Ace 50 Salt Lake Racer

Earlier today we got our hands on a new project. After a fair bit of reading online we decided to get our hands on a Skyteam Ace as a fun little custom project. For reasons that will be revealed soon we decided to go with the 50cc and over the next couple of months we will be customising the little racer and smoothing out some of the made-in-china imperfections.

The bike is brand new, registered and runs quite nicely, so first thing was to get it up on the stand and see how it was all bolted together.

After a thorough look over the precision could certainly be better in a few spots, but they seem pretty well put together for the price. We are looking to both improve performance a little and clean up the aesthetics of the bike, so first up was to remove the rubber tank strap. We have something far nicer in mind for this area.


The big bulky rear guard and taillight has to go too but we have a pretty clever idea of how to deal with this issue. We will also be looking for a new manifold to rotate the carby into a position where the airbox can be scrapped and a filter fitted. Does anyone know why there is a massive restricter in the current manifold?




There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on improving the performance of the little 50cc model, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Welcome Suus, be intersting to see why you went with the 50cc rather than the 125cc ;D

The restrictor will be the catylytic convertor, plenty of people have drilled that out.

Why rotate the carb? Remove the entire airbox & battery tray & either relocate the battery under the seat hump (you may have to get a smaller item, I have a Shorai Lith-Ion) or get/fabricate a battery tray (OO Racing sell a battery tray here http://www.ooracing.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4727)



And yes they look a million times better with the rear mudguard removed

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Hi Mike,

When I mention the restricter in the manifold, I mean the carby manifold. There is a thick bit of steel wedged in there to substantially reduce diameter just before the motor.

The rotation of the manifold must be a 50cc-only issue. In it's current position the carby angles towards the right hand side of the frame and any filter would foul on it. If I flip the manifold upside down the carby is perfectly centered but the plate is assymetrical so the carby doesn't meet up properly once the manifold is flipped.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

suuscustoms said:

Hi Mike,

When I mention the restricter in the manifold, I mean the carby manifold. There is a thick bit of steel wedged in there to substantially reduce diameter just before the motor.

The rotation of the manifold must be a 50cc-only issue. In it's current position the carby angles towards the right hand side of the frame and any filter would foul on it. If I flip the manifold upside down the carby is perfectly centered but the plate is assymetrical so the carby doesn't meet up properly once the manifold is flipped.

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Ahhhhhhh.

I think yours is the first 50cc to surface on here

Re: Ace 50 Custom

suuscustoms said:

Does anyone know why there is a massive restricter in the current manifold?

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I think they had to fit that to stop the front coming up as you changed from 2nd to 3rd

In the UK 50cc mopeds are limited to 30mph - I wonder if it is just a crude "legislation compliance" thing ? - I guess it is coming out ?

Could the old Honda XR75 engine slot in there - looks to be based on that motor ?

Re: Ace 50 Custom

I'm thinking of pulling it out, will need to work out if it will cause any major leaning out though.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Bojer said:

I think they had to fit that to stop the front coming up as you changed from 2nd to 3rd

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Ha!

Welcome to our first 50. The restriction sounds like a compliance issue; what's the nominal size of the carby? Re-jetting is almost guaranteed to be necessary with any attempt to improve performance but shouldn't turn out to be too difficult.

Crazy

Re: Ace 50 Custom

suuscustoms said:

I'm thinking of pulling it out, will need to work out if it will cause any major leaning out though.

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Shouldn't make a huge amount of difference to the mixture but doubtless it will be set up weak and need re jetting anyways . Some of the ohc Honda 50s had a restricted manifold - meant that opening up the throttle after half way made no difference .

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Wow, I think my bicycle has thicker tires

Nice color scheme. What's the top speed on this thing anyway? 70? 80? km/h

Re: Ace 50 Custom

skyler said:

Wow, I think my bicycle has thicker tires

Nice color scheme. What's the top speed on this thing anyway? 70? 80? km/h

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The 125s will top 100kph peaking at between 110 & 140 depending on gearing , mods etc. Not sure what he 50s will do, this is the first one seen in the wild of DTT lol

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Unfortunately we got too excited pulling it apart to work out current top speed (with a tight new motor I doubt it would be above 50kph anyway) will take a look at jets and carby diameters next time I am near it.

Ace 50 Custom

Are these 2 or 4 stroke?

Re: Ace 50 Custom

ChrisBNE said:

Are these 2 or 4 stroke?

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the 50 is a four stroke as well Chris.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

They sure are.

A little more progress today:

Pulled the restriction out of the manifold. Still runs fine without it, although it seems super rich with the choke on - smoky and won't rev, turn it off and it revvs out nicely and idles just fine.


I also started mocking up alternative rear guards and modifications to the chainguard, but the main project for today was the seat. While I understand that the original seat is a tribute to the Dream 50, the rounded shape never really made sense to me against the square tank, the front of the seat doesn't align nicely with the tank, and I don't find the padding overly comfortable. In order to make things flow a bit better I took rather drastic action with a spare fueltank. What do you think so far?

Re: Ace 50 Custom

suuscustoms said:

They sure are.

A little more progress today:

Pulled the restriction out of the manifold. Still runs fine without it, although it seems super rich with the choke on - smoky and won't rev, turn it off and it revvs out nicely and idles just fine.

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Holy Shit.

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Love that. Looks great.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Cool,looks good.
love the rear hugger made from a front guard , nice work.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

Good spotting on the guard. I will hopefully have some test brackets for it by the next time i post

Re: Ace 50 Custom

A little more progress has been made on the Skyteam this week.

Rear guard brackets are mocked up, will hopefully be functional by the end of Friday.

Jets are about to be ordered to get the carby running a little richer

Seat is coming along nicely. Pan is nearly complete, tail shape is about right and we have started looking at taillights. The one attached at present is our favourite so far. Indicators have been reused at correct spacing for Australian Standards and seat brackets have been reused as well for easy fitment and removal.

Re: Ace 50 Custom

the longer seat unit makes the rear mudguard less intrusive, looks good


Like the way you've used a front mudguard at the rear as well. May pinch that as I have a spare one

Re: Ace 50 Custom

The bike is coming along nicely. Looking forward to seeing the seat finished.

Wayne