2016 K-Pipe 125 Owner

[Buckybuck]

What? Shop manual inaccurate? Take a look at the specs on pages 1.1, 2.1, and 6.1 in the shop manual and decide which set of valve clearance numbers printed on each of those three pages is the right one. However, I do have to think that since this engine type is popular in a lot of countries where the bike owners have more important things to fret about than optimum valve clearance, it's a fairly robust engine, and maybe I worry too much. Maybe the specs are just guidelines.

You and I were in the same mood the other day, Woodsrat. I took my Pipe over to my cabin in Ohio's Hocking Hills area. (One of the reasons I wanted a Monkey Bike was I wanted something light I could easily load in the back of my truck by myself and haul there). It's hilly there also; I was down to second gear a lot of times before peaking a hill. I did discover that the bike is skittish on gravel; I probably should have realized that would be a problem on such a light bike with skinny tires. I tried going down a very steep hill on a gravel road and quickly realized I was skating, not slowing, as soon as I applied the brakes. I ended up sideways before somehow, impressively, getting stopped without dropping the bike. Going back up the hill, I had to waddle-walk the bike, since the back tire was bucking and washboarding as it tried to gain traction on the gravel.

Believe it or not, I'm not complaining. As soon as I got back on level ground, I began thinking how much worse my day could have been had I been on the Kawasaki Concours that I used to have, one of the older ones with that huge, 7-gallon belly gas tank. I think I would have been in a world of pain on that road on that bike.

[woodsrat]

More fun with the 22mm Mikuni carb setup...

The carb manifold adapter arrived and at least by my eyes didn't look totally flat.  I bought a piece of #320 paper, taped a piece to a surface plate and using a figure-8 motion lapped the top of it flat.  The bottom that goes against the cylinder head uses an "O" ring to seal it.  A tiny bit of Permatex High Tack holds it in place nicely while the adapter is bolted in place.

It didn't come with the needed flathead 6mm x 1 bolts so a trip to the hardware store got me a pair of stainless socket headed bolts 16mm long.  The adapter wasn't countersunk well so another trip to Harbor Freight got me a  90 degree countersink (HF #61552, $1.99) and a few minutes of work on the drill press later the bolt heads were nice and flat in the adapter.  Note that metric flatheads are 90 degrees on the angled surface, not the 82 degrees of SAE bolts so be careful that you use the proper countersink for these bolts.

I had a gasket in my inventory and more High Tack painted on it and a couple of 6mm x 1 bolts with 8mm heads 16mm long bolted the manifold to the manifold adapter.  (I tried bolts with 10mm heads but it's difficult to get a wrench on them.)  I bolted it on so that the carb now points about 20 degrees to the left.  Now there's no worry of the fender hitting the air cleaner.  I used blue Loctite on the two bolts that hold the manifold to the manifold adapter since the assembly isn't supported any other way to insure it won't shake loose.

I got out the phony blinker/sidecover assembly and it will still fit even with the carb/air cleaner pointing to the left if you wanted to retain it.

I have a fruit can about 4" in diameter and I may experiment with drilling a hole in the chrome cover of the K & N filter and install a bolt in the center of it to bolt on the can for inclement weather.  I've used plastic Fast Orange hand cleaner cans for the same purpose in the past on my Lifan powered step-throughs so one of these might end up on it with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom to insure the filter will get plenty of air.

When I can get someone to get a picture or three of this setup I'll post them.  For now here's a picture of the manifold adapter I used except mine was black.

[woodsrat]

I received an email today from Peter Jones of KYMCO USA.  He confirmed that the shop manual is indeed incorrect in it's specification in the cylinder rebuild section and the correct bore and stroke is 54mm x 54mm.  He also told me it uses a 14mm piston pin which to my knowledge is the same as what's on my Lifan semi-auto motors.

Peter's a great guy, a real gearhead and has been very helpful in providing information I couldn't find about our bikes.  American Honda could learn something about customer relations from this fellow!!

Here's a picture of a U. S.-spec K-Pipe 125 piston provided by Mr. Jones.  I just ordered up a replacement piston kit for my Lifan semi-auto and it appears to be identical.  This leaves the combustion chamber to be the difference in compression ratio between the Lifan and the K-Pipe.  Again once I get my Lifan/Passport back together I'll pop the noggin off the K-Pipe and see what it's combustion chamber looks like.

[lilzip24]

Thanks for keeping us posted Woodsrat! I've been checking here every day for new info

[Buckybuck]

Oh, the dreams I sometimes have when I'm riding my K-Pipe. But you know, even tho the seat doesn't look any more angled than a lot of other bikes, I feel like I'm being nudged forward all the time.  Woodsrat mentioned this also, and I also think he's already tried different handlebars. Is it just this style of bike, rider age, the bike's compact size, or something else?

[woodsrat]

Manufacturers do this to make people feel comfortable sitting on them in the showroom.  It allows more people to get their feet on the ground, a huge selling point.  Only a handful of people find these seats comfortable when actually riding them.  The rest of us end up sitting on our "privates".

Until the mid-to-late 50's bikes had tractor-style seats that actually fit the human arse.  Some marketing wizard decided that "racing style" seats resembling vinyl covered loafs of bread looked better and they became the standard.  These seats evolved into what we have on bikes today.

We've become slaves to fashion.

Just for fun I picked up a seat from an FXRP cop bike at a swap meet and rigged it up on my XR-650L.  It was light years better than the stock seat.  Ugly, yes but very functional and I couldn't see it when I was riding it.  I got this idea from an old duck I know in Florida who put an old leather cop bike seat on various bikes (among them a BMW G/S and a Suzuki DR-350SE) and I was amazed how comfortable it was.

Even one of those cheap solo seats with springs popular on bobbers would work better for most people than the stock seats on dually bikes.

I don't see things changing anytime in the near future and the folks at Sargents will continue to make a nice living making these seats passable for our use.

[woodsrat]

New topic...

Given the K-Pipe's been out over a year there's gotta be a few of you replacing tires.  What are you using???

I haven't seen much available in tubeless tires in the sizes that come on the bike and was just curious what you're using to replace the stockers.

[lilzip24]

My tires are still 50% but I agree that the stock sizes are difficult to find. I'd like to replace them before doing a Mini GP in the fall

[ZPD Survival]

Hey Folks. I have been watching this thread since I bought my 2016 K-Pipe 125 last August. I am Glad it is still moving along. Springtime in Michigan and the riding has begun. I have just over 600 miles on my bike and I agree that the K-pipe needs just a bit more power and a better seat. Otherwise, It is a great Bike. I am very interested in getting my hands on that shop manual. Let's keep working on these bikes. Have a great day.

[woodsrat]

After a hundred mile ride to lunch today I decided to try gearing the bike up one tooth in the front to see how it would react.  The motor seemed to be "busy" (turning too many RPM) at an indicated cruising speed of 48 MPH and I thought if it would pull one more tooth in the front perhaps it would not only make it feel less busy but also improve it's cruising speed.

I'd previously put an "O" ring chain on it in the stock length but unfortunately it's too short to accept another tooth .  Off to the shop and I bought a regular #428 chain to experiment with.  It took 108 links to mate a 15 tooth sprocket with the standard 36 tooth rear (stock is 106).

Wow!! It still never fails to amaze me how gearing affects how a bike runs.  The bike now goes faster in each gear before shifting and will cruise at an indicated 52-55 MPH (actual 49-52 MPH according to my GPS).  This is pretty much equal to the Lifan powered Passport I rode to the Smokies from Indy last summer that I was using as a standard.

I'm sure in hilly country I'll be shifting more and next weekend I'll make another run to the hills to see how it reacts.

If you don't have to have an "O" ring chain this is a cheap change with the chain around $20 and the sprocket about $7 on eBay.  As mentioned this is a #428 setup and the front shaft is the same style/size as the older Hondas with a 17mm shaft (the Lifans use a 20mm output shaft).

Now I've gotta buy another "O" ring chain.  At least I can run the first one on another step through project I'm building.

If you want your bike to feel less busy and have a higher and more comfortable cruising speed give this a shot.  I think you'll like it.


Temperatures today got up to around 80 and the bike seemed to be running a bit rich at about 1/8-1/4 throttle opening on the Mikuni I'm running.  First I stopped and removed the steel washer I'd put under the clip and up the road stopped again and removed the brass washer leaving only the nylon one.  Both helped so I stopped again and swapped the brass one for the nylon one which visually is slightly thinner and again got an improvement.  The next step will be to try dropping the needle one notch and then juggle the washers to see what works best.

Life is great sometimes and this was one of those exceptional days when my experiments went well.

[woodsrat]

I'm low tech and don't own one of those fancy telephones that take pictures but my buddy was kind enough to take a picture of the carb setup I'm running on the bike.  The problem is they exceed the 1024 KB limit.

If anyone knows how to make these "smaller" I can email them to you and let you post them for me.  PM me for an email address.

[Redk]

WR, send that large pic to photobucket or Imgur, then you need only post a link in your message.
Try a little more tech ?
It's better for the forum that way, anyway.
redk

[woodsrat]

People have been making fun of my non-techie nature for over a decade now.  I left one site because people became downright mean about it.  Ironically some of these same people now call seeking help with their builds.

I bought the K-Pipe because I'm more-or-less "stuck in the 70's" and miss the simplicity and ease of maintenance these bikes offered.  I bought a Grom and tried really hard to get my head around fuel injection, carrying the shop manual around with me everywhere I went to study but it just never clicked.

My Dad insisted I take a full year of typing in high school figuring if his motorcycle bum son couldn't do anything else he could get a job as a clerk.  I never dreamed this skill would be of value to run anything like a computer.  Regardless my computer skills are limited and I have no intention of learning anything more.  My memory bank is full of redundant information now and while I can tell you all about a particular bike from the 70's or how to set the timing on a bike with a breaker point ignition my lack of skill behind this monitor will probably remain this way.

No offense or anger here (yet)--I just want everyone to know that I'm old fashioned as I can be before people start saying things like "pics or it didn't happen."  I'll be happy to go to great lengths to describe something but for those who hate reading better be ready to ignore my lengthy posts.  If that's offensive to the majority I'll stop posting and depart.

[Redk]

WR, I thought your tech description of repairs was pretty good!
If you can step up, to post pics, even better, and you will be able to help more people.

I would probably agree, a person can definitely allow their life to be taken over by what they do on the net.
Yet most the Luddites have been left behind, and they probably couldn't care less.

As they say, almost anyone can grind the grain into flour and bake bread.
The fun people learn to brew beer.

It's your call.
redk

btw, I've kept my old shovelhead because it's a basic machine. Some say same rocker arm ratio as the older knuckleheads.
More recently I found the China girl engine kits for bicycles were pretty handy, and very simple.
These modern scooters are Hi-tech, to me, and are handy, around town.
Took a short hop to the market already this morn.

I'll offer brief assistance if I can. Your choice to take advantage of it or expend more energy resisting.
.

[lilzip24]

I've been playing with the idea of changing the front sprocket also. Since your cruising speed increased though, how much slower is the bikes acceleration??