Thursday 24 April 2014

Bike passed and going well

great bike for flying about in trafficm can see over most cars and its really comfy,

have just bought a new sprocket for rear as its revving out too easy so should get a couple more mile per hour.

Best wee 125 ive had, and ive had a couple,,,,,

Sunday 23 March 2014

New carb installed,

its been hardwork sorting mot fail for linkage, absolutely stuck in the bolt to sleev interface on the linkage. Had to get chaps in work to drill out on lathe, and that seen off one of his drills too.

With rear swing arm off it let me address the poor running again, with all that off, i could see that the diaphragm needle assy was not rising  on the old carb, so stripped it off, but its still wont rise when revving.

The new carb is not like for like, and i put it to the side as it was damaged in transit, but seeing as i have no carb at all, i decided to try installing it any way.

It whent on ok, but angle of carb throttle cam is way off, and cant attach the original cable to it.

So started it without connecting to the throttle assembly and it runs really sweet, im not loading the engine as its on the stands but its sounds good.

So i'm left with either putting on the crapped old carb, or figuring out on a sunday night how i get a longer throttle cable and new cable support from all the parts i have in garage, and its not going to happen in time for tomorows MOT at 12 o'clock!

I have attached the new carb via two cables connected together just now, and im swithering if this will suffice for the MOT tomorow.

Now i just need to re-attach the swing arm and suspension

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Carb issue,,,

Looking on youtube re rough running and poor revving on constant velocity carbs, it looks like my float height may be out, along with continuing dirty carb issues. Main thing to concentrate on is MOT, but i need to get bike to start more reliably, only really starts with quarter throttle, and with bike tipped to its side by my good self, which does shout float height issue.

need to confirm i have a air tight seal around both carb mouth inlet and also the air filter assembly.

One quick check i also have to do is remove the new round foam filter i installed, i fear it me be too restrictive as its pretty crammed in the air filter housing, and may be blocking the inlet trumpet to the carb body. This may be an issue now as i repaired all the cracks to the housing, so less leaks+restriction = lack of air to carb (running rich). Will do a plug check once i get the chance to do some miles, and when its settled i will put a platinum plug in too.


MOT Failed!

Failed my MOT, frozen linkages to monoshock, also left a split pin off the rear torque arm, and fail for broken light switch (you could still actuate it, but he failed it)

so costs are creeping up, but ebay stepped in with a refurb switchgear, chaps at work are helping drill out rear monoshock linkage bolt (seized solid),,,, and split pins are in too!


Bike £180.00
Oil £8.00
Bulb small £3.98
Battery 1 £20.86
Battery2 £20.09
Sprocket kit £29.07
Disk lok £3.99
Carb hose clip £4.80
horn 1 £6.95
solenoid £8.00
12v Charger £4.69
filter £6.99
screws £4.00
Tax disk holder £3.89
l plates £6.50
bleed nipple £2.80
plug spanner £2.99
spark plug £2.80
speedo cable £12.94
15a fuse £1.47
exhaust studs £2.41
Rear Stop switch £3.90
Brake Pads FR £7.95
Horn 2 £4.75
Fuel Hose £3.25
brake bulb £1.00
Carburettor £30.00
Exhaust gasket £1.99
Mot Fail £28.50
RH Switchgear £13.00
Mot retest £28.50
TOTAL £460.06

Monday 3 March 2014

Battery issue and ongoing costs,,

Original supplier have contacted me and apologised for the error, they are shipping a new correct battery to me free of charge (excuse the pun!) , so i have a spare to jump start with. Even though it has a kick start?!

All fine, if i hadn't already ordered another this morning. I have three now! Will bank it for the future,,,,

I will add photos in when i get a chance (weather is a bit yucky)

so far here are the costs,,


Kymco costs


Oil £8.00
Bulb small £3.98
Battery 1 £20.86
Battery2 £20.09
Sprocket kit £29.07
Disk lok £3.99
Carb hose clip £4.80
horn £6.95
solenoid £8.00
12v Charger £4.69
filter £6.99
screws £4.00
Tax disk holder £3.89
l plates £6.50
bleed nipple £2.80
plug spanner £2.99
spark plug £2.80
speedo cable £12.94
15a fuse £1.47
exhaust studs £2.41
brake bulb £1.00





















































Just bought a Kymco Stryker,,!






Hi all, just bought a Kymco Stryker 125 off Gumtree. Never heard of a Kymco Stryker but the price was right, and i need a wee bike to cut through the traffic on my day job to uni at night, plus i like to fix junk!


Day 1

It is pretty rough, mossy and rusty, and if it wasn't for brush painted finish it in certain areas it would have been a lot worse off. Yeuch,

Any way, after a quick look over it i realised the basics are where I should start,

ordered up,

1,  Chain, Front Sprocket and rear from Ebay, £29.07
2. 12V 6Ah battery, Ebay £20.86
3. Mineral Oil, 15W40, purchased from local motor factors, 2 x 1ltrs for £3.98 a litre.


So I drained down the oil, it was filthy,

Removed the Oil filter end plug, large 30-odd mm nut on right side of engine, and out pops a very rudimentary oil filter/spring assembly, be careful as it comes flying out!

Straightened the bike up on two axle stands either side off the rear swing arm and left it to drain for a good twenty minutes.

Cleaned the "oil filter " assembly, looks really naff design but it is what it is, i see now why it would be imperative to change the oil regularly on these things, i will be adding a magnet to catch engine swarf later on but for now lets just get it running.

Oil changed and kick started it over, just to feel compression and all felt fine,

So in went the new battery, they come dry and with separate acid bottles, you just invert the acid bottle assembly over the battery cell ports, press hard, and the seals are punctured allowing fresh acid to fill the new battery cells,

I left the battery filling, it happens quite slowly, and started to remove the right hand side panels for access to the battery tray. Two screws hold on the rear panel, and i could see the battery tray. All was a bit messy from previous owners ham fisted tinkering but present.

Now to offer up the battery. It didn't fit! Too tall, despite taking the guess work out of it by searching specifically for a Kymco Stryker battery on EBay, and going with recommended sale, it was wrongly supplied.

The battery supplied was a YTX7L-BS, and is way too tall, fouling the central spine frame. After a browse through the Internet i found the Kymco parts manual and service manual also, quite good documents, but this does not list the battery type by code, only Volts and Capacity, so not much help there.

 I measured the available space and found that a YTX7A-BS looks extremely viable as a fit. I know there is a MK2 Stryker with 4 valve head, but I doubt they changed the battery tray at that point!  I don't know why i'm now stuck with a primed battery that is of no use, so new one is one order. Ebay again, here's hoping,,,


Reviewing the rest of the bike, i could see the cable was off at the carb, so I removed the cable and re-oiled it with engine oil, re-attaching it to the carb assembly.
It was very obvious that someone had been really attacking the filter assembly, it was fitted with strange bolts/screws, cracked and very sad looking.

I killed the engine switch, and lashed up the oversize battery to the side of the bike, and pressed the start button, click, but no starter whizzing, not a hint. Tracing the wire from the starter motor i found that the large connector at the front of the engine was pretty rough and not very secure, checking that and re-connecting didn't resolve anything, So i connected a heavy current wire from + terminal directly to the starter motor terminal, and it sprang to life (kill switch off so just turning),  No clunks, or dodgy noises so time to top up some fuel. So i know i have a dodgy starter solenoid,

I filled up with super unleaded, hoping that this may assist in shifting any varnishing of stale petrol in the carbs, which as i was given a spare set (well rough!) the likely hood of carb issues is very high i feel.

Kill switch to ON, and 5 seconds later the bike started, result!.

Then it died, i could smell fuel, and lots of it,

I looked and the carb was dripping petrol at a fair rate, here we go,,,

Looking at the carbs, i could see the pipe it was exiting, it was a right angled rubber pipe venting to air, and high on the carb top (not the usual float bowl overflow pipe that you see at the bottom on simple carb bikes)

These bike are fitted with diaphragm carbs, looking at the exploded diagram this is the correct pipe in the correct hole, just in case someone had a moment with a second carb install. So i'm puzzled to whats happening here.

I plugged this pipe in the interim, and re-started the bike, but she wont rev. So i believe this pipe and the gallery with the diaphragm is the issue here. I'm looking on the web for any assists but i feel it will be a new diaphragm to resolve this (been thinking about install a CG125 carb, but i will continue with this just now!)

So bike starts, but it wont stop, in fact it wont go, as the front brake is seized.

I removed the front caliper (2 x 12mm bolts,) and left the caliper to hung via cable ties, and bike wheeled freely.

Day 2.

Decided to wash and go over the whole bike, some fairing damage but not a lot, in fact its came up rather well, usual mishmash of non standard screws, rusty bits and cracked plastic.

Got the soldering iron out and plastic welded the cracks together from the rear of the panels, this will stop any further growth in the cracks and proved an interim fix. I will address these later with fibreglass and 3M adhesive (its cleaner and quicker)

Following yesterdays electrical foray, i did manage to take not of what lights where working and what where not, front bulb is ok, rear bulb was not, took off the rear light lens, and it was gone! so that was replaced.

All other lights are working, bar a instrument bulb, that was missing too, so ordered up capless led ones from ebay, as cant be bothered removing a front fairing to replace a 3watt bulb, and it lights up nice usually (they are no use for other indicators like Neutral etc, as the turn them Blue in colour (!?), which is a bit annoying)

So bike runs, is all cleaned, but rusty at bits,

Still to do,

1. New battery that fits. Ebay.
2. New starter solenoid. Ebay.
3. Speedometer cable , Ebay (ordering one speculatively for Kymco Agility, 100cm long)
4. Order diaphragm for carb. Ebay (if available?)
5. Order in line fuel filter (its missing). Ebay
6. Free up front disk assembly.(Use the spare, one on bike is past it).Me!


My purchased has forced me to renew my CBT (Compulsory Basic Training), which regardless of age you have to posses in the UK. It was  a great day spent with local company Bikerite (Glasgow), the weather was kind while we where out on our CG125's, and the trainer was pleasant and informative too, we all passed so now i'm  looking forward to the summer!