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The Chinese Motorcycle
5 January 2020, 13:14,
#11
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
We will record you going in a shoot out with the Feds over something patriotic at the time.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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10 January 2020, 01:02,
#12
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
Never fear SD, that fate was postponed by the last election.

If Hillary had been elected I had already accepted my fate being an execution in the middle of the street by government forces.

Even at seventy I will die before I accept life as a slave. Probability is that it would never be known, or written off as some other incident. Or they might actually write it up with me being a domestic terrorist for refusing to turn in my firearms.

I had one set of neighbors that were raided for running a meth lab. He was 85 and she was 83 and I doubt that either of them knew what meth was. On the back of their farm one of the "Officials" claimed to have found several 2 liter bottles which he claimed was a "meth lab". Neither of these people had the ability to walk as far as they claimed the "lab" was located.

They both got 10 year sentences, suspended but on their records, and the farm all machinery and assets was confiscated by the state, sold at auction and the local police got the proceeds.

TPTB will always find a way.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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17 January 2020, 14:45,
#13
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
Enough of the morbid politics, time to get back to turning spanners, as you folk would say.

I am doing this work between cold snaps, and especially between wet snaps. We are in our winter weather pattern here where a low pressure system brings warm temps (15c) and rain, followed by high pressure cells that bring extreme cold (-0c).

When these two incidents overlap we call it "snow". We had some in November, the day my bike was delivered, but none since, which is unusual.

Anyway, I snatched the carburetor off the side of the little bike and installed a new jet. The old one was .88mm. Now compare this to the fuel jet of my 49cc moped, which uses a 75 stock jet and the tuning kit that comes with that mighty beast is a .85mm jet.

My 250 was running on the same fuel allotment of a 49 cc scooter in order to pass Euro 4 standards.

This operation required me to saw new screw head slots on the screws holding the float bowl, replace the main jet and add shims to the jet needle. The jet needle controls mid range throttle and the main jet controls wide open running.

I replaced the minuscule .88 jet with a 1.15 jet. I put about 15 miles on it and decided it was running rich. "Sputtering and gagging" as my neighbor stated. (said neighbor is in his mid 70s and rides a BMW 310, A Honda CB500x and a Harley Street Glide. His garage is a happy place.)

I returned to the machine and once again removed the offending carb, replacing the 1.15 jet with a 1.10 example. The bike smoothed out greatly. I have grunt in the low range and some scary torque in 3rd and fourth gears, with 5th being a brisk climb to cruise speed. One can basically bounce from standing start to 4th gear and ride it like a scooter up to 40 mph and back down to 10 mph without worrying about shifting.

I have increased the fuel flow by 20% with a corresponding increase in felt power. Yep, it wants to pull wheelies! Its performance up to 50 is now dramatically improved for the replacement of a jet and fiddling with the carb for an hour.

Now let us talk about "cruise speed". I am now faced with a wall called "gearing". This bike is geared low. By that I mean that the front sprocket is a 15 tooth and the rear 49. That is dirt bike/motocross gearing. It puts the bike to cranking huge rpm at 60mph. The little push rod engine sounds like it is trying to explode at 55 mph. Plus it is still running in, though I am out of the official mileage territory, which is 100 miles. 100 miles is not nearly enough to break in an engine and I know it will rev easier with some miles on it.

Still it is winding very high to achieve its goal. I must now replace the front sprocket with a 17 tooth model to give the bike some legs. It does not need much, perhaps a drop of 1k rpm at 55mph would make things pleasant.

One thing I have discovered while riding the back roads is that traffic wants to move along even on the narrow tracks and they do not mind pressing a biker, riding right on your tail. Here in the U.S. "country traffic" is mostly pickup trucks and SUV (full sized ones not your European midget counterparts) type vehicles and they appear as monsters in the rear view mirror on a bikes' handle bars. I did not notice this with the Enfield, it would zip right out of there and leave them in its wake.

I am also facing a bleak period of weather. We have had a mild winter so far, with many days above 15c, which is warm for this time of year. The approaching week is to bring another cold cycle with no let up probably through Feb and I expect it to be March before I see temps at 15c-17c again. It was -8 this morning when I rose and will not cross 0 today.

I have proper clothes for riding, that is not an issue. Thanks to the people at Sportsmans Guide, and the need to feed the chickens, I have plenty of gear intended for use on snow mobiles. What will slow me is not having adequate shelter to work in cold temps. No one wants to mess with a motorbike chain with ice on it!

Wet roads will bring me to a complete halt. I will admit that when it comes to slipping and sliding in ice and snow on a two wheel conveyance that I am too old for that s#%t !

Cost for the installation of the jet was $1 US, probably 75p in your money. $2 if you count the three stainless steel screws I used to replace the "sealed screws" I abused to open the unit.

Cost of the front sprocket I need will be $10 US. I intend for that to be my last expense on the "tune up" and have me set for the warmth of spring to return.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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18 January 2020, 16:48,
#14
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
So I guess you are ready and set for some adventures and planning some trips come spring ! And the best freedom
That only can be had riding a motorcycle .....envy does not even come close ......but I will break down the wall ...eventually (what is odd Wild Child used to love all our motorcycles with a passion ?) you work it out ! .
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18 January 2020, 22:51,
#15
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
Sad to say that the weather is doing exactly as predicted, it never got above 0c yesterday and today has been 8c w/30 mph wind and rain.

I am considering bringing the moped into the living room and attacking it with spanners and accessory parts.

I need to tune the carb on that one too. I already have the jet for the carb, which I took off the big bike, and a jazzy high flow air filter is in the post from China. That should get here by June!

I am limited as to what I can admit to doing to that little bike due to it needing to maintain its untaxed, unregistered, uninsured and untaged status. By law it must have less than 2 hp and not go more than 30mph. (good luck with that!)

So I have two project bikes to work on.

Try to talk the wild child into a 49cc scooter SS. After all , its not a "real bike" and can not possibly go fast enough to hurt yourself on it. Then when she is not looking you can poke holes in the silencer, re-jet the carb, open the air box take half the weights out of the variator, shave down the pulley boss and have some fun.

Oh yes, I did install a solar battery charger in the bike shed for keeping the battery in the RE topped up. Not that we have seen the sun since the day I installed it!
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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8 April 2020, 20:28,
#16
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
Small update.

I have been putting a ton of miles on the Chinese bike. The weather has been good and our "lockdown" has not been as strict as some others. My "isolation" includes riding alone on the motorbike.

It appears that Americans have the tendency to not give a crap what the government says, especially if it is limiting their freedom of movement. No definition, no enforcement, no compliance.

All those pictures of empty streets and deserted stores, they ain't real! Our roads are full of travelers and many of the stores have deemed themselves as being essential. Yours are too, you are just home and don't see them.

At any rate I have been using the bike extensively since the weather broke and I had to take it out of the rotation yesterday.

It was not the fault of the bike or where it was made. I simply did an adjustment on the rear brake and let the line loop a bit too high to insure the flex needed by the swing arm and when I put my substantial weight on the bike the loop of brake line contacted the exhaust pipe. The result was a melted brake line and loss of cooperation of the rear brake in the stopping process.

I am now waiting for a new brake line to be shipped from Texas to Kentucky, a 1500 mile trip that will take about a week, since I did not see sense in paying twice the price of the part for express shipping.

Oddly enough, if it had been a Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha or Honda I would have had an equal wait or long drive since there is not a dealer within 50 miles of me.

The result was that the China bike went into the shed and the China scooter came out of the shed. I had not started that machine up since November. I had filled the tank with non-ethanol Fuel and added stabilizer to the tank and ran it a mile or two to insure thorough mix and getting a bit of the stabilizer into the carb when I stored it for the winter. I had also pulled the battery out and kept it on a trickle charger all winter.

Yesterday evening I installed the battery, turned the key and the little scooter fired up after a bit of sweet talk and kindness. I rode it out of the shed and down the road a little and it was as smooth as one could wish.

The moped is alive!

Not that I have anywhere to go. But if I do need to go somewhere in the midst of this "pandemic" I can get there on two wheels or four.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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8 April 2020, 23:55,
#17
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
As it appears that the camper van will not be going anywhere in the near future i think it would be a good idea to use fuel stabiliser too - thanks for the reminder MB.
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9 April 2020, 22:49,
#18
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
About 2017 I filled the tank of my old Jeep with our "regular" grade petrol, about %15 grain alcohol. On the way home the brakes failed and I parked the rig for 6 months. When spring arrived I fixed the brakes and drive a hundred miles or so before the cooling system went goofy. Parked it again for over a year, just driving it down to the lake to fish or do utility work. let the tags and insurance run ot and pretended it was not just sitting in the drive.

Guy down the road wanted to buy it, made me an offer and put a new battery in it and drive it home. The gas in that tank was 3 years old with no stabilizer and the vehicle started and ran fine.

We worry too much about the age of fuel.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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23 April 2020, 20:03,
#19
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
Yesterday was "one of those days". Not the bad kind, but the kind you spend all winter waiting for. Sunny, 20 degrees, gentle breeze. So I decided to self isolate by riding my mo-ped on some of our country lanes.

A nice little ride lifted my spirits and gave me new insights to how the world is operating now. I actually saw people out in the woods wearing surgical masks while they worked.

The little mo-ped is a wonder toy! I am constantly amazed at how it will pull my 97 kilos along at 40 mph with no great concern. Now going up hills can be a slowdown, but going down them makes up for the hesitation. I pegged the speedometer on a downhill run yesterday.

I did learn that a mo-ped with 25cm wheels will shimmy at 50 like Guy Martin at 200mph on the Isle of Mann.

I made a big loop and covered about 15 miles and wanted to do more but the traffic began to get thick on the back roads so I headed home.

If the new brake line for the 250cc bike does not arrive soon I might take a scooter adventure before long. Our large parks and Wilderness areas are still open and available and a solo camp/trip might be nice.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
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25 April 2020, 15:49,
#20
RE: The Chinese Motorcycle
and over here the stasi have us all in our houses. I'm jealous of many things you have over ther. Not all but certainly many.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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