Fozzie

50 miles and you will be done, but the tyre is usually ok for any road stuff after about 10 miles of casual riding.

Or if you want it done quick, go tearing down a straight keeping to the speed limit of course, brake late and hard to build up the heat in the tyres and then lean smoothly and apply a bit of power. On a dry warm day you will have no problems, it will scrub them in nice and quick and you will have a bit of fun. Its what I do and it seems to do the trick

Dan and TheWife

Techno

BB

iwannagofast

Northern Monkey

Bex (possibly and maybe + 1)

Remy (+ maybe two friends)

CobbZ (+ possibly TheSadie)

DeeJay

Susieque+rennie

Boothy (if i get a 125 in time)

craig

mojobanana

Decor58

Yorbandit+1

f4113n

Suzilew

Takanta

Jixerman

vicki+1 and a half

Guy + (maybe Gary)

Danny-B-

Spafe

nman1

Horseynat30101 +1 (maybe)

Grumpy Old Git

Wannars125 + 1 depending on date

eastanglianbiker depending on the mrs health

Bullet5 (depending on family events)

Cruz +1 (subject to date)

Ingah - maybe (depending on the date and the location and if the stars are correctly aligned - i.e. whether the CB500 is working or not)

MHarrison94 (depends on the date)

Mighty Mariner + 1 if back from Germany

PhilGale +1 maybe, depending on time and location (not been bothered with other thread)

Stu & Trace

Chris, depending on date (work/holiday etc) and location (if I can be arsed to get there )

mattyb depending on date

Jakey_boy

Jin

Megawatt and a mate

Fozzie3000

Im in

Razz the fook out of it for about 20 miles straight, not from start. Let it warm up and then ride through town and then get somewhere you can open it up a bit. That way it heats up in town and then when you get out onto more open roads and open it up you've got it running fast and its warmed up and the oil is circulating freely.

The white smoke is normal. My CBR600 does that and it dies down after 5 to 10 minutes. Think its just moisture being kicked out or extra moisture from the air drawn in when the chokes open.

http://www.superbike.co.uk/imageBank/s/Speedycom.jpg

You need a thumb brake connected to the rear brake. They are very very expensive though so I would only get one if you are going to have the bike for a long time and are going to use it often.

Though I can use the rear brake ok when I stand on the pegs on some of my previous bikes. Its difficult yes but you get used to it. Just keep practising and find a good system would be my advise of choice for you.

Bloody 'ell this bikes causing you a bit of grief aint it

Taking apart the rear drum brake is easy, crack out a haynes manual, and give it a clean using a brillo pad for the really grimey bits. Then as others said just re-grease all the moving parts and off you pop apart from the pads.

Its winter thats done it, we had 7 bikes in the garage left standing for a week or 2 and half of them wont move now.

Give us an update on how you do or ill just track you down in junction sometime

Filters are usually a piece of piss, just crack out the manual and find where they are and clean

Just sounds like cold has weakened the battery, the motor is therefore not running as well and draining it far faster

Simple test, wack it in a warm garage, let the bike warm up to about 15 degrees in the garage. Charge the battery and then try to start it. If in the warm environment it starts and runs well then we know

If not wack an iridium spark plug on it, makes 2-strokes start waayyyyy easier

Just dump 100% pure alcohol in there, that way there are no other ingriedients to potentially do any harm. Though yes, in theory it works and I imagine it will work though the bike won't run as sweet as it did until you get some fresh juice in there.

Just a typical 2-stroke, my 2008 RS125 required beating the starter button for about 30 seconds minimum with full choke before it would even consider firing. A hotter spark plug will solve a good portion of the problems.

The cold really hurts their starting up ability. Wack in the much hotter running iridiums, on 2-strokes they do make a vast difference to the ease of starting and running when its cold. Also smooths out the revs a lil bit.

Cagiva mito's are fantastic bikes. Love em to pieces. I want one next year as a run around!

But onto the serious stuff.

The Mito according to the manual and owners agree that 9000-10,000 miles is what each piston has got.

The rebuild kit, on ebay that is which goes for about £60 includes a piston, rings and bearings. I installed one for a mate a few years back and thats what he got for that sort of money.

The bike itself has a 35,000 mile lifespan before you may as well chuck it in the skip so take care. Apparently at this mileage the electrics go.

If you do get one, things to keep an eye on.

Bodywork - Keep it clean, and in good condition. Its known to become quite tatty.

Electrics - Any glitches especially with the starter motor, clean the gear but if anything else then starts to fail try and buy a full transplant on ebay

Engine - Religiously look after it, try to use the right oil, Putoline TTX, which is thicker and lines the cylinder better.

Also with the engine, dont let it seize. Ever! Modern 125 2-strokes arent like those of old. I made this very mistake thinking if it seized id just rebore the cylinder and put in an oversized piston. Nope... The cylinders are all lined for improved reliability against cold seizures. They must be replaced in the event of a seizure, a whopping £200+ there.

RD LCs, TDR 250s, 350 YPVSs. Yes all very strange and uncommon. No mention of a top end rebuild in the manuals.

Even stranger would be a manual stating "top end rebuild" but not stating what is required.

Quite right, which is why I said they state when to the replace piston and rings. Not "top end rebuild"

All 4 of my previous 2-strokes had in the servicing section when to change the piston and rings. Same way most now have times when to change the oil. My RS had a section purely on what to replace and when, the piston and rings were included in this.

Your 2-stroke history is of older bikes and larger capacity ones which are now rare so I havent come across them. The larger ones wont have this info anyway as they require rebuilding far more infrequently than the 125's do.

If you just turned it on then and leave it like that, its perfectly normal. Just a cold engine struggling to sustain itself. Any more petrol, which acts as cooling will be trying to kill it and not allow the additional heat of the acceleration within the engine do anything good for you.

You have to leave it idling for at least 5 mins before riding, especially in this cold. Try and hold revs when you turn it on with choke, give it 2500-3000rpm for a minute and then let off the choke and leave it to idle. If it dies try again and adjust the idle speed.

Then after 5 mins, hop on and dont go above 6000rpm until the bike is warmed through. So go down the road and get upto 30mph using no more than 6000rpm. Then when it has warmed you can rev the nuts off it. Do anymore than that, especially through the run in period then you will blow it up prematurely. And I mean you wont reach 1000 miles premature.

Its got 0.05 litres to hand. It may be a bugger but when you switch it on, leave it and gear up. Send some texts and then head off. Its the trials of owning a 2-stroke motorbike. You should be all good otherwise

Clearly very strange ones if the manual didnt indicate when to do a top end rebuild.

Standard 2-stroke engines should have the piston and rings replaced every 10-15k miles depending on the bike and setup. Most manuals should say this for the bikes. My RS certainly did.

My top tips is, do it in a clean space. Have a desk and towel laid out. Keep an eye on where you put the parts and make sure you rub a layer of oil around the cylinder if you leave it off for a couple of hours. Otherwise you should be alright. Its pretty self-explanatory.

Sounds like a dodgy solenoid as that noise wasnt right for it to be low battery

Usually low battery is a rapid clicking sound but that was a buzz. I would swap out, or even better, to test. You see those nuts on top? Get a pair of pliers and make a connection across them. It should start, if it does the starter solenoid is bust.

I did this recently so I know it works

Explain to the letter exactly what happens when you open the throttle.

Also I would like to add here that GSXR400's and the Bandit 400 had bad carb inlet rubbers. The rubber seals were crap apparently and when they buggered up the whole bike buggered up. Or so I have heard including on this forum too so its likely to be fuelling.

I find a small bucket of water with a good few squirts does the trick but I never have serious amounts of muck to get off my bike

And sleep on it! Then when you take on the problem have a look at everything you need to concern yourself with in this job. Does it fit correctly? Is there any difference with how you did it and how the manual says to do it? I find the best thing is to sit and stare at it letting your mind wash over all the possible things and you soon figure it out

I watched it, and the way he seemed so limp when he stopped really shocked me... I sort of thought he would have been knocked out cold but for it to be worse has really stunned me...

And 19... That is really hard to compute... He was younger than me and I'm considered a wipper snapper. Too young... Way to young.

R.I.P Fella

Let your roads be smooth and curvy, the weather good, a perfect bike on a perfect day up in heaven.

Check manuals and see if the engine was mounted with rubber mounts, of course it will be metal but they will have rubber slip on bits that wrap around where you mount it to prevent vibration. After a while the rubber fails and the bike vibrates a lot more.

You can check them with greater ease and they are cheaper, try to get them swapped out as a 125 engine is very light especially a 2-stroke one and if no luck then progress to the harder to do bushes.

But on a simple note, have you tightened the engine mounting bolts up to the right torque as I heard over tightening them will cause more vibration.

I had the problem with the bent clip ons, just undo the bolts holding the yoke tight on to the forks and then with a fair bit of strength apply a good amount of pressure in setting them right. Jobs a good un

It worked for me and I aint exactly built like a brick shit house now am I?

Sounds like head bearings have gone,

There should be 2 of them, one lower and one upper. Its quite difficult to replace in that you have to support the bike well as you are essentially taking the front of the bike off

They go quite quickly on the GPZ and the GPX for that matter.

(please note I do try to ride carefully etc, as I know i'm not invincible(yet to see counter evidence though) but it means I will not care if it gets dropped/scratched/kicked etc as long as the person is truly sorry and it wasnt intentional)

I'll go and find that piece of your knee you left behind on the road a couple of off's ago

It shall make a nice trophy

His ER6F WAS 5 or 6 grands worth

I believe his logic would dictate (rather admirably I might add)... I dropped it... Its no longer worth 5 grand. Problem solved! Ride on!

Do you have a dyno Fozzie? How can you make claims of increased power without one?

To much dodgey advice on this site

Did it to a Varadero 125 and had those gains. And I read up on the Honda CG upgrades and asked a few people who had them what the gains were. They matched what I posted.

Dodgey advice is better than no advice

And considering I have upgraded about 5 125's in this manner I'd say it was pretty good dodgey advice too

I could try to find the Dyno readings from my old Vara

Get a brake bleeding kit...

You essentially bleed the fluid out through those little nipples (hehehehehe... nipples) On the calipers. And top it up as you go until all the old fluid is out and flushed through with new fluid.

I believe thats how its done... Or a variation of, my brakes always worked fine after I did this and the fluid was clear rather than orange.