Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Day 5
So after spending Day 4 indoors hiding from the rain and playing with the Carby, i wanted to go for a ride. I also wanted to do an oil change. After much buggering around i decided I would take the 50 to someone who knows the 50's. Firstly I called into a place called scooterroo, they do 50cc scooters, but apparently don't work on bikes. I knew there was a place just outside Brisbane that sold the 50 model so I rode about 50kms to Cleveland QLD, and stopped in at the Cafe racer shop (https://www.caferacershop.com.au/).

Explained some of the issues i was seeing, such as high idle, like flatchat for no reason, and if i changed the fuel screw it would be a PITA to start. Chain tighten, oil change etc. I was going to do the oil change myself but the Super Cheap Auto stores dont have oil return bins out front, so wasnt sure how to dispose of the oil correctly.

Anyway he had a look over, he explained to me with the Chinese carby they are fairly soft (same with the chain), and what happens is if someone else who doesn't know this adjusts the fuel screw, it can gouge internally, which is where the high idle comes from, the needle gets caught then trying to idle. Also another strange issue was the accelerator cable is meant to have a stopper on the end in the carby, my cable doesn't, which meant i could accelerate clockwise and anticlockwise, Also a cable tie was pulled tight on the accelerator cable, restricting the return.

I also asked about a replacement brake lever, kick starter and 70cc upgrade, first two can be gotten and upgrade, no body has any.

So coming out it runs better, less vibrations, but also a bit less power :p (translates to about 5kph slower in top gear {could be all in my mind tho}).

Then I planned to ride the bike over to Stradbroke island, but it was about 2PM and the last ferry back was 5PM, So I rode around looked at the touristy things (like dead canetoads and ocean) and headed back to Brisbane. I think the trip back was the first time i saw some real asses on the road, but they were a minority.

I also think I got my first bid to ship the bike back to Adelaide this day, And had chicken buffalo wings for dinner ;)
 

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Day 6 - Have a holliday.

I rode over to Stradbroke island and just spent the day at the beach. Sat on the beach looking for jobs and houses (and the females). Arranged for a transport company (FFS transport) to move the bike from QLD to SA for $551 on day 7. Bike is running real well now, getting more confident on it, although going down hill on it at like 70kph still makes me stress lol due to crappyish brakes.

That night I was riding to dinner, and ran out of fuel. Luckily enough for me there was a petrol station up the road. I tried the reserve tank but no dice. Filled her with 8.6ltrs or something and finally got it running again. I will take a closer look at that reserve later.
 

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Day 7 Bike pickup and fly back to Adelaide.

So I had to checkout of where I was staying. Again with my fully loaded backpack I think it was obvious I had brought too much camera equipment with me. Next long ride I will really bring the bare essentials.

My flight was at 18:10 so i had some time, and i hadn't heard from the freight people yet so I went to have a look around Brisbane CBD then finally ended up at the touristy Mount Coot-tha area. At about 12:00 I called the freight guy he said he would meet me at 13:00 at a petrol station. Nice guy, runs freight from Toowoomba, secured the bike correctly and it will be on a truck on Monday.

It was bloody hot, and I walked to the train station and started the journey home from here.

Thanks to all the guys who helped and gave input, all very wise tips and help. Dont worry this wont be the end of slowverland, I have a few semi crazy plans like a flinders run, or a coorong run, hopefully this time with some video and actually successfully get to the destination (although this was an adventure to say the least).
 

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Re: Ace 50 Slowverland trip. QLD > SA

Glad to see you had some adventures. Have to catch up for a ride sometime in the new year. I’m south of Adelaide . Hope to see you on the road


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The bike arrived in Adelaide yesterday, A bit worse for wear, but nothing major. The glass mirror has fallen out from the mirror, So went to kmart and grabbed a ladies makeup mirror that is just the right size and some liquid nailed fixed that, (I'm replacing them anyway in the future). Indicator is a bit bent, oh and the Tacho was rooted, took that appart found a few capacitors floating around inside, new one ordered. A few spokes were loose (which might be some vibrations i had noticed) so i tightened them (to the best of my ability {e.g rotated tightened skipped 4 tightened, but no idea how tight is tight}).
 

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A great little adventure to start what we hope will be a loving relationship for a long time.
 
Thanks Orrible, my fix of using a makeup mirror worked enough to get it past regency and Registered in SA last Thursday afternoon.

And have some new ones on their way from china ~40 bux, with a new brake lever (with included reservoir) ~12bux, and something to replace the rubber tank strap, but wait for a picture of that if it works out ;).

My next pain in the butt is the Tab on the chain guard decided to just snap off from the frame sad panda, not sure I'm confident enough to stick weld to Chinese steel.
 

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orrible :p, Thanks for the Tig offer, at the moment i just removed the chain guard, will fix in time.

Yeah i have been riding it arround the northern burbs the past week or two, nothing amazing yet. I got the RPM guage today, and the replacement brake lever (will fit it today at lunch{back at work}). With the RPM guage i will look if there is a way to insulate it from teh vibratiosn because thats what killed the last one.

Also looking at a mikuni VM16 carb for it but not decided yet.
 
So I got my Chinese "genuine" leather belt that looks like a crocodile :p to replace the cracking tank rubber belt. I just used a big rivet to fold the belt over on the ends, in the long run i might need to drill them out and put some eyelets or something but we will see.

I also got my chinese $11 brake reservoir and lever, I just removed the old Skyteam lever and replaced it with this one, it lines up with the brake button and is 98% the same as the original.

I also changed the bikes oil, I think the cafe racer shop put too much oil into the bike when they did a service, there was easy 1Ltr++ in there and was a bit vibration-y at top speed.

now just waiting on the mirrors, But even with a skeleton staff at work people come from miles away to ask questions about it :p
 

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Just spent my morning at work bored and had great fun reading about your journey , need to do it myself but my little one is running at the moment, but i shall having her purring like a kitten soon enough with soon added mods which i shall update the folks on.

You bikes looking awesome with the croc tank belt though good going look forward to seeing some more progress. :D
 
I tried to build a new seal for the gas tank from some old rubber conveyor belt I had lying arround, It was super tight and thought it would work a treat, instead it was a dismal failure leaking more than if i didnt hava a cap on the tank lol. All good ordered the correct honda part from partzilla, now we wait.
 

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Had the same problem and purchased the Honda OEM seal, however, while it reduces the leaking at the seal it will not stop the fluid coming up through the locking mechanism.

The secret is not to fill over the internal lip which is about 10mm down inside the tank.

Otherwise replace with a Honda cap.
 
Sneikz: i have a new Honda cap and an additional seal coming just in case :p Ships tomorrow from partzilla wherever their based.

My mirrors arrived, They are really nice quality, like REALLY nice. Putting them on was easy enough, the mirrors have some aluminum part that is meant to expand when you do them up to hold them in the bars, but it looked like they assembled them backwards, so the metal couldn't expand. fixed that.

I also had an issue on the test ride that the the weights were vibrating around in the handlebars. So i used a hot glue stick and some superglue to pull them out, (i tried a magnet but it wasnt strong enough), I then liquid nailed the weight in at their correct position.
 

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Nice job. A world of tinkering and little mods.

How do you find the Ram mount? Do you use the rubber retainer?

I have a Chinese knockoff which has a usb charging port incorporated in it. I've placed a black Velcro dot on the back of my phone with the hook dot on the mount centre.
 
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