finally: tank panels

My moped finally has some tank panels, after riding it for a long time without anything, now I finally have a complete tank.

new tyres and mudguards

The tyres on my moped needed changing, they were pretty well worn and probably 8 years old or more.
I decided to go for the classic look, and ordered a Duro front tyre with the idea that this couldn't be all bad, as Honda used them themselves. The rear is a heidenau, but that actually has less grip then the 8 year old Conti, oh well, it is just a moped.
While busy, I swapped the fenders for chrome ones, they go better with this model tank (that i still need to find sidepanels for) the front is a NOS Original one, the rear is a replica that has been on this bike earlier.

change of tank

A friend of mine had a spare SS50 tank of the early type, thanx HJ.
A long time ago I wanted to build my SS50 with this model of tank, but for some reason I never did. Now I have the tank, my vietnamese seat now has the mounts adapted for it, as the baseplate allready had the shock-cutouts in the right place for this tank.

Now to find a set of chrome tankpanels and kneerubbers. But I do like the look, just that bit more sporty then a CD50 tank. I think I'll also switch back to skinny chrome fenders to complete the look.

Tank Coating, part deux

My tank is being painted, thanx dad.
We had a big can of red, so that's what color the tank is going to be. Decided to remove the old emblem mountings as they were pretty mangled, probably will look better with a classic set of honda wing stickers and some silver stripes running along the length, just like the old RC tanks.

I'm liking the way this looks, might just put it back on my SS50Z moped, to make it look more like the way it used to, long ago:

Same tank by the way, one or two crashes earlier...

little changes

Some little changes have been made to my SS50, just a crappy pic in the dark, but it's wintertime, it gets dark soon and I didn't have my exhaust mounted in time to make pictures in the light.
Custom painted tank emblems, exhaust that came off my motorcycle, different seat, CB50 shocks and a slightly different taillight (short lens type)

Gearbox trouble

I've had a lot of gearbox problems, 2 of my 5speed gearboxes had problems, meaning I had to open up all of them to solve the problem. We've probably found it now as I've built one 5speed motor under my ss50 and it rides great. Also put on some original Benly mudguards to replace the aftermarket ones and built a low exhaust from an original HM065k1 silencer and an aftermarket C100 downpipe. And then gave the bike a quick clean and polish so it looks fresh for summer. The motor I wanted to put under this bike turned out to have a kickstarter problem, so that will need to be openend up again, and still need to look at one more 5speed motor and 2 4speed motors with shifting problems. I won't have to be bored for now.

What's wrong??

The other day I just felt like taking some pictures.
I'm not satisfied with the way my SS50 looks now, something about the totall package that just doesn't feel right, but I can't really put my finger on it.
The line of the tank and seat isn't straight enough, or the swingarm is too short, front forks too long.....
Or should I just put original handlebars back on?

New seat

Bought a new seat for my SS50 off ebay.
The old one made the whole bike look very dark and chunky, with a fully black seat with black piping.
This one has a nice "chrome" edge and its a little thinner then the old one.
It is aftermarket, but you just won't find originals.
And this one fits, unlike the aftermarket stuff sold in the Netherlands or the expensive benly seats that also won't fit with a CD50 tank.

Note the breather, just like his RSC90 big brother.

newest pics

The new "screw-ons" (imitation clip-ons) have been on my moped for a while, but I didn't take good pictures yet, so here they are.




Now only to decide what colour I want to have this bike painted, I'm thinking of Honda scarlet red, but suggestions are welcome.

line-up

The weather was nice, all the bikes were at the workshop and I had a camera with me...just felt like a "kodak moment"

all my honda's lined up, and in the background you can spot the Beemer.

tough choice

Yesterday (saturday) I had to work until 2, but after that I felt like taking a ride on the BMW. but when I came back to the workshop to change back to another bike to take home, I had a difficult decision to make... which one should I take home:

I decided on the SS50 (middle) and It will bring me to the workshop again today, so I will have the same "problem" today.

screw-ons mounted

Today I mounted the new screw-ons.
here you can see a new one mounted and an old one still on the right (of the picture)

A lot of difference in the height and the angle, on my way home I allready found it a lot more comfortable.

Original throttle controls:


Drivers view:


Because I have a twin leading front brake off a CB125k1-5 my front brake cable has an 8mm ferrule, where an SS50 only has a 7mm ferrule. This was never a problem because I used CB-type levers and switches, but now my brakecable wouln't fit into SS50 type switches so I had to machine something to match an 8mm cable to a 7mm hole.


By the way, my old set of screw-ons is now for sale.

screw-ons

On most of my bikes I have clip-on handlebars, but on my SS50z I wanted to maintain the original headlamp stays, so I made fake clip-ons for it, I call them "screw-ons" because they are mounted with the top fork bolt.
I had two sets of these before, that I found on ebay, but they have been sold, the set that is now on my SS50z was homemade, to look lower, but I took a guess about the angle of the bars and that turned out to be too much downwards.

Now I've been making a set to replace them.
All parts together before welding:

The slots have been milled out at a 5 degree angle, this is a standard measurement for clip-ons (5, 10 or 15 degrees)
I didn't want it to be straight, that would look to simple and to much like zündapp clip-ons.

I asked my dad to weld the bars with copper, less warping and I might want to have these chromed in the future, I don't know if that would be possible if these were welded with silver.
For now, painted black (frame colour) just like the 60's racebikes.
Slots have been milled out for the original SS50 throttle controls and for the wires to go thru the bars, even if it is only for 5cm.

Note the levers with little ball ends.

Underside, throttle cable comes out thru an original rubber grommet.

I hope to mount them on my bike tomorrow after work, if there is no overtime.

breakdown

Tuesday I took the moped to work, but when driving home, it began to vibrate at high revs and it made some funny noises. 5KM later I was at the workshop, had a quick look if the flywheel nut might have come loose, but it didn't, so I thought it should be a clutch problem. After all these years of abuse, I finaly managed to break the engine.

Today I started disassembly by taking of the exhaust to have a look at the clutch, but to my surprise, it turned out to be as simple as a broken motormount bolt.

I had a new bolt, put it in, put the exhaust back on, started the bike, and the vibrations were gone, engine still in working order, dispite years of abuse.
This motor has almost no compression, you can hear the piston ratteling in the cylinderwall, it never gets new oil, at best the old stuff out of a race-engine, it gets overrevved, overheated with burnouts..... but I still can't get it to really break. Real Honda quality, no chinese parts.

SS50 twins

This weekend I went to a honda 4stroke meeting to run in the ss50 motorcycle, did about 250km and it performed better and better. It is now back at the workshop so I can do some maintenance, but when I switched it for my moped again, I made some pictures of the two of them together. The smallest one is the motorcycle.

What it used to look like

Here some pictures of my SS50 moped, of what it used to look like in all the years I've had it. Many parts have changed in these last 10 years, but the frame is still the same one I started with.
First months I had a modified high muffler, that has been used a lot in the past years.
Changed the swingarm because it was rotten, to a widened C320 swingarm. also a different taillight.
Other seat, with metal tail. Wanted it painted to match the gastank in blue, but that never happened.
Didn't like the modern yamaha discbrake, got original forks and drum with BMW handlebars that were laying around.
Quickly changed the bars for a lower chromed type.
Note the custom homemade headlight with C50 speedo.

The headlight broke because the fixingscrew rotted in the threads and when I tried to loosen it, it cracked.
So back to my old yamaha steel headlight, now with CB50 speedo. And again the clip-ons. Also a dream50 taillight on an aftermarket rear fender, nice and small.
Changed the top plate for an alloy type from a CB100 with the handlebarmounts filed off.
And then the forks broke, because I had my brakeshoes lined with realy good material.
By now I had bought my CB50 with a load of parts, including forks and wheels, so the SS50 got CB50 forks with discbrake again. Not because I liked it, or because it was a good brake (it isn't) but because I didn't want to break more forklegs.
The front fork were too skinny, so fitted covers from an SS with headlight and speedo
Mounted an aftermarket SS50 front fender, needs some grinding and bending to fit to the CB50 forks, but still it looked like crap, because off the poor quality of the fender.
Found myself a CB125J front fender that bolts right to the forks, only needed a thicker front tyre.
Traded my long seat against an original short seat with metal tailpiece, rarer then rockinghorsepoo here in Holland. And changed the exhaust to a new extended dax exhaust.
Sold the dax exhaust within 500km, because I found an original semi-high muffler, used but only 15,- and some cleaning work to do.
Then the respray, and it looked allmost like the original 5speed model.
Wanted more of a caferacer again, so fitted fake clip-ons that mounted on top of the top plate. The seat is an original K1 short type, still had the one with tailpiece, but my girlfriend wanted to ride along. Front fender was copied from the cb750 out of the "Joe bar" comics. And note the dream50 taillight was swapped for a real old one.
By now I had enough of crappy discbrakes and wanted a drum again. So a full rebuild after the winter. Older style front forks, without rubber parts, aluminium headlight with inbuilt speedo, small blinkers and many freshly painted parts together with the old wheel from my CB50 racer.
Didn't like the long tank with classic forks, so changed it for a CD50 tank with aftermarket seat, had to change the mounts on the frame to have this fitted.

Different swingarm with full chaincase, for the classic look.

And to make it a bit more sporty, the handlebars were swapped for another set of fake-clipons, homemade and lower that the old ones I had.