May 23

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 10 – Engine Failure and Repair

I know things have been quiet. March 1 i took the bike out on a nice long ride from through a couple of little towns. I was almost to my destination when the bike suddenly lost power. I pulled over, let it cool for a bit, then got back on the road. It was better–for maybe a mile, then it really lost power and started making this metallic clank/ping sound. I called Wahoo who went to get my truck and come get me.

I took the clutch cover and the stator cover off looking for problems–didn’t find any, didn’t solve anything.

There is a Reddit sub for these bikes (r/Trail70), so I hit them up for ideas what it might be, so I hit them up for ideas. The guys there gave me several suggestions, so  started tearing the engine down, and found that one of the guys on Reddit was correct: the piston had fused, and there was piston slap. The cylinder was also scored pretty bad.

I ordered a replacment piston, rings, and gaskets from DRATV / Beatrice Cycle and also had to order an 18mm spark plug socket. The local O’Reilly had them in stock, but I didn’t want to pay $9 for a non-Craftsman socket. Turns out you can’t just order an 18mm Craftsman spark plug socket from Sears–you have to order a three socket set for $23 and up. Finally I went to eBay–$7 and free shipping and I had the socket within a week.

After tearing the engine down I had to tediously scrape all the old gaskets off, and I took the opportunity to scrape off all the dirt and gunk from the engine using a barbeque scourer and a little brass wire brush attachment for the drill.

I had to take the cylinder to a machine shop for honing, and I knew the local Echelmeier Machine & Electric by reputation. The piston I ordered was the same size as the one I had (50mm)–turns out it was too small even before honing, so I had to re-order a slightly larger one (50.75mm).

I bought a new spark plug and disassembled the air cleaner to check its condition–it was OK.

Once the cylinder was finished, I started back to work reassembling an engine I had disassembled 3 weeks previous. Everything went fairly smooth–I just followed the instructions in the Clymer manual. By the time my brother arrived to check my work I was already past the hairiest parts.

The rest of the reassembly went fine and I took the bike back outside to try to start it. It wouldn’t catch, and fuel just poured from the overflow valve.

30 frustrated minutes later I went inside for the night.

Did some more googling, then removed the bowl from the carb–there was a bunch of junk in the bottom. Cleaned it out, reassembled the carb, and after a few kicks it was back up and running.

 

Feb 04

Quotable: U. A. Fanthorpe

“Maintenance is the sensible side of love.”

–U. A. Fanthorpe, from her poem Atlas, which opens with the memorable line, “There is a kind of love called maintenance, Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it”.

Feb 01

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 9 – LED Upgrade

It didn’t take many rides to see that the stock 6v electrical system was just barely sufficient, but certainly not ample. I came into some extra freelance work Christmas week that accelerated my timeline for upgrading the stock incandescent lights to LEDs.

I bought the How To LED Your CT90 Kit from Pardue Brothers, the same guys I got the schematic from that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. The kit comes with LED replacements for all bulbs except for the headlight:

  • 4 blinkers
  • 1 tail/brake
  • 4 little ones for the speedometer
    (green for Neutral, white for speedo, blue for High Beams, yellow for Winkers).

Wahoo and I just followed the enclosed instructions and everything went together easily. The only thing that didn’t work when we got done was the yellow Winker light, but we did drop that LED on the concrete, so that could be it. After I get some other projects completed I’ll take it back apart and test the LED and see if that is it or if there is another issue.

On the website they said that the green neutral light was bright enough to see in daylight–I haven’t tested it yet, but it is darned bright.

 

We took measurements with the multimeter before and after the upgrade:

Before Upgrade
Neutral — .19A
Tail — .7A
Brake — 2A
Signals — 4.1A

After Upgrade
Neutral — .06A
Low Beam — .04A
High Beam — .04A
Tail — .2A
Brake — forgot to test (d’oh!)
Signals — .07A

Other Items Unaffected by Upgrade (just for info)
Low Beam — 3.35A
High Beam — 4.35A
Horn — .61A

 

Cost (including shipping): $107

Total Cost so far (including 1st year of insurance):

$1,705

Jan 22

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 8 – Saddlebags

Saddlebags

I saw a post online about adding ammunition boxes as saddlebags and decided it was a good idea. Wahoo gave me the ammo boxes and I bought the hardware (slotted angle iron, bolts/nuts/washers).

I mounted them and then cut some foam out of a camping roll to put in the bottom. These afford me plenty of storage to put two Seafoam cans of gasoline and bungies in one box, and a very basic collection of tools in the other.

Cost:$10

Total Cost so far (including 1st year of insurance):

$1,598

Jan 15

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 7 – First Ride (for real this time)

I took the bike out for its first real ride on Christmas Eve day with Wahoo, who drives a 49cc TaoTao scooter.

We hadn’t gone maybe 8 blocks and I found that the bike wouldn’t take off from a stop. It wouldn’t shift into low so that I could do so either. I was stuck on the side of the rode, we hadn’t even left town.

The Honda Trail 90 and 110 have a high and low setting on the transmission, for off-road and on-road, and each setting has four gears.

Soon, however, Wahoo figured it out: operator error. I was shifting backwards, so I was putting a lot of effort to put it into 4th (high) gear instead of 1st (low) gear.

Back on the rode we ranged all over the gravel roads between Higginsville, Corder, and Dover, and ended up doing 24 miles in all. It was a great time, and we had no problems.

I ended up taking the bike out two more times on Christmas Day, once while everyone was still sleeping in (23 miles), and another while everyone was napping (29 miles).

However, by the end of the day I was pretty saddlesore.

Jan 12

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 6 – Repairs

Christmas Eve my brother Wahoo came over to see why the bike wouldn’t start. He had done all the heavy lifting as far as getting the turn signals installed in the first place, and he is a mechanic by trade, so I had hope we (he) could get running quickly.

While I was waiting for him to get here, I discovered that the fuse from the battery had blown. I drove all over town trying to find an identical one at Walmart, NAPA, Orscheln, and True Value, but to no avail. We ended up buying an inline blade fuse holder and Wahoo wired it in.

Between all the excess gas, the blown fuse, and one other issue I can’t remember at this time, all problems were solved and soon the bike was up and running, purring like a cat.

Jan 09

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 5 – First Ride

My “first ride” didn’t happen. My son-in-law helped me push the bike up from the basement and outside, and I started checking the bike over to ensure it was ready for its first ride.

I noticed the tank wasn’t full, so I filled it up. Gas soon poured out of what I would learn was called the “overflow valve” on the carburetor.

I couldn’t get the new blinkers to work.

And I couldn’t get it to start. After an exhausting 30-60 minutes of fruitless labor, I locked up the bike and went inside tired and irritated.

Jan 06

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 4 – Parts

The bike, while not being a “project bike,” still was lacking in a few areas:

  1. No key
  2. No mirrors
  3. No blinkers

The previous owner got around the lack of key by just unplugging the ignition switch and hotwiring it.

Due to its age the bike didn’t require mirrors or blinkers to be street legal for Missouri

But since I am just getting my first motorcycle at age 47 and just wanting to be as safe as possible–especially on a bike that tops out at maybe 55 mph–I wanted to add them.

Key

The key was easy. I found another blog that recommended hondakeys.com, and it was a good recommendation. You just send in your bike info and the number stamped on your lock and they send you a key. In my case I couldn’t tell which key model I needed, so the proprietor sent me both kinds, trusting that I would send back the unneeded one.

Cost: $15

Mirrors

On the recommendation of about everyone online I ordered from dratv.com aka Beatrice Cycle. Original Honda OEM mirrors were ~$20/each.

Blinkers

The blinkers I also ordered from dratv.com. I bought their blinker kit 1005H/ST13021x4. These blinkers are chrome steel and not plastic, and the kit came with the 4 blinkers, flasher module, switch (unneeded in my case), and mounting hardware.

Most wiring schematics you find online are kind of crummy scans of crummy photocopies. The best schematic is a vector illustration PDF from Pardue Brothers.

  • Cost for schematic: $5
  • Cost for blinkers and mirrors including shipping: $128
  • Cost for misc mounting bolts & grommets: $10

Battery & and wire terminators

Not long into the installation and troubleshooting of the blinkers we found that the battery was pretty much dead. In addition, we found that some of the wires in the harness weren’t working properly, and we needed to crimp some other wire in.

Cost: $40

Labor

Certainly I did labor, but most of the credit for this goes to my brother Wahoo. He’s the one that works as a vocational mechanic, knows how to use a voltmeter, and did all the heavy lifting for the electrical system. Without him, I’d just be riding without signals.

Left rear blinker stay. I mounted the rear blinkers to the existing threaded holes. Uses a short metric M6, like an M6-12 or M6-16.

 

Right rear blinker. Yeah, I know it looks ugly running the wire outside the fender. If I ever have to remove the rear tire, I’ll fix it.

 

Front blinker stays. They mount where the headlight bolts use to be, and the wire connects to the blue and orange wires inside.

 

Closeup of the front blinker stay

 

Total Cost so far (including 1st year of insurance):

$1,588

 

 

 

Jan 03

Honda CT90 Trail Bike: Part 3 – Helmet

Next I needed a helmet. At first I was going to try to pick up a used helmet, but then I saw you could get one for like $45 at Walmart.

However, helmets at Walmart don’t even have a brand name–I don’t mean a fancy brand name, I mean a brand by which to identify the manufacturer at all.

I decided to do some research, and soon concluded that I didn’t really want to go cheap on a purchase I was going to put my brain inside of. Most all recommendations said to get a Snell Certified Helmet. Snell’s standards are much higher than the DOT’s.

Recommendations also said to go try the helmets on in person as well. I asked my brother, who has ridden bikes for years where to go. My wife asked one of her friends on the highway patrol. Both pointed me to the same place: Dell’s PowerSports in Blue Springs, Missouri.

My helmet requirements were:

  • SNELL certified
  • Inexpensive (as far as SNELL helmets go)
  • Not too flashy–after all, I’m driving a 90cc bike

My *preference* would have been a gloss black helmet, but I got one that was flat black. Looks great, but provides no extra visibility for others to see me, so I bought some reflective tape and put some red stripes on the back and some white stripes on the front and sides.

Helmet Cost: $156

Reflective Tape: $6

Total Cost so far (including 1st year of insurance):

$1,380

Dec 30

Quotable: John MacArthur

John MacArthur on Bible reading:

Question: John, what do you do when you get up in the morning and you go through your day and you just don’t feel like reading?

John: Well, usually you don’t read it.