Recumbent Honda 90

[Grant-53]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[PeterS]

A quick catch up. Nothing motorcycly to report but I'm feeling fine and have had no new growths ....yet. I may actually get onto a project relevant to this forum yet.

[elhigh]

Holy cats, man.

Sending good wishes from USA. Feel better, dude.

[Ironside]

Good to hear from you Peter, been thinking of you, I'm itching for you to get started now you're well again, it'll help you stay positive.

The 400 build is progressing well although very slowly, things have been a little quiet on this site recently, maybe I'll start a new thread to liven things up.

[PeterS]

If you do I'll read it Pete!

[JoanOliver]

According to what you have shared so far, your life is totally dedicated to your favorite means of transportation

[Ironside]

Hi all, it's a little quiet on here so I thought I might try to liven things up a bit.
My 'Dreamliner' is still in active service and running fine.

Four of us took a trip through France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium at the end of last summer, Nige was travelling on his Honda Innova with his 15 year old son on pillion, and Ash was riding his 125cc Suzuki.

Sadly Ash and the Suzuki didn't make it past the Ardennes, major gearbox problems ended his trip early, and went home in the back of a van. Luckily he had European breakdown cover.

I had a minor problem with loose rear sprocket bolts, probably due to the non standard rear sprocket, but that was easily fixed.
Interesting to note that the (carbed) Innova fuel consumption was very similar to mine at around 140 mpg (Imp.). He was carrying a lot more weight and is not at all streamlined. Obviously a more efficient engine.

I've recently acquired a Lifan 110 engine which I'm fitting into an off road bike. Now here's the thing I'm not happy about, this engine's ignition timing is set to around 27 deg btdc and is non adjustable. It's the only engine I've worked on that does not have any kind of advance/retard, either mechanical or electronic.
The pitbike boards are full of advice about how to make your bike faster, but no-one seems concerned with fuel economy.

There is a rotor/CDI kit available from OOracing for 85 pounds that will resolve this issue, I'm wondering whether anyone has any experience with these engines and whether you think it's a worthwhile mod.

Pete.

[Stubby79]

I have experience with them, but not with trying to advance the timing. It wouldn’t surprise me that they have fixed timing...I was looking at the signal generator, and wondered how it advanced the timing, since there is nothing mechanical...

Anyway, there are dirt cheap “racing” cdi’s that claim to advance the timing at higher rpm, even showing a graph right on the label. Again, it could be true...otherwise I doubt they’d rev up very high, and they go over 8k rpm with little effort with one on it. Maybe I’ll compare it without...or check it with a timing light and see if it advances at all.

OOracing could probably give you a definitive answer as to whether or not the cdi advances the spark or not. Otherwise I doubt they’d be hitting 12k rpm on the things.

This:
https://www.ooracing.com/tuningTips.htm
Seems to suggest that the CDI unit does, in fact, advance the timing based on RPM. That's even a diagram of the same basic CDI unit that my engine came with.

PS: Those 110cc are quite limited on power. Might work fine for an areo modded bike, but you won't get past 50mph on an unmodded one. That's if speed is a factor in your purpose. Look for 125cc+ if you need more power, preferably with the large valves. Of course that might kill your MPGs...

[Ironside]

Thanks for the reply and the link Stubby79, this static timing seems to be a compromise and I think the engine would be more efficient with variable timing. It probably won't matter much on a trail bike, but I might need to install a new engine in the Dreamliner. It's currently running a 125 Atc motor, and over here they are as rare as rocking horse manure.

I've got a rotor from a YX 140, which gives an extra 10 deg. of advance. If I use that with it's original CDI, theoretically, I should be able to vary the timing from about 17deg to a maximum of 37 degrees. Got to be better than static timing, if it doesn't work I can go back to the standard setup.

I cant ride the bike yet, I'm waiting for some cycle parts to arrive. In the meantime I'll check that everything fits and source a suitable CDI.

Pete.

[Stubby79]

Just tested mine with a timing light...the timing mark barely moved as I revved it up. Disappointing, and a bit inconclusive. Might have gained like 5 degrees, between idle and probably 6 to 8k rpm.

Stopped testing because my secondary muffler wouldn't stay on, and I don't need to annoy the neighbors with all that noise.

On the other hand, I also had my tach light out, which I used to set the idle yesterday...hit 11,500 rpm quickly, before I chickened out. That's good...wasn't sure it would do much past the 8k limit the old CDI box.

Self-advancing timing would be nice...lack there of might explain the need for 1500rpm idle?