Saturday January 25th 2025.

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 Saturday January 25th 2025.


Piaggio Velofax.


With a bit waggling, wobbling and tapping the engine pivot bolt finally slid into place.   Then Graham mimicked a choke cable using a piece of electrical wire.  Then once the carburettor had been checked for cleanliness it was time to see if it would start.  After three or four kicks it sprang into life for the first time in more than four years.  It was quite raucous without its exhaust but ran and idled perfectly.  During that four year period a new piston was obtained to replace the original that had been lost.  The replacement came from another similar model and seemed to be doing the job just fine.  Graham made a paper base gasket and a broken reed valve had to be obtained.  The tip of the original reed valve had broken off.  As genuine replacements were not available the services of a company making carbon fibre reed valves were enlisted, in order to make a new one using the original as a template.  For such a simple engine there were a lot of hurdles to overcome but hearing it spring to life was an inspirational moment.



Having far too much with an old italan moped.





Kawasaki Z250 A1 (Scorpion)


Steve and Allan worked together to get the bike closer to completion. We now had both brakes overhauled and working correctly With the clutch cable installed, everything was now fitted for the bike to move under its own steam.  The fuel tank had been powder coated red, and the tail piece was there ready to fix to the frame.  The biggest issue that stood in the way of being able to ride it, was the condition of the seat.  The seat cover needed to be replaced, the foam could also have done .with replacement as it had split in several places.  However the main problem was the corroded state of the seat pan, to which it all attached. As can be seen from the photograph, the tin worm had taken hold in a big way.  So at the end of the meeting Kieran took the sorry looking seat pan with him, to see if something could be done with it. Hopefully it could, because even rusty old seat pans (Now around 25 years old) seemed rare as rocking horse poo on the inter-web.


The Kawasaki Z250 advancing piece by piece towards completion. 





Kawasaki 250 seat is on the ragged edge!





Ducati 250cc Single Racer


During the session an aluminium strap was fashioned out of fresh metal to secure the tank to the frame.  The wide strip of shiny aluminium running down the center of the top of the tank looked very attractive in contrast to bright red paintwork.   Jon had been continuing his efforts to find an ignition setup for the bike (Points or electronic)  We all hoped something could be found without it costing the earth, so that the engine could finally be heard running again.


Ducati 250 racing single taking shape.



Honda Vigor.


Mal’s Honda had spent many weeks with its front end in pieces whilst he worked to clean up and refresh the appearance of most of its components.  However, at this session Mal and Jo helped to replace the front fork yokes, front forks, front and handlebars.   A little time and effort was needed to get the various cables and wires headed in the correct direction.  This was important to ensure they weren’t trapped or over-stretched as the handlebars are turned.  It wouldn’t be too long before the bike looked something like the bike pictured below.






Jialing 125 trials bike project.


Guy and Ioan worked to continue re-assembling the bike.  With the wheels, swinging arm, exhaust and carburettor now on the bike it was time to fire it up. With barely more than a single kick it sprang into life, with a deliciously loud note coming from the purpose made exhaust tail piece. It was found that the mechanism to actuate the choke flap was missing.  This meant that the choke flap would naturally come to rest in the closed position because it was spring loaded shut.  This was fine for cold starting but would be no good once the engine had warmed up.  A quick internet search found that a complete new carburettor could in theory be purchased for less than £20.00, so one would be placed on order. 


Jialing 125 nearly ready to run.






Kawasaki KZ550 Limited (ish)


AJ Jack and John worked to iron out final electrical issues and to get the headlight functioning correctly.  It was then time to fit the club’s new vacuum gauges and to balance the carburettors.  As the engine was running it appeared that Number 1 cylinder was not firing so, once electrical issues had been discounted, the carburettors were removed ready for AJ to take them to his workshop at home to strip the offending carburettor down and to find the culprit for the non running cylinder.  Hopefully by the time you read the next blog entry, the fault will have been identified.


A well balanced team adjusting the Z550's carburettors