SuperHawk Forum - I Got Side Tracked

It started when my daughter got married. My son in law gifted me his 1999 Suzuki Bandit 1200 to sell. He came into some money and the bike was just sitting. It was his daily rider for a number of years. The bike was an apartment dweller so the paint was faded, the seat ripped and the odometer was over 60,000 miles. It's not worth much on the open market but it did run good. I managed to sell it for $1200.

He has a son, from a previous marriage who is just about to turn 9. He is at the perfect age for a little motorcycle plus we have the land to ride it on. The goal was to take some of the money from the Suzuki sale and find a kids bike.
My daughter, sent me a text of a bike she found on a, Facebook local items for sale, post. (I have never heard of this but she is more tuned in than me.) It was located within three miles of my house and I went to look it over in the dark of night. I couldn't resist and took home a 1979 Z50 Honda Monkey Bike. I paid a whopping $160 for it. He wanted $150 but I couldn't break a $20. It is really rough and shows all the signs of someone not knowing what they were doing.

First off, it was pretty dirty. A trip the car wash fixed that. The kicker was missing and the first thing I did when I got the bike home you to click over to eBay and order a used one. A close inspection revealed the exhaust system was hosed, (It looked like someone stepped on it.) The seat was an abomination made of plywood and conduit clamps. The chain turned out to be a sold rusty mess. The tank was rusted out and it looked like someone beat on it with an ax. The rear brake is wrong and dangerous Other than that it's pretty nice. At least parts are plentiful and pretty cheap.

Yesterday my kicker part came in the mail. Amazing! I was able to determine that the little bike had fire and compression. I installed the kicker, removed the “air cleaner”, squirted a little carb cleaner down it tiny throat and gave her a kick. Magic! It went putty, putty, putty oh so pretty. Now I will pull it apart, clean it, paint pieces and fix the brakes and wheels. It will be a nifty little ride.

I ordered a new Chinese replacement tank for $85. The seat, likewise is salvageable and it went into the trash. I ordered a Chinese replacement for that too. It has a CT70 rear wheel. This was a common modification but they neglected to relocate the rear brake plate pin or support. I need to fabricate something. I ordered a used muffler to take the place of the old flat and broken one.

I started the tear down process and I found a few problems that will need to be rectified. First the swing arm is bent in. As I stated before, the PO installed a 10" CT70 back wheel, which is fine, except he left out the spacer. It is a tiny swing arm and he just pulled the whole thing tight with the axle nut and it bent the right side in about a ¼”. Nice! One of the front brake shoes has lost its lining so that will need to be replaced. The tires are horrible and cracked but they hold air. I will keep them for now. It's not like it's going to be seeing a lot of high speed work. And someone, in their great wisdom, cut the steering head stop off the frame. I will need to have a new one welded in before installing the new tank.

Tearing into old bike is a bit like archeology. You look at what they did and you get a glimpse at how they lived, their skill level and what they had on hand.It promises to be a nice little bike when it's done.

http://www.ingramandfriends.com/images/bikes/Z50.jpg