Is motorcycling allowed?

[Ed-Zulu]

I had one of the very first RZ50's in the country (i.e. the first batch that came in)

That little thing was QUICK compared to the MT50 (still aircooled) I had before it (also my last non Yamaha motorbike  )

It was fast (as a early 80's 50cc can be) up to its rev limit of  12000rpm (yes, it did rev up to that, no problem), but it worked out to an indicated top speed of just over 90km/h. 

 

Friend of mine's Dad owned the local Bike shop, and he worked there as an mechanic, so I used to visit him quite often.

Scratching through a box of front sprockets one day, I found a 15t front sprocket (standard on the RZ was12t) that looked like it would fit. Checked, and yes it did fit. My buddy told me that with such a large jump in front teeth, I will not be able to get away, but I tried it in any case. I was greatly surprised to find that it got of the line with great ease, and the top speed jumped to an massive 120km'h indicated, at about 11000rpm.

Back at the shop my buddy did not believe me, so when he took the bike he just finished servicing out for a test ride, I tagged along on the RZ, and sitting next to the bike he was on, he also recorded 120km/h. 

 

Of course I was over the moon with this, and started terrorising the local Delivery Gang on their  200cc delivery bikes. I was also the King of the Heap at the local Saturday morning dices.

 

We then started playing with the bike, porting the hell out of it, and we fitted a Flat Slide Carb we found on a totalled 80cc MX bike. (can't even remember from what bike  ) We cut the exhaust off just before and after the expansion chamber, and then the expansion chamber all along the weld and cut/re-arranged the baffle plates in the expansion chamber before welding it together again, this turned it into our homegrown performance pipe, while still keeping it looking stock.

He also managed to source me a set of fibre reed valves, which transformed this bike into a real little monster. 

Somewhere along the line we also fitted a smaller rear sprocket, which increased the top speed considerably, but affected the acceleration a bit.(also can't remember what size sprocket, but it was a few teeth smaller)

The piston was kept standard, we just "skirted" it a bit to make it lighter, and the conrod was also sanded smooth. We also decked the head a bit to up the compression ratio. All of this done with no scientific base, we just did what we thought might work, if it did, we kept it like that, if it did not, we returned it to standard if possible, or got another one, benefits of having access to parts. I did however spend a lot of time servicing my bike, "de coking" it, etc.

 

I ruled the local dices, even against the later Kawa AR 50's and the few 80's that was around, the Honda MBX and the Suz Gamma's. Some of these were also heavily worked, but I weighed next to nothing then (under 60kg) so had a good power to weight ratio.

 

I took it down Tarlton track, and ran a best quarter mile of 21sec at 116km/h (dropped a friend in his new Ford XR3 that day)

Sitting upright in the right conditions, I could maintain 120km'h, crouching took the top speed up to between 130-140km/h and slipstreaming was a tad shy of 160km/h

 

At the Hillsnacks dices in Krugersdorp, I also ruled the roost, only being beaten by a track orientated 80cc Honda that was geared so tall, it had to be pushed off the line to get going. 

 

Kept that little bike for many years, even after I had an RD125LC and my first 350LC. Still took it out to the dices every so often, just to piss the youngsters off. Eventually sold it to a friends younger brother.

 

Ah, those were the days.

 

For some or other reason, these are the only photo's I have of any of the bikes I owned over the years. I know I have a photo or two of my Eleven Special somewhere, but can't find it.

 

RZ50.1.jpg

RZ50.2.jpg

RZ50.3.jpg

They were butt ugly, but whipped ass wherever they went!

[Ed-Zulu]

[Ed-Zulu]

[Andymann]

Who didn't have a Nova helmet?  (and then a bit later a Lafe)

 

I had an MDS helmet.  Because Andre Malherbe had an MDS.  I also had AXO leather MX boots, Sinisalo gloves, Scott Goggles and I'm pretty sure the chest protector was also Sinisalo.....

[Andymann]

I had an MDS helmet.  Because Andre Malherbe had an MDS.  I also had AXO leather MX boots, Sinisalo gloves, Scott Goggles and I'm pretty sure the chest protector was also Sinisalo.....

 

These bad boys - the black and Yellow ones....

[Wannabe]

That last picture was taken on the Krugersdorp / Pretoria highway on my way to the Police College in Pta West. (yes I know, 50's are / were not allowed on highways)

Took me an hour from Carletonville to the College, going through Randfontein, Krugersdorp, Swartkops and Pta West. From C/Ville to the College was 130km in distance. 

 

Edit = Must add, this was on mostly on Sunday afternoons and in 1982, so there was a lot less traffic on the road. 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Wannabe

[Hairy]

for some reason this excites me as a play thing

 

https://www.boredpanda.com/volkspod-wheel-hub-scooters/?_t=1&_f=featured

 

 

 

 

[Hairy]

Makes me think of this though

[Wannabe]

Riiinnggg ding ding.........

[Andymann]

for some reason this excites me as a play thing

 

https://www.boredpanda.com/volkspod-wheel-hub-scooters/?_t=1&_f=featured

 

 

 

 

 

Surely its the bonnet that goes between those things that should excite you more 

[Hairy]

Surely its the bonnet that goes between those things that should excite you more 

That brings me to a story that can not be told on this forum.

[mazambaan]

Interesting about the 50cc bikes. Back in the day when I was up for a 50 (I never got one), Zundapps and Kriedlers were supposedly the horsepower kings (or is it pony power).

[Ed-Zulu]

Interesting about the 50cc bikes. Back in the day when I was up for a 50 (I never got one), Zundapps and Kriedlers were supposedly the horsepower kings (or is it pony power).

Hau! Kehla, ukupi?

Edited November 15, 2019 by Ed-Zulu

[Wannabe]

Interesting about the 50cc bikes. Back in the day when I was up for a 50 (I never got one), Zundapps and Kriedlers were supposedly the horsepower kings (or is it pony power).

 

Yeah, they were. But very scarce, expensive and very unreliable.

 

We once took a road trip to Durban on our 50's (yeah, we did sh!t like that in those days) and there were two of the rich boys with us, one on a Kreidler (which was ugly as sin) and a Puch (not much better looking)

Neither of them reached Warden. All the Jap 50's made it there and back.

[i24]

Interesting about the 50cc bikes. Back in the day when I was up for a 50 (I never got one), Zundapps and Kriedlers were supposedly the horsepower kings (or is it pony power).

 

All the posters here seem to have two things in common. An interest in bicycles and the fastest 50 in the bike shed back in school days  

 

Mine was a circ 1966 Zundapp SS50. It was faster than most of the Jap bikes in the mid 70s and was quicker than a Honda 90cc 4 stroke. But the guy with the Kriedler was probably faster than me, even if it was just because his was newer and in much better condition.

 

I bought the Zundapp from my brother as a  non runner, for R90. It consumed piston rings on a regular basis and pistons themselves did no last much longer than 6 months. I rebuilt the gearbox twice due to mechanicals that were abused. First time just after I bought it to fix previous damage. 2nd time after some "friends" "borrowed" it at a party - they broke a shaft trying to hot wire it and push start it.

 

In my attempts to tune it I found that fixing all the leaks in the intake track, restoring the airbox to factory spec and replacing the muffler insert with an un-modified factory part worked best. Then I spent hours cleaning out soot and muck from the exhaust. Cleaned it as often as I cleaned the chain.

 

The key to this bike was resonant tuning of the intake and exhaust. The factory did a much better job of optimizing that than any 16yo could.  Riding it required getting the revs up into the sweet spot, slowly feeding in the multi-plate clutch without the revs dropping, then peddling the gearbox to keep the revs up

 

It was still much slower than everything else on the road, including Pucto buses.

[i24]

Of course it you couldn’t be fast, you needed to sound fast. Removing the baffel out the pipe dropped the panties even faster..

 

No ... I think the girls in my day had better taste than that.

 

Nothing sounds as painful as a 50cc without an exhaust baffle - like a sick mosquito on steroids. The worst thing is that it took so long for the thing to get out of hearing range