Restoration Part 2 - Motor

Well, I finished the motor a while ago, and decided to rip the frame apart and redo it "quickly" also. The frame is in pieces, primed and ready for paint now, I'll post pics when i get back from Germany.
As for the motor ... Here are some pics:

One of the case halves before assembly:


A shot of the cylinder, after honing the piston installed, and the cylinder ground.


A bad photo of the ground and assembled head


And the completed and assembled motor ...

Restoration Part 1 - Motor

Well, although I was going to start this DURING the winter, I've finally started ... now. Well I took the PC apart two weeks ago, and am SLOWLY starting to get rolling on it.
Why? Well, although it was running last year, a few things bugged me. Occasionally a hint of smoke was appearing ... and well performance ... can always be better. It's always bugged me the way the PC looks as well. Sure for most people its all good, but I think she just needs a good make-over. Besides, last years dissection to re-machine the crank didn't include anything more than that seeing as i was more in a hurry to ride and see whether I even liked the damn 'ped. There's one thing I hate, something that doesn't run right, or has the potential to let you down. When you're for example riding around say Lake Simcoe, and you're clocking around 250+ KM in a day ... the last thing you need is a break down ... especially if you had one of those "I knew it ..." feelings.

So enough babble! On to the pics, now more will be posted as I get further, assuming
I don't get lazy again and stop posting altogether ....

Here she is, my 1972 Honda PC50 ... still in one piece:

And without motor ....

Here's the motor all by itself ....

Ok heres the head and the top of the piston ... note that build up ... remember ... its a FOUR STROKE .... I knew we had a problem!

Take off the side cover ... the clutch!

And now without clutch ... isn't it wonderfully simple!

Split the crank case in half and we get to to the good stuff! Elegantly simple system, which is perfect, not much that can go wrong here is there.

Gutted, we have the bare case now sure i'll be doing some work on it, but one thing I hate on the Japanese motors is the painted Die Cast cases, now when new, they look just great ... you add 30 plus years to them, a few owners, and you get this dull finish, paint worn off in places and it looks, just sad. Now sadly, as you'll see on a few other pics later, there is HEAVY pitting on top of the cases where it goes into the frame, due to a mouse nesting up there during years of storage. Not much that can be done ... well yes there could, but to be honest, I am aiming for a relatively fast restoration, and don't want to spend a year or more on it to get it perfect.

Before we go nuts, and start painting the cases, we need to glass bead the case. Now to avoid getting too much glass into the case itself, I always plug every hole in the case, here I made aluminium plugs, quick, easy and will protect the sealing surfaces, and the bearing seats from the glass beads ....

Another look at more plugs ...

After the glass beading ... you see how matte the surface is, perfect for painting ...

Here you can see that pitting i was talking about on the top of the cases ...

A quick preview of the painted cases, bad photo ...

Now having the cam out, I noticed the extreme wear around the oil pump driving end ... look closely on the right, the cam is on the lathe ready for machining ...

Now since the camshaft end was machined down to get rid of the score marks, we have a problem, the bushing it goes into is also worn, and besides now it doesn't fit at all obviously. So, yup you guessed it, I get to make a brand new bushing. This bushing is a pain in the ass, first its going to have to fit the case, no problem, except there are two stamped cutouts on it which hold it in place, so the new one has to have those too. For the Aluminium camshaft to successfully run in the steel bushing, the surface of the bushing has to be as smooth as possible, and hard to avoid scaring which will cause the cam to rip its surface. Solution? Make a bushing, fit the slots to the case, harden it to around 60 rockwell, and finish turn it using diamond. Result? a mirror finish ... ok the photo again is crap, the camera doesn't like me! Also check out the re-machined camshaft end .... the better the surface, the less chance of wear. Also the fit is important. too much play you get wear, too little gap, not enough oil will get in, and wear will occur again. Tricky, but all possible! Look at that scoring on the old bushing in the front ... ouch.

The Ride ...

Well, about 10 miles into it, I swear I wanted to turn back. It was bloody cold! I stopped and put on my rain pants, over top of the million other layers of clothes I had on, and it was better. The ride up to the lake shore was nice, the long straight roads with little traffic was lined side to side with trees of different colours. It was gorgeous.
Once I got to the Sutton area, and headed east on Hwy 48, I got pissed off at the morons in cars flying past me at ridiculous speeds nearly hitting me. North bound after port Bolster was a nice trip until Beaverton, where I had to head back on to Hwy 12 not having a map or clue where to go. As I rode up 12, my ass started to hurt, and I literally wanted to stop, get picked up and forget it. Then I finally got to the bridge near Couchiching, at that point I was reminded why I wanted to take this trip. The photo doesn't do it justice; I should have taken a picture of the Locks near there, which were great to see in action.
I stopped for a while at Couchiching Point, took some pics, and marveled again at how big this body of water is. I was admittedly worried until I got to Orillia whether the PC50 would hold up for this trip, but once I got there, I sort of forgot about it, and enjoyed the rest of the trip.
BIG mistake ... leaving Orillia, I saw a sign that said ... Hwy 12 to Hwy 11. Now Hwy 11, that’s Yonge street right? I nice normal street, moped friendly etc. WELL, I start driving, turning down some ramp, not really paying attention. Suddenly, I was face to face with a sign that indicated the speed limit was 100 ... Not wanting to U turn and go back I figured, go to the next exit and get the hell off there! That thought ... MISTAKE #2! Next exit ... dirt road going ... no idea where ... second, same thing. So at this point I am traveling on the shoulder of this super speed highway hoping a cop doesn't show up. Well, one did. He went flying past me full speed, I suddenly see red lights, then the cherries blinking away. Panic ... The exit for another road was right in front of me. I quickly got off, headed to the bridge over passing the highway, and saw to my relief, the cop had stopped all the traffic, to let someone grab a big piece of tire off the middle of the road, afterwards he moved and let them go. And the whole time i was making up excuses about how I was lost and didn't know, and I know mopeds are not allowed on highways etc ... I kept following that road, which ended up at Ridge Road. That was an excellent find. A long winding road which cut through forests along the lake shore. Just heaven for a moped. Some of the views of the lake from Ridge road were stunning. Check out the pics below. By the sizes of the houses, I guess these people paid for that view ...
Once in Barrie, I stopped at the bay, taking another short break. Two guys approached me, and started talking about the PC50, one of them also owned one. We talked for quite some time before I left again and headed to Yonge street, and followed Yonge back down. Some nice views again of rolling countryside near Bradford, and at Newmarket, I started heading back east again. I had decided not to follow the lakes south side as the concept of getting back was starting to look more than appealing after so many hours on the moped.
I made it back in one piece some 8 hours after starting, and all in all, it was an excellent ride. It's one of those you have to see it rides. Next year, earlier in the season, it would be great to do it all over again with some of the RCMP members... Was it worth it? 8 hours of riding … a really sore ass … and a couple of dollars of gas? You bet! Looking forward to doing it again!

Some of the Simcoe Pics...

On the way to the Lake, the weather was excellent, minus the temperature. This was near Ravenshoe Road ...


The view over the bridge just outside of Orillia.


Couchiching point ....


The view you get from living on Ridge Road just north of Barrie ... if you live in a house ...


A house like this ....


At the Bay in Barrie, just an awesome area ...


The countryside just north of Bradford on Yonge Street.


And finally, the milage of the day :)

The Simcoe Loop ...

Well, 158 Miles, or 252Km later, I am back.
I started at 10:50 this morning, and got back around 6:40pm. I took a few pics, and will definately post them later on. I have some stories, and will write them later on. My ass hurts, my brain hurts but the Honda is just fine.

I want one of these! (xmas is coming, hint hint!)

Should I stay or Should I go?

Well, in theory, I had planned to do the Lake Simcoe run tomorrow morning.
As it stands right now, here is the forecast for tomorrow:
Markham:
Morning: 6°C/Mainly cloudy/30%P.O.P
Afternoon: 13°C/Cloudy w/ Sunny breaks/20%P.O.P
Orillia:
Morning: 4°C/Cloudy/10%P.O.P
Afternoon: 13°C/Cloudy/10%P.O.P
Barrie:
Morning: 5°C/Cloudy periods/10%P.O.P
Afternoon: 13°C/Cloudy periods/20%P.O.P
So what does this all mean? Well, its getting cold! Winter is coming it appears. So now do I ride or don't I? Kind of like the Clash song "Should I stay or Should I go?". Decisions desicions.
On the upside, from the numbers, its not supposed to rain, which would seriously screw up my life on 'ped at that temperature. Besides, the cold would be good, as running all day at near top speed is bound to bring on the heat from that little motor. If I back out now, I will have to wait yet another week before attempting it, and who knows how cold it will be then. Ultimately, I think I should go for it. The leaves are gorgeous, the air is crisp, and although I am not a big outdoors freak, it is awesome to see Ontario this time of year. It will take me all day, which might be a good escape from reality. Well, I will check the "trusty" weather site again in the morning, since overnight changes where 30% chance of rain got me SOAKED to the bone B4. Wish me luck .... Time to do an oil change, check the valves, check the tires, spay the chain etc ....

Lake Simcoe Or BUST

Winter is coming. Yes its still 30 Degrees outside, but never the less, the trees are changing colours, and its almost time to be all pissed off again.
Well, before it snows the need to do one big all day trip on Moped is here. I have mentioned it before, and now I am starting to plan. Theres NO stopping me now!

The idea is simple enough. Starting point .. Markham. Ride back roads up to Sutton, head east around the lake up to Beaverton, then up to Orilia. From Orilia down to Barrie, then follow the Lake right back around to Sutton again, and head back to Markham...
How far? Well, Mapquest (which lies cause its so not the route I have in mind ...) says from Markham to Orilia: approx: 110 KM
Orillia to Barrie: 40 KM
Barrie back to Sutton: 75 KM
Then all the way back to Markham: approx. 50 KM
So Basically around 275 Km in theory. Now cruising at around the say ... 35-40 km/h mark all day would be around 7 - 8 hours lol So yes although it would be good to hit 50km/h then and just keep going.
Either way, some extra gas, a cell phone and a camera would be useful. I think it would be a good trip. I have made it up to Beaverton, and got fairly close to Orilia so this isn't too much of a stretch. The roads aroun sutton are gorgeous. All 40km/h and coasting along the lake. Last weekend I drove through a bit of Barrie, and the waterfront there looks great as well. If you stick to some of the less travelled roads, I am sure cars won't be an issue.
When? Good question. I was really hoping to get some tires on the Honda before this as the ones on there have a big wow in them causing the big to shake at speed ... anything over 35-40 mph gets a big wild ... but considering this would not be a speed race but rather an endurance thing ... it should be otay. I would guess not next but perhaps the weekend after next would be good? Of coarse if any members of the RCMP are up for it, Let me know, as it would be cool to travel in a group.
Maybe this should be some bizarre endurance race ... a once a year test of man/woman machine. Sure its no trip to Alaska, or trip to paris from Africa, but its a good ride for a day. Hell, maybe consider Wasaga beach in the event???
Will have to give it all some thought.

God Damn Tires!

Ok, this is depressing. Its almost the middle of September, and NO FREAKIN tires for the Honda... These tires have been on backorder for three months now ... what planet are they coming from?
This is pissing me off. I need tires, the ones on there are screwed. Do you think ANYONE would have a 23x2.25 aka 19 2.25 tire? No. Sad.
I hate this!
Now I get to look in the US, though concidering it could take up to three weeks (yes thats what it took last time a few weeks ago with the motorcycle tires from Dayton ..). Ok. I'm done venting ....