Honda C50 `restoration'

[Voltaire]

6 volt bulbs, try Qualitat Motors in Station Road....pre 67 VW's run 6 volts.

Also have you tried Kingsland Honda....its sort of closed and has odd hours but Lloyd has parts and has been around Hondas forever.
no eftpos and does invoices by hand...with carbon paper!!!
I spent lots there in my youfff on an SL 125 rebuild.....

[dnewpix]

The ignition switch should have an earth connection plate behind the plastic bracket, (from the green wire) which is active when you tighten up the bolts to frame.
The resistor is part of the lighting protection and is used to dump a power surge when starting the bike up with the parking light on. Avoids blowing the bulbs. Make sense? Bike is looking good. Keep going. The ignition switch is a b'stard if it f**ks up. Suspect it whenever you get real mysterious failures... DN

[foamy]

Came back from Cambodia and Vietnam trip 2 months ago, petrol still being sold in glass bottles on the road side. C50's everywhere, pic is market in Phenom Phen.

[xwhatsit]

Heh! Awesome!

I should post some more pics. I finally finished sewing a rather home-made looking seat cover. Not really happy with it. I think I was a bit brave to attempt two-tone white/black, as it shows up my (assymetrical) seams rather badly... May just end up buying one from eBay perhaps. I'll leave it as is for now.

Found some bulbs, there's a younger bloke at Michie's Automotive on Como St (Takapuna) who was really onto it and helpful. Not cheap (the expensive one was the tail-light lens) but at least I didn't have to order from overseas.

One slightly annoying thing is that the indicator flasher, which is an aftermarket electronic one, stops flashing at high RPM when the genny is pumping out serious () juice. The bulb wattages are in spec for what it says on the flasher body, so mebbe just too high a voltage...? Bit of a pain in the arse. I might try another flasher if nobody has any other ideas.

I still need to get around to fitting my `new' rear wheel. Only reason why I haven't done it is it needs new wheel bearings and I'm fucked if I can't knock the old ones out. Might need some heat, or to take it to somebody with some serious hardware. At least the wheel bearings are cheap... 6301Z... saw them for $4 each in Australia and almost as good here.

[Motu]

[QUOTE=xwhatsit;1129238574
One slightly annoying thing is that the indicator flasher, which is an aftermarket electronic one, stops flashing at high RPM when the genny is pumping out serious () juice.[/QUOTE]

So when you chop it down a cog to back it in....it valve bounces and the blinkers stop working? Oh,I can feel your pain.

I used to like pushing the C50 hard in corners....and the extra load of cornering would load the motor and it would slow the bike down.The subtleties of riding a small bike hard.

[xwhatsit]

So when you chop it down a cog to back it in....it valve bounces and the blinkers stop working? Oh,I can feel your pain.

I used to like pushing the C50 hard in corners....and the extra load of cornering would load the motor and it would slow the bike down.The subtleties of riding a small bike hard.

Yup!!! I'm running the tyres at 32+ psi front and back -- way over recommended level, but it seems to hold speed better when going around long corners. Even my CB250RS does that (lose momentum if cornering near 100kph when the power is running out). Right now I'm still a bit frightened of the suspension to really push it. I had the suspension bottom out while banking around a corner and the footpeg (non-folding, remember!) grounded in an abrupt manner which I didn't like. I read a forum post about a UK bloke with a C90, grounded a footpeg and it dug in and the whole bike pivoted around and spat him off

I find the engine braking a little severe at 50kph to try changing down to second to hit a corner... maybe on a gravel road... it's begging for a proper manual clutch though so you can feather the downshifts. It's begging for a manual clutch in general really.

I'd really love to lay my hands on one of those SS50 lumps, another gear (or two, they did a 5 speed too didn't they) would be really useful as well as the clutch.

[Indiana_Jones]

How old's your sister?

-Indy

[PeteJ]

[QUOTE=xwhatsit;1129240494]

I find the engine braking a little severe at 50kph to try changing down to second to hit a corner... maybe on a gravel road... it's begging for a proper manual clutch though so you can feather the downshifts. It's begging for a manual clutch in general really.

QUOTE]

Hey, Tom, my little '61 has a foot clutch, I've discovered. If you press lightly on the gear lever, but not enough to change gears, it works the clutch. But then, you may as well slide the tail out on gravel, anyway...(mental image of major roosts...).

[xwhatsit]

How old's your sister?

-Indy

Aren't you engaged or married or some shit?

Hey, Tom, my little '61 has a foot clutch, I've discovered. If you press lightly on the gear lever, but not enough to change gears, it works the clutch. But then, you may as well slide the tail out on gravel, anyway...(mental image of major roosts...).

Yeah I think that's how it can shift gears. A while ago I discovered Honda's website... they've got some quite cool literature on there. All very self-important and self-serving of course but fun to read nonetheless. Here's an article about the Cub: http://world.honda.com/history/limit...s/text/01.html

In there they describe how they came across the clutch design. At any rate, the clutch is just a simple centrifugal-type (except still with clutch plates). But if you want to shift gears you still need to disengage the clutch... so they added a manual release which comes in when you press the gear lever. I discovered this early on when the bike was still a wreck; that's how I smashed the original tail-light, by holding down the gear lever in first gear, revving the engine, then letting go of the lever. Pulled a spectacular wheelie all the way up (the stunt riders call it a `12-o'clock') and over the back

It's a little abrupt though. My left foot isn't used to `feathering' things, as I don't own any British motorcycles (not that a rear drum brake needs too much subtlety... hydraulic disc brakes are such a pain) and I've never driven a car... so maybe that's why I can't slip it nicely


One thing I should ask while I've got the attention of some past and present owners; I'm a little concerned about the front suspension. I found when I hit the brakes it becomes very vague. So I found that if I hold the brake on (while it's at a standstill) and twist the bars from side to side the whole front wheel can twist around between the leading links (i.e. one side can compress more than the other side). Perhaps the bushes locating the front shocks are stuffed -- but is this normal behaviour? Surely it must put a lot of load on the wheel bearings.

The rear shocks have no damping and look nasty so I'm sourcing some more. I think OEM will be just the same so I'm having a look for some aftermarket units with a bit of oil in them. I see a lot of the Thai bikes have fancy chromed coil-over units. For the moment I'm glad it's got a seat with lots of cushioning

[Ixion]

Aren't you engaged or married or some shit?

Yeah I think that's how it can shift gears. A while ago I discovered Honda's website... they've got some quite cool literature on there. All very self-important and self-serving of course but fun to read nonetheless. Here's an article about the Cub: http://world.honda.com/history/limit...s/text/01.html

In there they describe how they came across the clutch design. At any rate, the clutch is just a simple centrifugal-type (except still with clutch plates). But if you want to shift gears you still need to disengage the clutch... so they added a manual release which comes in when you press the gear lever. I discovered this early on when the bike was still a wreck; that's how I smashed the original tail-light, by holding down the gear lever in first gear, revving the engine, then letting go of the lever. Pulled a spectacular wheelie all the way up (the stunt riders call it a `12-o'clock') and over the back

It's a little abrupt though. My left foot isn't used to `feathering' things, as I don't own any British motorcycles and I've never driven a car... so maybe that's why I can't slip it nicely

Meh. They stole it off Triumph (slick shift in the 50s) and Jawa - had it since about 1000 years.

[xwhatsit]

Meh. They stole it off Triumph (slick shift in the 50s) and Jawa - had it since about 1000 years.

Ya-vah don't count because a) they're not Japanese and b) the engines don't even have a camshaft or valves or anything resembling a proper motorcycle

That slick shift sounds interesting. Website I found reckons it was highly unpopular so they put a normal box back in (apart from a racer who liked it as he could hold his foot on the gear lever until the flag dropped -- just like me pulling wheelies ). I can see why it'd be unpopular... makes for a heavy clunky gear change at least in the Hondas.

[Ixion]

Ya-vah don't count because a) they're not Japanese and b) the engines don't even have a camshaft or valves or anything resembling a proper motorcycle

Y' reckon? So, what's all that top hamper then ?

[Motu]

My C50 clutch didn't work....the centrifugal bit.The ramps were worn,and it stuck on.So I rode it with the foot pedal for years....took off lifting my heal off the lever.There was only one intersection on the way to work (Waiheke Island),and seldom cars there anyway.The hill start from my drive in the mornings was a bit tricky though.I came to Auckland for a weekend on it once,so had to fix the clutch before I came to the big smoke.Just took a clutch from one of my spare engines.

The slickshift was fun....we retrofitted them to our pre units.A story from the past - we went to get a big feed of fish & chips on my mates T'bird,and on the way back found a Highway boy broken down....so we stopped to help,as you do,even if he was a bike thief.It was an electrical problem and we didn't have enough parts in our pockets to fix it - so I went down the road to the pad to get the goods.I got on the bike (with ape hangers),and my mate gave me the big pack of takeaways which I held to my chest with my left arm.Then I put it in gear and took off down the road.

Later,eating our chips,I was told of the reaction - H61....''did you see that?,he took off with using the clutch.....Mate....'did he? are you sure?'

About the forks - anything but teles can have heaps of play in the front end without problems....just another stupid thing about telescopic forks.A stepthough with a vague front end under brakes? Completely normal again - leading link with the backing plate on the link.The front will rise under braking,and it will feel vague alright! Try it in gravel,,,get it to lock up...terrible.But you get used to it,it will never kill you....but you will feel it's trying pretty hard.

[xwhatsit]

Heheh. The heel bit I can't wrap my head around yet.

Would be a much better bike on Waiheke. It's a great bike -- except for when you come to an intersection or traffic lights. Then you have to build all that momentum back up again. I thought the 250 was good to learn conservation of momentum but this is extreme.

Good to hear about the forks. The rising front gives me the shits... glad the brake is only a wee thing, I wouldn't want to get close to locking it. Rear brake is much more useful than the front (especially if you shift your arse 10cm backwards ) The twisting just looks horrible though. On the other hand, those South-East Asians seem to do just fine lugging around 4 people, 8 chickens and a sack of rice so I'll stop doubting the suspension

[Konan]

Hey there, great to see I am not the only one restoring these old girls. I have come to a small glitch though. I am rebuilding a 1981 c50 with a 6v electric system using contact breaker points. I have bored the barrel and adapted the head to suit a bigger piston coz the old piston was siezed solid. Since I rebuilt the engine I have no spark, I have quite low voltages at the generaotor and the input to the ignition coil. Is this normal? Does anybody know what it should be? any help would be great and much appreciated.