My ebay special quad bike project.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Hello Chaps! I have a new toy! It's a Honda Big Red 300cc quad. My friend and I are going to do a bit of restoration and put her on the road. Then there shall be fun for all as we ride back lanes, green lanes and to the pub.

She arrived looking like this;

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

First I got the plastics, load racks and wheels off. I'm doing the metal work whilst my partner in crime does the plastics. Please note, Springer Spaniel puppies are not very helpful, but they are cute.

I wanted to put the wire wheel on the grinder but couldn't find the spanner. Which was odd because I had just put it down, I did find it; someone was "helping"

Edited by Chainsaw Rebuild on Wednesday 17th August 11:32

[castex]

Nice!
I crashed one of these through a dry stone wall at night because I couldn't find the light switch.
Only cost me £600 (wall rebuild was FOC).

[ALBA MELV]

Jesus, someone got their moneys worth out of the tyres.

Looks pretty rough just now.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

They certainly did! It does look rough, but it all works apart from the brakes and the headlights.

So far I have cleaned and painted the wheels with red oxide then silver Hammerite, once they are dry I will post a picture up.

Also - top bombing to castex who rode through a wall! I hope it didn't hurt too much.

[Slow]

These bikes are really good, other than the brakes which fill up with crud when they get wet. You can try seal them however you want but st will still get in.

We ran a fleet of 15 of them for a off-road business. Ended up converting them to disc breaks on the back using parts from Chinese dirt bikes as the brake pads cost peanuts.

Look out for cracks in the frame, below the engine.

If you need parts contact quadbike Wales and they have almost everything you need.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Slow said:

These bikes are really good, other than the brakes which fill up with crud when they get wet. You can try seal them however you want but st will still get in.

We ran a fleet of 15 of them for a off-road business. Ended up converting them to disc breaks on the back using parts from Chinese dirt bikes as the brake pads cost peanuts.

Look out for cracks in the frame, below the engine.

If you need parts contact quadbike Wales and they have almost everything you need.

Thank you very much! Was the rear brake conversion difficult?

[CHARLESBERG]

How much work will be required to get this on the road?

Would it also have any restrictions; Do they treat a fun quad differently to a proper farm quad (like yours) for example?

[Slow]

Chainsaw Rebuild said:

Thank you very much! Was the rear brake conversion difficult?

Don't believe so, I didn't do it myself but I know roughly what was done as I ordered the bits. The mechanics took about 3-4 hours per bike.

There was a custom made bracket to hold the calliper, believe we found a disc that fitted the shaft (had 1 centre disc). A motorbike of sometype brake lever and reservoir mounted in replacement of the standard rear one. Did mean you lost the parking brake though so had to just leave it in gear.

I will try find some pictures and the parts that were ordered if you would like?

[Mark Benson]

I had one of those when we had a smallholding. It was in about the same condition as you bought your, but it was cheap (about 8 pints or so, could have been more but I was......drunk).

Bald tyres were fun on wet fields but apart from a few starting problems, fixed by a carb rebuild (cost: 2 dozen eggs and a pack pack of our bacon and sausages) it didn't falter for a good couple of years. Was used and abused daily and took all we could throw at it (including 2ft of snow). Agree about the brakes though, atrocious!

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

CHARLESBERG said:

How much work will be required to get this on the road?

Would it also have any restrictions; Do they treat a fun quad differently to a proper farm quad (like yours) for example?

Basically it needs an mot and then the DVLA will register it as a private light goods vehicle. As I don't know the age of it, it's going on a Q plate.

To MOT it it needs indicators, mirrors, a horn, brake light etc. I don't think it will be too bad...

Farm quads can be registered agricultural but they can't go too far from the farm. Also I don't have a farm.

If it's under 10 years old you can put it through a motorcycle IVA type test instead.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Slow said:

Chainsaw Rebuild said:

Thank you very much! Was the rear brake conversion difficult?

Don't believe so, I didn't do it myself but I know roughly what was done as I ordered the bits. The mechanics took about 3-4 hours per bike.

There was a custom made bracket to hold the calliper, believe we found a disc that fitted the shaft (had 1 centre disc). A motorbike of sometype brake lever and reservoir mounted in replacement of the standard rear one. Did mean you lost the parking brake though so had to just leave it in gear.

I will try find some pictures and the parts that were ordered if you would like?

That's very kind of you! Yes please if it's not too much trouble.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

A small update; the wheels are now painted silver! Work continues tonight.

[lindrup119]

We've got one of these. It was the first thing to suffer when I went through my "modifying" phase when I was younger. Modifying at that point meant spraying things a different colour, so the racks are now a nice shade of rusted silver

It still gets some abuse when I visit home.

[DanSI]

Great! A fun project! Certainly if you have your own (or access to) tools, garage space etc, this will become a very cost effective restore.
Is it running Quad, or you have engine work to do also?

I look on EBay quite frequently, for an adult sized off-road buggy. I don't have a farm or anything, but just having one sat in the Garage that I could tinker with, would be cool!

[Slow]

Found a picture of the custom made brackets for mounting the calliper


Very capable bikes which are also happy to swim engine deep in water.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

DanSI said:

Great! A fun project! Certainly if you have your own (or access to) tools, garage space etc, this will become a very cost effective restore.
Is it running Quad, or you have engine work to do also?

I look on EBay quite frequently, for an adult sized off-road buggy. I don't have a farm or anything, but just having one sat in the Garage that I could tinker with, would be cool!

It does indeed run, it just needs servicing. The brakes are the main problem. The front has a seized master cyclinder and the rear squeals all the time.

I would say get one! Maybe something like a John Deere gator? You could put it in the road as a fun run around.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

After a late start due to a wedding reception, work resumed this afternoon. First we jet washed the mud out of the nooks crannies, this was quite fun.

Then we tried some rust removal gel. This was less fun, I have left it on over night to see if it does something. It seems on surface rust it's good, but on established rust it doesn't seem to touch it.

We are currently trying to workout how to brighten the plastics back up.

Tomorrow we have a day off and frame painting and the brakes are on the agenda.

[Slow]

Use paint thinners, or "post box red" paint is pretty close for things like the tank.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

A lot of rust removal had to be done, and then on to red oxide followed by tractol (tractor paint - great stuff).

Then a hole was found in the chassis but fortunately my mate Jon and his wonderful welder came to the rescue! I have a pic of that but it features some spectacular builders cleavage and publishing that doesn't seem like a very good thank you

We went to free off the cables, which was a success! Bonus. But upon further investigation I find the choke cable isn't connected to anything at the carb end. When I look inside, I find the spring and plunger are missing?! Dear Mr Honda Dealer, please may I have...