Topic: Dream 50 -> CB125T!

[Nakazoto]

Howdy all!
This, being my first post, is going to be a self introduction as well as my bike introduction!  My bike is actually no where even close to an SOHC4, but I really enjoy reading this forum and everyone here really seems to be pretty great!  As such, I figured as long as I posted in the right forum, it couldn't hurt to share my current bike! (My all time dream bike is an all original CB400F, so that was actually how I found this place, haha).

My name's Dave and I'm actually a huge classic Japanese car aficionado.  I currently own five cars (1967 Mitsubishi 360, 1971 Fairlady Z, 1973 Isuzu Bellet, 1988 300ZX SS, 1991 March Super Turbo).  I tend to fall in love with the more rustier ones and slowly coerce them back to life.

I've always been a huge fan of motorcycles, but never had the guts or confidence to buy one and get my license.  That didn't stop me from riding on the occasion (learned on a CL350 Scrambler, then rode my brother's CX500 quite a bit).  Then I moved to Japan and was presented with an interesting option.  Anything under 50 ccs here can be ridden legally on just a driver's license.  This meant I could get my sea legs back, get comfortable riding and then shoot for a real license.  Which left me with the trick decision of deciding what bike to get.  I flirted the idea of an old Yamaha YB-1, but realized they were far too small a frame for me (I'm a tall dude).  After looking around, I realized I really only had one choice.  So this past February, I took the plunge and picked this up!



Sorry for the blurry picture (there are clearer pictures down below).  This would be a Honda Dream 50.  So, what exactly is a Dream 50?  Well, it's a bike that Honda built in 1997 as a tribute to the old CR110 racer that competed in the 50 cc gran prix.  The Dream comes with the world's smallest mass produced twin cam, 4-valve engine!  It has a proper 5-speed transmission, discs up front and in the back (with a twin piston caliper up front) and an engine that rev's to 11 grand out of the box.  It only makes about 6 horsepower, but that's actually enough to run this thing up to about 80 kph, which is screaming for a 50!



So, I actually picked the bike up in Okazaki, which is about 45 minutes from here.  I was going to ride it home, but since I hadn't ridden a bike in over two years, I was naturally a bit nervous, haha.



]

Fortunately, everything went buttery smooth!  I initially got the bike as just a learners bike, but it quickly grew on me!  However, I can't leave well enough alone.  I really wanted to kill the side covers and air box.  This meant I needed to kill the battery too, which is fine as the bike is kick start and runs without a battery.  However, without something to smooth out the output from the stator it ran very poorly, not to mention the electronic tacho didn't function at all.  The answer?  Capacitance, and a lot of it.





That's six 4,700 uF 50V capacitors soldered in parallel.  That's actually enough capacitance to keep the neutral LED illuminated for a solid 45 seconds after the engine is shut off.  Not bad!

I was also planning on ditching the rear fender for a much cleaner look as well.



In the rear fender's place, I wanted to put in a nice plate to shield the bottom of the seat, electronics and carb from road grime.  A good fender eliminator kit is about 8,000 yen on Yahoo Japan, so I figured I could do better.  So for about 1,000 yen I picked up a nice large piece of aluminum.  I then mocked up what I wanted with a piece of cardboard and then transferred the measurements over.



I stuffed the capacitors up in the small area just behind the seat (unfortunately didn't nab a picture of that), built up a simple bracket for the brake light and license plate and bolted it all in!





Interestingly though, by killing the airbox, the engine became completely unusable below 8,000 rpm (and that was with the huge factory velocity stack still on the carb).  I knew that just the airbox alone couldn't be responsible for this, so, naturally, it was time for a carb clean and a new plug!







New Iridium plug!



This made the engine much easier to use!  There's still nothing below about 5 grand, but keep it above that and it pulls clean and hard all the way 13,500!  Then, on the last weekend of the Sakura bloom, I pulled my Mitsubishi out and my girlfriend and I got all dressed up for some fun pictures with two of my toys!



This one is just of the Mitsubishi, but I thought it was a good picture, haha.



Back to the bike!











Since these pictures I've put new tires on it, rebuilt the front and rear calipers and dropped in brand new pads. 

Got more coming soon, like 2 minutes soon!

Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

So I bought some supplies for the garage the other day, got back home, stepped in and in the dark, I noticed something moving.  I looked down and this bad boy slithered past my feet and under one of the Bellet seats!



I can’t stand snakes!  After I turned into a little girl, and hid on top of my Bellet for a little while, we finally corralled him into a box and set him free in the field across the street.  Spiders, cockroaches, rats, anything but snakes and I’m completely blasé, snakes though…

With that out of the way, it was time to get down to work!  I didn’t particularly like my old fender eliminator plate.  I cut some cutouts for the brackets and stuff, but if the plate didn’t have a curve to it then the cutouts weren’t needed.  Here you can see the cutouts and the curve of the old plate.



This was also the first time I have had the tank off, so I figured I would take a picture of what life under that tank was like.  Appears to be the CDI, a bit of wiring and that’s about it, haha.



After much cutting, hammering, bending and sanding this was the plate before I cleaned it up for installation on the bike.



And here it is cleaned up and installed on the bike!  I think it looks much, much better!





From the side the new plate is almost completely invisible.



I also figured it was time to pull my capacitor pack out, ditch the circuit board it was on and wrap it in tape so it was more compact and battery like.  I wanted to make sure that it was held together strongly with solder and wires first though.  So after much soldering, this was the end result.  Nice and strong!



Completely wrapped up in tape with a piece of rubber covering the terminals of the capacitors and mounted in the back of the seat.



Clearance is tight, but it fits without hitting or rubbing.  I think I’ll put a piece of foam on top of the red tab though just to make sure everything is held in place properly.



I did all the above work because I was waiting on some new parts.  Chief among which were these new pipes!  A genuine set of Moriwaki performance pipes!



I also had a PC20 carb on order as well.  The extra 5mm of carb size should make a noticeable difference!



I got excited and went for the carb first.  I didn’t get a snap, but the outlet of the new carb versus the old carb is completely different.  I thought I would have to port the intake manifold (hard to call it a manifold as it’s just a short pipe with two flanges) but it turns out that it’s designed for a 20 mm carb from the go.  The old carb was just choked down and too small for the intake manifold!  A simple bolt-on affair from there!



I then busted out my grinder with wire wheel and stripped all the old paint off the new pipes.  Then, after a bit of a sand down, I hung them up and sprayed them with some 600 C high temp black paint.



And here they are installed!  They look bloody fantastic if you ask me!



I fired the engine up with the new carb and pipes on and it sounds like a completely different animal!  It sounds like a 150 cc single!  It should be an utter blast to ride!



That’s all for now.  More to come soon though as I got a new CDI, new turn signals and a new tail light on order that should be showing up any day!

Thanks for looking guys!

Cheers
David

[Greggo]

Beautiful!  I love those, but we can't have them for the streets here in the states.

[Stev-o]

Welcome and Howdy from Texas!

That's an interesting bike, Nak, looks great.  I also love everything Japanese, especially bikes and cars. Sold my Honda S2000 but now have an Infinity G35. 
Would love to see a pic of your March, I drove one once. It had a Cosworth motor and was just explosive!

How'd you end up in Japan, are you British?

[Nakazoto]

Thanks for the kind words Greggo!  It's a shame that we can't have them as road bikes in the states, this thing is a blast to ride and would be a lot of fun in town.  This one will be coming back with me when I move home, but it will have to be registered and imported as a race only bike, which is a shame.  Still, can't lose it out of my collection, haha.

Thanks for the compliments Stev-o! 

I actually started off here in Japan working as an English teacher, but quickly discovered I hated that.  So, I found a new job working for a subsidiary for Toyota helping create repair manuals, owners manuals and marketing documents.  It's not a terrible gig, but sometimes the work conditions are pretty unreasonable, haha.  Where abouts in Texas are you from?  I was born and raised just north of Dallas!  Lived there until I was 19.  I still go back once a year to visit all my friends and family!

The S2000 is an excellent car as is the G35!  My mother actually drives a G37 Coupe and that thing is an absolute blast to drive!  A March with a Cosworth engine must absolutely fly!  One of the great things about March's is that they're so utterly light.  My March in completely stock trim tips the scales at just 1,700 lbs.  Mine is actually the Super Turbo, one of the few cars to ever be produced as a twin charged car.  The supercharger gives all the low end grunt you need and then the turbocharger comes in at just around 4,000 rom and the thing really starts to boogie!

Here's the most recent pic of it!



More pictures here:
sites.google.com/site/nakazoto/current-cars/1991-ek10-nissan-march-super-turbo

Thanks for looking guys!
More to come as soon as I get a good mount designed for my new tail light!  Hope to have some GoPro videos up soon!

(Off topic, this was my last attempt with a GoPro:)
youtu.be/L662AMVqUZM

Cheers
David

[LesterPiglet]

Welcome Naka.
I'm interested to know why you can't use your bike in the US. Engine size or something?

[Greggo]

Welcome Naka.
I'm interested to know why you can't use your bike in the US. Engine size or something?

Emissions.

[LesterPiglet]

I'm surprised by that. 50cc? Have they been tested or how do they determine which bikes pass/fail?

[Greggo]

I'm surprised by that. 50cc? Have they been tested or how do they determine which bikes pass/fail?

Not sure.  I haven't tried to register one myself, but I've seen two for sale in the states, one on Craigslist, the other on ebay, and both clearly stated the bike could not be registered for street use. 

[Nakazoto]

The NHTSA hates motorcycle importation.  The main problem is that the Dream 50 was manufactured as a Japan only bike, and as such was not manufactured to comply with FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) regulations.  The NHTSA has this to say about importing motorcycles:

“If a motorcycle or motor driven cycle is capable of a top speed above 20 miles per hour and is equipped with components (such as lights, mirrors, and turn signals) that are needed for on-road use, NHTSA will regard it as having been primarily manufactured for such purposes. Motorcycles and motor-driven cycles with these capabilities and equipment cannot be lawfully imported into the U.S. unless they were originally manufactured to comply with all applicable FMVSS and bear a label certifying such compliance that is permanently affixed by the original manufacturer.”

Actually, the more I read, the more it appears to be nigh ought impossible to bring it in at all.  Even importing as a racing vehicle, the NHTSA says this:

“The declaration is accompanied by a substantiating statement establishing that the vehicle was not primarily manufactured for use on public streets, roads, and highways, and is being imported solely for use in competitive racing events.”

Which isn’t true of the Dream since it was manufactured with the intent to be used on Japanese roads.  I’m not entirely sure how to go about importing this, but as I also plan on sending back three cars, I reckon I’ll be an expert on it all by the time I finish, haha.

[Greggo]

That bike was clearly manufactured for racing

[Nakazoto]

Alrighty, it’s about time for another update!

The CDI and tail light I ordered showed up as well as a few other things, but my turn signals still haven’t made it (this would be the first item I’ve gotten on Yahoo Auctions that hasn’t been dealt with extremely well).  They’ll get here eventually, so in the meantime, I figured I’d get to work!

Here’s the new CDI.



And my new tail light.



The reason I was going for a new tail light is that I was still using the old square-ish factory tail light, which was designed to mount o the fender.  It looked a little out of place, so I figured it was time to get a proper, small, round one going.  This of course required creating a new mount for it.  So I bought some stock aluminum and cut and bent three pieces into shape.  These all bolt together and then the license plate frame bolts to this, holding the tail light right in position!



Turned out pretty good looking if you ask me!





Here’s a shot of the bracket without the seat on.



I was worried about a light so small being bright enough to see, but as you can see in this picture, it puts out tons of light!  I think it’s actually brighter than the original light even.



So, I had my new tail light mounted and ready to rock, had my new carburetor on and I was pretty much all ready for a test ride.  Then I remembered that I forgot to put the carb insulator on.  So I took the carb back off, honed out the insulator, slapped it all back together, fired the bike up and rolled it outside to warm up while I put my jacket, helmet and gloves on.  I head back outside, hop on, give it some throttle and then the whole thing dies before I make it 5 feet.  I kick it and it fires up again and then almost immediately dies again.  I keep kicking to get it to start, but the damn thing won’t run.  So, dejected, I wheel it back inside and start to diagnose.

Pulled the carb off, everything was hooked up fine and looked okay, so I put it back on and tried to get it to start again and sometimes it would run and sometimes it wouldn’t.  The whole thing was sounding worse and worse.  So, I’m thinking it’s the new CDI I put on, so I pull that out but nothing changes.  I’m racking my brain and going crazy until finally I decide to put the original carb back on and see if that solves the problem.  Miraculously, it does!  So, now that I know it’s a problem with the new carb I pick it up to look at it and hear a clinking sound coming from the inside.  So I crack the carb open for the first time and the main jet and emulsion tube have fallen out.  That’s right, fallen out.  So, I put them back in, tighten them down and try to put the carb back on and the threads on the carb for installation strip out, both sides.  I almost threw the Taiwanese piece of junk across the room.

I went upstairs and ordered a proper, Honda original, PC20 carburetor off of Yahoo Auctions.  Genuine Honda/Keihin stuff.



The build quality is completely different.  This carburetor moves smoother, sounds better and is generally just of great quality.  Lesson learned, when buying carbs, go with genuine stuff.  Here she is installed on the bike!



Since I was putting the bike back together, I decided to re-install my CDI.  Interestingly, the CDI isn’t a replacement CDI, it’s just a piggy back unit.  It’s supposed to change ignition maps, increase the strength of the spark and eliminate the rev limiter.  Don’t know how effectively it does all that, but it most definitely lets me rev to 14k now instead of having the whole thing stop the fun at 13,500.  Here you can see the CDI unit ziptied to the frame (zipties are the preferred method of installation since the CDI unit comes supplied with two for installation!).



So, I pulled the bike out for her first test ride since I went crazy with all this stuff.







The bike ran terrible, haha.  Then I thought about it and of course it did, the carb is meant for a 125 probably, so the main jet size is probably mega rich for a 50.  So, out came the carb and the tuning process began!  The main jet installed at factory on the new carb was a #95 and the original carb had a #75.  I worked my way down to a #78 and it ran just a little lean, so I jumped back up to a #80 and the bike seems to be running pretty awesome!  I still need to do some fine tuning with the needle clip, but I rode the bike for about an hour yesterday without a hitch!





Not bad looking for a fifty!





Unfortunately, rainy season reared its ugly head this morning, so I won’t get a chance to ride it again for a while.





I still got a few more things to knock out and then I’ll be pretty happy with it!  Most notably, the big ungainly turn signals are going to get replaced with much slimmer ones, if the slimmer ones ever get here (2 weeks for shipping is a little ridiculous…).  Also, I picked up some front springs that slide over the front forks to stiffen up the front a bit (Honda original part).  I also grabbed some Honda original rear shocks and springs from a CB250RS for cheap.  I’m going to disassemble them and double check the spring rate before they go on though. 

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Cheers
David

[Stev-o]

Great update! The plate looks so big on the bike, is it basiclybthe same dimensions as U.S. Plates? And a little surprised to see numbers like that on it. (not Japenese?)

That bike must really scream at 14K!

[lucky]

Too bad the USA cannot get motorcycles this sensible for the young kids now.
All they have is very expensive extreme plastic transformer toys.

[Nakazoto]

Alright, considering it's been 5 months since the last post, it's time to properly update this!  I've been updating it on another forum (one dedicated to cars, weirdly enough) so I'm going to copy paste the posts from their to bring this thread back to life!

=====

Alright, I suppose I should update this!
This post is going to cover like 3 months of tooling around with this thing, but here goes!

First things first, I received these in the mail... from Taiwan. They're pretty cheap plastic pieces, but they were just the right size.



Here's the front's on.



You can see they tuck up really close to the headlight, exactly what I wanted!



Here's the rears on.



Then I got my hands on an HRC lightweight flywheel and slapped that on, which made a decent difference! Unfortunately I didn't snap an after shot, but I did get a before shot of the rusty piece that got replaced.



Then, for a little stronger spark I got a Kitaco coil and NGK plug boot (this also got rid of that ugly yellow piece that was the original piece).



Here's the coil installed.



I just made a short little L bracket to hold it in place bolted to the factory mounting tab.



Then my girlfriend took a seat on a Honda Solo. I still retain that this is one of the coolest looking bikes out there. Unfortunately, it make the rider look completely ridiculous. Although she looks pretty good on it, maybe I should convince her to get one, haha.



Shortly after, my friend from work picked up a Dream 50 as well. These pictures are from the day we got back to my place!











And naturally anything that gets left in my garage gets worked on, so here's how it sits now!



This is my next project, but that's still under progress, so more on this later.



Just last week it was my birthday and so my girlfriend made this cake for me. She actually hand drew the Dream in chocolate! She did an absolutely amazing job! Notice the Moriwaki pipes, no rear fender and my custom rear tail light. She did awesome!



My other present was a proper Dream 50 model kit! Not a bad birthday at all!



That's it for now!

Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

Alrighty, continuing from last time, here's more updates!

======

Alrighty, I can't leave well enough alone so I had to get out there and get some more work done on this thing.  I started with the awesome CBR250RR tachometer.  I wired it up, adjusted it into spec, built a new pod for it and mounted it to the bike.





I wasn't too happy with my mount though as it was a little too shiny, not very well bent, and didn't have a neutral or turn signal light.  So, I went through and redid it all to get this:







Now that I had an awesome tachometer, I figured it was time to do something with the suspension that has been chilling in a box in my place for a long time.  So here she is with CB250RS rear shocks on the back.



And here she is with external springs on the front.  This combination really stiffened up the suspension making the bike much livelier in the turns, it handles a bit like a light weight dirt bike!



Now, I've been having trouble with carburetors on this thing.  Mostly because I know very little about tuning small singles, but I'm learning.  I was about sick and tired of messing with the PC20 carb though, so I got my hands on the flat-slide Mikuni.  Now at 24 mm, it is far too big for the engine, but even so, it still runs better than the PC20 carb ever did.  I'm still trying to get the tune just right.  As soon as I get the main jet about where I like it, the pilot jet is out, so I change the pilot jet and then the main jet is out.  Not sure how much the pilot jet affects the top end, but apparently it affects it enough to make my life difficult.  Still, it runs pretty decent and sounds wicked!



I had to make an adapter plate to mount it to the factory intake manifold, which was also honed out for the bigger diameter.





I also painted the Mickey Mouse side cover.  It turned out really well I think!



Tuning!



I then swapped front gears for more acceleration.  Went from a 12 tooth to an 11 tooth.  This unfortunately made my chain a bit too loose (it was already stretched to oblivion) and so now I need to get a chain because a bad gear change tends to pop the chain off, stranding me.



Here she is out in the sun!





That's all for now!  My next plan is to get this running well enough to be a good practice rider and then build up a CB50 with a CB125T engine in it!  80kg and 20 hp should be plenty fun!

Thanks again guys!
Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

This is a continuation from last time, but in this post, things take a turn!

=======

My biggest problem with this bike is that knowing that someday I will move back home, I can't take this bike with me.  Being a 1997 it is far too new and will be a huge nightmare to get stateside.  I absolutely love the looks and size of the bike though, despite the fact that I'm so tall.  It is a riot to ride and I wanted to keep that.  So I started doing research and came across this type of bike, which I subsequently bought.



This is a 1979 Honda CB125T.  There are several reason why I went for the CB125T.  First and foremost, it is the smallest displacement 4 stroke twin that was commercially available (as far as I know).  It makes a bit more than double the power output of the Dream yet retains an almost identical wheelbase.  The weight is close as well with the Dream weighing in at 80 kg and this at 125 kg.  I reckon with some work I can get that number below 100 kg though.  The rake and trail of the front end are surprisingly close as well.



So in comparison to the Dream it is actually really close in size.  It is a bit longer overall, but that is due to the huge tail light sticking out the back.  It is also a bit wider and some of that can be attributed to the engine, but also the handlebars are quite wide as well.  The seating position is much more upright so the bike feels larger than it really is.  It looks much larger than the Dream in these shots.





However, if you roll both the bikes up to the curb to line their front wheels up, you can see that the they are almost identical in length.



So, since this thing was a rusty hunk, my first goal was to strip it right down.  Which went surprisingly fast!  As you can see here I got quite far on the first day (and this was starting at 15:00).





Then I wanted to get the engine out so I did the "lay it on its side trick".  That's where you lay the whole bike down, undo all the bolts holding the engine on, then lift the bike off the engine.  It works surprisingly well!



And, engine removed!



Here's the now nearly empty frame.



And a rather cool looking tag on the frame.



My ultimate goal for this bike is to take the Dream front forks, brake, and wheel and graft it onto the CB125T.  Then for the rear I want to take the Dream rear wheel and brake and run it in the CB125T rear swing arm.  Then to complete the look, I'll use the Dream 50 seat and tank on the CB125T as well.  I should end up with a bike that looks just like the Dream, but has a proper twin in it with double the power.

It should be fun!
Cheers,
David

[Nakazoto]

More updates!  We're slowly catching up to the present!

=======

Alright, so a lot of work has gone into the bike recently!  First things first was to get an idea of how the seat and tank were going to sit, so I set them both on there and snapped a pic!





There were some immediate problems with a bracket on the bottom of the tank hitting the bike frame.  So, I removed that bracket and the tank got closer to fitting but I was having a serious issue with the fuel petcock.  It needed to be in the same place as part of the frame.



So, I sliced the frame a bit!



This allowed me to set the tank on the frame properly and gave me a much closer mockup.





The fuel petcock wasn't the only problem, the seat was banging into some brackets/braces on the frame as well.  So, I sliced those up too.





The front tank mounts, being designed for a completely different tank, were too far forward, too wide and a little too high.  So, I had to cut those out and weld in new front tank mounts.  Here's my super technical marking method: green tape.



I used an M10 bolt and welded that in for the new rubber pieces to mount onto.



Works pretty well!



The tank is getting much closer to mounted.  It looks like the front of the tank is sitting too low giving the tank a funky angle, but I measured the tank angle countless times and cross referenced it against the tank angle on the Dream 50 and they're within a half degree of each other.



Next up was the rear tank mount.  I had some thick 1 mm steel, but it wasn't very wide, and I needed a wide piece of steel.  I solved this problem by welding together two pieces of 0.8 mm steel!



It's plenty thick for what I need it to do.



Here's the new mount welded into the bike.



I welded a nut to the bottom as well so that the tank can be bolted down with ease.



Rear of tank bolted down.



Next was to get the seat mounted.  This was a bit easier since the front of the seat just hooks under the tank mount.  The rear of the seat required a bit of work, but these plates got the job done really well!





The frame itself was causing problems though, as it was too long, not allowing the seat to sit flat.  So, that was fixed by lopping the ends of the frame off!



Everything bolted down!



While I had the welder out, I decided to fix the frame where I had cut it earlier to make room for the petcock.  I did this by taking the piece I cut out, bending it and running it at an angle to weld to the backbone.



You can also see the plate I welded in over the bracket behind the tank mount.



I test fit everything again and rolled it outside for some better pictures of the tank and seat alignment.



I think it looks spot on!



I gave it a test sit!



Which inspired my girlfriend to sit on it too!  The bike goes from looking like a tiny scooter bike under me to a full size bike under her, haha.



Here's two more pictures of us sitting on it!





And that's as far as I have come at the moment!  It's been a blast working on this thing and it's moving along very nicely!  A lot more fabrication work was required than I had initially thought, but it's turning out to be a lot of fun.

Thanks for looking guys!

Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

Let's keep the ball rollin!

=============

Alrighty, as Mielko pointed out last time, the rear frame connection point to the back bone was a bit of a worry.  I wanted to make absolutely sure that this was plenty strong, so I did some additional welding in this area!



You can see here that there is now an additional piece connecting the bent frame back to it's original weld spot on the backbone.



Very thick steel was used for this and it definitely helped strengthen up the area a bit.  You can also see in both of these pictures that I've taken a piece of steel and wrapped it around the inside of the bend on the frame and then welded it in place.  This will hopefully help strengthen it up a bit more.  I then did the same thing for the front bends as well, hopefully triangulating the whole area and making it plenty strong.



The should be plenty strong!





Then, while i had the welder out, I filled in the holes that were created by cutting out the original front tank mounts.



I also plugged up the back of the frame.



And then ran a rear bar with a mounting plate for mounting the battery/electronics.



Next up was trying to get the Dream 50 front forks mated to the CB125T front triples.



You can see here that there are a few problems right off the bat.  The easiest to notice is that the forks tubes are shorter.  This doesn't bother me too much as the front forks will be very stiff and a lower front end means a lower frontal area.  The big problem is that the Dream 50 fork tubes are skinnier.



What the poor Dream looks like after removing the front suspension.



While I was thinking about the front forks, I noticed that turning the triples resulted in a very notchy, disgusting feel.  The bearings in here were definitely shot.  So I took the triple apart.



Now, this being the first bike I've worked on in earnest, I don't understand a lot of things.  I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty certain that when you take the triple apart, the balls from the ball bearings (both upper and lower) shouldn't explode all over the floor.  Then again, maybe that's how these are designed, it just seems like a bad idea though.



After picking all the little balls up off the floor I decided to call it a night!



Until next time!
Thanks for looking guys!

Cheers
David

=======================

Alrighty, not much of an update because I was slammed busy all weekend.  I did get a little bit of work done in the few hours I had available though! 

Most importantly, I sorted out my front fork issue.  The main reason I was going to use the Dream50 front forks was so that I could easily and painlessly use the Dream wheel and brake.  However, they were too short and too skinny to use in a safe enough manner for me, so out of curiosity I tried mounting the Dream wheel in the CB125T forks and to my surprise, it fits perfectly.  The bolt is the exact same diameter and the distance between the forks is identical as well.  So, I ordered a set of newer CB125T forks which have a proper mount for a caliper and those should be arriving soon.  Then, I just need to sort out my front triple bearing issue and I'm golden!

Next up was the rear.  Here's the rear wheel and disc of the Dream temporarily mounted in the CB swing arm. 



I'm just using a spacer at the moment because I didn't want to remove the brake caliper (which double as the appropriate spacer) from the Dream.  The biggest problem I'm running into is that the CB forks are a little too wide (to accommodate for the style of chain adjusters it uses).  Since the chain adjusters are essentially a big "U" and sit on both sides of the swing arm mount, the bolt for the Dream is about two thick washers too short.



I'm still mulling over potential solutions to this problem in my head.  Ideally, a new bolt would solve the problem, but finding the perfect diameter bolt in the perfect length aint gonna be easy. 

Next up was dismantling the rest of the frame, starting with the swing arm.



And then the center stand, brake lever and rear sets came out as well!



I feel much better knowing that I've got the majority of heavy hitting issues sorted out now.  It's getting to the point where I need to do just a little more frame clean up (and adding a brace or two here and there), order some new parts to make everything move like butter and then start on the engine.

She's moving right along!
Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

Finally!  This post brings us right up to the present!  I will keep the updates more regular from here on out.

=================

So, I got this package in the mail the other day.  I wonder what it could be?



Forks!



They are late model CB125T Showa forks to be exact.  These things are in excellent condition.  There are a few reasons I went for these.  First, they're Showa.  Second, they fit my upper triples.  Third, they have a caliper mount.  Two big downsides though; the caliper mount is on the wrong side and the bolt hole for the wheel bolt is too large.



Since the bolt hole is directly in the center of the fork, I'm solving the caliper mount problem by mounting the forks flipped.  This puts the caliper mount in exactly the right place and should make no difference to the operation of the forks.  The too large hole was handled with this tool right here.



Seems odd to be making the hole even larger when it is already too big.  Here's my logic.  The hole is currently 14 mm, I need it to be 12 mm and this bit is 16 mm.  On the old rear shocks, I have four spare spacers (the bit that goes between the mount on the frame and the rubber of the shock).  These measure in at an internal diameter of 12 mm and an external diameter of 16 mm.  Drilled and fit (it's protruding out here so it is easier to see what I did).



All pushed in and ready to go!



That allowed me to get the front tire mounted correctly.



I tossed on the rear tire, swing arm and center stand so I could mount the front up correctly.  Then, I rolled it outside for some shots of how the final look is going to be.



Not bad at all!



I then threw on the brake and clutch levers as well as the caliper to see how close I was to fitting.



As you can see, the caliper is going to need a bracket, but that is incredibly easy to handle in comparison to everything I've dealt with up to now.



I then rolled Sideglide's Dream out for some comparison shots.  I was curious just how different in size they were.



Turns out, they're still nearly identical in size!





Then it was back in for some more welding work.  I put the engine back in so I could mount the side stand.  The main reason behind using the side stand was so that I could remove the center stand as it would interfere with where my rear sets were going to be.



You can see here where I've started work on the rear sets.





Here's the mount for the peg.  The thick steel is actually a left over piece from the frame and the centering pieces welded to it are steel nails.



Tacked in place with the peg checking for location.  The top arm is welded to a giant spacer that sits around the swing arm bolt.  The giant spacer is actually the old rear wheel spacer from the CB125T cut in half.





Here it is mostly welded in place.  I have some more welding to due on the inside that's going to have to wait until I dismantle the rear end again.  I'm also thinking of adding an additional brace connecting the giant spacer to something else, just haven't decided what.  You can also see my future placement of the rear master cylinder here too.



The location is perfect for my legs.  It is very comfortable, yet still high enough to give me plenty of ground clearance.  It's actually considerably more comfortable and spacious than the Dream originally was.  Now I just gotta make the other side.  After both rear sets are made, I'm going to properly mount the rear master cylinder and the front caliper.  Then, I gotta sort the chain and finally dismantle and weld some more!

Thanks for looking guys!
Cheers
David

[knowsnothing]

Hey David.  Nice work!  I can't wait to see the final product.  Did  you consider swapping the engines instead of retro fitting the tank and seat?   No sure how the titling would work for that, but since the bikes are about similar size it looks like it might be the easier path? 

[Nakazoto]

Hey David.  Nice work!  I can't wait to see the final product.  Did  you consider swapping the engines instead of retro fitting the tank and seat?   No sure how the titling would work for that, but since the bikes are about similar size it looks like it might be the easier path?

Thanks for the comment!
As far as registration goes here in Japan, it's fairly straight forward to do a swap like that.  Any bike under 250cc doesn't have to get an inspection, so all I have to do is go to the city office and tell them my bike is custom and now has a 125 in it.  They update the paperwork to reflect, give me a new license plate to reflect the increase in engine size and that's pretty much it.  The reason I wanted to go for the CB frame was for importation into the states.  In order to import any motorcycle or car without going through a massive amount of headache inducing, wallet draining stuff, the bike/car needs to be 25 years or older.  What really sold me on the CB was that the rake and trail were nearly identical to the Dreams and that the wheelbase was within 10 mm of the old RC143/144/145.

Thanks again!
Regards,
David

[2wheels]

This thread is a real treat.  A great read.  Excellent pictures.
Thanks for sharing, and keep going. 

[Nakazoto]

Thanks for the comment 2wheels!  I've had a lot of fun working on this bike and I can't wait to see how it looks in finished form.

Alright, first things first, I finally found the PC cable and battery charger to my old Sony Cybershot, so no more cell pics from the shop.  Naturally, I had to take a test shot to see how it'd do.



Not super pretty, but much better than my poor cell could handle.  So, next, I got to work on the left side peg.  After some welding, cutting and re-welding, I got it lined up just about even with the right side peg.



And me mocking up where the shifter is going to sit about.



Now that i had two pegs I couldn't resist but sitting on it and seeing how it felt as a package.  This is about how it will sit in finished form, the only thing that will change will be the handlebars as I have some clip-ons on the way.  This thing fits me like a glove.  The pegs are almost at the perfect height and are plenty comfortable.  The whole thing feels great!



I need to shave...  With the left side peg mounted, I got to work mounting the rear brake master cylinder.  I created a little L-Bracket, tacked it on and then bolted the brake master to it to get a feel for positioning.



The problem with having it in this position is that it is a bit too far away from the pedal, so it needs to have an extension.  It's also slightly further outboard than the pedal, so the extension needs a kink in it. 



A trip to the hardware store found me with a turnbuckle (or whatever the proper name is) and some stainless steel all thread.  A little heat and a lot of muscle and I ended up with this:



This is looking down from the top and you can see the kink I put in the stainless.



This works fantastically and pushes on the master rather well.  It sits a little low, but I don't think I'll ever lean the bike over that far, and if I do it's probably because I've fallen off.  Here's a shot from a little further away.



With that handled, I started on the shift linkage.  I took the original linkage off of the Dream and bolted it up.  I ran into two problems.  The first was that the wider engine sits further outboard than dream, meaning the linkage needs a kink in it.  The second was that the linkage was a bit too short.  So, another turnbuckle and stainless steel all thread were ordered up to do the trick.



Here you can see the kink in the original shift linkage.



This shifts amazingly well.  It just pops up and down through the gears like it was meant to be like this.



The only problem with it is that the side stand gets in the way when it's up.  This is because the side stand sits further outboard than the Dream 50s side stand.  I'll have to find a way to tackle that problem sometime in the future.  For now, though, this is as far as I've gotten.

Thanks for reading guys!
Cheers
David

[Nakazoto]

So, I took last Thursday off and Friday was the Japanese version of Thanksgiving.  This resulted in a nice 4-day long weekend which really let me get to work.  Since finding quality Turkey in Japan is like finding the lost city of Atlantis, I decided to keep myself busy in the garage with my Bellett and the CB!

My first step was to get the reservoir for the brake master mounted, which meant welding a nut to a tab.  This piece of steel was cut the size and shape I needed and then I ran a stainless bolt through it with a non-stainless nut on the other end.



I then pulled out the welder and welded that nut right in place!



Here it is welded and mounted into place.



And a shot from a little further back.  The hose has a slight kink in it which will get fixed with a longer piece of hose during final installation.



With the rear brake mostly sorted (I still have a little more welding to do to be completely done) I started in on the front brake.  My first problem is that I'm broke, I've got zero yen.  So instead of finding an appropriate piece of thick aluminum for my front caliper mounting bracket I was left digging through my scrap pile looking for something suitable.  The only piece of metal I found thick enough to do the job was the old brake rotor from the CB.  Since it was pretty pooched already, I didn't feel bad about tearing into it.



That took four cut off wheels.  I had no idea that brake disc steel was so insanely tough!  Here's the piece I ended up with.



And roughly where it will sit.



I needed to put three 8mm holes in it, so I pulled out my cheap Chinese drill bit and watched the brake rotor laugh at it.



After a trip to the hardware store and a couple of good bits later, I finally had my holes.  I then cut off all the excess steel and cleaned the whole bracket up a bit.



Turned out alright if I do say so myself!



Here it is holding the caliper in place.



Now the problem with this is that the top of the caliper sits just a bit too close to the rotor.  95% of the pad is exactly where I want it to be so my plan was to just not worry about it (since moving the top of the caliper out is a hugely difficult task).  The problem was the clearance between the caliper and the rotor itself.  Clearance was tight here to begin with, but moving the top of the rotor in caused it to be too tight for my comfort.



So, I worked on it a bit and ended up with this, giving me the clearance I need.  I figure I'll do some test rides like this (on a nice long straight where I can stop using the rear brake if I have to) and if it bothers me then I'll go through the trouble of making a new bracket again.



The next thing that was bothering me was the gas tank.  The front of it was sitting a little too low for my liking.  So, I sliced off the old mounts, filled in the holes, drilled new holes and welded in a new bolt.





The result was instantly noticeable.  I think it looks much, much better!



And a shot from a little further away.



And that's where it sits at the moment.  The next goal is to sort the exhaust, which is going to be interesting.  Since my new rear sets sit much lower than the originals, space for an exhaust is tight.  Space on the left side of the bike with the side stand and shift linkage is nearly non-existent.  This is pushing me towards running a scrambler style exhaust (well, that and the fact that I love scrambler style exhausts).  It all depends on what I can get my hands on for cheap.  There's a decent used scrambler style exhaust on Yahoo Auctions at the moment for 2,000 yen, which is about the same as three beers, so I may take a chance on it.

At any rate, thanks for reading guys and I'll be back with more progress as it happens!

Cheers,
David