Got me a MADASS !!

Grizz

EXCITED MEMBER...!!!!
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Location
Rochester, KENT.
No, it is not a thumper, smoker or stroker...... but it is a little bike that seems to attract attention wherever one goes on it, or when it is posted up on various forums.

Thought I would copy and paste a bunch of entries I have made elsewhere on here, just for those who like an easy reading thread with loads of pics.

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I had been looking at all sorts of small bikes, mopeds, etc for some time, with the intention of using it to go to the shops, and to sling it in the back of the Transit when we go away with the Teardrop trailer.

These things appeal to me because they are a bit different, ugly, naked, and seem to get the "Back to Basics" ethos kind of right.

I have watched them on Ebay, Autotrader and anywhere else they infrequently do pop up. Unusually I saw one advertised on Gumtree, as I kept an eye there too for small cheap Quads and Pitbikes for some time now. We had friends over yesterday, so I only got to speak to the seller at about 7pm last night.
Story was his son is trading up at age 17 now, bike in average condition, no Tax/MOT, I got his price down by £50, which would cover MOT/Tax and then I would have to buy a battery and sort the flat rear tyre.

My neighbour who moved my and Nicola's houses when we moved here said he would help me fetch the Madass if I bought it for £5's worth of Diesel, I gave him £10 in stead, and we were home an hour after leaving with the bike.

With hopefully around 2BHP on tap from the 50cc Honda based engine, it falls a long way short of the 100BHP the 1200GS brings to the party.

I will need to get it MOT'd and Taxed in the new year once I have given it a good going over. The back wheel has a fast leak, which could be anything, I did not investigate fully. The front right indicator has a dodgy connection and works intermittently. The battery needs to be charged, or replaced, and I believe it will then be ready for its test.
For now I have removed the one mirror stalk as it was missing.
I have also washed the whole thing with Cif and Fairy liquid on an old tooth brush, and a bigger brush to get old oily and dust residue off the engine. I then washed and rinsed the whole bike again, as it had been up to the farm to get most of the pics I will post today.

This is a learning curve as always, so info, advice, comments, pisstaking etc greatly appreciated.



Cat Scan just after it got home. Harley was over and on top of it, as previous owners have cats too.

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Wanted to get a pic next to the big John Deere Tractor, but it was parked tight between other implements.

JCB will have to do.

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Back at home after a wash and clean.

Nicola has seen it and just commented "UGLEEEE ! " and walked away. So not impressed.

Clean enough for now.

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Like the Retro Rides Mantra of Everything has potential, I guess these things fall right into that category.

Some pics from www.madassarmy.com

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I really like this one, for all the right reasons.

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Love the pattern on this rear tyre.

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OK, this one takes the prize for me today.

KNOBBLIES Ahoy !!

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MAD as in MAD-Ass

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OOOOFFFFFF !!!!!

This just gets better and better.

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Side car anyone ??

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I think I have found the one I like best so far on the Off Road look.

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AFTER

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More copy and pasting of previous entries.

I kept myself busy playing with the bike in the garage this afternoon, getting it ready for it's MOT, which cannot be done before the 17th Jan, ( my birthday) as tester is going on holiday, and I always use them for my motorbikes.
Everything seems to work now.
Just need to fix the puncture in the rear wheel, or replace the inner tube, which may be a good thing.
I believe this bike may still be on its original set of tyres, or maybe a second set.
Got indicator sorted, polished the rust off the kick starter wit some Autosol, took both headlights off, and found the bright beam's body is badly cracked with bits missing off it.
Also decided I would go to Barnies Bikes , a real old school bike shop, some distance away from where we live tomorrow to see if I can get brighter, or whiter light bulbs for the bike. The bright is only 15W and the dim , who knows ?
While I had it all appart, I cleaned the inners of both, and polished the lenses internally.
I have removed the "blanking plate" which covers over half of the bright light. Just not sure what effect it will have on the way the beam spreads at the roadworthiness centre's light test.
If it is a problem, I can always re-fit the plate.

Hopefully I will get brighter bulbs to fit tomorrow.


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While I was rooting around in the garage for some old BMW rear view mirrors from crashed bikes (read scratched and scraped) earlier on, which I wanted to try out as well, in casI do not get my hands on a matching st of Sachs mirrors, I discovered some old bits I bought a couple of years ago, including a temperature gauge.

It runs off a penlight battery, and is very accurate, I have one in the Transit bus as ell as in the Teardrop caravan.

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I am also looking around for a pair of handguards or Bark Busters to fit, so that they can protect the levers in case I drop the bike when parking up etc.
 
Well, I took a few pics of the bike the other day, trying to do the arty thing.

Pics below.

Tonight I went PINK..... Very PINK

Bought some OURY handgrips for the bike, cost me a whole £1.00 plus postage on Ebay.

Seems the are very comfortable on these bikes, and at £1.00 even with postage on top, I feel good.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160530559835&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123

I also bought a set of upgraded headlights from a 125cc Madass with the 55W lamps to fit onto my bike.

Thanks to old1eye for packing them up and posting, and for selling them to me off his bike.

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I have been quite busy around the house the last week, and next week Monday I have a 3.30 pm first interview for a job, and Tuesday I will be in London for some "redundancy counciling" How to write a CV, courses to do and general advice on how to find life after leaving a companies employment.

Hopefully the weather will play along, and I will be able to take the bike in for its MOT on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Right, some more pics, gentle off road I guess you can call this riding on the farm

Thames river in the background, and Southend, Essex on the other side of the water.

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Bit of sepia to try capture the evening mood.

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Ready to go back home.

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Thursday afternoon I got some time to go to the MOT station, which is just under 7 miles from home.
Nicola said I was mad as it was windy and freezing, in fact some sleet was comming down on the way back.

I got the bike booked in at Kent Classic Motorcycles for an MOT, as the were able to squeeze it into the 3pm slot.

Kitted up fully, and rode down there.

Man, this bike is sloooow, compared to the 1200 GS that I am used to.

Still, it is actually a very nice ride.

In a word the outcome of the MOT test was : FAIL.

1.) Right front indicator intermittent.
2.) Indicator speed - too fast.
3.) Headlight beam shines too high.
4.) Shock absorber bushes - Knackered.

ADVISORIES:

1.) Shock absorber - Damping limited.
2.) Chain - worn.
3.) Rear Brake shoes - Nearing wear limit.
4.) Chain guard - Not present.


I expected something to be wrong, in fact the rear wheel was flat when I got to the test station, due to a teaking inner tube.

When I got home I removed the rear shock (Need to find a cheap replacement as the Madass item on EBay is £108, which is way too much for me.
Took the chain off, will seek replacement item tomorrow.
Took the headlight off, repaired the casing with epoxy, and will refit tomorrow with the hope that I can get it to shine correctly.
Removed the one indicator lens, and have a light bulb, not sure if they are too high or too low resistance, still need to figure out how to sort the indicator speed and function out, so that the bike can pass its Roadworthy test next time.
I will also replace the rear tyre and tube ASAP.

Shock with knackered bushes and little damping. Lets hope I find something cheaper.

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Chain - Recycling box.

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Also buying new allen head bolts for the rear sprocket, took some out already.

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Majority of MOT failure came from here...... indicators, and bright beam.

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More reports as things change.
 
I got a pair of replacement bushes from Barnies Bikes, a real bike shop with real mechanics for 50p each.
The shock was an advisory item, so I will clean it,a nd just squirt some engine oil on the shaft to make sure it slides cleanly.
The chain was £14 to replace, I am happy to replace it, as they impact on other parts like sprockets and output shaft bearings etc.
Indicators still need to be figured out, as the wattage is unreadable on the bulb from the offending indicator. Maybe a new set of indicators, but I will try other bulbs first.
The headlights should be fine once I fine tune the setting and angle of them.
The rear brake shoes are both necessary and cheap enough compared to not stopping in time or damaging the disc, so I will order off Ebay or take samples to Barneys Bikes.
I priced up a Maxxis rear tyre and new tube today, £67 fitted if I take the wheel in.

All considered, I am still pleased that I will have a nice gutless bike with a years test and tax on it for sensible money versus a twist and go plastic covered scooter, even though I like scooters too.


Read more: http://www.retrorides.proboards.com...ard=othrmod&thread=94708&page=2#ixzz1CTTviJnA
 
Right, time for a small update.

I had planned to pull the head on the BSA today, but instead, I only got into the garage by about 1pm.

I knew the rear tyre was shagged, even though it had a lot of tread left on it. Due to having a fairly fast leak, and clearly being ridden like that, the side walls were badly cracked.
So I bit the bullet and took off the rear wheel as well today.
The first thing I saw was the shape of the pads in the mechanical disc brake pads...... round ?
I had ordered some new ones off E-Bay this morning for about £9 incl delivery. But they seemed to be more square or oblong.... so not sure what exactly to expect when they get there.

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Next up I noted that 2 of the allen head bolts that retain the rear sprocket in position of the alloy wheel were missing,and there also was a hex head bolt in one place. This left 3 of the 6 allen heads to do the job.
On inspection after removing the sprocket, it seems that there were 3 studs broken off in the wheel.

Bugggerr !!

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Not many options at 2pm on a Saturday, so I went inside the house to get my favourite hand drill (detoured to drill some holes and hang some pics and wall hangings for Nicola) to see if I could get to drill out the studs to a point where I could use my small tap and die set to cut the thread back in, or at least remove the threads in the holes. Caution did pay off, and I was able to drill them out by hand, as no engineers shop would be open at this point, and to be honest, I see no reason to spend the money if you can give it a good go yourself.

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Tapping into my limited ability and resource saw me clean up all the holes and being able to finger screw in the bolts.

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All of the little bugggerrs back in where they should be.

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After this I called Barneys Bikes (my favourite old skool bike shop ) at about 3.30pm to see if they could sell and fit me a tyre and tube for the rear, which of course they could. So I hopped into Nicola's car with the wheel and also the monoshock, to see if I could get a better fitting bush for the one side of the shock, as one of those I had bought yesterday was a very loose fit.
By 4.15pm the tyre was fitted and I had some "Lock-Thread" to use when re-assembling the sprocket, and left for home.
The Maxxis rear tyre has a nice pattern, and I hope it offers half decent grip, as it was not exactly cheap at £58 plus £9 for the inner tube, fitting was free.

I refitted evrything, and also the rear shock, after cleaning it and making sure it looks great for the MOT man.
At this point it was getting cold down in the garage, so I downed tools and came back to the house.

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Next update probably when I get the brake shoes and find they do not fit at all, and re-take the bike for its MOT once the lights are refitted and the indicator problem is sorted.

Tomorrow I hope to spend some time on the BSA, to see if the Diesel I poured over the sparkplug twice today, has actually worked.

Hopefully I will then get it out, and be able to pour some diesel into the head , over the seized piston.
 
Got two small jobs done today.

Dismantled the rear brake caliper and got a pic of everything inside to send the Ebay seller who had supplied the correct brake pads as ordered, but they were the wrong ones, as the bike is a changeover model, registered as 2006, but having the mechanical disc brakes at the rear.
He said he would replace pads if he has them in stock.

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What was even nicer was the speed at which the Post Office delivered the replacement 125cc shock I bought off Ben "Old1eye", he posted it yesterday afternoon and today at 11.50am the doorbell rang.

It is much bigger and a better product than what was on the bike, with adjustable settings as well.
The rear shock functioning was an advisory on MOT, and I replaced the bushes that failed it outright on the old shock, but this almost new one is a better deal altogether.

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How blind can one be ??

When I took a photo for an Ebay seller who specialises in brake pads for the bike, I completely missed the cracks in the backing to the actual pad, it ises 3 ballbearings to actuate in a cam-like way tha braking ation of the mechanical rear brakes.

Yesterday I had some time and wanted to reassemble the brakes so that I canget it back to MOT-station..... bad fit ? Nope...... brtoken into bits, so it looks like an expensive fix, as there are no pattern parts to be found where I have looked, and the original pads are £18 each plus postage (not sure it includes the broken bits either) Buggerrr !!

HOW did I miss this ?

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What I saw yesterday.....
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