Last September I picked up a non-running Honda Trail 55 off Craigslist. No title, and I had no evidence it had ever been registered or ridden much on public roads. It was filthy but had all of the stock components in mostly good shape, save for a couple issues: Kickstart shaft had sheared off at the case (PO maybe abusing it or starting it in gear?), 20+ year old tires and non-working brakes. Oh, and some damage must've been done to 2nd gear because it would make awful noises in 2nd but was fine in 1st and 3rd.
I bought it as a project bike with the intent of doing a motor swap, but wanted to see whether I could get the original OHV motor running first... just for the challenge. Kickstart shaft, gears, plus the gaskets would've run me a few hundred, so I was fairly certain I didn't want to restore it to factory condition right now unless the motor ran real strong and was able to get me around at 40 MPH. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting that but since I like to tinker and it was getting near winter time, well I dove in.
I spent a couple hundred bucks on tires, tubes, fuel line + filter, brakes pads, carb parts, exhaust gaskets, etc. etc. Rebuilt the carb and went through the factory wiring as best I could and eventually got the bike to where I could pop start it and idle reliably. I got it to where I could ride it around my neighborhood, and it was... completely gutless! This bike has two rear sprockets, a 40-tooth 'touring' sprocket and a 72-tooth 'trail' sprocket. Using the larger sprocket, the acceleration was acceptable but top speed was limited to ~15MPH. Using the smaller sprocket, takeoff was dangerously slow for road use but given enough time, could get up above 30MPH. Sadly, with second gear not very usable and the area I live in being surrounded by 35-40MPH roads, the old 55cc motor wasn't going to fit the bill for my needs, tooling around town for errands and riding it the 2 miles to work in dry weather.
So I ordered a Lifan 125cc 4-speed, and keeping with the original design, went with a centrifugal clutch. 22mm Mikuni carb, CDI ignition, etc. Ended up doing a 6v to 12v conversion and ripping out all of the factory wiring, making my own wiring harnesses, new cables, levers, bars, rear shocks, headlight, etc. and all of the custom brackets to make it all fit up. I added turn signals for safety, and found a GPS speedometer and small indicators I could use for signals, neutral, and high beams and fitting them into a custom gauge pod I made from a $3 plastic pot from Home Depot
Trying to keep a mostly vintage look but with modern controls and improvements. Only big thing I don't love is the original front cantilever suspension, but I'm undecided on whether I'll swap that out or not. I do love the classic look of the front end.
After about 4 months of working on it, I'm finally working with the DMV to get a title issued and getting it registered for street use. I've put about 60 miles on it and it rides great! It'll do 45MPH without struggling and seems to charge up hills without much speed loss. The engine isn't broken in yet but as I get more miles on it and the weather warms up, I'll get to tune the carb a little more, and expect slight performance and economy improvements.
I still have all of the original parts and didn't make any major changes to the frame, so I may opt to rebuild the old 55cc and restore it back to factory condition at some point, we'll see. But for now it's a great little scoot!
"New" bike day back in September
New shoes and high mount exhaust
All done except for the gauges
I bought it as a project bike with the intent of doing a motor swap, but wanted to see whether I could get the original OHV motor running first... just for the challenge. Kickstart shaft, gears, plus the gaskets would've run me a few hundred, so I was fairly certain I didn't want to restore it to factory condition right now unless the motor ran real strong and was able to get me around at 40 MPH. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting that but since I like to tinker and it was getting near winter time, well I dove in.
I spent a couple hundred bucks on tires, tubes, fuel line + filter, brakes pads, carb parts, exhaust gaskets, etc. etc. Rebuilt the carb and went through the factory wiring as best I could and eventually got the bike to where I could pop start it and idle reliably. I got it to where I could ride it around my neighborhood, and it was... completely gutless! This bike has two rear sprockets, a 40-tooth 'touring' sprocket and a 72-tooth 'trail' sprocket. Using the larger sprocket, the acceleration was acceptable but top speed was limited to ~15MPH. Using the smaller sprocket, takeoff was dangerously slow for road use but given enough time, could get up above 30MPH. Sadly, with second gear not very usable and the area I live in being surrounded by 35-40MPH roads, the old 55cc motor wasn't going to fit the bill for my needs, tooling around town for errands and riding it the 2 miles to work in dry weather.
So I ordered a Lifan 125cc 4-speed, and keeping with the original design, went with a centrifugal clutch. 22mm Mikuni carb, CDI ignition, etc. Ended up doing a 6v to 12v conversion and ripping out all of the factory wiring, making my own wiring harnesses, new cables, levers, bars, rear shocks, headlight, etc. and all of the custom brackets to make it all fit up. I added turn signals for safety, and found a GPS speedometer and small indicators I could use for signals, neutral, and high beams and fitting them into a custom gauge pod I made from a $3 plastic pot from Home Depot
Trying to keep a mostly vintage look but with modern controls and improvements. Only big thing I don't love is the original front cantilever suspension, but I'm undecided on whether I'll swap that out or not. I do love the classic look of the front end.After about 4 months of working on it, I'm finally working with the DMV to get a title issued and getting it registered for street use. I've put about 60 miles on it and it rides great! It'll do 45MPH without struggling and seems to charge up hills without much speed loss. The engine isn't broken in yet but as I get more miles on it and the weather warms up, I'll get to tune the carb a little more, and expect slight performance and economy improvements.
I still have all of the original parts and didn't make any major changes to the frame, so I may opt to rebuild the old 55cc and restore it back to factory condition at some point, we'll see. But for now it's a great little scoot!
"New" bike day back in September
New shoes and high mount exhaust
All done except for the gauges
