125cc cafe racer project chituma/honda cg project

Hi all, just thought Id share my cafe racer project with you all.
I got my 125cc Chituma off a mate who bought it to do up but never bothered.

The bike was a Chinese Chituma 125cc and I know what your thinking, what a piece of crap, well to be honest your right but it was free so it was my chance to make it into something decent.

The bike had already gone though some stages of turning it into a cafe racer, the tank, seat and back light had been done but only half hartedly.
So when I got it home I took some pics on my iphone.
Bare in mind I havnt done a bike up for atleast 15 years and even then never done a cafe racer.
So I had in my mind a british racing green motor bike like the old 50s/60s type, pin stripes an all.
I work away from home during the week so my mind would be busy on a night going through all of the what I should dos and wont dos.
Id decided it was pointless doing it nice then finding out the engine didnt work or the electrics where shot so I had to get it going to check it.
So the first thing was to enure the engine and electrics worked, this turned out to be a problem as the kick start was missing and the charger was broke.
Off to the father in laws to get a charger, I had to sit and wait for a while for the battry to take a charge so I just fiddled with the bike until it was ready.
I had tried to bump it off before but I assume because the battry was flat that was the reason I nearly passed out with exaustion from pushin the bloody thing and it wouldnt bloody start so thats why I bit the bullet and went to the father in laws to get his.
When it was charged it took and age to get it to spark but when it finally did the life came to the machine but it was rough.
The carbureta was leaking like a siv so I stripped it down only to find some numpty had nipped the rubber seal on the float bowl when they had stripped it and trapped the edge so thats why it was leaking.
I cleaned it out but it didnt have anything on the end of the air intake so it was open to the air so I thought well that also would add to it running rough as it didnt have an air filter on.
I run it again and it did run a lot better but without an air filter it wasnt right so I put my hand over the carb end slightly to stop so much air getting in and would you believe it, the bloody thing started to purr.
I never had a front light fitted when I got it and on further investagation I realised someone had cut through most of the cables as there where no light connectors or anything.
The back light didnt work so I resolved my self to the fact I would have to re-wire the whole thing.
I didnt have a mauanl so it went into the switches on the handle bars and wrote down what colour went where to what switch and traced bits back to the ignition and such.
The wife went out to York shopping so I new she would be gone all day, so I pushed the bike into the kitchen and slowly went through wiring the bike and soldering the wiring.
Now I know your thinking why in the kitchen, well thats easy, the grand prix was on and I didnt want to miss it so I watched it on the telly in the kitchen while doing the bike.
I had it all covered id get the kitchen cleaned before the wife got home and she would never know Id been there.
Oh how wrong was I,my daughter came in after they got back and said why are the kitchen chairs in the dining room, oh bolox Id gone and forgot to move them, the wife looked at me and said you have had that bike in here havent you, I tried to lie but to no avail, she knew I was lying, so my first bike argument started, she won.
I managed to complete the wiring to a degree I knew it should work and then when I was away at work devised a plan of action.
Strip the bike, take one piece at a time and do it up and put it into the shed out the way, when all bits done the take into the garage and put back together.
The wheels where a mess, this chinese bike was cheap and nasty and the wheels where badly rusted and pitted but the hubs and spokes where good, so I rubbed them down, cattied up the bad spots and sprayed them in silver and laquerd them, they come out brilliant I was well chuffed.

Over the weeks I sprayed, cleaned, and slowly moved the parts into the shed, I also made lods of bits for the bike, I really didnt have any money to spend on the bike so I have improvised, adapted and overcome all problems.
I have bought spray paints and £2.99 set of indicators also a piece of leather table prtector from Boyes shop for £4.99 and a new tail light and my kids bought me a headlight for £20 for fathers day. (I sent a txt with the ebay number on it as a hint lol)
I sprayed the exaust with heat proof paint and I made side panels out of an old sign post I took out of the skip at work and fabricated and sprayed them.
The tail piece and tank took a lot of time, rubbing down catty, spraying and respraying.
The tank paint wouldnt take in areas and was orange peeling all over, but I kept rubbing down and spraying and each time it got less and less and in the end I laquerd the whole tank and rubbed it down with wet and dry just to seal it so I could spray the paint on so it didnt react, and then I got it.
I ended up spraying it in black and ordered some gold pinstripe for £1.99 off ebay and pinstriped the tank, side panels and tail piece, the I laquered them all.
Some laquer went dull so I waited until I came back from work a week later and T Cutted it and after about 4 hours I got an fantastic shine on all of them and I didnt rub through the laquer.

So now all I have to do is put it all together then get the indicators working, so thats where Iam up to at the moment.
I will post more pics up but If you want to have a look at more pics go to photobucket and look under crazyhoarse2001 photos and I have more in there.
I will post more on here and keep you all updated as soon as I can.

Hi M8 and welcome nothing wrong with Chinese bikes that a little tlc and knowledge to finish them
I am just finishing my sons Hongdou GY125 Urban (enduro style of bike) the whole bike is based
on the XL125 Honda spares are cheap (ie rear disc under £10) must say like the way your bike is shaping up
Keep us up dated
Steve

the bike was ok once i stripped it down and resprayed it.
the nuts and bolts are crap though so ive chaged a lot with stainless steel.
these chinese bikes rust easy because they dont have enough coats of paint on them and the steel on the weels isnt treated to stop rust.
ive spent hours rubbing it all down by hand to get to the metal and respray.
The wheels where really pitted and I cant afford to buy new ones so I rubbed them down and filled the pits with catty and sprayed them with wheel spray and laquered them.
I think they come out really well in the end.
The annoying bit of the bike was I thought I wouldnt need indicators so didnt rewire for them as the wiring had been cut to bits before I got it.
I found out as it is a 2005 model the indicators had to go on so I bought some off ebay and fitted them and I have to wire them up when I get back for the weekend, I have to connect up my lights as well, I hope I wired them up right, I havent tried to get em going before.
once ive connected my brakes and exhaust I then have to finally fit the tank, seat and side panels and in theory it is then complete.
I hope my wife leaves me alone long enough to do these bits.
As I work away from home I really miss her, the bike that is lol.
Its now at the point where my next visit home should be the point when I push her out of the garage with a cloth over and pull it off for the final unvailing.
But knowing my luck the wife will cause ruptions so I dont get chance to do that and to top it I bet it rains like hell lol.
Oh well I can only try.

That's a nice looking paint job, I think the bike is going to be stonking when finished considering the amount of work you're putting int to it.

Good luck with the missus BTW, mine's the same, a mate's wife once describe mine as being the only woman she knew who had permanent PMT, I laughed so hard I spilt my pint!

Well just thought I would post an update with the progress of my Cafe racer.
I decided that the emergency switch wasnt needed so I stripped the throttle casing down and just clipped the switch off, this means the electrics are the same but cant be switched.
I decided to do this as when I went into the throttle casing I realised that the grey wire I fed off from the indicators was wired up to the switch so I thought best leave it alone and dont mess with it, so all I done was clip off the plastic stem of the switch and I fitted a small piece of black plastic into the hole left at the front of the throttle housing.
So things completed over the weekend, I fitted the chain,speedo cable, clutch and brake cables, exaust, lights, aligned the back wheel and made sure all the electrics finally worked together.
I also painted all of the nuts and bolts with smooth black hammerite for 2 reasons, 1 was to make them look good and 2 to stop possible rusting in the future.
The front light I have been messing about for a while with because firstly I didnt have and headlight brackets so I used an old aluminium push plate off a door and fabricated it into the brackets also my kids bought me a headlamp which was from china and was 6 volt.
The bulb fitting was a nightmare as I had not seen a bulb with the same fittings as this thing and Id only gone and blown the bulb not realising it was a 6 volt bulb.
I went to the shop and bought a new 12 volt bulb and proceeded to adapt improvise and over come my problem by cutting the metal washer off the new bulb and cutting a hole in the plastic mount which held the old bulb, then I got the bulb to fit really tight and siliconed around it to ensure no movement later, all that was left to do was find a connector to fit the bulb which luckily I had and old one in the bits and pieces draw in the garage.
I tested it and it was fine.
I bought a new relay for the indicators and after reading the replys to this post I decided to ensure I had all 4 indicators on the bike before testing them and hey presto they worked great, so thanks to you for that one.
I have not fitted the kick start, the reason for this is I dont have one but I want to see if it really needs one first as it is an electric start anyway but if it doesnt look good I will have to buy one.
Have a look at the photos below I hope she looks good to you all, your opinion does matter. And lastly all I have to do next weekend (and can you believe it the wife is away then wuuu hoooooo) is fit the side panels, seat and tank and she should be ready for an MOT, I will definetly post the pictures with it all on so you can see, so keep and eye out on Sunday night next week as thats when I will upload the pics.

Oh I forgot to mention, I was driving home from Scotland last Friday when I came up with an idea of dealing with the back brake lever.
It was just a bent piece of metal circular bar which didnt look good at the end.
I had some old pool bals in a bag in the garage and had the idea of fitting one at the end of the brake lever.
I cut the top off and sanded it down and I drilled a hole in and sliconed it on the end of the rear brake arm, I think it looks fantastic, what do you reckon?
Crazyhoarse2001

looking good m8 luv the idea of the 8 ball

Ooooh, very shiny and also looking very good!

Well like i said, I would finish the bike at the weekend and hopefully the sun would shine.
Both happened so here it is finally.






I have tired to make this bike look like an old norto or similay, I personnally am over the moon how its turned out.
Crazyhoarse2001 (Robin Connell)

that has turned out top notch m8 you should be rightfully proud well done

Rob you should be righfully proud of that, it's a thing of beauty and shows it doesn't have to be a big bike to be a true cafe racer, well done!

nice really got that period look about it
looks like one more job to do ............get some miles on it

Thanks guys, its good to hear that you like it. I need to get it tested then its tax and insurance and away lol.

That looks great, I like the pared down look of it, I bet it's a hoot to ride.

Nice work.