wanted - moto giro bike

Your friend has the same Hafco lathe as I do. Made in China I believe (or possibly Taiwan?). They're not a bad entry level lathe, but they have rubbish electrics. If he hasn't done so already, suggest to him that he swap out the motor for a decent one.

The motor has two large capacitors on it (start and run capacitors) which both failed in the first 6 months on my lathe. At least it was still within the 12 month warranty period so they gave me the new capacitors free of charge. But then the motor burned out a couple of days after the warranty expired. I thought the machinery shop I bought it from might still honour the warranty. But no, any failures were now my problem. The bloke said that by not allowing a warranty claim he was actually doing me a favour. He would only have replaced it with the same shitty Chinese motor. He sent me to an electric motor specialist that sold me an Australian made motor (at a very reasonable price) that was the same dimensions and same shaft size. It bolted straight on.

The machinery shop guy was right, the new motor has double the horsepower of the original Chinese piece of shit. With the original motor and the chuck geared to a high speed on a cold day, it would struggle just to overcome the viscosity of the oil in the gearbox. I'd have to give the chuck a spin by hand to get it started and it would take about 30 seconds to wind up to full speed. And I could easily stall it if I took too deep a cut. The lathe spins up instantly now, and no way will it stall during normal use.
 
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Receiving current and not turning and having to start it by hand probably helped ruin the capacitor too - or is it the reverse? My Emco Compact 8 has a fantastic motor - 30+ years old I reckon. Grunt City. Can't express ho much I love having a lathe ... now for a milling machine and a 30T press :love:
 
Dellortoman said:
Your friend has the same Hafco lathe as I do. Made in China I believe (or possibly Taiwan?). They're not a bad entry level lathe, but they have rubbish electrics. If he hasn't done so already, suggest to him that he swap out the motor for a decent one.

The motor has two large capacitors on it (start and run capacitors) which both failed in the first 6 months on my lathe. At least it was still within the 12 month warranty period so they gave me the new capacitors free of charge. But then the motor burned out a couple of days after the warranty expired. I thought the machinery shop I bought it from might still honour the warranty. But no, any failures were now my problem. The bloke said that by not allowing a warranty claim he was actually doing me a favour. He would only have replaced it with the same shitty Chinese motor. He sent me to an electric motor specialist that sold me an Australian made motor (at a very reasonable price) that was the same dimensions and same shaft size. It bolted straight on.

The machinery shop guy was right, the new motor has double the horsepower of the original Chinese piece of shit. With the original motor and the chuck geared to a high speed on a cold day, it would struggle just to overcome the viscosity of the oil in the gearbox. I'd have to give the chuck a spin by hand to get it started and it would take about 30 seconds to wind up to full speed. And I could easily stall it if I took too deep a cut. The lathe spins up instantly now, and no way will it stall during normal use.
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No surprises there Cam,
you get what ya pay for is the correct quote I do believe....
:rolleyes:
 
first thing my friend told me when he chucked up my parts in the lathe was that he had already replaced the lathe motor with a much better motor.......

test fitted the SpeedHut speedo and tach, see photo. Not completely happy with the tach mount, more fabrication work to be done but I have a plan. Drilling holes in a freshly painted vintage headlight shell was not exactly good planning...... Hilarious installing GPS speedo sensor on a 50's Italian motorycle.......
 

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pretty much final mock up of gauges install and wiring. GPS sensor on rear fender. Tach mount is modified and as good as it is likely going to get. Top speed recall button mounted in headlight shell. Wiring sorted and organized, just have to connect switched power with a fuse, hot unswitched GPS memory power with a fuse, and the grounds, then button everything up.
 

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Nothing is ever simple when you customise a bike. You'll just have to carry a thick plank of wood everywhere you go to park on. Or park it with one wheel overhanging a kerb. :)

No big deal to cut the stand legs and weld in an extension.

On the subject of stands that don't reach the ground ... You reminded me of an old bloke I knew a long time ago by the name of Vern. He would have been in his mid 70's at the time and he used to ride Honda Gold Wing. One night about 40 years ago (Vern is long since deceased), a bunch of us bikers were having a BBQ, and old Vern turned up on his Gold Wing. He pulled up next to the kerb to park, but the next thing we knew the bike was lying on the ground and Vern was yelling his lungs out because the bike was on his leg, pinning him to the ground. When we lifted the bike off him, it was apparent that the side stand had gone down an un-covered drain hole that poor old Vern didn't see in the dark. It normally had had a cast iron grate over it but the guys had borrowed it to use as a BBQ grill.
 
You can probably get away with a spray can epoxy for the c-stand Paul. Unless it's always in full view, but even then it's not something that would attract the eye. I'd cut and shut and respray only where nec. Total pain not having a good centre stand.
 
Cut the feet off, leaving some tube on the feet. Turn up a pair of suitable extensions that will fit the inside of the tubes. Tack weld and spray. If you need to go back to original it’s easy.
 
back home after 3 weeks away. While I was away the 10 mm longer pushrods and 10 mm longer engine studs arrived from Italy for the Gilera, from the same later engine the 10 mm thicker head came from. Hoping to have the bike running in the next couple of weeks if I dont run into any more assembly surprises, fingers crossed.......:rolleyes:
 
longer engine studs installed, head installed, the replacement longer used pushrods were too thick. Made new pushrods using the end caps off the original short pushrods. High tech machining with a hack saw and a bench grinder...........😉😉
 

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the Gilera is running :cool:

not well, it has to be said. Ignition timing is spot on, so it has to be the tiny little carb. Runs with the choke on full, dies instantly when the choke is closed. The carb is weeping fuel from every orifice, going to come back off and apart. Only three things to adjust on this tiny old carb. New piston is higher compression and 10 cc's bigger, replacement head has larger exhaust and intake ports, I suspect setting up the carb is going to take some fiddling. I have a pile of new jets/needles to work with.

lots of compression, sucker kicks back hard through the kick starter lever. I hate kick starters......

Now on to the basic tuning, sorting, adjusting, and break in phase.....
 
In my experience kicking back is usually timing and I have the snapped right ACL to prove it. Don't know what else to say. That's from long years kicking XT500s and heaps of both 2 and 4 stroke Huskys. What's the timing Number and is that at idle or fully advanced? I don't remember if it's an EI or points. Does t have an Advance and is it doing just that, how's the woodruff key? I have snapped them on a Husky.
 
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