Post by mms1361 on Jun 17, 2015 5:55:37 GMT -5
So i recently came into the posession of a 2005 Roketa z-bike scooter. The bike looks like complete crap. All the plastics are yellowed and fogged. All the fairings are in poor scratched and scuffed condition. Its a chinese scoot and after doing some digging around the interwebs i believe this is the model # www.roketa.com/product/36066/0/2620.shtml
Long story short the bike has had a rough life. Its only in my possession because my brother wanted to temporarily store it at my place because hes moving places. It problably hasnt had any maintenance whatsoever on it. I got it to turn on like 2 years ago while fiddling with it. It didnt sound super peppy but it stayed on and ran with minor idling issues. After that, last i knew he told me it wasnt turning on. Then it sat for a good while. Then they lost the keys. Then they tore out the ignition switch. And now its in my hands. Right now he doesnt have a vehicle and its the middle of summer so i thought id surprise him and hopefully get him some wheels. Im very mechanically inclined so this is all simple to me.
I already tore ALL of the plastic from the bike down completely to the frame. I removed all the lenses and wetsanded them the best i could followed with a plastic polish buff. Theyre still horribly yellow but atleast you can see through them now. I can now tell the bike has 6000 miles. I also repainted all of the sunfaded black panels with trim paint. They look ALOT better. Its missing the two front mirrors but thats not a big deal right now. It really sucks that they clear coated the fairings AFTER applying these hideous Jamaican font Z BIKE decals.
Upon mechanical inspection i noticed the battery is still holding voltage which is good. The ignition has been torn out. I already ordered a full lock set and am waiting on it to arrive. I found the main fuse blown and have replaced it. Im assuming he cut out the ignition with the battery still attached hence the blown fuse. I also found a plastic bag sucked into what appears like an intake of some sort on the passenger side. The vacuum hoses are in poor condition, all the rubber is hardened. I only found two lines to be cracked. The PCV hose that goes into the intake was shot and there was oil/dust grime on top of the engine case. And another small vacuum line near the rear driver shock. Ive taped up the hoses as best i can to avoid vacuum leaks. The fuel filter appears old but the screen is clear and free of debris. I found oil stains on the valve cover so i removed it, the oring is flat and hard so i made my own gasket with RTV. Checked spark plug, looked pretty clean, rechecked gap and reinstalled. Checked air filter, looked clean, blew off and reinstalled. I have leftover 10-40 4stroke from my moto days so ill give it an oil change tomorrow.
The tires appear in good shape and hold air. Ive adjusted the rear drum since it wasnt really grabbing for anything. Now it has a firm grip. The front MC eyeglass is broken and appears to have been epoxied/glued shut. Its not leaking but the front brakes are squishy. Ill try bleeding them tomorrow.
I really cant do much until the Ignition switch comes in. Im considering repainting the fairings but i dont know how good a rattle job will turn out. In my experience ive never had anything turn out good if its anything but flat/satin paint. Glosses all seem to never harden completely. Another thing is idk if repainting it is going overboard on the whole "only possessing it for storage" deal. Do you guys think i have permission or not? I think theyve pretty much considered it as a loss.
Does anyone have any other maintenance suggestions or any ideas on how to spruce up the bike and not make it look like a huge rolling turd? So far im $40 in this ghetto project with the ignition set, 2 cans of paint and the RTV sealer. Its not logical to spend any money in replacement parts that arent completely broken. For what its worth ill post pics in a bit ..even though everything is piled in pieces at the moment.
Long story short the bike has had a rough life. Its only in my possession because my brother wanted to temporarily store it at my place because hes moving places. It problably hasnt had any maintenance whatsoever on it. I got it to turn on like 2 years ago while fiddling with it. It didnt sound super peppy but it stayed on and ran with minor idling issues. After that, last i knew he told me it wasnt turning on. Then it sat for a good while. Then they lost the keys. Then they tore out the ignition switch. And now its in my hands. Right now he doesnt have a vehicle and its the middle of summer so i thought id surprise him and hopefully get him some wheels. Im very mechanically inclined so this is all simple to me.
I already tore ALL of the plastic from the bike down completely to the frame. I removed all the lenses and wetsanded them the best i could followed with a plastic polish buff. Theyre still horribly yellow but atleast you can see through them now. I can now tell the bike has 6000 miles. I also repainted all of the sunfaded black panels with trim paint. They look ALOT better. Its missing the two front mirrors but thats not a big deal right now. It really sucks that they clear coated the fairings AFTER applying these hideous Jamaican font Z BIKE decals.
Upon mechanical inspection i noticed the battery is still holding voltage which is good. The ignition has been torn out. I already ordered a full lock set and am waiting on it to arrive. I found the main fuse blown and have replaced it. Im assuming he cut out the ignition with the battery still attached hence the blown fuse. I also found a plastic bag sucked into what appears like an intake of some sort on the passenger side. The vacuum hoses are in poor condition, all the rubber is hardened. I only found two lines to be cracked. The PCV hose that goes into the intake was shot and there was oil/dust grime on top of the engine case. And another small vacuum line near the rear driver shock. Ive taped up the hoses as best i can to avoid vacuum leaks. The fuel filter appears old but the screen is clear and free of debris. I found oil stains on the valve cover so i removed it, the oring is flat and hard so i made my own gasket with RTV. Checked spark plug, looked pretty clean, rechecked gap and reinstalled. Checked air filter, looked clean, blew off and reinstalled. I have leftover 10-40 4stroke from my moto days so ill give it an oil change tomorrow.
The tires appear in good shape and hold air. Ive adjusted the rear drum since it wasnt really grabbing for anything. Now it has a firm grip. The front MC eyeglass is broken and appears to have been epoxied/glued shut. Its not leaking but the front brakes are squishy. Ill try bleeding them tomorrow.
I really cant do much until the Ignition switch comes in. Im considering repainting the fairings but i dont know how good a rattle job will turn out. In my experience ive never had anything turn out good if its anything but flat/satin paint. Glosses all seem to never harden completely. Another thing is idk if repainting it is going overboard on the whole "only possessing it for storage" deal. Do you guys think i have permission or not? I think theyve pretty much considered it as a loss.
Does anyone have any other maintenance suggestions or any ideas on how to spruce up the bike and not make it look like a huge rolling turd? So far im $40 in this ghetto project with the ignition set, 2 cans of paint and the RTV sealer. Its not logical to spend any money in replacement parts that arent completely broken. For what its worth ill post pics in a bit ..even though everything is piled in pieces at the moment.
