A Re-Introduction

phager76 · 02-23-2017, 11:19 PM

So last year about this time, I picked up a Bashan Blaze and joined up here. Unfortunately I started schooling in early summer to do a dramatic career change, and my poor Blaze ended up neglected and unridden for the most part (Less then 100 miles last year), working full time and filling the rest of my days with school left precious little time for riding.

I also didn't ride a lot because she suffered from a lot of idle and fueling issues that combined with the fact that I'm vertically challenged, and can't flat foot it and knobbies that make the handling a little questionable, I never got 100 percent comfortable riding it. Even with that said, It was a blast every time I took her out.

During the summer, my eldest daughter had been struggling learning to ride a bicycle with out the training wheels, all the while fawning over my Blaze every time she walked past it. So I told her that if she learns to ride compentently without training wheels before the end of summer, I'd buy her a small 50cc dirt bike to use in the yard (We have +- an acre of wide open area to ride in). Well I'll be damned, but she quickly became a pro on her bike.

Now that spring is near, I started looking at 50cc on CL as well as new thinking Japanese brands, and for fun I looked at the CBs since other then some carb issues, I've been pretty happy with mine. So I found a Coolster QG-210 70cc online and since my budget was 1000-1400, and the Coolster 350, I decided to get a Tao Tao Lancer 150, since the wife has been wanting to get back into riding, and it'll help me build my confidence on the street a little more as well.

On another note, I totally screwed up when I put away the blaze for winter. The weather was great last week end, so I gave it the once over, and found I hadn't closed the pet cock for the fuel. I pulled the plastics and the spark plug and gave it a kick, and sure enough, fuel in the cylinder. So a new plug and oil change is in the works. I also found that the throttle was seized closed and wouldn't turn. no binding on the cable, so I pulled the top cap on the carb, and it's filled with gel. Got a new Mikuni coming in tomorrow, so I'll pop that on with 30/110 jets. Other then that she's in good shape, so hopefully she'll be ready to ride next week.

Anyways, It's good to be back in the fold! And great to be tripling the stable!

Bruce's · 02-23-2017, 11:32 PM

Pull and clean your tank as well if you haven't .

phager76 · 02-24-2017, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce's

Pull and clean your tank as well if you haven't .

Yep, Pulled, drained and inspected no rust or issues there... Stupid ethanol. At least it was a cheap mistake. 50 bucks for new grips (The plastic guide fell into the floor drain, and there was no way in hell I was digging through that to find it

), throttle cable, carb and jets. Really I knew the carb was junk from day one, I couldn't get it to hold a steady idle no matter how much fiddling I did with the idle screw, for thirty five buck for a new carb that's rebuildable I see that as money well spent. It only took about an hour to gain access to the carb and pull it so when I need to rebuild it again, it won't take much time.

The career change has been a challenge, I've worked retail for the last 20 years, and I finally had reached my breaking point with it. In October I landed a contract position as a Software Implementation Specialist, working with HTML, CSS, SQL and PHP a bit. At this point the pay isn't any better then my retail job (in fact I still work my retail job part time), but the potential is there, and the job satisfaction is way better. For the first time in my life, I don't wake up every morning hating life and what's in store for me that day. That's something you can't put a price on!

Hold strong, jsumd! It'll definitely be worth it in the end!

jsumd · 02-23-2017, 11:52 PM

I'm in exactly the same boat as you. A massive career change along with going back to school. I don't have a lot of free time but I make sure to get a ride in when I can. Hope you get your bike sorted soon!

phager76 · 02-24-2017, 07:56 PM

Well, the jets and grips came in yesterday, and the carb got here this afternoon. So when I got home from work, I set to work. I got the carb re-jetted and ran in to my first issue, the main jet was right, but the pilot jet looked nothing like the factory jet in the new carb, so for now it's set to 20/110 for the jetting. I got the carb in with no real issues routed the throttle cable to the bars, and installed my throttle grip and ran into issue number two, the throttle turns freely, but doesn't return (Clearly not fit for road use yet, but adequate for testing), drained out the oil, which was definitely was fouled with gas. Then installed the air box, and the fuel tank with fresh fuel in it new spark plug and fresh oil. Checked all my connection and gave her a test fire.... and nothing. It's turning over nicely, but I ran the battery down cranking it. Ran out of light, and wanted to spend some time with the family, so I called it a night, I'll go back at it with a charged battery in the morning.

I'll pull the plug then and make sure we're getting fuel to the cylinder and go from there. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Merlin · 02-24-2017, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phager76

So last year about this time, I picked up a Bashan Blaze and joined up here. Unfortunately I started schooling in early summer to do a dramatic career change, and my poor Blaze ended up neglected and unridden for the most part (Less then 100 miles last year), working full time and filling the rest of my days with school left precious little time for riding.

I also didn't ride a lot because she suffered from a lot of idle and fueling issues that combined with the fact that I'm vertically challenged, and can't flat foot it and knobbies that make the handling a little questionable, I never got 100 percent comfortable riding it. Even with that said, It was a blast every time I took her out.

During the summer, my eldest daughter had been struggling learning to ride a bicycle with out the training wheels, all the while fawning over my Blaze every time she walked past it. So I told her that if she learns to ride compentently without training wheels before the end of summer, I'd buy her a small 50cc dirt bike to use in the yard (We have +- an acre of wide open area to ride in). Well I'll be damned, but she quickly became a pro on her bike.

Now that spring is near, I started looking at 50cc on CL as well as new thinking Japanese brands, and for fun I looked at the CBs since other then some carb issues, I've been pretty happy with mine. So I found a Coolster QG-210 70cc online and since my budget was 1000-1400, and the Coolster 350, I decided to get a Tao Tao Lancer 150, since the wife has been wanting to get back into riding, and it'll help me build my confidence on the street a little more as well.

On another note, I totally screwed up when I put away the blaze for winter. The weather was great last week end, so I gave it the once over, and found I hadn't closed the pet cock for the fuel. I pulled the plastics and the spark plug and gave it a kick, and sure enough, fuel in the cylinder. So a new plug and oil change is in the works. I also found that the throttle was seized closed and wouldn't turn. no binding on the cable, so I pulled the top cap on the carb, and it's filled with gel. Got a new Mikuni coming in tomorrow, so I'll pop that on with 30/110 jets. Other then that she's in good shape, so hopefully she'll be ready to ride next week.

Anyways, It's good to be back in the fold! And great to be tripling the stable!

I own a blaze. Not to many of us blaze owners here. Got any pics? We love pics. Nice to have you back.

Azhule · 02-24-2017, 08:57 PM

What did you set the pilot/idle (bottom of carb) adjustment screw to? Might want to start with it out around 2 or 2.25 turns out with the smaller 20 pilot, that might help get enough fuel to get it 'working'.

Slightly upping the idle screw just a hair (EXTREMELY small turns, it's on the right/exhaust side of the carb) might be needed for the bike to fire up too, it is a "universal China Carb" after all, it's just slapped together* at the factory and then shipped to us

Also what is the needle height set at? They usually have 5 slots on the new carb, most like the 3rd or 4th slot.

Did you take the time to hit the old throttle cable with some kind of lube? Might be time to clean/lube it again, do you have a Motion Pro (or similar) Cable Luber? Makes the job a little easier with your favorite brand of canned Cable/Chain Lube

That's all I can think of for now, other than also saying: Welcome back

* Our cheapo "Mikuni" carb had a fully closed pilot/idle screw, a low idle speed, and the float was also off... I fixed those and the bike runs like a wild cheetah

phager76 · 02-24-2017, 09:47 PM

I sprayed cable lube down both ends of the cable and worked it back and forth and it's moving freely. I couldn't find my lubing tool (OK, I didn't look for it

). I actually didn't check the needle height, just went with factory setting.I set the idle screw all the way in then backed it out two full turns, seemed like a good starting point.

Like I said, I'll poke around a bit tomorrow, I only had about an hour and a half to play after work, so I'm good with the progress made thus far. I was really bummed that the new throttle cable was quite a bit longer then the original, the old one had some corrosion on it (Hence the lube) and it would have been nice to have a new one.

I get some pictures up after I get her back together and shined back up. I kept her in the basement over winter, bit there's a bunch of dirt and webs on her, so I need to get her looking nice before a photo shoot!

BlackBike · 02-24-2017, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phager76

I sprayed cable lube down both ends of the cable and worked it back and forth and it's moving freely. I couldn't find my lubing tool (OK, I didn't look for it

). I actually didn't check the needle height, just went with factory setting.I set the idle screw all the way in then backed it out two full turns, seemed like a good starting point.

Like I said, I'll poke around a bit tomorrow, I only had about an hour and a half to play after work, so I'm good with the progress made thus far. I was really bummed that the new throttle cable was quite a bit longer then the original, the old one had some corrosion on it (Hence the lube) and it would have been nice to have a new one.

I get some pictures up after I get her back together and shined back up. I kept her in the basement over winter, bit there's a bunch of dirt and webs on her, so I need to get her looking nice before a photo shoot!

Remember you from last year and your pretty red bike! Good luck going foward.

phager76 · 02-25-2017, 08:00 PM

So, my schedule and plans got a bit jacked up today. I overslept, so I didn't get to the bike until this evening. I got a bunch of detailing stuff (one of my other hobbies) in last week, and I wanted to get my truck that I'm trying to sell looking nice so I wanted to take advantage of the nice(ish) weather we had to do a full exterior detail on it before the snow rolls in again.

But I did get a chance to play for a few minutes this evening on the Blaze. I rechecked all my hoses and fittings and rerouted the gas line, since it looked like it may be kinking up a small amount. Re checked the choke (Dumb me, looks like I had the choke off!) and cranked her over again, and still nothing. Pulled the plug and it was bone dry, so no gas.

So I decided to go back to basics. It's a brand new empty carb, maybe I'm being to tentative with her. So, I decide to just crank her over with the throttle wide open (Been playing with 1/4-1/2 throttle to prevent flooding, clearly not an issue judging by the plug). After an fair amount of time of full throttle cranking (With breaks to prevent overheating the starter) it finally burbles to life.... and stalls out. I try to restart and the starter slows to a crawl, battery is to weak.

Well, still, I'm making progress! I've backed out the idle screw a half turn, since the idle was clearly too low as is from the brief time it ran. and after the batttery charges back up, we'll give it another shot tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she'll be running tomorrow and I'll be able to figure out this throttle cable issue (Still need to lube it, although it seems to be loosening up, I think I'll pull the tub and make sure it's clean and not binding) and put the plastics back on.

Bruce's · 02-25-2017, 09:04 PM

To raise the idle up ,you turn the screw in to the carb ,not out ,not sure if that is what you meant .

phager76 · 02-25-2017, 09:15 PM

Holy hell, you're right, I'll make sure I fix that in the morning! I don't know what I was thinking! Thanks Bruce's!

phager76 · 02-26-2017, 01:27 PM

Well, still no start, I adjusted the idle screw back in after my brain fart from yesterday. It's close to wanting to start, but just not quite there yet, Ran the battery down again trying to start it, so I'm letting it charge back up again and give it another go later.

It's too cold to go riding anyway, so I'm not in any real rush, just something fun to putz around with when I'm bored.

phager76 · 02-26-2017, 09:25 PM

It's alive!!! Well at least for a couple of seconds. I pulled the plug and checked for spark, and was getting a nice blue spark, also sniffed the plug to verify fuel on the plug (Clearly not at the same time though...ouch!). I plugged the spark plug back in, played with the choke, and after a bit it fired up and sputtered. played with the throttle and got it to settle in and idle for a second or two before dropping down and stalling.

I definitely have some fine tuning to do, but progress is certainly being made.

phager76 · 04-12-2017, 11:17 PM

And, almost two months later... She's all back together. Things have been a bit nuts here, getting papers for the new bikes is being a pain, stay away from powersports max unless you have time to kill. Then last month I got into a wreck in my new Fiesta, my fault (according to insurance) so I'm out the deductible of $2500. I haven't had an at-fault accident in over 20 years. And the final capper, due to genetic issues and no dental insurance for most of my working life, I had to under go oral surgery and have all but 6 teeth removed on the 31st of last month.

I also ended up messing up the new carb (lost the Jesus clip when I tried to reset the needle), so I just ordered another one off eBay. Got it in today, so I installed it after work. After making sure that the battery was charged over dinner, I gave it a few kicks to prime the carb, powered everything up and hit the switch, and she fired right up. I did need to tweak the idle a bit, and I set the idle mix screw at 1.75 turns, might be a hair rich but I can deal with that. I've got all the plastics back on and I'm hoping to take it for a shake down ride tomorrow.

Now to dig up the funds to get all these things titled!

02-23-2017, 11:19 PM	#1
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	A Re-Introduction So last year about this time, I picked up a Bashan Blaze and joined up here. Unfortunately I started schooling in early summer to do a dramatic career change, and my poor Blaze ended up neglected and unridden for the most part (Less then 100 miles last year), working full time and filling the rest of my days with school left precious little time for riding. I also didn't ride a lot because she suffered from a lot of idle and fueling issues that combined with the fact that I'm vertically challenged, and can't flat foot it and knobbies that make the handling a little questionable, I never got 100 percent comfortable riding it. Even with that said, It was a blast every time I took her out. During the summer, my eldest daughter had been struggling learning to ride a bicycle with out the training wheels, all the while fawning over my Blaze every time she walked past it. So I told her that if she learns to ride compentently without training wheels before the end of summer, I'd buy her a small 50cc dirt bike to use in the yard (We have +- an acre of wide open area to ride in). Well I'll be damned, but she quickly became a pro on her bike. Now that spring is near, I started looking at 50cc on CL as well as new thinking Japanese brands, and for fun I looked at the CBs since other then some carb issues, I've been pretty happy with mine. So I found a Coolster QG-210 70cc online and since my budget was 1000-1400, and the Coolster 350, I decided to get a Tao Tao Lancer 150, since the wife has been wanting to get back into riding, and it'll help me build my confidence on the street a little more as well. On another note, I totally screwed up when I put away the blaze for winter. The weather was great last week end, so I gave it the once over, and found I hadn't closed the pet cock for the fuel. I pulled the plastics and the spark plug and gave it a kick, and sure enough, fuel in the cylinder. So a new plug and oil change is in the works. I also found that the throttle was seized closed and wouldn't turn. no binding on the cable, so I pulled the top cap on the carb, and it's filled with gel. Got a new Mikuni coming in tomorrow, so I'll pop that on with 30/110 jets. Other then that she's in good shape, so hopefully she'll be ready to ride next week. Anyways, It's good to be back in the fold! And great to be tripling the stable!
	6

02-24-2017, 08:57 PM	#7
Azhule Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: CO Posts: 1,525	What did you set the pilot/idle (bottom of carb) adjustment screw to? Might want to start with it out around 2 or 2.25 turns out with the smaller 20 pilot, that might help get enough fuel to get it 'working'. Slightly upping the idle screw just a hair (EXTREMELY small turns, it's on the right/exhaust side of the carb) might be needed for the bike to fire up too, it is a "universal China Carb" after all, it's just slapped together* at the factory and then shipped to us Also what is the needle height set at? They usually have 5 slots on the new carb, most like the 3rd or 4th slot. Did you take the time to hit the old throttle cable with some kind of lube? Might be time to clean/lube it again, do you have a Motion Pro (or similar) Cable Luber? Makes the job a little easier with your favorite brand of canned Cable/Chain Lube That's all I can think of for now, other than also saying: Welcome back * Our cheapo "Mikuni" carb had a fully closed pilot/idle screw, a low idle speed, and the float was also off... I fixed those and the bike runs like a wild cheetah __________________ "Think as you like... but this self proclaimed Professor is always right" - Buckshot "You never know what someone is hiding beneath their smile..." - NinjaTom - R.I.P.
	0

02-23-2017, 11:32 PM	#2
Bruce's Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Sudbury ,Ontario Posts: 855	Pull and clean your tank as well if you haven't .
	1

02-23-2017, 11:52 PM	#4
jsumd Join Date: Feb 2017 Posts: 420	I'm in exactly the same boat as you. A massive career change along with going back to school. I don't have a lot of free time but I make sure to get a ride in when I can. Hope you get your bike sorted soon!
	0

02-24-2017, 07:56 PM	#5
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	Well, the jets and grips came in yesterday, and the carb got here this afternoon. So when I got home from work, I set to work. I got the carb re-jetted and ran in to my first issue, the main jet was right, but the pilot jet looked nothing like the factory jet in the new carb, so for now it's set to 20/110 for the jetting. I got the carb in with no real issues routed the throttle cable to the bars, and installed my throttle grip and ran into issue number two, the throttle turns freely, but doesn't return (Clearly not fit for road use yet, but adequate for testing), drained out the oil, which was definitely was fouled with gas. Then installed the air box, and the fuel tank with fresh fuel in it new spark plug and fresh oil. Checked all my connection and gave her a test fire.... and nothing. It's turning over nicely, but I ran the battery down cranking it. Ran out of light, and wanted to spend some time with the family, so I called it a night, I'll go back at it with a charged battery in the morning. I'll pull the plug then and make sure we're getting fuel to the cylinder and go from there. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
	0

02-24-2017, 09:47 PM	#8
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	I sprayed cable lube down both ends of the cable and worked it back and forth and it's moving freely. I couldn't find my lubing tool (OK, I didn't look for it ). I actually didn't check the needle height, just went with factory setting.I set the idle screw all the way in then backed it out two full turns, seemed like a good starting point. Like I said, I'll poke around a bit tomorrow, I only had about an hour and a half to play after work, so I'm good with the progress made thus far. I was really bummed that the new throttle cable was quite a bit longer then the original, the old one had some corrosion on it (Hence the lube) and it would have been nice to have a new one. I get some pictures up after I get her back together and shined back up. I kept her in the basement over winter, bit there's a bunch of dirt and webs on her, so I need to get her looking nice before a photo shoot!
	0

02-25-2017, 08:00 PM	#10
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	So, my schedule and plans got a bit jacked up today. I overslept, so I didn't get to the bike until this evening. I got a bunch of detailing stuff (one of my other hobbies) in last week, and I wanted to get my truck that I'm trying to sell looking nice so I wanted to take advantage of the nice(ish) weather we had to do a full exterior detail on it before the snow rolls in again. But I did get a chance to play for a few minutes this evening on the Blaze. I rechecked all my hoses and fittings and rerouted the gas line, since it looked like it may be kinking up a small amount. Re checked the choke (Dumb me, looks like I had the choke off!) and cranked her over again, and still nothing. Pulled the plug and it was bone dry, so no gas. So I decided to go back to basics. It's a brand new empty carb, maybe I'm being to tentative with her. So, I decide to just crank her over with the throttle wide open (Been playing with 1/4-1/2 throttle to prevent flooding, clearly not an issue judging by the plug). After an fair amount of time of full throttle cranking (With breaks to prevent overheating the starter) it finally burbles to life.... and stalls out. I try to restart and the starter slows to a crawl, battery is to weak. Well, still, I'm making progress! I've backed out the idle screw a half turn, since the idle was clearly too low as is from the brief time it ran. and after the batttery charges back up, we'll give it another shot tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she'll be running tomorrow and I'll be able to figure out this throttle cable issue (Still need to lube it, although it seems to be loosening up, I think I'll pull the tub and make sure it's clean and not binding) and put the plastics back on.
	1

02-25-2017, 09:04 PM	#11
Bruce's Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Sudbury ,Ontario Posts: 855	To raise the idle up ,you turn the screw in to the carb ,not out ,not sure if that is what you meant .
	2

02-25-2017, 09:15 PM	#12
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	Holy hell, you're right, I'll make sure I fix that in the morning! I don't know what I was thinking! Thanks Bruce's!
	1

02-26-2017, 01:27 PM	#13
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	Well, still no start, I adjusted the idle screw back in after my brain fart from yesterday. It's close to wanting to start, but just not quite there yet, Ran the battery down again trying to start it, so I'm letting it charge back up again and give it another go later. It's too cold to go riding anyway, so I'm not in any real rush, just something fun to putz around with when I'm bored.
	0

02-26-2017, 09:25 PM	#14
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	It's alive!!! Well at least for a couple of seconds. I pulled the plug and checked for spark, and was getting a nice blue spark, also sniffed the plug to verify fuel on the plug (Clearly not at the same time though...ouch!). I plugged the spark plug back in, played with the choke, and after a bit it fired up and sputtered. played with the throttle and got it to settle in and idle for a second or two before dropping down and stalling. I definitely have some fine tuning to do, but progress is certainly being made.
	2

04-12-2017, 11:17 PM	#15
phager76 Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Monongahela, PA Posts: 76	And, almost two months later... She's all back together. Things have been a bit nuts here, getting papers for the new bikes is being a pain, stay away from powersports max unless you have time to kill. Then last month I got into a wreck in my new Fiesta, my fault (according to insurance) so I'm out the deductible of $2500. I haven't had an at-fault accident in over 20 years. And the final capper, due to genetic issues and no dental insurance for most of my working life, I had to under go oral surgery and have all but 6 teeth removed on the 31st of last month. I also ended up messing up the new carb (lost the Jesus clip when I tried to reset the needle), so I just ordered another one off eBay. Got it in today, so I installed it after work. After making sure that the battery was charged over dinner, I gave it a few kicks to prime the carb, powered everything up and hit the switch, and she fired right up. I did need to tweak the idle a bit, and I set the idle mix screw at 1.75 turns, might be a hair rich but I can deal with that. I've got all the plastics back on and I'm hoping to take it for a shake down ride tomorrow. Now to dig up the funds to get all these things titled!
	1