Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!

I'm about done mucking around with LED bulbs. I like the idea in principle, but they have some serious problems in practice:

• The don't give as much light as an equivalent sized incandescent. Yes, more light per watt drawn, perhaps more light in one narrow direction, but less overall light output per mount.
  
• Because the power draw, and thus resistance, is lower, they can't be used as indicator bulbs without adding ballast resistors. I can't be doing with that, since it would complicate retro-fitting incandescents.
  
• They're polarity-dependent, which can be an issue if the light fitting is bass ackwards.
  

This last is an issue because the small spots that I bought came with... wait for it... 6v bulbs, much as the Pilgrims must have used. I didn't notice this until they burned out, so I bought 12v LEDs to replace them. Mistake. The light from that size (MES) of LED bulb is very dim, plus in a double-whammy, the spots have a weird polarity: -ve/ground is connected to the centre contact, rather than to the bulb body, but the LEDs I got are sanely polarised and thus don't work. I managed to short a connection while testing this and blew my fuse. Credit to our Chinese chums: the Huonaio comes with a spare fuse inside the fuse holder, but I'll have to remember to get a replacement spare.

For reference, the bike and its electrics do actually work just fine without a fuse, with the power coming directly from the generator - it just needs kick started.

So I've got some regular MES 5W bulbs on fleaBay order. While I was there, I've taken another gamble on some 20 year old (but unused) rear crash bars for a Honda CM200 T, which I nabbed at a good price. The seller indicated that the sizing is adjustable (by rotating the mounts) so I'm optimistic that they'll fit. I can't remember the last time - or ever - that I saw a bike with rear bars fitted, so this is getting pretty Custom.

And as if by magic, LLExeter (Chinese Motorcycle Parts Online) called me back a full 2 weeks after I ordered a Pioneer mudguard, to say that they'd sourced one, in black rather than black and silver, complete with a scuff mark and accompanying discount. I'm happy to take it, since it may not fit anyway, and if it does, then I'm seriously considering a paint job for the bike.

I found that I liked the cheapo B-Square open-face helmet so much that I got the wife to gift me a Nitro retro openface helmet, in nice visible white.



It comes with a swappable visor and sun peak, has a medium-sized shell on a medium-sized inner, and I absolutely love it. One thing I've noticed is that wearing an open face makes me feel more vulnerable - like riding a pedal cycle - so I look around more, a task made easier by the lighter weight. I strongly believe that bike safety is more about visibility and accident avoidance than protection. That's not to say that I don't armour up, but not at the expense of feeling over-protected and complacent.

Before going for the retro, I popped into the local bike emporium to try on a Nitro X512 open face first, and really liked that too. To be honest, it's a more practical helmet, since the visor and sun peak can be on at the same time, with the visor fully flippable under the peak, giving the best of both worlds.



In the end though, practicality took a back seat to style. I just love the look of the retro. Yes, I've turned into that sort of biker.

All is proceeding as I have foreseen

No posts for a while, since nothing has happened to the bike. Nothing has dropped off, disintegrated, exploded, or vanished into a parallel dimension. It's very strange.

I did have an oopsie when the bike missed, spluttered then ground to a halt on a hill. A frantic checklist finally revealed the problem: out of fuel. Oops. Apparently 100mpg doesn't mean that it runs forever on one tank. A flip to reserve and we were off again.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals that was 320km on approximately 9 litres of fuel (I didn't fill it up initially), which is as near as makes no difference 100mpg. I expect that'll get a little better as the engine runs in, but I'm more than happy with that. I should get 350km+ out of a full tank, before reserve.

On the modding front, I added an auxiliary LED brake light on the top of my toolbox-topbox, but I managed to snap it while fitting, and it disintegrated while I was riding. I liked it so much though that I've ordered another. Further gearing changes can wait until the bike is run in - the 16 tooth sprocket gives it just enough extra that an indicated 50mph isn't a chore and (indicated) 60mph is achievable in short bursts without thrashing the engine.

While I remember, be cautious about believing any fleaBay seller flogging LED bulbs as R10W indicator replacements. Unless they want to tell you what the resistance is, I'd suggest that they're vanishingly unlikely to be plug-in replacements.

When I said I'd ordered a Pioneer Nevada front mudguard, I thought I had, but after acknowledging the initial order, Chinese Motorcycle Parts Online apparently can't be bothered communicating with me at all regarding the reason for not sending it, or their stock situation regarding alternative parts. I expect a phone call would sort it out, but I don't really want the part that much. I'm not sure if they understand the principle that click-to-buy encourages impulse buys - but only if you actually service your online orders.

For the record, the bike's first scheduled oil change at 300km was done at 330km - but was actually its third change. Once at 0km, again at 100km. I take de-swarfing pretty seriously. I should now let it get to 1000km before the next oil change, but I don't know if I can bear to leave it that long...

The plug looks fine at 300km, so I think I've got the fuel mixture about right. Although I could and may buy a combustion tester; for those who haven't seen one, it's effectively a spark plug with a window that lets you see the colour of the combustion in the cylinder. I have a car-sized one from the Ancient Olden Days, and expect if I find the right combination of Googlisms then I can source a smaller one, even though we're living in the Future now.

Replacing the sprocket

MagicMan over at Chinese Bike Forum was asking about changing the front sprocket, so here's some images to try and explain it. I'd imagine the process will be very similar for most chain driven bikes.

I fitted a 16 tooth JTF259 sprocket (cheap and easily available at all good fleaBays). There's also do a 17 tooth sprocket, which I intend to try as well; I think this engine would be well suited to it (spoiler: it is, I'd suggest going straight to the 17).

First, slacken off the rear axle nut, circled in yellow here. The hex head circled in red is one of the axle adjustment / chain tensioning bolts.




Then if you're fitting a larger sprocket, you'll need to slacken off the chain. You can do this now or later, once you get the old sprocket off.

This is done by moving the axle forwards, for which you'll need to loosen off both adjustment bolts, then nudging (kicking, rubber malleting...) the rear wheel forwards. Take care to count the number of turns that you make so that you keep them both even!



I think I had to loosen them about 20 'flats' (i.e. about 3 or 4 full revolutions) per side, but it may be more. It'll entirely depend on how tight your chain was to begin with; checking chain tension is something that you'll want to do regularly anyway.

Now remove the sprocket cover. This is located above the left footrest. There are 2 bolts to undo, one at the top, and one underneath, right next to the gear change shaft. A socket with a universal joint and extender bar is very handy here!



The cover then lifts off easily. Under it is the sprocket. It's held in place by a retaining shim and two bolts. Put the bike in gear to stop the engine turning and undo these bolts...



Then you'll need to rotate the shim so that the holes line up with the splines on the sprocket. It can take a little fingernail-fiddling to get it lined up, but once it's oriented correctly, it should come off without the need to lever it.

Then the sprocket just slides off the spline, and you can take it out and replace it.

Fitting is just the opposite of removal. Put your new sprocket on; if it's a larger one, then you'll have to slacken off the rear axle adjusting bolts and knock the wheel forwards until you can get the sprocket onto the spline, or the chain to go over the sprocket.

Then the shim slides back on and rotates around until you can get the bolts back in. Don't push it too far on, or it won't rotate; just slide it on until it does rotate, then get it aligned.

The cover should pop back on easily, then it's just a matter of checking the chain tension, which you'll likely have to increase: tighten the adjusting bolts, by the same number of turns each side, until the chain is tight. There should be about 1/2" (10-15mm) of vertical movement in the middle of its length. Once you're happy, tighten up the lock-nut at the front of each adjuster bolt until it's secure.

Then remember to tighten up the rear axle bolt!

Finally, adjust the tension in the rear brake. If the axle has had to come forward to fit a larger sprocket, then there will be some slack in the rear brake. Adjusting it is just a matter of turning the knurled nut on the back to take the slack out. It helps if you press the lever forwards to take all the tension out, then turn the nut until it's tight. Due to the shape of the nut, there will be some slack when you release the lever, just enough to stop the brake binding.



Blurry sloppy photography, but hopefully you get the idea.

Last check: you did tighten up the adjuster bolt lock-nuts and the rear axle bolt, right?

Let there be lights!

Can you see a theme emerging? I like lights. I like lights a lot.

These are a couple of cheapo fleaBay spots that (only) just fit around the handlebars. The stock clamps wouldn't fit on the forks, but I wanted them up high anyway. I had to bend the mounts to get them to point forwards, but that's just more Custom.

I went for a jaunt today to buy a neck warmer and some thermal lining gloves, via a 60mph dual carriageway. The Huoniao quite happily hit an indicated 60 for a brief downhill period, before I backed it off. We're talking a mile or so here: I'm still in Running In mode, but at 250km, I'm starting to let the bike get a sniff of its top speed, in short controlled bursts. Bear in mind that I'm running about 7% under-revved; I definitely want to try a 17 tooth sprocket next, which should be a 13% reduction in RPM from stock.

Hmmm... what next? The Nevada mudguard is on order, so... top box?

I could fleaBay one from anything from £29 to £50 or so for a big double box or... isn't it just a box? So couldn't I just bolt a big cheap toolbox on the rack and padlock it?

I'm betting that I can. Shall we find out?

An indication of problems ahead?

Today, the right rear indicator has given up the ghost. It may just be an early blown bulb, or it may be a loom issue like those encountered by both Elvgren and Lincoln DoD. Having read about that, I did cable-tie the loom into the front securing clip, so I'll be surprised if that's the issue, but I've been known to be wrong.

Also, made my first adjustment to the clutch this morning. The biting point was very high, so I slackened off the adjuster. I guess it's better to have the cable tight to begin with, as it'll likely slacken in use.

Oh, I've gone a bit Custom again and ordered a black and silver front mudguard for a Pioneer Nevada (a straight Harley clone). The Pioneer front wheel is a 110/90 16, the same size as the Huoniao's rear wheel, so I'm fairly confident that it's only 1" smaller in diameter (.5" radius) than the Huonaio's front wheel, and very slightly broader. I've measured up the forks and mounts and convinced myself that I can make it fit tolerably enough if I fab up some brackets. But then I've been known to be wrong. A lot.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

[UPDATE]

Blown bulb. Ah well, nothing exciting. I've checked the cable run anyway, and it seems OK.

The local petrol station couldn't come up with an R10W bulb, so I've bought a couple of R5Ws for emergency use, and fleaBayed 4 R10W LED bulbs which should hopefully outlast the bike.

I am tha Nite Ryda

The 428 16T sprocket from Xian arrived today, and fitting went smoothly. I was surprised how many turns I had to take off the axle adjustment screws to fit the larger sprocket, but I think I managed to keep them even when I tightened the chain back up. The fact that I'm posting this from the sofa rather than a ditch bears witness to that.

By that time, it was 9:30 in the PM, and time for my first night ride. Shhhh... don't wake the sprogs or neighbours with the electric start. Fortunately, the bike is set up so nicely now that it started sweetly on the second kick. And then we were creeping off into the all concealing shadows.

Wow. Double wow.

The 16 tooth sprocket makes a surprisingly noticeable difference to the gearing. The engine is torquey and pulls well from low revs, so it seems to make sense to let it slap rather than scream. 5000 rpm (the notional running-in limit) in 5th gear now result in about 2 more of Her Majesty's Miles per Greenwich Standard Hour, up from 30 to 32. It doesn't sound like a huge improvement, but it's the difference between slightly holding up traffic and comfortably keeping up with it, and it should also result in 60mph at the same rpm that would have yielded 56mph on the 15 tooth sprocket. Given the low cost of these sprockets, I may even give a 17 toother (60mph from 53mph Old Money revs) a try once I've got the bike run in a little more.

The other zowie is the Xenon 50W/50W "blue white" bulb, of "upside down" fame; this was my first opportunity to see it doing its stuff in the dark. It's now producing a sensible spread, and the light level is genuinely impressive, and very nearly white. I actually had to pull over to adjust the headlight down a fraction, for fear of blinding other traffic. The missus confirms that it's highly visible in daylight traffic as well. So if you've got a bike, any bike, and are running on anything other than Xenon, then do yourself a favour and splash out all of £8 on one of these. It's cheaper than most other hi-vis aids that you could invest in.

Finally, the verdict on the "inside-out" K&N filter is that it seems to let enough air in - the bike went to 7200rpm / indicated 50mph without a hiccup - and results in just a hint of "classic" growl at large throttle openings. I reckon I'll keep it.

The only downer on the day is that the clods at Adrian Flux / Bikesure have lost the copies of my license(s) that I sent them. The joy of being a pessimist is that I fully expected this, so I can just sigh and crank out (several) more copies rather than lose the rag over it. Rain on my parade? Not today, pen pushers.

Screens up!

... but structural integrity failing.

With the blustery winds we've been having lately forever, I felt that the Huoniao needed a screen. I dithered and swithered, then ordered a Jinlun JL-11 screen, which has a classic cruiser shape. However, it had two disadvantages. One, the lower mounts probably wouldn't have fitted the Huoniao, and two, it was out of stock and I couldn't get it.

Being both impatient and tight, I instead went for a "PUIG Universal Mini Sports Touring Motorcycle Screen", in tinted. I'd have gone clear, but they were out of stock.

The image above shows the screen fitted to the Huoniao, prior to replacing the bolted on front L plate with a stickied-on floppy one on the screen. I've also tilted it a little more towards the vertical. It looks OK, but looks can be deceptive - even at its bargain basement price, I couldn't recommend this screen for the Huoniao.

It's designed for 8" headlights, and the Huonaio has a 7". I couldn't find this info anywhere, but should have checked before ordering. It does bend in to fit the headlight brackets, but at the cost of slight starring in the perspex around the mounts. I've duck taped over them and refuse to think about what's happening sight-unseen. The other issue is that the mounting bracket is made of very soft metal, and got chewed up a bit while bolting it on. It seems secure enough just bolted to the headlight, but only time will tell.

On the bright side, it does seem to be keeping the worst of the wind off of me, so I can't fault it there. I'll see how it works out.

Which reminds me, I said I'd report on the Windjammer that I fitted to my helmet. On balance, I'd recommend it; it does keep some noise and drafts out. However, it doesn't keep out all wind noise, so it's not, repeat not, a replacement for ear plugs.

While I was buying mis-sized parts, I also got a 42mm K&N air filter from Xian. I'd roughly measured up the carb intake, but this filter is just a little too big. [UPDATE: a 42mm filter fits the carb just fine, I just needed to cowboy up and clamp it on properly]. Also, to fit a filter like this, it's necessary to take the whole airbox out, disconnecting the two breathers plugged into it. Unfortunately, the air box forms the backing for the battery, so if I took the box out, I've have to find some way of securing the battery, a task made harder by the filter slightly fouling the front battery mount.

So instead, I tried something a bit Custom. I removed the air filter inlets and took off the foam cylinder. It turns out that the 42mm filter is a perfect fit over the inner inlet (with a sort of funnel inlet leading to a cylinder). Unfortunately, it can't be fitted directly onto that without some... modification. It's hacksawing time!

Quicker than you can say "Shouldn't you think about this...", I'd hacksawed the plastic cage off of the outer inlet, and most of the cylinder off of the inner one. I then re-attached the inner inlet, clamped the filter onto the end of the truncated cylinder, and replaced the whole inlet onto the air box.

Bearing in mind that the filter is fitted in "reverse", I had no idea how well this would work. In the event, it... works. The caveat is that sharply blipping the throttle from a low idle will stall the engine, but a smooth throttle works just fine. I haven't done enough distance to claim that it's improved the running, but I just don't like the big thick foam filter fitted as standard, and am happier with it out. Note that even with the butchering to the inlets, I could still refit it, by sandwiching the lip between the two inlets.

That'll likely require some re-balancing of the mixture, which I've been nudging around by a 1/4 turn to try and optimise. I've also re-done the valve clearances - I'd misgapped one of them, and curiously, you can hear that it's just one that's off - and reduced the gap on the spark plug slightly from 0.8mm to 0.7mm, since the bike was missing slightly when I pushed it (very briefly) to the heady heights of 50mph.

The next mod was the much vaunted 16 tooth front sprocket, which will reduce the revs required to hit warp speed. Again though, my measuring failed me. I bought a 428 16T for "17mm shafts". However, after removing the sprocket cover (held on by two fairly obvious chromed nuts), it transpired that the hole in the centre of this sprocket is too small for the Huonaio. I've ordered a a larger 428 16T from Xian, and await its arrival.

While I was mucking with the sprocket and chain, I took the time to tighten the chain up a little. It's just a matter of loosening off the rear axle bolt slightly, then turning both adjuster bolts by the same amount on each side (then locking them off again). The wheel still looks (and feels) straight, but I haven't done a string test yet.

Well, I need to leave myself something else to work on...

April showers

What's on the agenda today? My first wet run, on the infamous Kenda Manlung nylons. But first: some unnecessary maintenance!

I changed the oil at 0km just to get the stock unknown out. However, I couldn't get the oil filter out, so now at the heady 100km mark, I decided to do another change to get any initial swarf out. I'm still on Halford's 10W40 semi synthetic motorcycle oil, which should be more than good enough for this 35 year old engine.

After a run to get the engine hot, I drained the oil and set about the filter plug with my new multi-sided 23mm socket, which was all that B&Q had available. It rubbed almost immediately! Rotational impact, heat, rustola, nothing shifted the plug. It just rubbed and rubbed, even when I bashed a 22mm spanner onto it. The Chinese Bike Forum provided the helpful info that this plug is aluminium, not steel. Aaargh!

In the end, brute force and ignorance won out. After another liberal dose of penetrating oil, running a butane torch around the join again, smacking the bejeesus out of firmly tapping the plug around the rim, towards the engine, hammering the 22m spanner firmly back on again and then delivering a mighty whack to the end of it, the plug finally gave up the struggle and shifted.

Lesson learned: if you get a bike with this engine, find yourself a hexagonal 23mm socket. Don't waste your time - and your plug corners - with a multi-sided socket. It'll just end in tears... and barked knuckles, burned fingers...

The filter was mostly clear, although it had a few tiny scraps of what looked like plastic wrap in it. Other owners have reported this as well, although I can't think what it is or how it got in there. Ah well, it's out now, and the filter plug replaced with some copper grease and a sane amount of torque.

Next, valve clearances. Following the great instructions at that link, I got the valves exposed in no time. The CG125 owners' site agrees that the clearances for both valves should be 0.08mm (0.003 inches). Unfortunately, my cheapo feeler gauges only go down to 0.1mm, so I adjusted (loosely) to that. Skipping ahead to the ride, it was clearly too much: the valves were audibly buzzy. So I re-did them by hand, adjusting them to the 0.1mm feeler, then giving them another small turn and checking that the feeler wouldn't quite go in (but that there was still a gap!). Even with this tiny difference, the valves were much quieter. In fact, they were probably set just fine to begin with by the factory. Ah well, now I know they're definitely OK. Approximately definitely.

Since the rain was tipping down, I decided that it was time to have the side stand switch out. Rather than cutting it out and splicing the wires, I just unbolted the switch, cut the cable tie under the bike holding the cabling and plug in place, pulled the cabling up and fed it through under the seat. The whole assembly, switch and all, now lives in there, still greased up. I even cable tied tightly around the switch shaft so that it couldn't somehow become depressed. That should be that, hopefully. Now when the bike strands me in the middle of nowhere, it should be for some other reason.

One last thing before the ride: I couldn't resist the urge to fiddle with the air filter. The air box is under the left hand side panel. There's an inner 40mm-ish inlet letting in to a larger cylinder with a thick foam filter around it. Air is then drawn forwards from the space around this foam filter into the carb.

First things first, take all the filters out. Wow. Blat-blat-blat, goes the bike, very "classic". But we can't run like that, so I put the big cylinder with the foam filter back in, but left out the 40mm centre inlet. As far as I can see, all the air still has to go through the foam filter, but there's a little bit more growl under throttle. Utterly pointless, but then, so is the bike.

I'll leave it like that for now, but I've got a 43mm K&N filter on order which I can either attach straight onto the carb (removing the air-box) or perhaps even place over the box-inlet, removing the foam cylinder. I'll try to get some pictures of all this in order for it to make half an ounce of sense.

Finally, we're ready for the road. In a steady but not torrential rain, I set off. The back wheel definitely did twitch slightly while pulling away from a sharp bend heading downhill, but for the rest of the ride I was super-cautious and it behaved itself just fine. Still, it did twitch, so better tyres are on the list of things to get sooner rather than later.

Oh look, the sun's out now. And I forgot to get onions when I went out for my wet run, so... that's as much excuse as I need!

What Would MacGyver Do?

First he'd pre-empt future issues by fitting a fuel filter, cunningly using twisted garden wire to clamp the lines:



Mind, he'd have to cut the fuel line carefully to get the filter to point slightly downwards, or else he might not get enough fuel through.

Then he'd take the headlight off, and discover this rat's nest of cabling. This is going to be an Issue later, he'd think:



He'd then replace the standard bulb with the aforementioned 50W/50W 7500K blue-white Xenon bulb, and then he'd compare the before and after brightnesses and colour:





I bet he'd be pretty impressed with the difference!

But then he'd notice that - oops - the new bulb has the dipped and full beam reversed, so that dipped produces a (vertically) higher beam than full. What to do, what to do...

He'd check the bulb, and discover that it has anti-Murphy's Law tabs that stop it being inserted the wrong way - or perhaps the right way in this case. So he'd nip a bit off one tab and reverse the bulb.

Or would he? Well, perhaps not, because he'd likely realise that this would throw out a bad light pattern. Those of us without a scriptwriter have to find that out by trial and error. Most likely he'd skip straight to putting the bulb back in the way the fitting wants it, then unbolt and rotate the whole headlight 180 degrees, wilfully ignoring the "top" and "bottom" markings, and fit a small greased bolt through the lower drain hole which is now at the top.

Hmm, he'd say, that seems to be better. The dipped beam is throwing a lower light, but a broader spread, which might be wrong, but is likely to make the bike more visible from a wider angle to the front, which is the goal of the current exercise.

Then he'd shrug and leave it for now until he could figure out whether there was another type of "BA20D" bulb, although there doesn't seem to be. It's a puzzler.

Finally, he'd perform some rubber mallet adjustment on the crash bars for a Jinlun 125 RS to narrow the lower mounting brackets very slightly, and discover that they then fit the Huonaio just beautifully, bolting through the upper of the two existing bolts at the bottom of the frame, then clamping neatly to it without pinching any cabling.

Result!



[UPDATE]

In the re-edit, MacGyver had a crisis of confidence about the headlight. Suddenly, he was struck with a blinding flash of the obvious! Quick! Back to the MacGarage!

With one - OK, two - manly spins of the socket set, the headlight was rotated back to the correct orientation. With the new bulb still in the "right" way round, the dipped and full beam settings produced exactly the opposite of the desired lighting.

The solution: just mentally reverse the switch, i.e. ride with the switch set on "full" beam.

[UPDATE to the UPDATE]

Then he'd realise that he could just swap the two bulb wires over. Amazingly, they're actually solidly soldered to the contacts, rather than just being spaded on, so he'd have to cut and strip the wires and then use a bit of chocolate-block to swap them over. On the bright side (pun fully intended) that will make it easier to swap them back in future, as well as making it fairly obvious what's been done.

[UPDATE to the UPDATE to the UPDATE]

In the post watershed edit, MacGyver swears like a wounded pirate as he realises that if he'd just traced the blue and white wires from the bulb up past the wrapped section of cable, he'd have found two plugs that can easily be switched over, without the need to insert or modify anything.

I think that now officially makes this bike "custom": PROPER JOB.