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You'll also note that I've added crests on each of the "fuel tanks." One is for the RAF and one for the
Parachute Regiment. I've seen photographic evidence for both, although the additions were probably post-war: they were
probably added to the base run-abouts by the same sort of people who did nose art for the airplanes. The RAF crest is
a "RAF Effingham" sticker sent to me by Chris at Air Diggers (many thanks for that!) and the Bellarephone is custom artwork
that I painted myself.
Before you think I'm some sort of hot-shot artist, this was how I went about painting this: I printed the
design reversed from the original, then applied it face-down over the red background. Carefully soaking the paper (and
not allowing it to shift) transferred just enough of the ink to stain the paint, which gave me a pattern to paint
to. Then a few hours with light blue paint and a small brush got me some nifty artwork!
When the bike was first built, it was painted using a specially mixed paint that was color matched to the British
Army green (the builder calls it British Racing Green, which is pretty accurate). The closest color that I've found
to it is called "Marine Corps Green" that's availible in spray cans in most surplus stores. It's a bit darker than
the British green: look carefully at the front forks in the pictures above; they're not in shadows, that's the darker shade
of green. There are also a few chip touch-up's on the top frame that show off the darker color.
The original engine that the builder had used was a 32 year-old Honda 50cc engine from a Z50 motor scooter. It's
main strength was it was free, but it was also pretty worn out and barely made enough compression to run. After some
searching, I found Hooper Imports, a source for Lifan 50cc engines. Turns out after years of building 50cc motorscooters,
Honda has now abandoned the market, which is now filled by a Lifan Motors, a Chinese company who are taking advantage
of the lapse in Honda's patents for these engines. The engines are exact copies and the new engine bolted
right into the bike. The only modification was to drill out a bolt hole to fit a non-metric bolt.
| 2005 |
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| "Old Mowgli" at a re-enactment at Fort Ord. |
Then problem became how to make the replacement engine look "WWII-sh" enough. As you can see
in the picture below, the engine came to me with a bright silver crankcase and chromed cylinder head and carb. Great
for making your Z-50 trailbike look flashy, but not correct for the period. To get the proper level of dullness,
I painted the engine's crankcase and transmission Marine Corps Green (the closest color to British Army Green
that's commonly availible), then used high temperature metallic grey paint to dull the chrome cylinder head and carburetor.
Good stuff, that cylinder head paint, and not very expensive, too.
| February, 2006 |
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| Mowgli's first night in his new home, incomplete, inoperative, and unpainted. |
A part that turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find was a proper air filter; seen below it's the green can-like
object attached to the metal-colored carb above the engine. Almost everything that's out there has chrome
screens and brightly colored filter elements that would never look WWII. However, after a lot of searching, I found one
that came with a can-type cover that had some promise. It was chromed (of course) so I sanded the surface with
some wet-and-dry 400 grit sandpaper with the intent of just removing the high gloss finish to allow the paint to adhere.
However, a few minute's of sanding proved the chrome was very thin, so I ended up sanding it all off before
painting. A couple of minutes with a spray can and presto! one fairly convincing WWII air cleaner for not too much money.
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| Another bit of custom artwork, a broad arrow instead of a "LIFAN." |
The other challenge was connecting the ignition system. The modern, electronic ignition was not quite as obvious
to connect as the original points and coil system. After significant searching, I finally found several diagrams
that worked, albeit after a lot of cross-referencing. If anyone wants to use this engine and has problems
connecting the Lifan ignition wiring, contact me for those diagrams.
ONGOING NEWS
2006
Since this is a reproduction, it's sometimes gets used pretty hard. During
the last event before I bought it, the bike was ridden into several walls during some "adventures" inside some condemned barracks.
This weakened the welds that attached the forks to the stem and they later partially failed during the first full event
that I took the bike to. That resulted in a trip back up to the bike's birthplace, the El Monte
Tank Museum, for a repair day that included changing the handlebar coupling sleeve.
This is the Welbike right after that work was completed, with the museum's
work area behind. You can just see the unpainted repair and new coupling at the front of the bike.
Below is the actual repair made to the backside of the forks, after painting was completed.
The hinge that folds the handlebars is a old universal joint for a 3/8ths socket. While we were installing the
new coupling, the original hinge pin broke (probably because we were using a 5 pound hammer to realign the coupling after
it was welded in crooked). Lucky enough, the second hinge pin was undamaged; here it is cleaned up and ready for replacement
(but don't get me started with how tough it was to remove the broken remnant of the old pin). The brass washer is a
custom shim designed to take out some of the play in the hinge and correct the bike's notoriously sloppy steering. It's
a standard #8 washer, hand-filed down to .025 of an inch: a job that took about 3 hours (while watching A BRIDGE TOO FAR,
of course). The steel washer is the universal joint's original lock washer that was supposed to do the same thing, but
is now too compressed to do the job. 06/10/2009: don't use a brass washer, it flattens out after a short period of time
and breaks.
And why "Mowgli" you may ask? Well, that's the name given to it by my wife. She felt it was appropriate
to name this machine after the little boy who ran around the jungle in Kipling's JUNGLE BOOK.
10/08/07:
Since first getting this machine, I've talked to several people about the Lifan built Z50 engine. One of the common
problems I've encountered is a distinct difficulty with adjusting the engine's carburetor. One thing I've found is it
runs rather lean, and the idle mixture adjustment screw needs to be almost fully screwed in for the engine to run. I'm
still getting this adjustment set, so stay tuned for further developments. If you know of any unique tricks regarding
the Lifan-built carb (like what to clean, or unique adjusting tricks) I'd like to hear them.
09/02/08:
After the better part of a year, I finally found out several important details:
First, I found out that the carburetor fuel valve (the handle above the sediment bowl) is in the off position as
pictured above. Since the engine gets 100 mpg, it runs a LONG time with the fuel turned off, which makes deducing this
fact a bit difficult. 06/10/2009: I've finally tested how long the engine will run with the fuel turned off: 10
minutes at full throttle, 10 more minutes at idle.
Second, there's a dedicated carburetor float bowl drain with a needle valve and drain line; really nice for vehicles
that don't run much. Much easier to drain the fuel from the carb and prevent it from gumming up.
Third: this carb has a sediment bowl. Unscrewed it from the carb a few days ago, and look what I found!
That's dirt picked up from the fuel tank that the carb's screen prevented from getting any farther. I haven't
run the bike since cleaning it out, but right now I figure this was the causing this engine to run "lean". 06/10/2009:
Actually, since writing this I've found out this wasn't the problem, see below.
Also, beware of surplus fuel line, after seeing what is pictured below, I bought new tubing.
05/30/2009
In case you care (and I guess you do, since you've bothered to read down this far) the carburator problems continue.
Had the Welbike out at the Chino Air Show and the carb still doesn't work. Had an air show attendee suggest I run a
cleaner through the main jet, sometimes they clog and the engine only runs on the idle jet. I've pulled the carb off,
taken off the float bowl, and cleaned out the main jet. Sorry, didn't get any pictures of the process, might do it again
to get them. Now I'm waiting for a good day to test it. Wish me luck!
06/10/2009
Yay! Finally an operating Welbike! Turned out to be a blocked main jet, a common problem for these engines,
according to the Chino air show attendee who suggested I look at it (THANK YOU, WHOEVER YOU ARE!). To fix it, I pulled
off the carb's float chamber; remove 4 screws and the bowl, valve, and fuel line assembly comes off. I ran a small welding
tip cleaner through the center brass main jet. Reassembled the machine and rode it throughout the Wings Over Gillespie
air show. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the cleaning process, but you can see the bowl in the picture of the carburetor
above.
I hope to have some pictures of the SWOD (Screaming Welbike Of Death), in all its 35 mph glory, posted here before too
long. I call it SWOD because I found out the hard way that with the engine running well, the bike will accelerate faster
than I can.
07/20/2009
If you're wondering exactly what I do with this machine, here is a picture to show you.
Here I am goofing off behind the designer and builder of this machine, Danny. We're at Old Fort MacArthur Artillery
Days, a annual fundraiser for this museum and a huge re-enacting event in Los Angeles.
The good news about this event is the Welbike runs great. The bad news is we found out that the last repair on
the steering column wasn't very good, because it broke when I loaned the Welbike to a friend, and he drove it over a
series of speed bumps at 25 mph. We ground away too much of the weldment to get the adapter to fit onto the forks,
so the whole thing was held together by only a few fractions of an inch of welding.
This is the part that broke away after we finished cleaning it. The part you see fit inside a collar, then was
welded from the bottom. Not the best way to do it.
Here is a picture of the repaired connection, still in the vise after the welding was done. Instead of a internal
weld, we found some steel rod stock, and machined it down to fit inside the part pictured above. That gave 1/4 inch
of space to make a nice, solid weld and now the extra material fits inside the fork stem. It's a LOT stronger now.
And to prove it actually works, here's Danny riding the Welbike back into the El Monte tank museum's workshop area.
The further good news is the Welbike has been invited to a car show this Wednesday, July 22. I'll try to squeeze
some photos in from this event.
On to my other folding vehicle!
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