Honda CB125s '74

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I guess its about time this one made its debut on here... a cool little seventies throwback... a Honda CB125s.

Originally another ebay local bargain, pretty much complete, except for the R/H side panel & a couple of other minor bits... but with bent front forks... a problem that was solved by rebuilding the forks using the stanchons from the early CG125 (they're the same).

The bike has had a copmlete strip down over the past couple of years (including the engine... several times!) the frame etc were stripped back & re-painted, but it was decided to leave the tank... it gives it the look of a cared for old bike... or was it because I couldn't trust myself to get the stickers back on acurately?!!

It first returned to the road late '11 but soon suffered a siezed big-end bearing for no apparent reason? We assumed at at some point during its "hibernation" water had sat in the crankcase & corroded the surface of the crank pin...
However, a replacement was sourced & fitted... only for the gasket between the two havles of the crankcase to leak... that was duly replaced & now it leaks at the cylinder base gasket... a new one is standing by, but the leak doesnt seem too bad for now so I'll just monitor the oil level for a bit... can't face taking the engine out again just yet!

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Waiting in the evening sunshine....

Summer 13

The time came to finally get round to investigating the oil leak at the base of the cylinder...

At some point in its history someone had clumsily tried to remove the barrel by driving a screwdriver between it & the crankcase.... The result was damage to the lower face of the cylinder allowing oil to escape as it gets pumped up to the valve gear via the rear right stud passage way.

Although aftermarket cylinder/piston/ring sets are available, I've yet to find them for sale in UK.... In the meantime I decided to try to machine out the damage, the barrel was mounted in the lathe & a couple of light cuts taken...

It looked ok, so the engine is now being re assembled with new gaskets from Thailand, it remains to be seen if there is enough clearance between the piston & valves or if two cylinder base gaskets will be needed...

Lister D stationary engine

The meduim term aim is to build a gassifier & convert a car to run on the gas it produces, like most things, this will probably be easier said than done, but early research shows that its been done before! The goal of having a car with zero running cost is certainly worth persuing... if said car is old enough to avoid road tax the the Chancellor knows what he can do!

However the first step would be to get a simple engine & get it running from the gassifier, engines don't come much simplier than this. The Lister has the advantage of being water cooled which means the luxury of heating in the garage is a possibility

The engine will be hooked up to a generator, yet to be sourced, which will produce electricity for the garage, in the first instance...

All this is a fair way off, but at least the Lister is complete, although it has been partly dismantled & the starting handle & spark plug are missing