Christmas present projects and revising the body mount design for the drift stude...

starting in early December I decided it to cross off one of my major purchase goals, a dirtbike for my daughter. Every once in a while I take her down to our local motorcycle shop to purchase parts for my dirtbike, and every time she loves to go climb all over the little motorcycles and four wheelers there, to the point that is a real chore to get her off of them and go home. She has also been asking when she can get one. I decided that this little Yamaha PW50, along with some riding gear, would be one of her christmas gifs this year. On the plus side, after getting her comfortable with the controls I think she will make a good little riding buddy. My house is situated about a block below an entrance to a small network of trails and off road play areas which I think will be a big part of my daughters life as she grows, and this will only help... and i think she will be able fit this bike until she is 7ish...

The bike was bought used, its a 2003, and the price was right($550) because it needed some help before christmas, which took up a good chunk of my time in the garage. Among the list of things that needed help were:
- carburetor tune. I ended up buying a new carb for it and an asortment of jets since a brand new carb was $17.00 vs a rebuild kit for $30... go figure.
- replace the steering stem bearings and races. The bottom bearing race was cracked so it had to go...
- buy and install steering wheels
- fix a bend exhaust collector that was making it leak
- buy a new exhaust gasket that had the exhaust restriction plate. The restriction plate was missing on it when purchased, and it very much needed for new riders.
- buy a new throttle limiting screw. This was also missing when purchased and is the second of two governors (other is the exhaust restrictor).
- buy a new air filter housing as the existing one was cracked.
- an extreme degreasing was also needed and some repainting of the frame.
- clean out of the exhaust system to remove old carbon buildup since its a two stroke.
- repaint the exhaust with high temp paint

All of those were installed over a Saturday in the garage, and then run over to my brothers house so the cousins could be my test pilots before giving it to my daughter on christmas. My niece who is 5 did great on it and fit it really well. And my nephew who is 8 was a tad big, but dug how fast it was without the restrictor plate... during the test rides I noticed that it was spitting a ton of oil out the exhaust, which isn’t all that odd for a two stroke, but this seemed a little excessive. After doing some research I determined that the oil pump that pumps the oil and mixes it with gas in the carb was either adjusted wrong, or was just that way even adjusted correctly. The solution was to get rid fo the oil pump all together, install a block off plate where the pump went and just use pre mixed gas like my bike does.

I am happy to report that my daughter loved the bike christmas morning, and we were able to go for a first ride the next day in a parking lot... she loves the gas and doesn’t want to let off and can even grab the break and stop the bike... though she doesn’ like too. It is also worth noting that even with the governors installed I had tuned the bike for too much power, and I richened up the jetting a bit to give a little less power for now.

The other christmas gift that took a ton of time this month was a present for my Dad. He, like me pretty much has every tool you can think of, with the exception of parallel clamps. I decided I would make him a set and make it extra special by making a wooden box to keep them in. The Parrallel clamps are based on the first set I designed for me, but with a couple of changes, namely in the bracket that holds in one of the screws. Basically just a cleaner setup using a tapered Allen screw. I also tried applying gun blue, which worked, but it wasn’t the greatest job.

For the box I used some poppler wood with a cocoa stain, brass hinges, and magnets for the catch. The box overall was kind of an experiment because I have literally only made one other wood box in my life. Honestly this one turned out better than I expected. And my dad has been keeping it on the kitchen table because he says they are too nice to keep in the garage for now.

Read More