My Dad had one of these. I remember the 'clockwork' kickstarter well. You basically had to wind up the kickstarter to preload the spring, then pull the back brake in to get it to turn the engine over. My Dad's was orange in colour and did 27MPH flat out downhill with your chin on the clock.
Hi Steve. My shoulder isn't great at the moment and I'm likely to be referred to a rheumatologist, as I'm having some pain issues with my hips. Chin up though, eh? I'm glad you are doing a restoration job on this Express (is it the NC-50?) as a tuning job just wouldn't work on this bike. There was also a later version that had leg shields. My sister was clocked by a police car on one of these and she was pulled over for alleged speeding. She took her helmet off, threw it at the copper and said "OK then, you ride the bike, I'll ride in your car and if I see over 30 on your speedo, then you can book me!". Needless to say the copper backed off.
Not a full restoration as such, just a bloody good clean up. The rims have got some minor rust showing through, but for the age it's nothing. I'm still wondering whether it's worth having them re-chromed, seeing as it'll never see the road whilst I own it. It may end up living in the back bedroom for the next 5 years before I let it go
Well, if you ever decide to let it go, please let me know first, as I'd like to buy it and surprise my Dad.
Finally got round to shotblasting the side case yesterday, also did the exhaust heat shield. All nice and clean now ready for painting. Got the colour matched pretty well in enamel. That means I can get things moved on again at last.
Good job I decided to have the barrel off for cleaning properly, top piston ring isn't opening up due to the old 2 stroke oil becoming a but glue like. Now ain't that ripe for opening up
Yeah, agreed, but.........do I open it up, or leave it.............. It would be nice, and probably a bit safer for whoever, if it did a bit more than 27mph as standard, without the blatantly obvious mods done to it. I don't mean flying down the road at stupid speeds like the others I've done, just enough for it to plod along without getting shoved into the gutter
I never found out if the NC50 was restricted at all in any way, Steve. It may have a restriction washer in the exhaust or just have really conservative port timing. I'll see what I can find out.
This might be useful... I'd also suggest that you look at this website. http://www.hondaexpressmoped.com/ This guy has had 35MPH out of the NC50.
I would go for modding an old Technigas, Leo Vince or similar tuned pipe and weld it onto the Honda header. Then I'd try uprating the carb and see what some re-jetting can bring to the party. The Honda pipe comes out in around the right place for an expansion box style pipe.
i would open that exhaust port up, its not going to give a huge boost in power, but its probably going to run better, smoother and maybe even get more mpg...