1994 Honda C90P
Well, the Blue C90G belonging to Doug is back up and running again and the gearbox is just as it should be - unfortunately I can't say I had any 'Eureka' moments other than seeing a few small bruises on the selector drum. Having stripped and rebuilt many engines and gearboxes over the years I find it hard to believe that these would have caused the unreliable 3rd gear selection problem but it's all fine now and the condition of the internals gives us hope that this engine will have a long and happy life. I replaced the clutch plates and springs with genuine Honda parts plus new gaskets and seals of course. I can be a bit Gung Ho when stripping a familiar engine - so perhaps something had been fitted incorrectly, although I find that hard to believe too as it didn't look to have been apart before - we will never know now! On any bike with a large number of owners over 30 years they can be a bit like the all original sweepers brush.
Whilst it was all apart I spent some time painting the casings with the now customary 'Silver Smoothrite' spray from Hammerite and zinc plated most of the fasteners.
I've been out on a few decent runs with the bike and the only other issues were the indicators, which although flashing at about an acceptable rate, never seemed to get to full brightness before the unit disconnected them for the next flash. The second problem is the speedo which reads a fair bit less than the speed over ground - checked using my Garmin GPS.
The first problem was eventually solved without replacing the flasher unit when I discovered that the front bulbs were 21w instead of the correct 10w for that model. The odometer reads more or less the correct distance but even after a strip and clean with a short shot of carb cleaner it still refuses to record much above 25mph. Mysteriously the spare I got exhibits the same behaviour!
I then turned my attention to making a rack to go in front of the rider to carry a bit of spare fuel and perhaps a spare tube and a few tools for our trip. I bought some aluminium alloy strip locally and found some tubing in the workshop, left over from some mudguard stays I made for another bike and pressed some threaded brass bushes into the end of this tube for fixing.
The component parts of the rack
One of the pressed in brass bushes
The completed rack fitted to Doug's bike
Another shot showing the rear hoop - I might not do mine that way as I have a cycle bag which I might use which is a tad too large with the hoop in the way. I have enough material to make one for myself and may make something to go under the headlight and down to the threaded holes in the fork blades for both bikes.
We have one rear rack between us which needs work and a couple of top boxes and panniers but mounting them is never easy when very little frame exists behind the swing arm pivot.