John O Groats to Lands End on a Honda PC50
Discussion
3DP said:
Haha -first class!
The air cooled motors get very hot with prolonged full throttle cooking the oil as I said. Some of the long distance guys rig up an oil cooler that completely solves the problem by increasing capacity and adding cooling, or you can just drop the oil a couple of times on the trip. The open pipes seem to exacerbate the issue as well as burn the exhaust valve out, unless you rejet the carb.
Regarding fuel, there was a LeJoG in 24 hours on the C90 forum, where a guy rigged up a jerry can on a welded frame with a pipe and valve into the tank so he could effectively carry 5 gallons of fuel and do 500 miles without refuelling.
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9511
LEJOG in under 24 hours on C90s
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=749
Agree that thrashing these poor little motors at full throttle for ages can cook them and the oil. Good advice from 3DP - I'd be inclined to go with the regular oil changes. Adding an oil cooler will help but you add some extra oil connections that could go wrong. I'm a big fan of keeping it simple.The air cooled motors get very hot with prolonged full throttle cooking the oil as I said. Some of the long distance guys rig up an oil cooler that completely solves the problem by increasing capacity and adding cooling, or you can just drop the oil a couple of times on the trip. The open pipes seem to exacerbate the issue as well as burn the exhaust valve out, unless you rejet the carb.
Regarding fuel, there was a LeJoG in 24 hours on the C90 forum, where a guy rigged up a jerry can on a welded frame with a pipe and valve into the tank so he could effectively carry 5 gallons of fuel and do 500 miles without refuelling.
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9511
LEJOG in under 24 hours on C90s
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=749
Well worth going out and doing some plug chops to check full throttle jetting before the trip. Better than burning valves/holing pistons on route.
Unless time is critical stopping for fuel regularly will give the motor a little chance to cool. For the 24 hour LeJOG then the extra tank makes perfect sense but I'd avoid increasing the load on the poor little motors with another 35lbs of fuel unless you have to.
On the topic of reducing weight (ducks) the heaviest items will be the riders. Making sure your pockets aren't full of tools will help
Looking forward to further updates!
Edited by GadgeS3C on Tuesday 14th January 14:44
Other things to add - these little Hondas go much better with a new plug and specifically a high end plug like an Iridium one. I know it sounds silly, but with limited power, every little boost of torque and power is a bonus to ease of riding and means a bit less time on full throttle.
A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
3DP said:
Other things to add - these little Hondas go much better with a new plug and specifically a high end plug like an Iridium one. I know it sounds silly, but with limited power, every little boost of torque and power is a bonus to ease of riding and means a bit less time on full throttle.
A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
You know your stuff dont you :-) cheers for the advice!! i will definitely get one of those plugs and take a spare with me too.(you dont fancy being our mechanic for the trip do you haha)A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
Tow rope is a good idea, i dont fancy peddling the thing anymore haha
GadgeS3C said:
3DP said:
Haha -first class!
The air cooled motors get very hot with prolonged full throttle cooking the oil as I said. Some of the long distance guys rig up an oil cooler that completely solves the problem by increasing capacity and adding cooling, or you can just drop the oil a couple of times on the trip. The open pipes seem to exacerbate the issue as well as burn the exhaust valve out, unless you rejet the carb.
Regarding fuel, there was a LeJoG in 24 hours on the C90 forum, where a guy rigged up a jerry can on a welded frame with a pipe and valve into the tank so he could effectively carry 5 gallons of fuel and do 500 miles without refuelling.
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9511
LEJOG in under 24 hours on C90s
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=749
Agree that thrashing these poor little motors at full throttle for ages can cook them and the oil. Good advice from 3DP - I'd be inclined to go with the regular oil changes. Adding an oil cooler will help but you add some extra oil connections that could go wrong. I'm a big fan of keeping it simple.The air cooled motors get very hot with prolonged full throttle cooking the oil as I said. Some of the long distance guys rig up an oil cooler that completely solves the problem by increasing capacity and adding cooling, or you can just drop the oil a couple of times on the trip. The open pipes seem to exacerbate the issue as well as burn the exhaust valve out, unless you rejet the carb.
Regarding fuel, there was a LeJoG in 24 hours on the C90 forum, where a guy rigged up a jerry can on a welded frame with a pipe and valve into the tank so he could effectively carry 5 gallons of fuel and do 500 miles without refuelling.
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9511
LEJOG in under 24 hours on C90s
http://c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=749
Well worth going out and doing some plug chops to check full throttle jetting before the trip. Better than burning valves/holing pistons on route.
Unless time is critical stopping for fuel regularly will give the motor a little chance to cool. For the 24 hour LeJOG then the extra tank makes perfect sense but I'd avoid increasing the load on the poor little motors with another 35lbs of fuel unless you have to.
On the topic of reducing weight (ducks) the heaviest items will be the riders. Making sure your pockets aren't full of tools will help
Looking forward to further updates!
Edited by GadgeS3C on Tuesday 14th January 14:44
what do you mean by "plug chops"?
Good idea about stopping to let the bikes cool down a bit, we dont want to be blowing them up.
haha yeah the only thing my pockets will have in will be double deckers haha
Cheers for your advice
John
3DP said:
You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
I think towing peg to peg is safer. One loop around the peg on both bikes then stand on the rope. If it goes tits up either rider can release the rope but just lifting there foot.Something like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z48q6PGwTMA
beanie1983 said:
what do you mean by "plug chops"?
Hi John, Plug chops are the old school method of checking how well the engine is running at a certain throttle setting. This explains the basic idea - video. Well worth doing especially if you've changed exhausts, air filters etc.
Most of the first page links look pretty good if you google it.
I'm no expert but it's pretty easy when you're mainly looking at full throttle performance on a pretty slow bike - suspect you'll be able to run at full throttle pretty easily. Perhaps not so easy if you decide to repeat the run on an R1 next year
beanie1983 said:
3DP said:
Other things to add - these little Hondas go much better with a new plug and specifically a high end plug like an Iridium one. I know it sounds silly, but with limited power, every little boost of torque and power is a bonus to ease of riding and means a bit less time on full throttle.
A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
You know your stuff dont you :-) cheers for the advice!! i will definitely get one of those plugs and take a spare with me too.(you dont fancy being our mechanic for the trip do you haha)A fresh air filter will help too as well as over inflating the tyres a bit. The tyre pressures are usually set for a little Jap bloke with no luggage, so I'd run the front about 10% more pressure than recommended and the rear about 20% more pressure. Will reduce rolling resistance.
Try to limit the weight that you carry and give the spare jerry can to whoever's the lightest or has the fastest bike.
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
Tow rope is a good idea, i dont fancy peddling the thing anymore haha
They also respond well to having their valve clearances spot on which is an incredibly easy thing to do on them. If you don't know how to do it, this youtube guide helps and it's essentially the same process on all the little Honda 4 strokes with the horizontal engine, just different shaped valve covers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HppcqVpnaFw
This was my collection at one stage, but I've had quite a few over the years
Just wish I'd kept the best one that I sold a couple of years ago as that would be worth about £1200 now! Never lost a penny on any C90 I bought.
Hello every one I am Chris the 4th member of the team , thanks for all the advice tips and encouragement , I am in the prosess of rebuilding my pc and am awaiting the arrival of a swing arm from holland ( could not find one any were else ) I am well looking farward to the trip now just hope we can make it , I am slightly worred abut john tho as the last time he went camping he forgot his sleeping bag !
I've been having a read up on plug chopping and I'll have a go at doing it on the next time I get out on it.
Tow rope might be a good idea although they are that slow they might not pull a bike and it's rider, we'll see though.
Yeah checking points is a good idea, my dad seems to know about doing all that so I'll leave that to him I don't want to bugger the job up by trying it out myself haha.
Chris you tard hurry up and get your ped going we all need to go out for a ride!
HB to Amber :-) Louis will be round tomorrow to give her a kiss haha
Tow rope might be a good idea although they are that slow they might not pull a bike and it's rider, we'll see though.
Yeah checking points is a good idea, my dad seems to know about doing all that so I'll leave that to him I don't want to bugger the job up by trying it out myself haha.
Chris you tard hurry up and get your ped going we all need to go out for a ride!
HB to Amber :-) Louis will be round tomorrow to give her a kiss haha
I did a lot of fairly long distance trips in the late 70's on a '71 Puch Maxi. Longest was 1200 miles in 6 days, average 20mph for 10 hours a day. You'll struggle to do much more than that on the pc50 as they are similar. Tips are
1. carry spare petrol, a full tank and a spare gallon can should easily cover a 200 mile day and you won't need to worry so much about when to fill up the tiny tank.
2. extra insoles, these pedals vibrate and send your feet numb on big trips, even when the engine doesn't need help, pedal every now and then to keep your legs alive.
3. Decent motorbike gloves, even at low speeds, your hands can freeze up on long trips.
1. carry spare petrol, a full tank and a spare gallon can should easily cover a 200 mile day and you won't need to worry so much about when to fill up the tiny tank.
2. extra insoles, these pedals vibrate and send your feet numb on big trips, even when the engine doesn't need help, pedal every now and then to keep your legs alive.
3. Decent motorbike gloves, even at low speeds, your hands can freeze up on long trips.
3DP said:
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
I would recommend not holding with your hand. Put it on the pegs and put your feet on it!Fats25 said:
3DP said:
Take a motorcycle tow rope (about £3 on ebay). If someone breaks down or runs out of fuel completely, it will save a lot of time. Saved my bacon on a green laning trip to Wales. You tie the rope to the front bike and the guy behind rides off set, holding the other end of the rope with his hand. Any problems, they just let go.
I would recommend not holding with your hand. Put it on the pegs and put your feet on it!
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