Introducing a new member, me.

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Nigel2021
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 26, 2021 10:41 am
Rides:: ariel 350 nsu max .triumph trophy

Introducing a new member, me.

Post by Nigel2021 » Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:51 am

Greetings cubuk members.

The website asks for an introduction from new members, that would be me, so at the risk of boring you all , here goes.

Retired, I spent the first 11 months of covid playing with my toys at my home in Scotland…. Ariels, something else, and an increasingly heavy 1200 Triumph.

In the winter of 2020 I managed to put together a workable plan to visit my wife in the far east. It was a plan full of anxiety and risk but I finally arrived in Bangkok.

2 weeks quarantine in BKK meant an aweful lot of TV. I watched all of Allen Millyard’s amazing work and went round the world several times with Ed March. When I arrived at our home in Issan I tidied my shed, built a bench, and bought a vice. What to do next !!

I had often convinced myself that I needed a mountain bike to explore the forest trails in the Highlands, something small, cheap, light, and easy to maintain. Then the light went on.. Something along the lines of a CT 110. The hi low option fascinated me. So that would be the project.
I downloaded pics., manuals, reports, etc. I was becoming an armchair expert.

Now Thailand has bikes, millions of bikes, more than you could imagine. Surely there must be a CT wanting my attention somewhere. Armed with pics I searched and searched , waved the pics in front of anyone who I thought might know , looked in the back yards of countless repair shops…. all to no avail. I met a German biker. He said he once went to a breakers yard about 35 km from my house. He showed me a photo of a pile of motorcycle crankshafts SIX FEET HIGH. I could not believe it. I had to find the place. Eventually I did.

There, behind a village in nowhere in particular, within a walled yard the size of…..”a football pitch” (What’s wrong with acres as a unit of area??) was paradise.
The corpses of several thousand motorbikes in various stages of decay or destruction. Mostly small capacity jap stuff but a few big bikes hiding away.
I wanted the ubiquitous horizontal Honda engine, manual clutch, 4 speed but with hi-low option. electric start (knees are getting bad) , and about 110 or 125 cc. Housed in a stripped down “mountain bike “ frame, disc brakes, no lights and finally I wanted folding handlebars like the monkey bikes had (ease of garaging or transporting in a van).

The place I was standing in was amazing. I have been to many autojumbles in my life, but this was a different planet.

A pyramid of carburettors 4 feet high. and another similar pile over there… mikuni, keihin, others I could not identify.
A pile of crankshafts taller than me.
A pile of engines six foot high.
A pile of frames ten feet high.
A mountain of seats, two mountains of plastic body panels .
A shed full of tanks.
Mountains of forks.
Mountains of wheels.
And on and on and on.

All the time there was the constant background racket of 6 or so workers hammering away at lumps of bikes gradually reducing them to piles of bits.

Outside, a plastic sheet covered about one hundred assorted engines.
Rows of complete bikes waited for a buyer or the chop, some with registration documents taped to the seats. Unbelievable.

And everywhere you looked assorted lumps of motorbikes waiting for… well, I don’t know what.

“Why are you looking for a bike in Thailand when you said you wanted a mountain bike in the Highlands” ???

Practice and a project is the answer. Learn about these small Honda,s. Practice rebuilding an engine...parts are cheap here, and maybe ship a few niceties back to the UK. I am stuck here in Thailand (covid lockdown) … I have time.

I became instantly addicted to this place….. my paradise…….and had to go home for a lie down.

On any Sunday.

The following Sunday, armed with lots of rags, hand cleaner, and enough food to keep a Thai wife happy for a week (lots) we set off after breakfast for the breakers yard.
Like a cock scaling a new dung heap I gingerly scaled a 5 foot high pile of engines. Once atop the oily mass I quickly found 3 manual clutch engines. Caked in oil and sand I was not sure what models I was looking at. I eased 2 of them them to the edge . they had carbs on. I hoped that might have protected them from too much ingress. They slithered down the pile and abruptly came to a standstill. I dispatched the other half to negotiate with the owner (foreigners can and often do attract a surcharge) and for £146 I became the owner of the two engines.

Fast forward a couple of days.
Engine 1. a NF100TE, 100cc, manual clutch (3 ½ plates), four speed , oil spinner , keihin carb.
awefully like a wave 100 on the cnmsl website.

Engine 2. a ZN110TSE. 110Cc, manual clutch (3 ½ plates), three speed , oil spinner, keihin carb, awefully like a nice 110 on the cnmsl website.

Sunday came round again. De Ja Vu.

Engine 3. a NF100ME 97cc, iron barrel, two semi-auto clutch, four speed, and the bits I really wanted...electric start...motor, crankcase, drive clutch, etc. For the sum of £46.

So after a lot of cleaning, inspecting, watching a lot of “mini motor man “, buying a couple of valves, gasket sets, new timing chains etc, etc I put together two engines out of the three I bought.

A 100cc (wave) four speed , manual clutch (4 plates) and a 110cc (nice) engine with four speeds, manual clutch (4 plates) and electric start.

But despite all this fun I was still no nearer to finding a CT. Maybe I have to consider the original two sprocket approach

All I need now is a bike to put them in. Is it Sunday tomorrow ? I think it is. “You could stay at home and relax dear. I can go on my own. I will not spend much dear …. honest.”

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wightegi
Posts: 9710
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 7:23 pm
Rides:: 12v 1988 e start C90,Royal Enfield Interceptor 650
Location: Isle of Wight

Re: Introducing a new member, me.

Post by wightegi » Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:36 pm

Welcome , you seem to have it bad and unfortunately thee is no know cure :lol: :lol: . Whereabouts in Scotland ? I think Mikey has a CT in Thurso.Then there are the new CT 125s that are being imported by Seven Seas Motors .

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Capitano
Posts: 5757
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:05 pm
Rides:: '92 C90, '97 Divvy 6, 36V home-built e-bike
Location: West Sussex
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Re: Introducing a new member, me.

Post by Capitano » Wed Jun 23, 2021 6:46 am

Blimey, that's some introduction!

I keep seeing photos of CTs in various places but never notice any for sale posts.

8-)

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