Thread: What am I Thinking? Long Story w/pics

I'll start from the beginning...You have probably seen in posts where I have written about wanting to do a custom CT...The problem is that from an early age my dad drilled it in my head to keep vintage vehicles original unless it was something like wheels that could be put back to stock or to keep the original stock rebuilt engine if you had a built one that you were running. But to always keep the original color paint,carpet etc. My family was big into collector cars...namely Pontiac's with my Hurst Olds and 62 Corvette being the exception.

Anyhow back to the custom CT that I want to do...I had planned on using either my 71 Candy Gold or my 72 CYS as the basis for the custom, both are straight and very little rust. I just cannot make myself customize them in the way that I want, some people probably think thats silly but it is what it is...I just can't/won't do it and I want no regrets on this project.

Sooo what to do??...Find a nice... "gasp"... clone. Thats not easy. I met some interesting people on that search...One guy was convinced that his Redcat was a very rare to the USA, ST DAX from Japan, no kidding....The dealer had told him that, and being unfamiliar with these thought that was what he had. The dealer had even put a Honda KO decal on it, but did leave the Redcat decals on as well. ?? I double checked with our JDM experts here just to make sure that I was right since I am not familiar with the later ones either. I actually felt sorry for the guy, he had spent a lot on it and thought he really had something special.

The next guy that I met was also convinced that his 2004 Redcat was very closely associated with Honda...in my first 5 minutes at his home he broke a key off in the fork lock. For those of you who have not been close to a clone, the keys are a VERY lightweight aluminum and look nothing like a CT70 key. He spent 45 minutes trying to get the broken key out and then told me he would "Call the Honda Dealership" the next day and get a replacement! LOL!! He was convinced as well that everything about his bike was Honda. It was pretty and very low miles but he wanted a fortune (I thought) for it and was getting upset when I said that even though it was low miles and pretty...it was still a Chinese knock off. He valued it at $800 at the minimum...I was closer to $300. He has had this bike for sale for months with no luck and keeps dropping the price. I left without getting it..HA!

Same story with the next person

The last guy was very realistic about his bike and super nice as well, this bike was also very nice and had been well taken care of. That is the one that I got...I checked all of them for what Bob and Dan have mentioned to be issues and up until this one almost everything that I had read and been told was evident. Bad welds,rust,blisters and heavy paint, play in the steering, play in the rear sprocket hub area, etc.

For me, I knew that a lot would be changed out eventually but I wanted a solid basis to build on and I wanted to use it safely in the meantime. This bike had been sitting indoors for 6 months without being started and even though the gas was good, it did have some particles in the tank and although it started right up (e start) it was easy to tell that it needed some tweaking to run correctly. The bike has 122.9 miles and a new battery. The PO said that it had always had a bit of a ticking sound to it but that he had never done anything about it and said that it was still in the break in stage...He has been very gentle with it and it shows The bike looks like new and the price was more than right and much less than I thought it would be so I brought it home.

The point of this thread is to document the changes and upgrades that I make to it. I will report on any issues and the good points about the bike as I go along.

The bike is a Red 2005 Dirt Dobber 3...The DD-3 is suppose to be a 110 but this one is a 70cc I believe, which is what I was expecting to get. It has 122.9 miles on it and is an electric start (I like that) as well as a kick start. It is a 4 speed semi auto. It came with a Manufacturers Certificate of Origin. I wanted a semi auto to start with for use at events and camping.

What I have done so far:

Drained the gas and used magnents to get the particles out. (It has a metal tank) I put an in-line filter on.

I prefer the looks of the high fender like the CT so I removed the low front fender and put a Honda fender on up high. It took a bit of modification to do this along with rubber spacers.

I changed the plug but the old one was fine. It was a Torch brand and not gapped correctly.

I drained the oil and checked for metallic particles with a light and magnent and found very few, just the normal fine particles that you would expect in a low mileage motor. The oil was very clean.

There is no rust on the bike itself but there are a couple of small surface rust spots starting on the exhaust at the head. Not surprised about that. The paint is ok..it is a bit heavy in a few places but no runs,raspberries or blemishes. The chrome is ok, it's not Honda quality, but it's ok.

I thought I would adjust the valves to get rid of the ticking sound and quickly found out why it was ticking...There was not a nut on the valve adjuster stem on the intake valve! When I removed the valve covers I could tell that there were no marks where this had been done before so I feel very confident that this came from the factory this way. I believe they forgot to put the nut on! Luckily this bike was purchased by someone who was very gentle with it and didn't use it much. The exhaust side was fine and set correctly. I also used a small magnent and light to see if a nut was inside the head and saw nothing. Hopefuly it's not rolling around in there! HA! Once I put a nut on and adjusted the intake valve the ticking stopped and it runs very quiet.

The carb is marked Mikuni Japan with 21 stamped on it...I don't know if the carb is a clone or not.HA! Like I mentioned when I first heard the bike run you could tell it needed adjusting and what I found was that the air box had way too much foam it it...along with the filter, it had two thick pieces of foam at each end. I took those out. The boot was also not tight to the carb and the intake was not tightened down to the gasket either. Once I did that and adjusted the air mix it runs great...I am pleased and surprised with it.

I have a long list of things I will be doing to it and if there is any interest I will post about it and what I find along the way. I don't want to bore anyone. Here are a few pics...Check out the bug decals... A dirt daubber with a helmet!! The last pic is of the front fender raised to CT70 height.

A few things other things that I have found so far. There were so many loose bolts it was unbelieveable. Now to be fair, the guy that had it had some serious family health issues with his child and did not spend much time with the bike so I am guessing that this was from the factory/dealer?? The other things that were nice surprises is that the throttle rolls back on it's own...Love that! The 12v lighting system rocks...It is such a huge difference between that and the 6v CT70's.

It does/did have this weird thing that when you use the blinkers a very loud horn from under the seat goes off and sounds like a back up horn on a school bus...Got rid of that.

Hey Karen ,
Front high fender looks much better . You'll have to get rid of that dirt dobber decal , but save it for the back of your helmet . I still need to change the fenders on mine , originals are really crap . I bought mine from fiveflagsmotorbikes.com -- Check out their web site . Keep us updated .

The raised front fender is definetly a big improvement.Keep us posted on the upgrades.

Looks like a fun project Karen.
I agree with everyone else up high on the front fender
definitely gives it much better character

Karen, looks like a lot of fun! The front fender raised looks a lot better with dirt tires, but I would save that low front mount if you ever put 10" or 12" aftermarket wheels and little road race tires on it. Its a great bike to build however you want. I'd like to find a clone like that to try a small honda twin cyl eng bike. I just don't want to cut up a honda frame. I'll keep an eye out for your update posts.

Interesting find. Is it titled/registered for street use? If not, do you expect any headaches registering it in Kansas?

Excellent Karen! Looking forward to more of your "progress pics". Also nice to know you have the Manufacturers Certificate of Origin which will speed you through the titling task.

Thanks guys! It's great having a blank canvas to do whatever I want!

Mike...Great idea on putting the DD sticker on the back of my helmet! lol I am going to cut some graphics for it...probably Honda...If I don't like what I make then I will go with the KO like you did....always a classic look!

I will be painting the bike eventually so all of the look will change.

Dennis,Brian & Grant...I completely agree on the fender...It makes a huge difference....

Those wheels,axles and tires are coming off and Honda wheels,axles and Trail Wings are going on until I get the Michelin Reggae's. These tire's are a 3.50x10...way too small I think...They will be for sale. I will feel better with the Honda wheels on it...The back wheel on this is very tight, but the stories of hubs seperating from the sprocket on clones is a little frightening.

The back flap will also be modified, if not completely removed.

Bill and Harry..I don't expect any issues as far as tagging here. Two of the Redcats I looked at before this were tagged/titled and they were actually purchased from the same dealer as this one using the same Manufacturers Certificate of Origin. Having that was a big deal to me. I have read about the California issues with tagging clones...Do you know if a clone that is purchased, tagged and titled from another state is still not possible to tag them in California? The new Pitsters say that their bikes can be tagged in 49 states but not California yet...I think from what I have read they are working on that.

I learned more about the clone's than I was aware of...To me it looks like the Rupp,Redcat,Wildfire,Dirt Dobber etc are all the same bike. Chongging is the company that owns Lifan and they just put whatever name on the bikes. The differences that I saw was that the headlight bucket and chain guard could be either plastic or metal and the left side cover is usually stamped with whatever name the bike was sold under. Mine is a Lifan motor but is not stamped Dirt Dobber. On some of the clones they had just a grab bar instead of the grab bar luggage rack combo.

The clones were manufactured at a rate of 4,000 per day compared to Honda's 400-500! No wonder there were issues! I have seen the pictures of the factories and they do look like a well organized assembly line...After finding the nut was missing on the valve adjuster I doubt that there was much QC and I think that whenever someone buys one of these that has to be the first thing that they realize, everything needs to be checked and tightened...On this one I am sure that most all of the bolts will get loc-tite and the critical bolts will be replaced with a better grade.

Well, the stories of the hub seperating from the back is not for these type wheels...it is from the solid cast wheels they made for daxes. These are likely to be just fine.

If you are bent on it...I'm going to be selling a complete set of wheels/hubs/brakes from a 1981 ct70 and the front forks.

Originally Posted by kmcrab

Do you know if a clone that is purchased, tagged and titled from another state is still not possible to tag them in California?

Not sure about that. I do know that just about anything dealing with the DMV in this state is a major pain in the @$$. They make everything as difflicult as possible. When I went to register my custom made trailer, they wanted reciepts for every part used to put it together and sent me to two different DMV's and even than, bounced me from counter to counter until someone had a clue and helped me out. I'm not looking forward to registering my HK1.