| Other Monkey Bikes |
| There's plenty on the net
written about Monkey Bikes and by far more knowledgeable people than
myself so I'll just skim over a few bikes for those who haven't seen them
before. Classic bikes considered as 'Monkeys' are most commonly the Honda Z50 and Dax. You can still buy the Z50 new from Honda and a Chinese companies called Jincheng and Champ make cheaper copies of the original and Dax too. Honda stopped Dax production in 1998. If you want to find out more, please browse the rest of MonkeyRun and join in the chat at The UK Monkey Bike Forum |
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| This is a 1978 Honda
Z50 50cc 3 speed semi-auto 4 stroke and lots of silly fun! Pic courtesy of "The Official Honda Monkey Club" |
| This is a 197? Honda ST70
Dax This particular example has clearly been heavily modified Pic courtesy of "Mr Monkey & Dr Dax" |
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| Well someone had to do it
didn't they!? This nutty machine is actually a Dax someone has turbo charged, though where they got a turbo that small is beyond me Pic courtesy of "Mr Monkey & Dr Dax" |
| Note - This page is very old and remains in its original state! |
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| Pic
courtesy Honda-Dax.com |
| Hungry for
more? Visit the UK Monkey Bike Forum An electronic contact and discussion hub for all forms of Monkey information. Live Chat scheduled for Sunday 9pm UK time. |
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| If you've arrived from Goosegog welcome to the Goosegog Monkey Bike page. You may be asking yourself "what is a Monkey Bike exactly?" The term 'Monkey Bike', refers to small motorbikes and most commonly to the Honda range of bikes. I have 3 Monkey Bikes at the moment. A Honda ST70, A Champ CM90 and a Honda Minitrail which I am restoring at the moment |
| This is, or rather was my Honda CF70 Chaly. Having covered only 1300 miles but rather uncool, it seemed the perfect donor machine to provide parts for..... |
| ...a Honda ST70 hybrid thing! The Chaly shares many parts with the ST70 so I purchased an ST frame, handle bars, fuel tank and seat. Read the story below |
| This is my Honda ST70 which, although tatty, has had an engine rebuild and modifications to 85cc, manual clutch and custom exhaust |
| The Chax |
| Many moons ago I bought a couple of mopeds for destroying around a field with my friends. One was a Honda Camino which was 2 stroke and belt drive. Quite awful really. The other was a 1978 Honda Chaly CF70. This was clearly the better built bike as despite riding it across a ploughed field, it remained working. I chucked it in the garden shed when I got bored as it wasn't worth selling but was too good to just throw away. Last year some friends got Monkey Bikes which were ST70s so I dragged the Chaly out the shed and got it through an MOT test (test for safety) and rode it around on the roads. I decided I liked small bikes but the Chaly wasn't cool like the ST70 is. I knew the Chaly shared many parts with the ST70 so I bought the appropriate parts for the conversion |
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| Sorry, fuzzy picture shows new exhaust |
| Friend Nick Weller enjoys last ride on the Chaly |
| The Chaly shares many parts with the ST70 |
| Forks received modification for headlamp |
| Pre-paint build in rideable condition |
| Dismantled and shot blasted |
| Bike shows new exhaust system |
| Blue chain guard shows new colour |
| Chaly fully dismantled, CF70 frame and ST70 frame |
| Having covered just 1300 miles, the Chaly made a great donor machine to give it's vital parts to a new project. I received some criticism from some bike nuts who felt the Chaly was too good to break up but I didn't really care! I was making a 'ladies commuter bike' into a lads cool machine! The Chaly required restoration anyway as all it's chrome was rusty and I wasn't going to restore a Chaly. The Chaly was totally dismantled and then built using the new frame. After various modifications the bike was built to running state to make sure everything was cool. |
| The most obvious modification was to the forks which required custom made headlamp brackets fabricating and welding in place. Other mods included removing the chain guard bracket from the swing arms and fabricating and welding the steering lock bracket to the frame. |
| Once the Chax as it is now called (Chaly/Dax) had been ridden around the car park at work to make sure it all worked and stuff it was totally dismantled again and parts sorted for Zinc plating, Chrome plating and paintwork. The parts requiring paint were shot blasted which is laborius and tedious to say the least. I am a mechanic for an Aston Martin specialist and I am having the paintwork carried out by our paintshop Panel-Wise in Surrey. |
| It will be sprayed Candy Sappire Blue like the cain guard in the picture above |
| The Dax |
| An offer too good to miss came up in December 2001 for the purchase of a genuine Honda ST70. Commonly referred to as Dax due to it's vague similarity to the Dachshund dog, this ST70 was reputedly a 1970-something model and in fair condition belonging to a work colleague. Closer inspection reveals some fair work was required but at least it ran. |
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| Click to enlarge! |
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| Common problem - broken seat |
| Mud guards and headlamp missing |
| Sad and sorry looking as I got it |
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| As with a lot of Daxs the seat is broken but has since received some appropriate bodgery with the rivet gun and welder. A little time spent tidying things and fitting the mud guards has moved the Dax a step towards being presentable and useable. The carburettor required some tuning so it now runs nicely. It has received the lights and mirror from the Chaly and some attention from the spanner here and there. This bike is my weekend transport while the Chax and Champ are indoors! |
| Tatty ratty |
| 10 minutes work and looking better |
| Dachshund Small dog with a long body and short legs |
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| Now for the shiny
bits. To the left you can see the Nickel plating on the sprocket, seat catch and brake levers. Also the polished aluminium brake hubs and flywheel cover. To the right you can see some of the chrome work. It's easy to get chrome better than Honda ever did |
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| Cool! I got all the paintwork back from Panel-Wise and much to my delight they did a fantastic job Candy is an absoulte bastard to apply but as you can tell from the picture on the right they made a superb job of it The mudguards came up brilliantly too! |
| Left: Polished and laquered hub assembled with the freshly painted rims and swing arm. Right: These little bikes quickly take shape |
| Left: Engine in and handle bars fitted, it's looking like a real bike. This bit was the fun part and I was relishing every minute :) Right: Low mileage engine required cosmetic work only. The Honda flywheel cover restored nicely |
| A close up shows the
beautiful combination of Candy blue forks, polished aluminium fork caps,
as new dust covers, deep chrome lower leg, polished hub, zinc plated
components and glossy silver rims! The tyres, having covered a low mileage are still in great condition so they have been reused |
| Not a perfect photograph but it shows
the new sticker set obtained from MBUK or alternativly Sunrise Graphics Also visible is the original Chaly carb which is soon to be replaced with a more authentic piston type carb. Note also the custom replica air box smaller than standard |
| The
finished 1978 Honda Chax Special! |
| Well, that was a fun little
project to complete. Interesting because it's a 'special'. Most people
don't spot the Chaly parts unless I point them out I sold the Chax in the summer of 2003 to a very pleased chap. |
| Plated and polished parts |
| Quality, deep chrome |
| Painted parts as received from the paintshop |
| Beautiful finish on the Candy Sappire Blue |
| The fun part at last! |
| Like a sewing machine |
| Nearly rideable... |
| Looking wheelie good... |
| sorry, must stop these stupid captions |
| Enjoy higher quality larger
pictures at my Honda-Dax.com photo album RIGHT HERE |
| A year later and a good few miles put on the Dax and I have decided not to restore it/ To do so would destroy the history the bike wears well. Instead I have maintained it and rebuilt the engine. My first rebuild included a new barrel and piston taking it from 72cc to 85cc. The head received much work on the ports. The rest of the engine was totally stripped, shot blasted and laquered, painted or chromed where applicable. Internal parts were modified to change the clutch from semi-auto to manual. |
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| Shiny rebuilt engine, new tyres and Chaly rack |
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| SS50 clutch casing, 20mm carb and big bore exhaust |
| 32mm straight through exhaust system. 50 pence for scale |
| The engine was the assembled with new gaskets, casing screws and manual SS50 clutch. A high lift (5.4mm as opposed to 5mm!) Honda cam was fitted. The ports were matched to the inlet and exhaust manifolds. It's very difficult to bend tubing so I acquired a car exhaust system of 32mm OD / 29mm ID with plenty of bends. I cut open the original Honda silencer and removed everything in it. I fabricated a replica system using the bigger bore tubing and drilled hundreds of holes in the tubing which was to run throught the original silencer. The silencer was filled with loft insulation and the tubing was wrapped with stainless steel wool before being put in the silencer and welded up. I expected it to be too loud but it actually sounds great with a nice beefy bop-bop-bop! I removed the 36 tooth rear sprocket and replaced it with a 30 tooth. Due to the different SS50 primary gears, the gearing seems similar to ST70 gearing so currently requires a larger front sprocket to further raise the gearing |
| The Champ |
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| I fancied a change and wanted a Monkey. I also wanted a fast Monkey with 4 gears and manual clutch. Someone suggested a new Monkey copy called Champ. They make a Z50R copy which I initially wanted until I sat on it so decided to go with the Champ CM90. It seems to represent excellent value with 86cc, electric start, manual clutch and 4 gears. The elctrical system seems to be better than the Jincheng with a decent battery, nice indicators and a headlamp which operates from the battery so it's always bright and works without the engine running. People have remarked that other bits are better than Jincheng too such as the seat, tank and controls. There are of course some bad points such as poor paint on the frame. Mine was rusty when I bought it new! It's seriously restricted too so you will need a 20mm carb, manifold to match and a 28 tooth rear sprocket to unleash a potential 60mph. The rear shock absorbers are fairly pants too so you'll need to uprate them. Also you should spanner check everything as there were many loose parts on my bike. The biggest thing wrong with mine was tight steering which I fixed myself. The head set tube on the frame was too tall so I had to dismantle it, grind a bit off the bottom and reassemble it so it didn't rub the forks. Some would say my dealer should have done this but I am a mechanic, I was expecting teething problems as the bike was Chinese and I got a nice discount! If you are interested in one visit www.PedShed.com |
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