Z50A Hardtail Cafe Racer Build.

[bronco bobby]

Maybe I am wrong, but I am afraid an 1/8th turn throttle with a 160, might put you on your but.

[PlanetMinis.com]

[Brodie]

So you can buy 98 octane from the pumps? Our supreme (high octane) is 92. Big difference. Bet that 160 will scream on 98.

Yeah we have 3 Petrol pumps over here. Premium [98], Standard [95] and Discount [91]. Most of the time the discount has 10% ethanol. Today the prices are 98=158.9c 95=154.9 91+E=145.9c so you can see that it is fairly expensive to fuel a car over here. Costs me $75 for a full tank and it lasts me 2 weeks. The 160 will fly on that, I only ever use 98octane on my petrol engines. Even the 50 gets it with lead supplement added.

[Brodie]

Maybe I am wrong, but I am afraid an 1/8th turn throttle with a 160, might put you on your but.

Yeah that is what I was wondering. there is another throttle on there but it is listed as "standard throttle" if thats a 1/2 or a 1/4 I don't know. I think the 1/8 will take a bit to get used to. See what happens I might go to a 1/4 if I don't like it.

I have heard that the flatslide carbys are better for top end of the rev range rather then lower so that might help to even out the 1/8 throttle. I'm also going to run a 29T rear and 15T front which should calm things down a bit.

[bronco bobby]

I have a 140 with a stock kx60 throttle (1/4turn I believe), and 17/37 gearing. It seems to be way over geared, but it has so much power that you can lug it or even start in 2nd gear on flat ground. With the tall gearing it helps keep the front end down. I may switch to the 4.8 snow hogs, so I will probably change gearing a little at that point. Your bike is going to be fun.

[Brodie]

Ok so I place an order with Trailbuddy friday for the handlebars and a few other things. After I placed the order I felt like I had forgotten something and it was not until today I remembered the helmet I wanted was on the trailbuddy site. Ohh well I will have to do another order once the bike is near completed for anything I forgot anyway. I am have been going over the DHZ order a few times and have changed it, I am thinking a 28mm might be to large for a stock 160 and the 26mm would be better suited. Maybe down the line once I start adding performance mods (if its needed) I might think of a 26mm. I have also been reconsidering the 1/8 throttle after reading up on them. I am thinking with the hard tail and the sh!tty roads around my area any bump that I hit and have a slight movement of my hand may just send the bike forward and upward and me on my ass in the middle of traffic. I have been looking at 1/4 billet throttles and still cannot decided which one I would like. I am going to go down to Honda on monday and order a rear axle and a few other things.

[davmo]

Ok so I place an order with Trailbuddy friday for the handlebars and a few other things. After I placed the order I felt like I had forgotten something and it was not until today I remembered the helmet I wanted was on the trailbuddy site. Ohh well I will have to do another order once the bike is near completed for anything I forgot anyway. I am have been going over the DHZ order a few times and have changed it, I am thinking a 28mm might be to large for a stock 160 and the 26mm would be better suited. Maybe down the line once I start adding performance mods (if its needed) I might think of a 26mm. I have also been reconsidering the 1/8 throttle after reading up on them. I am thinking with the hard tail and the sh!tty roads around my area any bump that I hit and have a slight movement of my hand may just send the bike forward and upward and me on my ass in the middle of traffic. I have been looking at 1/4 billet throttles and still cannot decided which one I would like. I am going to go down to Honda on monday and order a rear axle and a few other things.

Glad to hear you are rethinking your throttle. My ass could tell you some tales of a too quick throttle, and the embarrassment of popping your clutch, and floundering on the ground for a kill switch. I have a vm26 on my 110, and it feels really good, but that is street riding. I know some guys say you can get away with bogging your engine a little more on the street, but I really don't know.

[Brodie]

Yeah I thought about it and heeded the advice of a few people and better safe than sorry haha. DHZ have gotten back to me about the engine and carby so I will definitely be ordering a OKO 26mm Flatslide and a Pitster Pro Z160HO engine. I needed to know if the engine was 12v or 6v before working out what electrical parts I would need. I ordered the front indicators last night, just sh!tty looking ones from ebay but they will do. I have an idea of where to mount them inconspicuously. I am thinking of cutting the stop/tail and rear indicators into the back of the seat plastic if I can find any small and flexible enough to do so.

[Brodie]

I placed an order yesterday for a few things. Not quite as big as I was planning but I was eager to get the frame together before working on the wiring and the engine. So I ordered the frame, forks, rear disk brake, rims, rear brake level and seat which should arrive monday or tuesday. I was hoping to order the whole lot all at once but the tax man took more than I thought he would from that pay cheque. So I will place another order next week. I will be ordering the rest of what I need to get all the lighting working. Such as the main harness, rectifier/regulator, flasher relay, horn, ignition switch, headlight and the list goes on. While I wait for each order I will at least have a bit of messing around to do. No doubt getting disk brakes on a hard tail frame will be an interesting adventure. So here is what I have ordered from KDF so far. Still awaiting the controls and bars from Trailbuddy which should arrive in around 3 weeks along with a set of badges that Razzo has kindly sold me. I decided to go with the K1 tank as I have a plan to extend it. I am still unsure as to what colour I want this bike to be once it is all finished.

[bronco bobby]

Wow, I didn't realize that you were building it from all new parts. It will be a great advertisement of what can be done with the click of the mouse. Enjoy your assembly.

[Brodie]

Yeah most of it will be new parts. The only original part it will have on it is the rust "bobbed" rear fender of my K1. I also bought a genuine Honda rear axle so it will have 2 genuine parts haha. Should be a bit of fun when it arrives. Going by previous orders it should be at my door on Tuesday next week. Then the car gets left out of the garage while the bikes get worked on haha. I plan to see if I can finally fix the rear wheel wobble on the K1 while I'm at it.

I have been looking for original hard tails around my area but even the restoration ones are around $600. For example "Old Honda qa50? like z60a? 1971?"
There is a decent looking K3 for $1250 up at the moment, all it needs is a seat and the engine needs a going over. Damn mini fever, I just need to finish these two before I buy more lol.

[bronco bobby]

Yea mini fever is strong. I just got back to my house after going for a ride on mine around my house. I used to ride my mountain bike on these trails I just rode some and man are they grown over and washed out. I guess I need to ride them more right? That can be my new years resolution.

[Brodie]

Take a set of garden loppers with you next time and widen them up! I keep a hand saw and secateurs in my 4x4 for when I am out on old trails. I keep getting the itch to ride and keep looking at the '82 Z50R and the Lifan 125. Might be an idea... The K1 has the engine out at the moment as I cleaned up the top end and have to gotten around to putting it back in yet.

When are you going to do a build thread of your bike Bobby?

[bronco bobby]

Yea, I do have some pictures and would like to do something, but haven't found the time I think I need.

[Brodie]

Alright! The parts arrived yesterday so I got stuck in to what I could without nearly everything else. So far I have a "Roller" in the sense that I can move it around the garage providing the screwdriver for a rear axle doesn't fall out or any of the zip ties break.
I will be ordering the rest of what I need tomorrow night and next week I will order the motor. After that is it a matter of how fast I can fabricate what needs to be made. At the moment I have the front end sorted out and it should stay the same except the colour.
The rear brake is giving me the most problems. The kit was definitely made for a soft tail frame and I will have to fabricate everything to hold the master cylinder on and connect it to the lever in working order. That will be the most time consuming part, and the problem I have is that I need the motor to get started on it.
After test fitting the motor there is no way in hell the 26mm carb will fit. I will have to get a new intake pipe made up as I don't even thing there will be enough room for one of the spacers that allow you to change angle.
For now here is some pictures using the old fuel tank off the K1, the lifan 125 from earlier and a set of spare bars I had laying around. Tell me what you think!

[davmo]

Alright! The parts arrived yesterday so I got stuck in to what I could without nearly everything else. So far I have a "Roller" in the sense that I can move it around the garage providing the screwdriver for a rear axle doesn't fall out or any of the zip ties break.
I will be ordering the rest of what I need tomorrow night and next week I will order the motor. After that is it a matter of how fast I can fabricate what needs to be made. At the moment I have the front end sorted out and it should stay the same except the colour.
The rear brake is giving me the most problems. The kit was definitely made for a soft tail frame and I will have to fabricate everything to hold the master cylinder on and connect it to the lever in working order. That will be the most time consuming part, and the problem I have is that I need the motor to get started on it.
After test fitting the motor there is no way in hell the 26mm carb will fit. I will have to get a new intake pipe made up as I don't even thing there will be enough room for one of the spacers that allow you to change angle.
For now here is some pictures using the old fuel tank off the K1, the lifan 125 from earlier and a set of spare bars I had laying around. Tell me what you think!

Looking good. Those nylon bar clamps look a little flimsy though...

[Brodie]

Thank Davmo. A friend and I actually reconstructed a cars uni with about 50 of those and a heap of duct tap. Lasted about a week.

I still don't know what colour to have this bike. The more I look at the forks the more I want to paint them black. I can't stand it at the moment. But being all black I know it will look to plain. Hmm, I really hope this is the biggest problem I have with the bike. I have also noticed that the frame is 1 inch longer than the stock frame. Which makes me thinK that a front fender would fit with the 160. And it is going to look odd with the fuel tank being further away from the forks but I guess I have not other choice.

[Brodie]

I ordered the rest of what I need to build the roller yesterday and it should arrive tomorrow so once I get the parts I will stick together what I have and work out what needs to be done.
At the moment the rear brake pedal is all that is screwing me up. I had it chopped and re-welded to fit but now it looks as if the kickstart won't be able to function correctly with that setup. The joys of custom bike building huh. So I am thinking of getting a newer style brake setup after I looked over at the '82 and saw how it worked. DHZ have foot pegs with a brake lever included that I may have to order with the engine.

[davmo]

I ordered the rest of what I need to build the roller yesterday and it should arrive tomorrow so once I get the parts I will stick together what I have and work out what needs to be done.
At the moment the rear brake pedal is all that is screwing me up. I had it chopped and re-welded to fit but now it looks as if the kickstart won't be able to function correctly with that setup. The joys of custom bike building huh. So I am thinking of getting a newer style brake setup after I looked over at the '82 and saw how it worked. DHZ have foot pegs with a brake lever included that I may have to order with the engine.

Kickstart issues. Have you checked out some of the Honda CRF70 kickers? there are some that swing out pretty wide, to even clear rearset footpegs.
The Takegawa one I use on a lot of my bikes was found in the CRF section at CHPminis.com , and it swings pretty wide.

[Brodie]

Yeah I had thought about that but the brake lever I have has to be mounted on the outside of the frame to move and will completely block the area used by the kick start to swing giving it only a quarter of a rotation. I think if I use a flat plate style lever it should be hidden out of the way of the kick starter.

EDIT: Took me a bit longer than a half hour. Anyway here is a picture of the area of problem.

[Brodie]

I have been talking to DHZ Mini Moto who have been giving me help very quickly and I am getting quite excited about ordering the engine next week. The parts I ordered Wednesday did not turn up today and Monday is a public holiday so they should arrive Tuesday. I am hoping to see the Trailbuddy order next week but shipping takes quite a while from USA. Anyway I have worked out what I need from DHZ and it is looking to be the most expensive order yet. DHZ will set everything up to suit the engine, such as the carby and throttle cable to match the joker style throttle. I am very impressed with them. As you can see the order has changed a bit since I first worked it out.