Project Pipsqueak

[Thorn1979 19]

Well, you asked!

 

This is a project not related to anything garden machine-y. It's what Martin77 and I are working on at the moment.. Martin77 is a fairly well renowned tuner of two-stroke motorbikes, and he also makes exhausts for the same.

 

I ride a small bike anyway (a little Yamaha RXS 100 from 1989, for anyone that's interested) but I wanted something a bit more sporty. Because I am short - or rather, I have stumpy legs - I needed something that wasn't too tall. Riding a bike when you can only touch the floor on tiptoes isn't great fun.

 

So Project Pipsqueak was born...

 

We found a suitable chassis: An Aprilia RS50. This kind of learner legal bike is bought by 17 year olds and ragged to death, and true to form it was in pretty poor shape when we got it - Martin traded a set of exhausts for it (about £200 worth).

 

Its engine was knackered - the top end anyway - the last kid who had run it had used a big bore kit, but then slapped the standard 50 head on it, and not done anything with the carburation, resulting in a holed piston. So we removed the engine and sold it - there was a decent crank in there, and we sold the carb too, and some fairings we didn't want.

 

Before...

 

We purchased an engine from a Yamaha TZR125 and shoehorned that in - rather a neat fit! I cleaned up the frame and swing arm and had them powder coated (for free at the factory Martin's brother works at).

 

Martin has amended the front end, altering the clocks, adding new brackets and a single headlight, and we will change the bars so that they aren't such a stretch for my stumpy arms.. and of course he made a pipe for it!

 

It runs really nicely now, after a few issues with powervalve timings, has passed an MOT and just really needs the bars sorting out, plus all the cosmetic stuff - painting! It will be purple all over, if I have my way, apart from the bits we had coated.

 

Total cost is under £400.

 

Almost there!

 

 

[Stormin 4,458]

Purple!  Are you going to call it Blue Bottle? It'll sound like one. A big, angry one.

[meadowfield 1,900]

Nice work

[Ian 2,417]

That's a nice project, good value for money as well for an all in cost of £400...    Is the fairing staying off? The bike looks better without one

 

Reading your write up takes me back many many years, fitting a big bore kit to a DT50 and holding the cylinder head between my knees while I enlarged the chamber with a grinding stone in and old Black & Decker drill that always screeched when it was shut off

[C-101plowerpower 548]

That's a nice project, good value for money as well for an all in cost of £400...    Is the fairing staying off? The bike looks better without one

 

Reading your write up takes me back many many years, fitting a big bore kit to a DT50 and holding the cylinder head between my knees while I enlarged the chamber with a grinding stone in and old Black & Decker drill that always screeched when it was shut off

 

sounds a bit like my hammer and chisel work on the ports of my old ts50x

 

good looking bike, wouldn't be allowed on the road here because(here it comes) the dutch goverment says the bike frame is an moped frame and mopeds are only legal to 45 Km/h over here, although the frames of those are used on the rs50 and on the rs125(i believe) they can go faster with ease, still the goverment says no, the bike's construction speed(sounds rediculous) is 45 Km/h (standard bikes go 80/85 Km/h without all the crap that's used to get them to 45)

 

 

 

Koen

[pmackellow 2,738]

Nice looking bike, top job

[Thorn1979 19]

What a daft rule Koen.. a hangover from the days of motorised bicycles I guess. Insuring it here would be problematic; I have had to use an online insurer that asks for engine number and CC, cos if I had to phone for a quote I would have to tell them it was modified. It's legit - I changed the V5 - but the insurance would be a small fortune otherwise.

 

Nah, I think Pipsqueak has stuck - I am not generally a fan of "naming" vehicles, but my other bike is "bob" just because it's easier to say than "the rxs".

 

Martin says it will look like a flying blackcurrant milkshake. Like that's a bad thing! He has just changed the handlebars for me cos the clip-ons were just too much of a stretch. All his porting work is done with a flexi-tool - now that's a bloomin useful thing to have in your workshop.

[Thorn1979 19]

Getting closer to completion - while I've been feeling poorly, Martin has got busy with the spraypaint.

[pmackellow 2,738]

Looking good !!