The Moriarty MKII, a new project bike for a friend

**Serpentza** · 10-03-2013, 12:01 PM

A good mate of mine Pete (actually the bloke who bought the Churchill) is in the market for a new bike... I built another bike... but I wasn't happy with it, it's a great little performer, but he wanted something he could potter about with his bird on the back and also something with power and practicality....

Here's a picture of the bike I originally built for him but wasn't satisfied that it met his requirements (so it went to C-milk who can appreciate its performance orientated stance and handling).

MoriartyMK1.jpg

I happened to be wrenching on this bike at my local bike shop when I saw a GN125 clone stripped down for fixing and it clicked... This is the bike I want to build for Pete, it's bigger, more comfortable, safer and much better for carrying a passenger.

So... enter the piece of shit canvass:

IMG_20131003_2.jpg

It runs.. but that's not important since I'm going to toss the engine anyway...

Why did I choose this rusty piece of crap? Well simply because the frame is salvageable, it has a new tank, the rear tyre is newish... and well because it's the right shape....

The first thing to do was to get rid of all the rust on the frame... this was done using a wire-brush attached to a grinder... I managed to also remove several layers of skin off of my one hand in the process (pain is for the weak).

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After removing every bit of offending rust (there was a lot)... I had to turn my attention to that awful swingarm:

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It was completely rusted through... and the swingarm bolt was rusted in place... I had to cut the bugger out with a grinder...

Coming up... things start to look better

- SerpentZA (youtube.com/serpentza)

**Serpentza** · 10-03-2013, 12:17 PM

We continue...

Long story short, a new swingarm, a pair of new rear shocks, and a fresh coat of paint on the rear frame and it ended up like this:

framefixed.jpg

What an improvement... but it took a lot of bloody work :P

I put the rear wheel back on (I'll be taking it off again tomorrow to clean and respray it)

wheel.jpg

Next, I cleaned up a lot of the bits and pieces and then put it all back together... I was knackered and needed to call it a day....

Here's how the bike stands at the end of day one:

dayone1.jpg

Starting to look like something...

dayone2.jpg

Tomorrow the engine gets tossed and a lot of changes will happen to the front end... stay tuned...

- SerpentZA (youtube.com/serpentza)

**zhu** · 10-03-2013, 01:10 PM

good choice for a potterer/putterer. Those things have comfort as their main attribute and reliability as a back up. Going to go for the 250 implant?

**Serpentza** · 10-03-2013, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by zhu

good choice for a potterer/putterer. Those things have comfort as their main attribute and reliability as a back up. Going to go for the 250 implant?

Yes, already ordered a 250cc Shineray engine.. I love those engines :P

**modron** · 10-03-2013, 01:19 PM

What do you use to get rid of all the rust and aluminum/chrome oxidation? Seems it work really well. My bikes engine is a bit oxidized and I cant find good product to remove it as all the recommended ones are western and hard to get here. Have no idea about the Chinese ones

**Serpentza** · 10-03-2013, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by modron

What do you use to get rid of all the rust and aluminum/chrome oxidation? Seems it work really well. My bikes engine is a bit oxidized and I cant find good product to remove it as all the recommended ones are western and hard to get here. Have no idea about the Chinese ones

WD40... I bathe the bike in it and then scrape off the crud with steel wool or something similar... basically oil is the key ;)

**Serpentza** · 10-04-2013, 12:29 PM

Today was pretty productive... I started to work on the front end of the bike...

Firstly I have to explain that the entire front end of this bike is rubbish... here's what's wrong with it:

The forks are rusted pieces of crap, the speedometer and tacho are garbage (and don't work either), the triple tree/clamp is rusted and gnarly and the headlight mounts are rusty too... oh and I didn't mention that the speedo cable and the cable driver are seized and rusted too... basically the whole lot is garbage.... so where do I start?

frontend1.jpg

First thing was to remove the headlight so that I could get at the bolts holding on the speedo cluster... I could also get a closer look at all the rusty goodness that lay beneath...

frontend2.jpg

This bike has seen better days... actually... being bought by me is probably the best thing that has ever happened to this poor neglected turd...

frontend3.jpg

These are absolute garbage, maybe they worked once... way back in antiquity, strange thing is, a pikey at the shop almost tripped over himself with joy when I gave them to him because they "looked more beautiful than the ones on his bike".....

frontend4.jpg

Next I took all the rusty bits and brushed them down to bare steel with the steel brush/grinder combo (be careful with this, not only did I remove a lot of skin yesterday... but today ended up with a lot of wire splinters in my leg hand and even my cheek...)

frontend5.jpg

Here we can see some of my bits after their first coat of paint (more coats and a clearcoat were to follow later)....

Next we take care of those disgusting head bearings....

**Serpentza** · 10-04-2013, 12:50 PM

When taking off the triple clamp/tree, what was left of the crusty head bearings all fell out... they were rusted garbage in any case...

So... good time to replace them:

headb2.jpg

Worn out and rubbish...

headb3.jpg

brand new shiny head bearings :)

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You can't just install them raw like this, they need grease... so here comes the grease...

headb5.jpg

Top and bottom all greased up and ready to be re-installed...while I was doing this, I ordered the new front forks...

In the next part the new front forks arrive...

**Serpentza** · 10-04-2013, 01:09 PM

Right, so the new forks were perfect, I put them on and now that everything was cleaned up and de-rusted things were starting to look good:

forks1.jpg

The brand new forks and the nicely re-sprayed/de-rusted everything really go well together...

forks2.jpg

Look at this rubbish disc brake... unacceptable! (so is the wheel rim... but sanding it down and re-spraying it is tomorrow's job)

forks3.jpg

Ventilated discs are sooo much better.... remember this bike is going to be a 250 so it'll need that extra cooling!

Next.... the whole front end comes together!

**Serpentza** · 10-04-2013, 02:11 PM

Since I have to take the wheels off tomorrow anyway for a respray, I just loosely put the front back on... I then added my special speedo and extra special indicators...

frontcomp1.jpg

My new speedo bolted on with no problem, it is a very basic unit... but I like it that way, it has a trip meter, a speedo, a high beam indicator, turn signal indicator and a gear position indicator which shows: 0,1,2,3,4,5

frontcomp2.jpg

Next, the new handlebars were attached, they're much nicer more aggressive and lower than the original GN wannabe cruiser shyte, I also added my nice rubber grips and kill switch/ignition thing (note that it's exactly the same as what's on the Shineray X5... )

frontcomp3.jpg

The wheels will be resprayed tomorrow and this front tyre is going to be replaced with a nice Kenda 90/90/18.. just like my little CG... I really hate these bicycle style front tyres you find on all Chinese bikes...

frontcomp4.jpg

Looking smart...

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You can see the handlebar position better from the rear, it's looking great!

.... okay one or two more pictures before I call it a day...