My Minor

[tortron]

yeah i dont really care for the insect like look of new bikes (sport bikes at least, i think they peaked early 90s)
for a trail/adventure bike id want as basic and bullet proof as possible. can you believe they all come with side stand and clutch engine start lock outs now days. gotta cut all those wires out the first day lol. Plus gettign something with a kick starter is hard these days too, i suppose power packs are small these days too but on a big trip thats no good

There seems to be a surge in interest in the old dirt bikes, the price keeps going up (probably not for an old 4 stroke suzuki tho) the VMX races are quite popular here

[tortron]

Bike booked in for next week. A couple small parts are yet to arrive but not critical for the inspection (well they are but I can work around it with non permanent parts)

Here's part of a report on the bike, not often you see 22 years past due on a vehicle that still exists
IMG_20210308_160111.jpg

[tortron]

OH NO

They breed





This one is based on the GN250 engine, and is generally accepted to be an all around disappointing bike(just like the GN250 i had so no changes there), with CDI issues being typical. The GN250 is visually similar to the GN125 but is actually quite a different bike and not that many parts swap over. The engines are inspired from the same source but do not share any parts. However, the suzuki 400cc quadbikes are based on the GN400, which is an oversized GN250. so you could put a 400cc barrel on it.

This one, like my DR200, has been owned by the same guy for over 20 years. The DR250 however still has live registration, so with a couple small fixes (2 broken indicators, cracked tail light, broken exhaust stud) and some tidy yellow guards from my parts pile, Its going to clean up really nice i think, and will be back on (and off) the road pretty quick.

[tortron]

Passed with a clean sheet, which is pretty good for an old bike, possibly unheard of for something that has been dead in the system for over 20 years. Brake test was the inspector riding it at walking pace into the workshop, so my concerns about the very below average braking of a DR200 were a bit unfounded (one of my last bikes they had me do that part as well lol). He had some trouble kick starting it, i think he was pushing the kill button thinking it was a starter, started on 2nd kick for me.

anyway, my pocket is a lot lighter than it was this morning, with about $450 for the inspection and a further $240 for the registration fee and new plate. But its still a fairly cheap bike (coming in, with all the spares, the 87 bike etc, and all the parts i have bought and sold) for around $2500

Pretty decent for a bike in good condtion with fresh wof and rego. Plus you never see these bikes, let alone one road registered. It might even be the only 85 on the road here, i should look that up. So im gona ride it, but if someone wants to pay me the price of a new DR200 i might consider it

[tortron]

I looked up the fleet data for NZ and it looks like there are 4 other of this model (pre 1991 basically) with live registration in nz (so either on the road or on exemption in storage (or they only exist as a vintag in someones shed))
The data is a bit iffy due to stuff potentailly being entered wrong when the data was changed from paper to digital in the 90s (massive losses of old vehicle data so some stuff may still have numberplates but theres no proof it ever existed, some stuff is spelt wrong - theres a capri i know thats a carpai (kapai is well done/good job in maori haha) a guy i know has "suzuki motorcycle"

but half a dozen is probably about right

[xboxrox]

Great photos 'n cool toys

[tortron]

My shed is pretty yellow right now.
2 owner 1986 DR250S. That's right, a Gn250 engine in a dual sport frame. This is the S model which means steel swing arm, fuel efficient CV carb and much less suspension than the other models that were surprisingly raced to some effect until anything decent came out.
First owned by what is now MPI where it was used to pop down from the office to the yards to inspect the wild caught deer before processing. That's where it got the dent in the tank.
Then on to the guy I got it from, who had it for 25 odd years, until recently when his two sons got a hold of it (one was the one who got it road registered to get to work, then lost the job 6 months later) who left it outside, and dropped it, so now it's mine.




Bike failed to run when I picked it up, despite the sharn of always starting 2nd try and it having never done that before, oh and the fuel line was pissing fuel out very effectively. He also showed me the rust holed old exhaust and told me how to weld it all up cos the new one it's got was $600

So I paid the guy and loaded it up, its an old suzuki you can't really expect any better than that





Rolled it off the trailer and thought I'd better start a list of stuff it needs. Starting with the no start. Plug was very wet and had a black ring around the ceramic, so it's proba ly pretty old and stuffed, gn125 plug is too small, DR200 fits just right (although I later found some new ones in the parts box) with known good plug it started right up, runs very nicely, which given my experience with gn250 engines is pretty surprising. He was changing the oil every 3 hours so the top end and chain is probably as good as can be, the engine has a legitimate 7000km on it.



With the engine running I did a loop of the house and it all feels happy. The brakes are fantastic, no suspension noises, the fork seals are not that old, seat must have been recovered.

Gave a walk around and have a few issues.
Rego is on hold and now in my name, but he lost the plate, so will have to go get a new one.
Tail light is smashed and the parts are lost, same as old dr125/ts250s and is fitted with the cheapest of the 3 options, so I ordered a new lens.
One front and one rear indicator is broken. I think I can fix the rear one back onto the flex stalk, but the front is smashed to bits and missing half. On close inspection the indicator body is the same as a gn250. So I ordered a full set of black ones and may just swap the whole lot. They won't be flexy, but they never actually flex do they.
Missing it's tool box lid
Came with a probably dead battery new in box, will see if it comes back to life, needs a strap and is apparently missing some plastic box thing, I think just a tray but I will check the parts diagram. I don't think it's important. This one is 6v and runs with no battery


Tank has that big dent, I think I can push it out fine. There's a couple of little stone dents/chips and surface rust forming. It's also rusty inside. Not bad yet(just) but I'm gonna drain it and put vinegar inside probably when I do the dent.
Master cylinder sight glass is about 19seconds away from springing a leak. Needed one for the DR200 anyway so I ordered a few and will change it.

Fuel line is split, should order a couple meters for all the others I need to replace too.

Fork gaiters, one is split in half and both are faded. Seems an odd size but I think I can force the lower part onto the fork from a standard size.
Headlight bulb is blown.


Frame
It's been near the ocean and its just on the verge of being rusty but not too rusty to come up nice with a respray. So I'm gonna repaint it blue, and redo the black and silver parts.
The yellow parts are not too bad, I think the tank would come up OK, but the fenders are bleached white so I might cive the a thick coat of something to give some structure back, and then paint yellow.

[tortron]

Oops, and another one
IMG_20210323_135148.jpg

I think it's a 2008, going from the seat dom and the code on the wheels, for some reason these farm bikes have a 16 number vin/frame number without the date code in it.

Sold as been sitting for a year and not going. So I bought it as I just wanted some parts off it for my other 200 and then part out the rest.

Anyways got it home and off the trailer and checked it out, lights turned on so must have a good battery, sump full of oil and not empty of mixed with fuel, so that's a good sign.

Tank full of fresh gas. OK someone's tried to start it
Spark plug is freshly wire brushed. Yup must have tried to get it going and gave up.

Press the starter and no life in the starter.
Kick it over and it turns but no life.

Plug out and kick. No spark
New plug and kick. No spark.

So remembering the last blue bike I had had a dodgy kill switch I tried pressing the new one a few times. Really gummy and sticky.
So I pulled that apart and bridged the solder together and kicked it.

BOOM

All the unburnt fuel in the exhaust ignited in a cloud of black smoke. Kicked again and it slowly churned into life and eventually cleared up into a nice tight idle. Engine runs perfectly, and that's saying something because if these get ran low on oil they very quickly eat away the cam and rockers.

Rode it around a bit and it feels good, brakes are nearly non existant which is typical on a farm bike.

Still not running the starter motor, so I chased the wires and found they were all fine, closer look at the wiring diagram showed the kill switch and starter are in series and feed direct to the cdi. So I cleaned out the muck from the switch and found the kill button was broken internally. I still had the complete switch minus some wiring so I pulled that apart and made one good switch out of the two.
Starter now works and the bike starts right up, really nice.

Fixed a few other little issues, have a better seat from my parts pile, gave it a tail light bulb, front brake switch has a broken connector, rear brake switch is in bits. Pit the rear one back together after cleaning the cow shit out and its working, don't have any front switches in my stash so might try fix it.

So now every thing is sorted except the brakes and I feel bad about wrecking it so am gonna sell it as a running bike and probability double my money. If someone wants it this week they can have it, otherwise I will bump up the price by a set of new brakes and some time. Satisfying little turnaround

[tortron]

Did I mention I'm building a house?

IMG_20210329_132928.jpg
IMG_20210329_132917.jpg

Well more a tiny home/grannyflat/self contained unit. Knocked down my carport, lucky I like small cars because they all go in the garage now. About 7.5m x 3m. With its own shower/toilet/laundry, then an open plan bedroom and kitchen. Cooking and hot water off gas bottles. Had hoped to be moved in right now but last year had me sitting on the plans till I could get stuff delivered (and now there's a major building supply shortage here, at least I don't need much, but I'm still trying to get ceiling battens, there's no fence pailings left in the country).
I'm basically doi g everything I can legally do myself (won't let me do the plumbing at all if you can believe that bs, I will run the power but have to get a sparky to join it in) so this week I'm precut ting all the framing. Goes up in 7 sections for the walls and then one for the roof, so pretty manageable. Basically I save a year's wages doing it myself so it was hard to drop that on a prebuilt or having a builder do it (if you can get one, took months to get someone just to pour the concrete)

[xboxrox]

Did I mention I'm building a house?




Well more a tiny home/grannyflat/self contained unit. Knocked down my carport, lucky I like small cars because they all go in the garage now. About 7.5m x 3m. With its own shower/toilet/laundry, then an open plan bedroom and kitchen. Cooking and hot water off gas bottles. Had hoped to be moved in right now but last year had me sitting on the plans till I could get stuff delivered (and now there's a major building supply shortage here, at least I don't need much, but I'm still trying to get ceiling battens, there's no fence pailings left in the country).
I'm basically doi g everything I can legally do myself (won't let me do the plumbing at all if you can believe that bs, I will run the power but have to get a sparky to join it in) so this week I'm precut ting all the framing. Goes up in 7 sections for the walls and then one for the roof, so pretty manageable. Basically I save a year's wages doing it myself so it was hard to drop that on a prebuilt or having a builder do it (if you can get one, took months to get someone just to pour the concrete)

COOL..! A retreat, looking good; how many sq ft will it be..? Those bs rules about electricals & plumbling + others? are for our own safety H2S gas & shock can kill quickly or explode too ~ I've never been smart enuff or energetic enuff to take on a project like building a house..! More power to you tortron, the lack of supplies is worse than the other bs...

[tortron]

H2S is so bad that you can smell it in concentrations thousands of times lower than what will affect you in anyway. Ive done work in toxic gas environments/confined spaces and so on, but i agree the average guy is a moron and thats why they have this in effect so you dont connect your water without a non return to the sewer and pollute the whole city lol.
But the work still has to get signed off by another guy, so why cant i do it and he sign it off if up to spec, no difference between me doing it right and a plumber doing it right.
cant even run the lines and have it connected by a certified plumber like you could with electricity, when really its the same deal they are both checking it and signing their name to it. (plus the city inspector who takes his cut to "inspect" it, last inspection he rang me on the day and said sorry too busy, have your builder send me a photo before the next stage. oh im the builder its just me doing it, oh, well uhhhh its probably ok? il sign it off (and take $150))

please dont get me started lol


The gas im ok with, id happily do it myself i like running copper and soldering, but understandable. A land lord did his own gas work here recently and it killed the tenant. HE GOT OFF WITH A WARNING
can you believe that

[xboxrox]

Hey tortron guess NZ has one weird law & I dunno maybe samo samo for USA in not being able to do your own piping/plumbing 'n then get it signed off by a certified yahoo ~ hmmm... On the marine side of piping at one civilian shipyard that I worked for in Seattle; at the time they were building new fishing processor boats ~ heck I got hired as a pipefitter by just knowing how to compute the length of pipe needed to make a bend of "X" dimension & degrees ~ we installed all sorts pipe stuff threaded soldered welded bent STL CRES CUNI PVC CPVC ABS all bent with bender, torch or fittings ~ I got no idea who inspected what or when except maybe some hydrostatic pressure tests on the hydraulic piping ~ I also worked as a welder in the Bremerton Navy Shipyard PSNSY ~ over there the govt will not let you touch anything unless you are trained tested & proven qualified $$$

Here in Hawaii it's kinda a combo of both the above just depends on who you are friends with ~ SHAKA BRUDDAH

[tortron]

https://youtu.be/ZTMAcdVwlJk

DR200 final odds and ends work before inspection

[tortron]

Too humid to be lifting these around by myself
but thats one side of the framework bolted down and hung plumb

We put those horizontal bits in cos of tradition, i think is proven not to increase the strength of the frame at all, pretty sure its because the old houses were very hard native wood and it would be a prime place to leave your beer bottle when trying to nail the posts in.

Called Nogs in the north island, Dwangs in the south island

should put them in staggard tbh but its not like that in my plans or any other house i have seen, so again some weird cultural carry over



Will start on nailing the right hand side framing tomorrow


3 month wait to get cladding, theres none left in the country

[tortron]

have been putting up some vids of my house build



had some indicators arrive for my DR250, i was going to use black GN125 indicators which look close enough to the flexy originals. But when they arrived they were less than 1/3rd the size they should be! haha





914g of original indicators! thats almost 1% of the bikes weight

new ones are 220g total






and they came out alright actually. The bike will now go quicker, get better fuel economy, and handle better as the centre of gravity is more central now! amazing. Well maybe not quite, but i was aiming for around 10kg weightloss on this bike to get it to 100kg (i think that it was 110kg wet total weight but im not sure now) and i think im just about there now

[tortron]

Hmm, lots done on the house, the outside is just about done bar a couple things that i cant get due to shortages and the current covid locdown

i have like 10 more motorcycles and a car, and shed stuff to distract me from my truck


Heres one of the projects im working on


1980 CB650 cafe racer

was turned into a face racer 10-15 years ago, the guy i got it off had it sitting for 10 years, he bought it, did some work on it, went in for a rerego inspection and failed on excessive smoke. so it sat for 10 years and the smoke has gotten worse. Just looking into that today

List so far is
lost key
tacho in bits (some missing)
carbs leaking
choke cable stuck
seat poorly mounted
tail light and number plate mounted on swing arm (wont pass inspection, needs to be central)

The vin is in the system, and i paid what i think was a bargin price, he was just sick of having it around i think. Have hotwired it and it runs ok, just smokey, carbs leaked on my trailer so will throw a rebuild kit in them and check the jets (it has K&N pod filters). So hopefully not too much more to spend to get it back on the road. Plugs are oily, mainly #3 and #4, im sure the stem seals will be crusty after 40 years, hopefully im that lucky, going to do a leak down test after writing this and see how we go. I expect it will want a rering, hopefully not a rebore and pistons, parts are getting thin on the ground but are still available

[tortron]

Leak down test
#1 15% plug rich but ok
#2 fitting refuses to thread in, plug goes in and out fine, so idk plug rich but ok
#3 40% plug oil contaminated, oil on threads, air escaping crank case filler
#4 70% plug oily, threads oily, air escaping crank case filler.

Head gasket is damp with oil around edges.

So I think I will be stripping it down, hopefully a hone and rering will do it, need to take it apart to see what head gasket it has as there's 2, and inspect the cylinders and pistons, then order and wait. So will try get that done tomorrow, then pack it away for a few months till that stuff arrives....

[geezer101]

The 650 is a nice little project bike. Building a cafe racer has been an 'on my to-do list' forever but bikes scare me...

[tortron]

you could get a smaller one, parts are so cheap off aliexpress now days
i also have a coule of jialing farm bikes, they are clones of the 1970s honda XLs, a shame they are not road legal as i would 100% ride one as a dirt bike around the city, and turn the other into a cafe racer.

I have a big pile of left over parts from all the bikes i have wrecked/repaired, so i have a suzuki frankenstein project going. Chopped DR200 frame, Gn250 engine, scrambler pipes, and 18" wheels front and rear, would be a fun dirt tracker

[tortron]

cb650 start up/smoke show

[tortron]

New wheels for my y10 wingroad

[tortron]

Jialing JH150 - Honda xl150 clone

I got two of these, heres the first one after a frame up tidy up

[tortron]

and i picked up a scooter a guy was selling as parts

was riding it that afternoon

[geezer101]

Nice saves there Tortron I do a lot of roadside rescues of mostly lawnmowers (occasional leaf blower or weed whacker...) I had so many running mowers I've started giving them away

[tortron]

i had a bunch of weed whackers but couldnt even give them away