Honda Elite 50/GY6 150cc swap

This was a fun project, this old Elite 50 had a blown motor, lets swap in some 150cc power!

Some poor old chinese scooter died for this!!!

First things first, lets get the motor under the frame and begin to visualize the fitment and shape of the bracket that will need to be fabricated.

Want to make this one low and sleek, but maintain usable ground clearance. Best to keep the engine case near parallel with the ground to maintain the engineered geometry...

Probably the most important thing in any motor swap is alignment, I take a lot of time and measurements before any cutting or welding takes place.

You can see here I am using steel pipe to align the wheel to the frame. We want this thing to go straight down the road!

I utilized the center of the original motor mount and used heavy gauge tubing to join it to the new frame.

Here is the new mount, just tacked in place so I can recheck the alignment before I burn it in...

I used smaller tubing as a gusset to triangulate and stiffen the mount.

Motor bolted in, time to check things out.

I used some heavy angle to fab the rear shock mounts, the ends are boxed in with steel plate.

The rolling unit! I handed to my customer at this point and he finished the work, new front end, wiring up the motor, adding the carb and exhaust, and firing it up!

Quite the transformation,eh?

Cagiva T4

A friend dropped off this cool Italian enduro bike that he found on Craigslist. Cagiva makes great bikes for the rest of the world but sadly they were never 'officially' sold in the USA.

This bike is an '87 T4 500, 4-stroke street legal enduro. A very well built bike , this one was in pretty good condition but had been tinkered with by someone with little mechanical knowledge. They had connected the right side fuel valve straight into one of the overflow vents on the carb!! I was surprised it ran at all, super rich and pissing gas all over the show... :)

I was surprised to see a positive ground electrical system, rare indeed ! Starter solenoid was fried so it had been disconnected. I had a nice used one in stock so I got her going on the E-start, much nicer than kicking over a high compression thumper!!( single cylinder bike )

Once the electric and fuel issues were sorted it got the standard Hyde Park Scooters treatment. New spark plug and air filter, tune the carb and wheelie down the block!!!

Honda Aero 80

In 1983 Honda introduced the Aero 80 to the US market. It was a nice mid-sized scooter with a powerful two-stroke 80cc engine and room for a passenger. This Ruby Red 84 was the first scooter I refurbished for sale. I had a few cosmetic issues and had been crashed heavily, bending the forks and subframe. I sourced a replacement front-end for it and trued up the frame and it was ready to go!

I found this 83 model in good running condition, it was very clean and complete. A rare find as these are usually sun-faded and missing bits.

These machines are great fun to ride, nice power with speeds up to 45mph+. They also have very stable handling and strong brakes.

Here is another 84 model, similar to the above unit but missing some graphics. You pay extra for duct tape on the seat!I did a complete motor rebuild on this one due to a damaged cylinder.

In 1985 a new Aero 80 hit the market. It got a complete facelift and I think its the best looking one. This blue scooter looked pretty nice when I picked it up , but it had sat for years under a leaky tarp which allowed water into the engine. The bottom end was really rusty and it took a long time to get everything cleaned up. I rebuilt the engine, replacing the crank bearings and seals and over boring the cylinder to fit a new piston and rings. And of course I painted the wheels black and spooned new tires on there. I was really impressed with the results on this one, it rode like a new scooter. I added an aftermarket reed set and upjetted the carb which really made it sing!

Its always 1986 at Hyde Park Scooters!!

1964 Vespa VBB

Here is a perfect example of timeless style.

It was a real pleasure doing some work on this old girl. I replaced all the control cables as well as installing new brake shoes at both ends.

Later on she came back with a blown crank seal. I pulled the motor and replaced the crank bearings and seals. Also did a quick hone and ring job to restore full compression.

Talk about aging gracefully!

1987 Honda Elite 50

In 1987 Honda USA released the first edition of the Elite 50 , it was more aggressive than the Aero 50 and the Spree, the top of the 50cc two-stroke range!  It came in two models , the S model was derestricted and capable of 45mph in stock form , not bad for 49.5cc.

Imagine if your car achieved 1 mph per cc! A 2 liter Nissan would hit 2000MPH!!! Yeah, I know, cars are 4-wheeled, heavy , whatever... This purple and black machine began life as a restricted model, classified as a moped and barely able to reach 35MPH.

Fortunately it arrived at Hyde Park Scooters! I had all the parts I needed to upgrade this bike to full speed status. This involved replacing the exhaust and variator, as well as rejetting and tuning the carburetor.

By the time I finished painting and tuning this scoot I kind of fell in love with it! It was very quick and handled the corners with ease, overall a high-performance machine worthy of the 'Elite' moniker.

At least I got to enjoy it for a while before the right person came along to buy it...

1985 Honda Aero 50

In 1985 Honda released a newly designed Aero 50 , improving upon the 83-84 model with an aerodynamic shape, built in storage and a stronger crankshaft. This model would carry through the end of the line in 1987, a short run for such a great machine.

For some reason the 85's have been really popular at Hyde Park Scooters, I have refurbished 4 of them in the classic red and black livery.

These models have a 2-bolt reed valve setup, slightly smaller than the 4-bolt unit of 86-87. However the smaller bore equates to higher velocity at lower RPM's , in other words strong acceleration from a standstill which will always bring a smile to your face!

I like to paint the wheels and suspension black on these models because the contrast looks so good compared to the silver OEM paint.

This particular scoot had only traveled 1259 miles since new in '85!

Check out the shine on that paint...

I kind of wish I had held on to this one, truly a time capsule machine...

1974 Sprint Veloce resto

This nice 1974 Vespa Sprint arrived at Hyde Park Scooters in a pretty sad state. She was missing some important bits like wheels, lights, cylinder, electrics, etc. It had been left out in the rain with the top-end off, water had pooled around the crankshaft and the bearings were rusted solid!

Pretty decent body though , minimal rust and mostly straight sheet metal.

I see some potential here, love the mermaid 'North Shore' sticker, too...

Here we have the crankcase split, note the rust in the housing on the left side. The right has already been cleaned.

Luckily the water didn't get into the gear box, all the parts in here cleaned up nicely

Both sides clean now, new bearings pressed in. Looking good! Lets top it off with a 166cc big bore to take advantage of the 3-port case.

A Bajaj electronic ignition was added, replacing the high maintenance points system. All the cables were replaced and a new set of wheels was fitted with fresh Michelins!

Starting to look like a scooter again. Now its ready for some heat cycles and a test ride to get everything dialed in...