Oil Change for the Cool Foxster

It had three hours of run time on the motor so I decided to change out what ever was provided as lubricant from the factor. My first task was to drain it into a pan and make note of any metal in the oil. This is what you are suppose to be looking at in the green bowl. There was a modest amount of shine from very small particles suspended in the oil. This looked rather typical from other small motor oil changes. Actually I expected a substantial amount of metal because of the gears going through their break in time, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the small amount I did. So far so good, until I measured how much came out, 400cc. That's a fine number but my less than substantial owners manual said the capacity was 800cc's. So I added 400cc's of pencil Platinum 5w-30w synthetic oil back to it. Slowly I add more until the dipstick was measuring full. This worked out to be 600cc total. A little short but I don't want to overfill it. Next, time to see how it runs against the KX 60.

N-Style Fox Graphics

Graphics?
Sure, I know what your saying, why does an old man care about graphics on a play bike. Hey I remember how important bike fashion was, and face it, it may say Coolster but the factory stickers are definitely not cool. With that in mind I perused the on-line Chaparral catalog and after much studying body panels I determined that CRF 50 body work was what I had on the Coolster. So I decided on a set of N-Style Motocross Fox blue graphics. I liked the retro referenced Fox face, and the gray, blue, and white swaths looked hip, or whatever jargon the kids are using these days.
A friend let me know that a special spray on application was available to make the installation easier by allowing the graphics to be moved around on the bodywork before it finally dries. This would be much easier than the slow process I used of pulling a little backing off and deliberatly applying a small section at a time, checking my alignment as I go. Everything went well enough except for the right side panel that goes over the exhaust. I should be able to razor the bubbles and re-set that area of the sticker. I also finally mounted the front plate, I had to use a tie rap to get it done. Here's how it looks now.

New Knobbies for the Coolster

The new knobbie tires came in a pair of Bridgestone Motocross M402's. The description in the Chaparral catalog says that they are suited for intermediate terrain, which suited me as about right for serious yard riding and casual track tracing. First thing up was to take off the rear tire. I had to HAMMER it off. It was really squeezed in the swing arm, I’ll come back to this. For now I needed to pull the brake disc screws, apply some "blue" medium strength thread locker and retorque. Next I had to remove the original tires. Do yourself a favor, if you plan on doing the replacement yourself, get a set of those Rim Protectors that are sold in most metric motorcycle catalogs. The anodizing on aluminum rims is a soft and easily scratches. I thought I was smart enough to figure something else to use, and although I ended up using the lips off an old plastic waste basket and taped my irons, it still put a couple of small marks on the rims. The right tool is so important. Putting the new tire on was easier than taking the old one off though and I seemed on track until I tried to shoe horn the tire, axle spacers, and disk brakes back into that aforementioned "son of monkey swing arm" I realized that there was no way I was going to make it go back in the way it came out. This next part is not recommended but I did it anyway. I sized up the spacers and it appeared that the swing arm to brake spacer was larger than needed due to the gap it was causing between the brake mounting plate. Some of us are lucky enough to have access to a hobby lathe, and against better judgment I machined off 0.25" off of this first spacer. This seemed to be enough, the whole tire assembly then fit snug but didn’t need the swing arm spread to make it happen. Also, when I checked the swing arm mounting bolt for the rear shock, I noticed some rust, so a liberal application of white lithium spray grease to this area should protect and lubricate (that's what I'm pointing to in the picture).
My test riders says that it is a definate improvement over the stock, turf friendly tires. Myself, I never really cared for the lawn, so let it have it.

Loose Bolts

RATS!
Don’t, I repeat don’t, let your break in time go past 1 hour of run time before rechecking all your fasteners. I thought I could wait until the first tank of gas was done before I rechecked. WRONG! After 3 hours of run time I found three of the 4 Allen bolts on the rear sprocket loose and this.
The only indication was a slight squeaking coming from the back end, it apparently backed out and contacted the swing arm. New stainless M8 bolts and lock washers from the hardware store are now installed along with plenty of blue thread locker. If I had it to do all over again I would remove all the bolts first, clean with a degreaser like contact cleaner and loctite all fasteners with the blue stuff. I wouldn’t recommend the high strength red loctite, life’s tough enough, you would need to heat up your bolts to reliable remove them with the high strength stuff.

Super Hunky Still Rides

For those of you too young to remember Dirt Bike magazine in the 1970's, you missed some of the best writting and reviews of dirt bike culture ever. This was a time of big changes in factory bikes and companies like Can-Am and Harley Davidson were actually fielding MX models, that would eventually fail, but they were trying. Suffice to say it was a great time to be into dirtbikes and Dirt Bike magazine was the final and only word for dirtbikers. Dirt Bike's editor during this time was Rick "Super Hunky" Siemen. My school chums and I would spend study hour like a pack of delinquents, laughing to the described exploites of Super Hunky and the witty responses of Mr. Know it All, both columns written by Rick. Dirt Bike and Rick did a lot to shape Americans perceptions of what a dirtbike or MX'er was or should look like. Think about it, here was an idea for a magazine that would cater to mostly kids or teenagers, who were interested in a niche market like dirt bikes in a down economy, there couldn't have been many backers in the early days. Nobody writes articles like that these days, except maybe Rick himself. You can get a glimpse of him over at OffRoad.Com. No I'm not being paid for this, I just thinks its a pretty good website, and people interested in mini's or dirt bikes will find something there they'll like.
Next week I plan on doing some upgrades to the Coolster, I will let you know how it turns out. We have manage to put about 3 1/2 hours of run time on it so far. The only thing to note is that the chain seems to have stretched alot. I will probably take a link out when I pull maintenance on it this weekend. I geuss I don't expect much from a factory chain and sprockets. The old wisdom here was always runn'em until the sprockets are too worn to reliable keep going around the track, and then replace chain and sprockets with some high quality aftermarket stuff.

It's a Coolster!

A friend who has a motorcycle accessories business asked if I would be interested in trying out one of the new pit bikes currently being imported. So I arranged to pick it up from Green's Machines on a cool and drizzling Saturday, a perfect project for such a day.

This is how it showed up, strapped into a metal crate, front wheel, fender, handlebars and small box of parts all tucked alongside. My contact claimed that FedEx shipping to a drop terminal was only $60. This seemed pretty reasonable. The crate is held together by a dozen bolts, and the bike is then held by two wires to the crate. Included in the small box of parts is a toolkit, which contains everything you will need to make the bike ready to run, and the front axle, shock mounting bolt, and top clamp for the handlebars. Also included was 4 tie wraps, 2 automotive fuses, point of origin paperwork and a 10 page User Manual. The Manual contains the typical Chinese to English translations that makes it worth reading for the humor alone. But all kidding aside as with all motor vehicles the manufactures supplied manuals should always be read.






After freeing it from its crate we manage to perch it on a shop stand. First we hooked the shock to the swing arm, using the supplied tools. The large Allen slides into the swing arm through the left side and through the shock to thread into the right side of the swing arm.

Next, because I wanted to check the steering bearings for grease I removed the top triple clamp from the front shocks and then removed the retaining nut, after loosening the the steering nut the steering head drops down and allows access to the top and bottom bearings. They appeared to have a nice light coating of grease, but since I went this far I decided to apply a healthy glob of bearing grease to both. I don't think this is something that you would need to do, but if you do, remember not to take the retaining nut all the way off, you could end up with bearings all over. This operation also required tools not furnished with the bike. After putting the steering head back together make sure its tight, but not too tight, it should turn smoothly with no side to side or up and down movement.

The handle bars need to be unwrapped and then set into the bar holder, I put them on and set them at the angle most comfortable for my 10 year old rider. Three bolts hold the front fender, this left only the front wheel to put on. The axel comes with two spacers, make sure that the narrow one is on the side of the brake. While we are talking about brakes its important to not that they are front and back disc brakes with rad looking wavy rotors and gold anodizing on edge. Make sure you take the plastic shipping wedge out from between the pads. Remeber the plastic protectors for the upside down forks face forward, I got to put the front axle on twice due to my lack of attention.

At this point your ready to do a complete front to back fastener check. Go over ever nut, bolt and screw. I found seven very loose bolts that wouldn't have stayed on for fifteen minutes of run time, three of these were on the triple clamps so make sure you check them on yours. Don't forget the two under the steering head either.
After a thorough fastener review its time to air the tires, I put them at 28psi, and checked the oil. Ours was full and the sticker on the side said that it takes 0.8 liters to fill.

The fuel line as shipped seemed to be a rather large loop, I trimmed it and re routed it around the other side of the carburetor. That's when I discovered the un connected ignition wire, make sure you get this hooked up also.
The only item left was the front number plate, after 5 minutes of turning it upside down and backwards, I'll be dipped to figure out how it goes on. Eventually my "I can figure this out" spirit started kicking in and after another 15 minutes of trying to ty-rap it on, I finally decided I liked the non-plated outlaw look better anyway and put the number plate into my box of vintage XR parts.

Lets talk some specs on the Coolster Max. Its produced in China on Honda tooling I am told by my contact in the US. The motor is a copy of the Honda 125cc horizontal style that was that companies staple through the 70's. Transmission is a four speed, and the exhaust is a racy looking and sounding 4 inch aluminum can on a chromed pipe. Wavy disc brakes front and back gets this mini bike stopped. The front brake will require a minute or so of pumping at the lever before it gets solid to the actuator. The forks are the upside down variety and the single shock in back is adjustable. The forks have a red screw on top that appears to be a valving rate adjustment of some sort, I haven't messed with it yet, but will let you know on follow ups. Suspension is stiff out of the crate, so I will definitely have to spend some time with it to make it more usable for a 90 pound boy. Wheels are 14 inch front and 12 inch back, the tires are a dirt universal style tread that is not as aggressive as a true knobby pattern. I plan on throwing a set of knobbies on it to see how it handles with them. Seat height measured 30 inches from the ground with 12 inches of travel between the rear fender and tire.

On to the important stuff, how does it run? Great! is the answer. Fill with gas, turn the key to on, choke up and one kick got it running, that's right one kick! Let is sit for a minute running to warm up, take off the choke and take off. The motor has a good torquey feel to it, making it easy to ride. The exhaust absolutely roars. My test rider was making laps and putting it over the short jump in minutes. Wheelies were a little difficult, but the imposed "no big revs during break in" and wet grass conspired against the needed traction. In a closed track head to head against a KX60 my impression is that the Kawi would beat it. The increased weight and slower revving fourstroke I don't think will be able to beat the KX from corner to corner, but that is a topic for a later post.

Overall impression, I really like it. The looks can't be beat, with electric blue anodized rims, billet gas cap and forks, race rat styled air filter and already mentioned wavy rotors. The motor is familiar and un complicated, I dig the idea of putting this style and size of motor into an over the top suspension package, and although it is mainly for youngsters, the suspension should easily support an average adult, maximum load per the manual is 115kgs. Other areas we are looking at are a real set of knobbies, and some upstyled graphics. Included in that will no doubt be a front plate that fits. The price? you ask, I'm told that they will most likely sell around the $1300 mark, of coarse that can change up or down depending on how popular this current model will be, and I think it will be very popular. So if you want a low cost, easy to ride bike for larger novice riders I can whole heartedly recommend the Coolster 125cc pit bikes, you won't be sorry.

Lets Get it Started

The theme for Minibike Mullahs will obviously be everthing to do with casual minibike riding. I plan on keeping experiances logged and would solicit others who have ideas or experiances to post. I picture it as a place to come for info on fixes, answers for where to get things, what works good and what bikes you like. If you post though, leave the potty language at your place, I will moderate comments. So, lets get it started!