Mobile Pup - Superdream 125 Cafe Racer Project

[captainsmelly]

Hello, due to struggling with time, money, space and skills on the capri project I've got going, I've decided that I need even more work to be getting on with.

So now I'm building a first bike for my wife. It's a rather tatty CB125 TD-c purchased sight unseen off ebay for not very much cash. Rode it home via a mot test station for a pre booked test (off the road for 4 years) where the tester told me to fk off and come back with a less broken bike. Main issue is the rear suspension, it's totally seized in a low position. 50 miles on a solid rear end is not a nice ride, I can assure you.

So here it is in all it's glory..







Looks a bit low a the back yeah?

Shock is just about out of travel with the bike on the centre stand



First job was just soaking every single bolt, stud and screw with a couple of cans of wd40. Left it a couple of days.

First afternoon's job..



Second day's work was a bloody nightmare, found the bottom shock linkage absolutely seized solidly to the frame via a bolt which round off every so easily and had to be ground out. That would explain the fixed rear end.



That plastic bag contains the electics from the rear end. It's like that because if I took it all off the bike, I'd forget where it all went.

I'll update this as it goes if anyone's interested.

And yes, I am working on a bike in my back garden. I'm sooo white trash.

[captainsmelly]

Wedg1e said:

I remember riding one of those when my daily hack was a CB100N... I recall describing it as 'the Transit van of motorcycles' - feels bigger than it is.

I have to agree with you mate, its weird as it looks so small but there's far more space on it than you would expect. That will change when I do something about the bars though, can't be having comfy bikes now, can we.

Just waiting for a seat unit to come through my postbox and work can commence.

[captainsmelly]

I've just shortened and tided up the rear of the frame ready for the new seat, which arrived this weekend.

As honda liked it..



Don't want these bits



Tacked on for now, need a new shroud for the welder



Trial fitting



Ouch! The red stuff used to be inside my hand!

[captainsmelly]

Wedg1e said:

Old disc laid around for a while? They self-destruct like that if they get damp. Otherwise operator error

No, it was new.

Some progress made

Adjusted the valve clearances, somewhat surprised by the lack of time it took. My zx7r was about a week's worth of work but this one was done 15 minutes later! Also the cam chain tensioner, new plugs and oil waiting to go in once I've finished messing around.



I've turned the handlebars upside down for a 'sportier' feel, wanted clip-ons but I'm struggling to find any for under £50, so another mod it is.



Painted the frame in a rust resistant coating, comes out like plastic almost but should keep it tidy. Also sprayed the engine which came out rather nicely I think





I've had to move the battery, as the air boxes and side panels which used to cover it, now don't. Because they're not there.

It now lives under the seat hump on a beautifully crafted bracket I bodged fabricated out of scrap steel highest quality materials.



Some relocation and extension of the electrical parts and loom required, but not much really.

Of course all the mass of the battery sitting so far back over the rear axle will make this a headbanging wheely machine, possibly, so to counteract this and move the COG back forwards a bit, I'm adding ballast to the fuel tank. In the form of filler.

The rear of the tank needs extending back to meet the seat, about 25mm. I also wanted to smooth out the edges, and then try to match the curvature on the back of the tank with the seat hump.

I extended it with fibreglass formed over my fist (with gloves on) and am now in the process of sanding down all the filler. This is from the early stages today, the seam that runs around the tank is now filled and smooth-ish



Still trying to find a replacement suspension link, £120 from honda with a 3 month lead time just wont do!

Edited by captainsmelly on Tuesday 12th April 17:52

[captainsmelly]

Hello campers, I have made a little progress.

Thanks for the kind posts!

I have got the swingarm and all the gubbins fixed back on now, using a replacement shock that I tarted up with some paint. Was going to paint the spring to match the bike's colour scheme, but basically couldn't be bothered.

Also fitted are little air filters, which are cute, apparently.




Refitting the rear wheel has shown up a minor issue. It turns out I'm thick.



So the battery tray had to come off, and be relocated to just in front of the intakes.



Also raised the rear seat mount and boxed it up so it is nice and strong now

[captainsmelly]

Andrew_M said:

I knew nothing about cafe racers until a couple of weeks ago. The series on motors TV is brilliant!

Yes that was good wasn't it!

I've got the seat mounts finished up now..



And the tank is all filled and smoothed, it's extended about 50mm to the rear and the mounting points for the side panels (which are no longer to be mounted) have been cut off




Edit to add - the tank took a lot of filler, about 1.5kg!

[captainsmelly]

Fitted a new(er) starter motor, the original one was very noisy and the cable was shagged so I found one on ebay for cheaps. Have to remove the alternator cover to refit the starter sprocket, so took the opportunity to clean and lube the chain whilst I was in there.



Tank is all primered up now. Going to spray it in an ivory white, should look good (in my head anyway)

Trial fittings..





I have cut a chunk out of the tail unit to fit the rear light, also fibreglassed the number plate bracket into the unit and reinforced the hump section to take the weight





Indicators I think are from a fazer or maybe bandit?

Finally, I fired it up, a few times actually, without the exhaust fitted. Makes a rather comical bubbly/pop pop noise out of the ports. Going to run the standard system (for now..) as I find 125 4 strokes just sound stupid with open pipes.

[captainsmelly]

Hooli said:

If that's pre August 1986 you can loose the indicators for a cleaner look as well. Looks good so far though & those filters will sound nice when you get near higher throttle openings.

Thanks.

I did not know that about the indicators, that's useful. But as this is the wife's bike I'll keep them on, saftey first and all that.

And yep, I'm hoping to get a good bit of induction noise through those little cones.

[captainsmelly]

Hooli said:

If that's pre August 1986 you can loose the indicators for a cleaner look as well. Looks good so far though & those filters will sound nice when you get near higher throttle openings.

Hooli said:

If that's pre August 1986 you can loose the indicators for a cleaner look as well. Looks good so far though & those filters will sound nice when you get near higher throttle openings.

Thanks.

I did not know that about the indicators, that's useful. But as this is the wife's bike I'll keep them on, saftey first and all that.

And yep, I'm hoping to get a good bit of induction noise through those little cones.

[captainsmelly]

Errm, not sure what happened above

Seat unit prepped for paint, didn't need to much work but there was a couple of low spots and a seam down the middle.

lewis s said:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BSA-A65LC-ACE-BARS-26-WIDE-4...

Like this one? Good find!



I didn't want the original rectangular headlight, so I bought another from a mate

It came with a few surplus parts required,



And a resident inside





But looks much nicer on the mobile pup



I had to tidy up this mess to get it to fit though



Got some new clocks in the post, I've also spent some time on the fork legs as they had some rusty spots on them, some 1200 grit wet and dry followed by wire wool and autosol done a good job.

Don't know how much it is visible in the above but I've dropped the forks through the yokes as much as the bars will allow, sharpen up the steering a little bit.

[captainsmelly]

Oh yes, and after a few coats of paint the tank and seat were nearly finished. I rubbed them down one last time this morning, layed on a final coat of paint and then it started pissing down (working outside, cock.) So that's them fked!

Edit to above,

Well I put them in the garage to stop them getting more wet. Just went back to check something, the tank had fallen off the stand and now needs many scratches to be taken out. Arse Biscuits!

Edited by captainsmelly on Wednesday 11th May 12:04

[captainsmelly]

srob said:

Cool little project!

One slight suggestion though, have you thought about raising the headlight? As you can't lower the 'ace' style bars, it may make them look lower if the light is higher. The daddy of all cafe racers (BSA Goldstar) had a really high headlight:



...so most others went the same way!

Also, could you fit the rounder clocks from the headlight donor bike?

Obviously they're only my suggestions, and the beauty of building your own bike is that you can do it how you like it, so feel free to tell me to shut up

Yeah shut up, fool



No, I like that very much, one of my favourite ever bikes!

Yeah the light can go up and down on the clamps freely so I'll see what it looks like once everything is bolted on.

Re the cg125 clocks, they look ok, but it's only a speedo on the left, and fuel gauge and idiot light cluster on the right. No fuel sender on the mobile pup, and I want a rev counter. I'm just waiting for a new battery and some fork seals to come in and I'll sell the cg on again, with the old headlight from the project bike.

[captainsmelly]

snowy slopes said:

bob1179 said:

Excellent project, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Indeed, i agree totally, this should be a great little bike, and potential project idea for others

Thanks very much!

Adam BA said:

Where was the seat unit from out of interest?? Nice project!!

Sorry for tardy reply, seat was from ebay. Cost about £40 I think, quite pleased with it.



Here's the seat painted and fitted with rear light



Note the red funnel. That is the temporary fuel tank!

And new clocks. The speedo has increased the bikes top end considerably.



Got 1 month to finish it, just need to rebuild front caliper, make a leaking carb not leak by means of rebuilding, bodge up a seat cushion, sort out the real fuel tank and sort some idiot lights out. And I think that's it!

Edit to add..

Front mudguard, that's the other bit I need to do

[captainsmelly]

Hooli said:

I've got the same clocks on my Bonnie, however mine don't work. They fell apart with vibration & all the bits except the dials floats loose around the bottom of the bodies only needed to replace them since I got the bike...

So they're the least reliable part on a triumph? That doesn't bode so well!

I've got them on rubber mounts which I hope will help, speedo's not needed anyway really this thing's so slow

DDg said:

Ahh the Honda CB125TDC Superdream, my first bike! Reg doesn't end in '228Y' by any chance?

Fond memories of falling off on a roundabout when under instruction, the instructor riding on ahead not noticing and having to be chased down by a passing ice cream van.

Didn't remember the clocks being quite so 'shoe box like'. though.

Nope, this is a B reg I'm afraid

I laugh at your falling off!

Yep, the old clocks are shocking. Horrid looking things

[captainsmelly]

GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ANGRY

Painted the tank, again, dropped it again! Painted it, didn't drop it, applied decals, still didn't drop it, sprayed it with lacquer, and still I haven't dropped it! Happy!

Split petrol all over the fker and the fking thing fked, again!

Oh bother.

fk it. I'm getting really good at spray painting though.

Sneak preview, can't quite see the stty tank so much here



I've also got water in the tank, trying to flush it out with petrol is how I fked up. Any tips?

And fuel (and a bit of water) is pissing out of here..



There's what looks to be a drain hole underneath, which is draining.

Fuel also leaks from the drain tube underneath the float chamber

I've checked the floats, they do float, and tbh that's the limit of my carb know how. What can I do to fix it please?

[captainsmelly]

Sorry about late replies, don't get on here often

snowy slopes said:

That looks fantastic, considering what you started with, very impressive mate

Thanks a lot dude

Hooli said:

love the decals

Haha thanks, I thought they looked suitably silly!

BliarOut said:

Inside of that carb needs a darn good clean...

Yep, bingo. Two cans of carb cleaner, a toothbrush, and cotton buds sorted both carbytooters out nicely. No more leaks! It turned out to be st in the nozzle/plug thing attached to the float (making any sense?) which opens to addfuel, or seals shut to not add fuel. Full of crap so it wouldn't seal.



Here's what the tank suffered..



800 grit seems to be taking the worst off, the petrol didn't go through the lacquer so that's a relief.

I got bored of sanding (I hate sanding) so I started changing the fork oil. It's easy on this bike, just undo a drain plug on the bottom and pump the fork. I did undo both top nuts/spring retainers at once though, which was daft, and of course the front bottomed out rather rapidly.

Looks awesome with this stance however!






I am trying to resist the urge to move the suspension mounting point, really need to get the thing finished

[captainsmelly]

Hooli said:

That valve in the carb is the needle valve & yup that's where the dirt normally causes problems. If it gets past that then it'll block the jets as the petrol is picked up from the float bowl.

As for moving the suspension, dropping the yokes down the forks to lower the front is common to quicken the turn in. Try it 5-10mm at a time though as it makes a big difference & too far often means the frame or engine hitting the deck before the pegs.

Needle valve, that's the one.

Suspension wise, I already dropped it as far as I can, around 8mm I think, can't go further as the bars are in the way. I did the same job ( on my 7r (no handle bar in the way this time) and was very happy with the results

[captainsmelly]

MOT this afternoon..

[captainsmelly]

... Well that could have gone better!

Runs fine for a couple of minutes but then bogs down, total lack of power, both cylinders missfiring randomly and a top speed of 10 mph (according to un-calibrated speedo)

Plugs all nice and sooty, and a bit of wet stuff on them too.

So I didn't really get much further than out of the garden, MOT cancelled of course.

Other than that it's great!

Seat base cut into shape



Covered in a leatherette kind of vinyl, and riveted down. Looks a bit kustom for my tastes but I can only blame myself for that one



Ready to set off for test time..



And a very prompt return!



Note MOT friendly yellow sail. This will be replaced by a dinky black and white plate for extra style. And a big 'L' board for not extra style.

The seat is surprisingly comfy, certainly when sitting still or going over flat surfaces. Big bumps, you do feel them, but considering the not so high tech method of ergonomic foam shaping, ie guessing what my arse looks like from underneath, then carving away with a large saw to sculpt my Adonis like posterior receptacle, it's better than it could have been. Although if I was a little less stupid, I would have modelled it on my wife. As she will be mostly using her bike of course. Also the bottom is nicer to envisage then my hairy stter.

[captainsmelly]

Hooli said:

Nope, that's only needed if you have provision for a pillon.

This is my understanding, in addition, the vast majority of aftermarket huggers with integral chaingaurds appear far too flimsy to even marginally arrest the momentum of a flung chain. Even on 1000cc bikes on track duties, nobody seems to give them a second thought. The pup is underpowered enough and the chain so light that I am very happy that there will be no safety issue at all.



And thank you bob, hopefully action shots will be seen at some point shortly after there is action!

(fk knows when that'll be though)