Honda Nice mileage log

greydoggy1658

greydoggy1658

Member
10,000 kilometers

My Honda Nice hit 10,000 kilometers today (6,213.7 miles).
It's doing great.

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greydoggy1658

greydoggy1658

Member
Well, here we are again. It's the end of the 2011 riding season in this part of the world. Total milage this year.... 5,393 miles. A little more than last year. Total milage for the Nice motor.... 10,178 miles. Total milage on the running frame.... 16,783 miles. Problems with the Honda Nice..... NONE. Things needed over the winter are a new rear tire (for sure) which will be the 9th one. Replace upper and lower stearing bearings (already done). Also, winter prep... remove battery, fuel and, clean the oil spinner.

Here's a pic from a few day ago...
 

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69ST

Well-Known Member
Congrats on taking the second annual long distance award :first: There are a lot of guys who don't ride their fullsize bikes this much. Rock on!

You seem to be burning through rear tires. I've consistently seen 3,000-3,500 from Trailwings, with ~30% tread depth remaining at that mileage. Point is that they aren't exactly mileage tires, especially on the road. If you're running soft & sticky road shoes and like them, then I reckon it's good entertainment value for the money. Otherwise, a harder compound tire might be worth a look.

I'm a bit baffled by the steering head bearings going away. Again, it's not a big deal; replacement every 17K miles doesn't really impact your cost per mile very much. That said, imho, they shouldn't be wearing out this soon, if ever. 3 possible causes spring to mind: dirt, misalignment (stem/trees), bearing quality. The first and third are items over which you have some control. If it's the second, then you're already dealing with it as efficiently as possible.

A trio of maintenance suggestions:

  • Unscrew the lower cap on the fuel petcock, to completely remove all traces of fuel and any dirt that's accumulated. Remove the petcock lever, to expose the rubber packing...then dip it in motor oil and reassemble. Ethanol-laced pump gas is brutal on rubber. I'm hoping that the oil will prevent the rubber from shrinking over the winter.

  • Inspect the chain & sprockets for wear. If this is the same chain you installed with the 127 Nice, then it doesn't owe you anything (imho) after 10,000 miles. I've been getting 5000 miles, +/- since switching over to the HD chains & hot paraffin immersion process. Previously, they were all done by 1K.

    Try to lift the chain off of the wheel sprocket, at a point midway along the seated length. If you can see more than ~1-2mm of daylight between the sprocket & chain, spanning more than two links, the chain is used-up - to the point where it'll start wearing the sprockets.
  • Check the rubber sprocket dampers in the rear hub. They'll almost certainly look good. If you can generate more than a couple of degrees of rotational movement, relative to the hub, and/or 1-2mm of wobble with a bare hand, time to treat yourself to a new set.
 
6

69ST

Well-Known Member
Update, checked the petcock to see how the oil trick is working and can call it an unqualified...failure.:45: The lever is already just as loose as it was at the start of the 2011 season when it allowed gasoline to drip for the first 24 hours.

I used air tool oil on the rubber packing, because it was handy. That may have been a mistake. At this point, I don't expect the rubber to reconstitute fully with exposure to pump gas, though I'm going to give it a try. More likely, time for a new packing washer, if one can be sourced for this petcock.
 
ez50

ez50

Well-Known Member
The petcock on my atv didn't seal up after an inspection and I soaked the o-ring with 303 Aerospace Protectant overnight. Not another problem. Works great on the seat and tires too.
 
B

Blackartemis

Member
Can't wait to get mine up and running.
I had a Honda Chaly with a dream engine for 2 years and never had trouble. Waiting for the weather to be nice so we can paint, then it's the Nice 110.
I will ride that for a month or so before it gets turned into 150cc :devilish:
 
6

69ST

Well-Known Member
Sounds quite healthy.

At this rate, you're going to at least tie, if not top, my mileage total by the end of next year...and in less than half of the time.
 
Adam-NLV

Adam-NLV

Well-Known Member
I can tell a difference...Your Honda Nice has a real solid machined sound. My L110 doesn't have that refined Honda Nice sound.
Cool vid.
 
greydoggy1658

greydoggy1658

Member
Yes to that. The sound this engine puts out was the first thing I noticed that was "different". I had an L125 in this frame and it was a real turd.
 
fatcaaat

fatcaaat

Well-Known Member
If I didn't have so many bikes, I could put more mileage on mine. Right now, the clock on my 176+r Nice is a bit over 1700. My yellow CT will be rebuilt very soon, and it will be getting a Nice 125+r 4v SOHC. I'm waiting on two odds and ends before I i can button it up. But it should make for a nice runner.
 
greydoggy1658

greydoggy1658

Member
Winter...

Well, here we are again. it's the end of another riding season in Michigan. The Honda Nice did very well for me again with no major problems. The head started seeping oil from somewhere. VERY slight though. Hasn't dripped on the garage floor yet. That's the only issue I've had with this motor after 3 seasons and 15,120 miles. Total for 2012.... 4,885. Not bad for a "mini bike".

Here's one more vid shot a few weeks ago in my back yard before the leaves dropped.

GoPro Hero2 slow motion 120 fps on my "Trail 70" - YouTube
 
6

69ST

Well-Known Member
I'd want to figure out where the seepage originates and the rate. If it's the head cover, no big deal...either replace the gasket, or give it the occasional wipe down. On the other hand, consider that this motor isn't stock. You are running an overbored/resleeved cylinder and high-compression piston ,with a much smaller-than-stock skirt. That gives you higher peak cylinder pressures and less gasket sealing (clamping) surface area, plus more undesirable piston movement. Pump gas quality is inconsistent and declining. You don't always get the octane shown on the pump and it wouldn't take much detonation, caused by inadequate fuel, to kill a head gasket... or rock the piston hard enough to start hammering the cylinder walls on the thrust sides. As I recall, you also changed-over to what appeared to be a less-effective air filter than what you began with. A minuscule amount of dirt can do a lot of damage in very little time.

Check the crankcase vent hose. If there's more oil drippage than there used to be, that would indicate more blowby. If it looks the same as always, then it's probably nothing more serious than a gasket going away.
 
mfro

mfro

Member
One common known source of oil leaking on large-bore Nice cylinders (others as well) is the lower right cylinder stud/head oil supply line. On anything bored larger than about 54mm, it has direct contact to the inner wall of the steel cylinder sleeve. When hot, the aluminium cylinder expands more than the steel sleeve and pressured oil finds its way around the sleeve to the lower left stud, which is exposed to free air through the air cowl of the head.

I bet that's where you'll find oil.

Two ways to cure (and a third I'd consider botch): You can put a heat resistant (expensive!) O-ring on the lower left stud below the center bushing of the head (this sometimes works, sometimes not, that place is everything but an ideal use for an O-ring), you can (botch) fill up the lower left stud hole between head and cylinder with heat resistant sealant (will probably provide you some headaches at your next disassembly) or you can bore up the stud hole in the head and press an oversize tube into it which closes the stud hole completely and has prooven as permanent, clean fix at least for me.
 
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6

69ST

Well-Known Member
That's the oil return location Markus was talking about.

If that's the only seepage on the entire engine and the breather hose isn't telling you anything different, then I'd consider blowby to be a non-issue. My stocker has always left slight traces of oil spray around the clutch bellcrank, when ridden hard over longer distances; the crankshaft oil seal also seeped enough that I replaced it, near the 17,000-mile mark. That's been the only part replaced.

For now, I'd give the area a thorough cleaning, with solvent, (to remove all traces of residual oil) then try carefully re-torquing the head. Dunno if you recall, but the 54mm bore size was chosen to avoid just the situation to which Markus referred. Thus, it seems unlikely that anything more than a new head gasket will be required to stop the seepage...if the re-torquing doesn't do it.
 
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