Owners Bike: Fotios Grigoropoulos, Honda MBX50

Its awesome to here from fellow MBX enthusiasts from around the world and recently I was contacted by Fotios Grigoropoulos from Greece who has just restored Japanese import MBX 50. 

This is Fotios's story:

"I spent about 2 years for the parts from CMSNL and over 5000€! I had spoken and with Steve from MB5 club UK because I was looking for the original Honda Shop manual before I started to fix the engine. All the engine from my hands and it was my first job with all knew parts except the left crankcase cover because has the numbers and one friend of me helped me in the assembly because he has a shop and you see him in the photos.
You see the frame in my room in 2012 and I live in a flat apartment, as you do understand the reassembly wasn't easy in the apartment.
Today the bike has 800km and I spend most time for watching it. I want to have it in my living room but I don't know what to do because I want few times a ride. I am 43 years old. All these bikes came here in 90s as import from Japan.The MBX 80 must be perfect combination because it has the same light frame but 80cc engine and gives better performance."

The first series of pictures is of how the bike was.

And now for the restoration!

My bike: rear light, exhaust, rear pegs, decals pt 2

This weeks restoration update is a little varied as I still have lots of little jobs that need doing.

First up, decal replacement. The first decal I put on was the non-drive side tail unit and as it went on dry (fit them wet people!) it had a bubble in it I couldn't get rid off. Anyway I spoke to the decal company Classic Motorcycle Decals whom were more than happy to supply just the tail decal. So new decal fitted and I am a lot happier.

Next up was to work on the rear light unit assembly. This was completely dismantled and lenses and body were polished using a plastic polish. The heat shield for the number plate light was tatty and although you cannot see this I rubbed it down and painted it anyway. While I was painting I started work on the rear foot peg hangers.

I also wanted to work on the heat shield for the exhaust as this had a nasty dent in it and as this is a no longer available item I needed to make a good job.
Using a small metal hammer and my vice, I beat the dent out and shaped the plate, then a little filing to get the major gauge out then finished up with wet and dry. This was a particularly satisfying job!

before

after

My bike: Chain, gear pedal and brake torque arm

This week I have been busy with work but I manged to fit in a couple of more jobs.

The first being the new front sprocket enabling me to fit the new DID chain and to re-fit the left hand engine cover. Other items installed this week were: gear shift pedal and rubber, rear brake torque arm.

My bike; Engine

This last week I sent off my engine to the Honda M Shop in the Netherlands for refurbishment. There are people in the UK that are perfectly capable in doing this work but Dirk at the Honda M shop specialises in these little engines, has everything in stock and his prices are extremely competitive.

So the engine went of for a complete overhaul including;

Rebore
New piston and ring set
All new bearings
All new oil seals
New clutch
All new bolts
All new gaskets
Engine paint and refinish

The only hiccup we had was that the carburetor was actually broken so this got replaced with a genuine 18mm Kehlin.

All the work was carried out over 3-4 days and my engine was posted back to me, all in including postage both ways the engine was away for 10 days, not bad!

Dirk also posted back the old parts, check out the state of the original piston bellow!

My bike, foot pegs and odd jobs

This week I had a parcel from CMSNL turn up, with lots off small parts with the view to finishing a few odd jobs.

Firstly the front wheel right side spacer to replace a corroded one, rear sprocket bolts, chain tug bolts, new side stand spring and some new foot rest parts.

you can see I have not yet bent the tab over in this picture to lock the bolt off

now on the bike a looking factory fresh!

My Bike: graphics and some light assembly

This week I wanted to look at the graphic set I bought to feedback to the members of the Honda M Club (UK). I only actually need the side panel set, seat unit and front mudguard as the fuel tank, fairing and belly pan are all NOS and have the factory graphics on them. I also wanted to see the difference in the quality, colours and alignment with the fuel tank and it was also a good opportunity to check the painted panel colour with the NOS tank.

Tip: clean the panel first then wet it with soapy water. Cut out the graphic you need tight to graphic to help with alignment. lay the graphic on the wet surface and adjust for perfect position, tease out all bubbles and creases. Keep working it until you are happy and then carefully remove the decal backing while working on the decal to prevent lifting, then leave to dry.

Decals were via ebay seller Classic Motorcycle Decals

I also fitted the front mudguard and mudguard brace with new stainless steel bolts and also the rear inner mudguard piece that protects the Preo Link assembly.

new tail unit vs old

new LH panel vs old

pair of side panels

front mudguard

alignment and colour check

My bike, restoration update, rear brake

Apologies for the lack of updates recently as I have been super-busy with work so my bike has had to go on the back burner for a couple of months.

This week I decided to mount the rear brake pedal, unfortunately where this item was powdercoated it didn't fit the frame so I had to remove the paint from the pin and the frame before assembling with plenty of copper grease. A new split pin was fitted to retain it and the re-plated adjustable brake stop and return spring fitted.

I also have had the new decal kit turn up plus an assortment of bolts and nuts to fill the gaps where the original was too poor to be re-used.

My Bike: Rolling Chassis

This week I torqued all the suspension linkage bolts and assembled the front forks and added the wheels, no I have a rolling chassis!

I have also tried a vlog style video to talk about this step.

My Bike: Bodywork, bolts, wheels

Job 1 this week was to re-assemble the tail unit, this evolved re-riveting the internal metal support, re-fitting the seat lock, rubber grommets and re-fitting the indicator blanks.

The second job was the mask the spoke blades on the front wheel and have a go at painting the front hub.

the 3rd job was to install the new taper head races to the frame and fit the triple clamps. I used this Pyramid parts kit bought of ebay. The upper and lower bearings are different with the lower pressing directly on the the steerer, remember to fit the seal on first! Also pay attention to the lower race as it needs tapping inside the frame's head tube all the way to the frame stop, this way the bearing is in the frame and the seal works properly. I actually didn't use the supplied top seal and retained the dust shield of the original MBX headset, firstly it assembles better this way and secondly keeps it looking standard.

lastly I got some more bolts back from zink plating, so the nuts on the suspension linkage now all match!