Frankenbike

After almost a year of sitting in my garage, plex the yellow CT90 is
finally back to life.
I jumped on top of a 1970 ct90 engine on eBay, shoved it up his rectum
and now he works! He is a 1968 bike so it's a tiny bit of an upgrade
but not by much. With a couple required pieces coming in the mail, it
won't be long until he is back to 100% of operation, which will be
followed by me handing him over to miss Angela to putt around LB with.
So hurry up USPS, I just saw the pony express make it's rounds yesterday

Selling my shirt

As much as I considered keeping my yellow Honda CT90, I have put it up for sale again on craigslist. If anyone wants an awesome scooter (or anyone you know), please buy it. I also have a 150cc Lifan engine listed too that I never used.

A death becomes him… yet again

Today I received news that stung me in the face. I learned from an experienced mechanic that my scooter is better off dead. Yet, if all limits are self imposed then I must keep with my ultimate goal.

Plex under the knife

The life of my scooter is in the hands of a short, bald, Italian man named Fabio.

I dropped off my scooter in Anaheim today to finally get fixed by a professional. My yellow Honda CT90 has been out of commission for months now. First it pooped out on me while riding it and I spent a week+ taking apart the engine on my own. Then I realized I could just upgrade the engine to save me time and I was ordering it on eBay days later. Then when it came in the mail I spent days installing the engine onto the frame of the bike and then weeks staring at the electrical of it. Basically it was an old bike with a brand new engine and they weren't getting along. The Honda was playing with it's phonograph and the new engine was trying to plug in it's iPod into it. It just wasn't going well for me.

Last week I decided to leave this job to the professionals and try not to ruin my engine anymore than I already had(in an attempt to charge the battery I caused the ignition coil to fry and crack open). I called the guy who was the first person to work on my bike but he flaked. So my good friend thought maybe his scooter guy could help me. One problem though, this guy only works on Vespas..... I mean, he is Italian.

Fabio was my last hope and I was nervous bringing my bike down to Anaheim in fear of another brain stumped by the tangled mess of wire in my bike. I was confident with Fabio when I took the bike out and he immediately started  telling me things about the inside of my bike that I didn't even know. I knew I'd brought it to the right place. One thing he said to me that blew my mind was that the only purpose for the battery on my bike was to enable me to have my front and back light on before the engine is on. That's it! I though it would be a little more important than that. He said he can rig it up so the battery is bypassed and i wouldn't need it any more, which is how all Vespas are made. He commented how my exhaust pipe is too narrow for my carb, and also how i had forgot to put the foot pegs back on the bike(I was in a hurry), but then i gave him my number and it was homeward bound for me.

I'll hear from him tomorrow to see the status. Still nervous. Plus I don't want to pay him to tell me that he's stumped as well. We'll see. I hope his Honda mechanics are as good as his modeling skills.


Update 11/25: Fabio has failed. He found there was no spark, meaning a fault in the electrical system, but he doesn't have the tools to fix it. Hopefully Gretchen's in Long Beach can throw some luck my way. Oh and apparently Gretchen's doesn't consider Plex a scooter but a motorcycle. So that's a plus.

One piece at a time

Well it only took me a day to get over the sadness of getting my sprocket in the mail that was the wrong size. A quick call to Tyler the welder extraordinaire and i was on my way to a custom sprocket. The original problem with my old one was that my new engine's front sprocket was about an inch more forward than my previous one and thus i needed either a smaller sprocket or a new chain. The financially set thing to do was to get a new sprocket. Well 1 week later it came in the mail and it didnt fit my bike. My options were to return it and buy a $60 custom aluminum sprocket or......thats was all i could think of. Then the next day i called Tyler to see if he could fix me up somehow. He could. Here is my day.

Here is the original 45 tooth sprocket on top, and the new 40 tooth on the bottom

The center of the new sprocket was too small for my back tire so we had to cut out a small ring from the center to make it larger.

Then Tyler measured out the new wholes for the bolts and drilled those out

I asked Tyler to fix a whole i had in the back of my exhaust since we were hanging out by the welder anyways. He fixed up a piece of scrap steel and began to weld......

What we didn't realize till after was that the exhaust metal was so thin, that welding it actually just melted it away with little to no bonding. See the new hole?

So Tyler grabbed his trusty JB Weld to adhere the metal piece to the exhaust

Finally, after realizing the exhaust was as thin as a soda can, we fixed up the last hole in it......with a soda can. Along with lots and lots of JB Weld.

Once the JB dries and all the remaining Pepsi leaks are sealed the exhaust will be as good as new. Maybe a sponsorship is in order?

Turns out i could have done with a 42 tooth sprocket instead of a 40, my chain went on a little bit loosely but i figure it'll be easier to take a chain link out than it would be to find a single link to add onto the previous sprocket. Next up is the electrical....then it's done!......i hope

One step at a time

I can smell the carb mixing air and fuel like it's right under my nose.

My scooter is slowly becoming more of a scooter now and less of pile of metal.....with tires. My new engine is in place, my cables are all hooked up to my throttle and new clutch, my hands are stained gray. I had a very productive day today, apparently all honda CT exhausts fit on modern engines.... except my exhaust. So thanks to an old ct70 exhaust online i was able to get my friend to weld the parts i need onto my current exhaust.....it looked kinda like this.....

The rest of my night consisted of me staring at the wiring of my bike and turning my head 45 degrees and saying "huh?" Apparently honda thinks it's funny to change the wire colors between models of bikes so manuals don't match up and michael go crazy. So when i have time to do some detective work i will spend the time to find where the wires go.

Now is time to pack for a quick trip to Tahoe this weekend for my Uncle's 90th birthday! See you on Monday night.

PS: Regina Spektor on SNL this Saturday?!.......pass

The deed is done

I clicked the button, pulled the trigger, released the trap door, flushed the toilet.......whatever you want to call it.

I finally made the big commitment and bought my new 150cc Lifan engine for my scooter. My second biggest purchase of the year, im going to need to pick up a few more paper routes to pay this baby off. Also the fact that i need to buy a few modification pieces is a little depressing. My dream of getting my engine in the mail and jamming up my bike's rectum and riding it down the street is smashed due to the fact that i have to get the engine, and THEN scope out all the moding areas. The main difference between the old engine and the new one is the exhaust, i dont understand why every other Honda Trail bike has the correct exhaust flange EXCEPT my honda ct90. Which is why i also purchased a ct70 exhaust which will need to be welded to my old exhaust and blah blah blah. I wasn't feeling to hot about buying a new ct110 exhaust......and no one was selling a used one, except this jaggoff from pasadena who wanted full price for his used exhaust....jerk. Getting the 110 would have saved me on the whole welding part, but im not looking to spend more of the money i dont have.

and yes i know that if you dont know about honda bikes this means nothings and is actually quite boring. yea? well....yea! ok! fine! jeeez! more updates to come

Death to Plexy

So my scooter is KAPUT! After four engine dissections i have come to the conclusion that i have no idea what is wrong with Plex the yellow 1968 Honda CT90. After sacrificing 14 cats to the God of vintage engines with no results, i have decided to throw in the towel. Although i am showing my quitters side i still must decide on what to do next.....

i could

A: Take it to a mechanic and pay a lot to have a little done

2: Sell it on craigs list for far less than i bought it for, since it WAS working when i bought it and now it isn't

or D: buy a Lifan engine online and replace my 1968 non functioning piece of garb with some up to date machinery that will increase the performance and speed.

when i actually take the time to put all those option into perspective i start to see which one i could really benefit from.....and that is throwing it off a cliff and collecting the insurance money. Oh wait i didnt list that one, so i guess ill look into a Lifan engine. That's right folks, the lovely people at Lifan build engines that are compatible with 2 wheeled rust buckets from the sixties to turn your 89cc into a whopping 110cc engine.

Looks like i have some saving to do.