaft bearing and probably the seal is utterly baulked from a frequently over tightened chain, either from jusy beng stretched well beyond service limits, or from being hammered in off-road antics, more possibly by a loose chain being tensioned by crude slip-blocks or tension pulleys! Who knows. Like I said, its a mine-field.
Here and now, you need to ask what you are trying to do; and decide if this is the right bike to be trying to do it with.
Persevering with it as is? Look first at what YOU have done; Did the pegs come away with the sprocket? as they should? Did you tighten the sprocket down onto the pegs with a thin spanner behnd the sprocket? Did you refit to hub with circlip. IF you didn't, god chance that you have a RW sprocket wanering about on the hub, you'll ever tension properly. Next p, chain and chain tesnsion, what state s anything in? THEN start looking for PO Bodges....
But I would be cleaning out the out=pt sprocket cover, checking for play on the shaft, and sign of oil weepage from the seal.
If the out-put shaft seal has gone; there are a couple of dirty tricks to replace it in situ, but not always wonderfully successful or long lasting, and likely less so f done DIY by a newb. Proper fix for both OPS seal and bearing begs a complete tear down, as the crank-case halves have to be split; and that is ether quick or easy or cheap job, and likely to open a whole new can of worms; when after biting the bullet over £40's worth of gaskets and seals just to tear down and rebuild as is; worn & scored bores, slopy valve guides chewed tappets, etc etc etc all start to add hapeth-of tar to make it a £300 plus job to do it justice.
Or you just live with an oil weep.. frequently checking and toppng the engine oil, call it an auto-chain oiler, and live with the wine until it wont work at all, and deal with it then.... and hope i the mean time it don't dump slippy stuff on the back tyre, to save idiots in tractors having to leave it on the road for you....
Beyond final drive? It's up into the box, i that tear down, and who knows what maledies there may be; Old school bikes spend a lot of time being ridden around play-grounds and suburban streets dong hill starts and U-turns and stuff, unsympathetically clogged between 1st and second by first time rders; there could be a heck of a lot of wear on 1st & 2nd gears and the selector dogs, that possibly could even be bent! Selector ratchet, similarly likely worn/damaged after such hard use, and who knows how much more applied by beig hacked around the rough on off-road spockets, probably a lot n 1st 2nd trying to do wheelies or big hill climbs or stuff.
But, eliminating varables.. first and largest right now, is unfortunately YOU, as a novice rider. Then the final drive, as far as how worn out it s; how neglected its been; how abused its been and any likely and as likely ill-conceived bodges or 'mods' from removal of bath-tub chain guard to old car bump-stops screwed to the swing arm to sli-block tenson the bottom side slack.
And a wine? Could be something as daft as a crisp-packet jammed n the brake drum! Or a bit of washing up bowl packin used to get the pedal pressur on the pads for MOT coming adrift and rubbing on the back-hub; or a rear wheel bearing gone rusty from off-road mud, freeng up and wearing out i doble time...
The list of possbilities, between normal wear and tear, through Previouse Owner neglect / abuse and Bodgery is very very long....
Do you want to learn to ride, or do you want to learn to do bike mechanics? And in either instance, how much, as it stands in current plan is THIS bike likely to actually help either aspiration? And how much blood, sweat, tears, hard-knocks and cold hard cash is it going to consume along the way to do either?
Interesting to note you say you replaced the clutch... they are a bit of a PITA, and getting the center hub back in without the plates jamming, if you didn't have the special castle socket to take the whole basket off the input shaft and replace as a unit; another PITA i the push-rod bearing alignment in the spring plate, and potetial for that to be sittig cock, f you bolted down the plate slightly skew one spring at a time, rather than aroud teh houses, 1/4 turn on opposites working around to dra it down flat.. that could as easily be whinig as anything else.... whilst job also begs an oil change... what ols been put back in; was it the right grade? How well did you flush first? Did you use car oil y any chance, that has friction inhibitors i it bike clutches don't often like, and can kill phosphur bronze bushes, or selector dogs?
Remember, its the oldest tricki the ook, to quieten a noisy knackered gearbox down, to dump in some extra thick gear oil, like EP90, where its supposed to be runnng 40wt! Just how botcherised has this thing been by PO's?
Revisit what you have touched, make sure you haven't made more problems than you have solved, before looking for new faults to chase..... then look at most likely 'problems which is garanteed prev-owner abuse/neglect.. before old age, which at 17+ years old this ike will undoubtedly be suffering too.
Think long and hard what you really want.,, and if a CBR600 is it, you could doing DAS and chucking a little money and not a lot of BS&T at the job, be riding one, in a week or two, and not getting your hands oily or fretting about 'problems' you don't need, and concentrating on things like what might be around corners, or about to back off driveways etc etc etc.
So many people bag up so many hopes and aspirations and ambitions into one little bike, like this, and then wonder why they are so frustrated by them falling short if they come through on much at all! Separate the variables, needs and wants; and recognize where you are on the learning curve, both as a rider and as a mechanic..
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?' |
|
Help & FAQs
Search BCF
Members
Groups
Events Calendar
rating
rating