Hello everyone. I've been really distracted and haven't been around much. With how things have changed in my life, I find myself more and more interested in doing things instead of sitting at a computer. It's nothing personal. That said, one thing I've been spending way too much time on recently is a small pocket bike. It started out as an X-19 with a 110 automatic. I have since tried to get it up to par to just have fun with a friend in parking lots. First was a 125cc with a 4 speed, 4 up pattern (easily switched to gp style shifting with the shifter and linkage I made). Apparently, these things aren't made to ride like mini motogp bikes. After the first outing, I noticed the rear tire was quite diagonal, having slightly twisted the swingarm from the forces of leaning off the bike and cornering so hard. I also had amazing rear chatter. It was more than chatter. It was a pogo-stick suspension. So, I pulled the swingarm, boxed in the frame with my awesome welding skills, cut off the shock mount, cut off the frame shock mount, and fitted a stock shock from a Honda 954rr for real dampening and adjustability. That led to the front being too soft. I cut the springs, drained the oil, and used gear oil to get at least some kind of dampening up front (no real valving, remember, this is a chinese toy bike). So I got it nice and stable for taking through turns. Next problem area was the front brakes. They worked, but were horribly bad by design. The rotor couldn't even contact the whole pad surface. I've since upgraded to the real KTM caliper that the chinese tried to copy, got a larger diameter rotor, and made a bracket to relocate the caliper to fit properly. I've raised the rear, and with the new tires I just put on, the bike is now leveled out again, but with greater clearance for leaning it over. I've gotten to practice with the friend in parking lots a few times during the process, and the little bike is really coming along. I'm still constantly improving it, but now the changes are getting smaller and smaller, and I just need more seat time and practice. My friend though has done some endurance racing with a group that has a racing class that this bike fits in perfectly. The cut off is 120cc vertical engine, 125 cc horizontal engine, or 62cc 2-stroke. We've decided to hit up the next open practice or two to see if I can be competitive on this thing. I still need to do a little safety wiring (minimal) and add two catch cans. One for fuel overflow from the carb, and one for the crankcase vent hose.
Here is the last time I got to practice. It was the first time I had good front brakes, so it was the first time I could try late braking and entering turns with more speed. I was still getting used to it again in the beginning, and kept getting more and more confident as the day went on. After the video stopped, I eventually started getting confident enough to brake hard enough that the rear would skim the pavement and downshift from 4th to 2nd at one shot and just barely slide the rear out at the beginning of the turn. Had a couple close calls, either caused by dirt/sand or by the cheap chinese tires that I still had on it. Didn't go down, just drifted through a turn and scraped the peg pretty good on it. The more I do to this thing, the more I want to seriously race it. Best parts of this are that the costs of racing this are WAY less than a full size bike, and I can just throw it on a hitch platform and don't need to pull a full trailer. Yehaw! I'll let you know how it goes!
Here is the last time I got to practice. It was the first time I had good front brakes, so it was the first time I could try late braking and entering turns with more speed. I was still getting used to it again in the beginning, and kept getting more and more confident as the day went on. After the video stopped, I eventually started getting confident enough to brake hard enough that the rear would skim the pavement and downshift from 4th to 2nd at one shot and just barely slide the rear out at the beginning of the turn. Had a couple close calls, either caused by dirt/sand or by the cheap chinese tires that I still had on it. Didn't go down, just drifted through a turn and scraped the peg pretty good on it. The more I do to this thing, the more I want to seriously race it. Best parts of this are that the costs of racing this are WAY less than a full size bike, and I can just throw it on a hitch platform and don't need to pull a full trailer. Yehaw! I'll let you know how it goes!
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