1966 Velosolex S3800 to Honda CG125

I'm a busy boy, so giving everything is a little tricky . Having an injured family member recently has also thrown a spanner in the works in regards to how much free time I now have. But I can only try eh? .

Anyway, my phone tells me that I picked this up just after Boxing Day last year. But I also forgot that I went to see another car. A Jaguar XJS V12 for £5k. It was barely affordable at the time, but it's an itch I wanted to scratch. Since I've read up on them for a while and have a good friend who's been involved with these for a long time, both on the circuit and for restoring, I knew what to look out for. While the guy said this looked very pretty on the interior and bodywork, it looked to be hiding alot of filler in the sills, and the tailgate was pure filler ; there was zero evidence of the crimp lines around the bottom edge. Looking underneath exposed a few MOT like repairs. While many would have said to go for it, it to me looked like a car that could quickly become a moneypit, and remain a dog without the investment. A shame, but sometimes you have to walk away:
















As a result, I went on very far up North to pickup the VSX. Had I done my research like the XJS? Not really! I knew to look out for things like low compression and the fact that things could get expensive, but nothing more than that. I eventually arrived and saw it.

Forgive me if this sounds familiar. The bike was in bits, far more than the chap made out on the advert. There was no way it was going to run. As a result I did some basic checks and saw if everything was there. It appeared to be. But was I going to hand over £350 for a bike that wasn't even working? The short answer was yes. Annoying it seemed at the time, but the way I saw it, I had a few choices

• Keep on searching for a £200 runner; it seemed sometimes they did pop up at this cash, but most were wrecks and a bit of a mongrel at that too
• You can easily spend alot of cash at this end of the budget just buying fuel and killing your weekends/li]
  [li]This bike at least was solid and had an oily rag charm about it, along with new parts like the tyres, chain etc.

With this in mind, I chucked it in the back, set the adaptive cruise on the Mondeo to get me back, and later that night, met up with a mate for a pub meal, talking curse word about cars and the latest contraption I had acquired.










With this done, the next few weeks would be spent trying to get this thing to run. But that can wait until next time.

Set spark at tdc?

Going by the vibe your setting out I assume all ended up not only good, but better than expected?

I left this thread, with me hinting at a change in the fate for the Velosolex. But what was the news?

In order to do that, I'd have to take more photos of certain areas of the engine to Brian. Remember how I thought it was a 3300? This would be answered.

The news he'd come back with would be very welcoming.

My engine it would turn out to be one of the first 11,000 made. It doesn't sound significant until you realise when they started making the Velosolex. I believe they were making 10,000 a month! Given that S3800 production started in May 1966, this put my bike as one built in either May or June. This was not news I was expecting!

The story behind the 'wrong number' on my engine was also answer. For the very early builds, they still used part of the 3300 production engine casing casting, despite it being the new S3800 engine. So my engine indeed is one of a mislabelled identity, and definitely one which is part of Velosolex history.

Apparently, the first S3800s were sold as 3300s, complete with S3300 hoods. Funny really, as mine still had the S3300 hood on it! S3800 hoods were sent out to the dealers to retrofit onto bikes like mine, but not all dealers received these. Even if they did receive them, they didn't fit them! Small wonder mine didn't have the later cover! It was still on the factory cover!

Naturally, mine had the S3300 brake levers, which I will show later, along with the S3300 carbs, both of which were used until 1967.

This changed the fate of what would be done with the bike! More on that later!

But this did mean one thing. I could order more parts, and get to registering it!



As Spandau Ballet said, to cut a long story short, my bike is basically a very early and original one.

Other bits? The carb, brake handles, and even the cowling were the correct ones for my bike, with the levers and cowling being original! There was only one thing for it, to order more parts!

Cheers!

The history was unintentional! I did however end up learning about the changes in the Velosolex S3800's history.

This would prove handy when I came to assembling the brakes. The first thing to do was to get the handbrake levers into place.

As I showed earlier, post '67 S3800s had thicker levers but also 3 cables in total off them as follows

-L/H = Rear Brake
-R/H = Front brake and engine decelerator
-R/H Twist Grip = Engine Decelerator on -post '67s only.

Yup, decelerator was not a typo! These engines run at full throttle all of the time! The only way they are slow down, besides the weight of the person on them, or a hill, is via the centrifugal clutch, but also the decellator. Yup, these things run at full throttle all of the time!

Since mine is an early one, I only had two cables to fit. However, the R/H lever cable runs through the throttle body plate as well as the brakes. This does mean that setting them up is iffy to say the least, but manageable with patience. It does seem like these early bikes were built with cost and frugality! Maybe this is the appeal of the Velosolex. It has the bare minimum but it was a machine of liberation in France for many. Alot like the 2CV.







Installed! Not to the shots in my last post, how the levers different between my early bike and a late one. With the new cables fitted, I would revisit this area twice again later on.

I however couldn't help getting this reproduction BP Solexine can! Sure it might slow the bike down but there is no doubt that it would increase the range of the bike nicely.






I would also end up changing a few of the orignal features that had been on this bike since new annoyingly, but it was the right thing to do. These include
-Fuel tank - I don't think this one is original to this bike. It's not surprising as they are vulnerable. Mine was leaking at the threads and had previously been repaired. So that went, along with the pipe from it to the fuel pump, which was also bodged together
-Fuel pump ; Mine had a shot diagphragm, and I wasn't convinced all of the glass balls were right within the body. So I put an new item on.
-Light housing; Mine was a 3300 item, which was original to the bike. However, with the new tank, it didn't look right. So I fitted a new item on but kept my old light
-Tank guard; These are an accessory but these do help to prevent breaking the fan/flywheel in addition to the tank itself. So I also got one of these.

Suddenly, the bike was looking a bit more complete, but it would take more to make it roadworthy.


















This would take me up to Spring, where of course, alot of things would change for everyone. This didn't mean that I would suffer from a lack of things to do however .

Very slowlex? Love it - a friend had one at school in the 70s.

There is!

I’ll come here with an update next time. I actually used this for a while.

Excellent job
I see more and more of these poping up at Jumbles and shows, great fun for not much money.
Cycle Master, Mini Atom, Winged Wheel and Trojan are often worth a look.
This club is great they will help anyone with any make or model of bike, very cheap for dating certs and will help you get it registered.
thebuzzingclub.net/

Is there an update on this? I'm afraid so! The bike went to pastures anew! I had some fun with it, but at the time, I realised that I would never use the bike properly. That, and with the CG125, the Solex would be unlikely to be ever used!

However, the CG did remain. I did some work on that over time, but not much. It was actually a pretty good bike that.

The first big thing I did would be to have a detailer mate 'clean' the bike. We didn't mop it or anything, but we did clean it quite thoroughly. His cleaning techniques initially seemed harsh, but I'll say more later.

I would end up doing more stuff as well. But more until next time.

The time had come to do the sprockets and chain. There was nothing for it. Ever since I got the bike, the chain was being adjusted every time I lubed it up, with it being quite a way out. Eventually, the inevitable happened and I ran out of adjustment. I'm not sure how an 18,000 mile bike would no longer be on its original Honda setup, but who knows?

I tried to find an aftermarket supplier for an O-Ring chain and planned to get either some JT or DID sprockets, but they appeared very hard to find, or at a nearly new price from Honda, who wanted £140 for two sprockets and a chain. From the factory, these came with an O-ring chain

For a £1400 bike, it seemed pricey. No wonder folks fitted non O-Ring chains, but I also hated the chain going from being within the adjusted spec when I cleaned the chain, to being miles out (about double what it should be) when I came to clean the chain at 500 miles. Adjusting the chain in between just seemed like madness to me. Maybe I want an easy life too much. I need to fix it however, and eventually, I'd find a break.

Honda did a revision to the ES7 chain and sprocket assemblies. I found a pre-revised new set on eBay for £75. That was:

-A DID chain in a Honda bag
-A rear sprocket with a chain 'falling off' ring
-Front sprocket.

So, let's compare the old and the new:







Thew new one actually fitted on nicer onto the output drive of the gearbox, which I cleaned at the same time.

The chains side by side. The new DID O-Ring chain looked beefier.










The new and old sprockets. I'll come back to these. To some folks, the old ones looked fine, but the teeth certainly look 'pointier'

It was then time to strip the bike down.




While there, I cleaned up the hub, and checked the cush drive bushes. They looked fine to me, with the innards having zero play present or softness.

On the subject of the cush drives, I noticed my rear sprocket had alot of side-to-side movement across the axle. Every CG owner claimed it was the cush drives. I could believe that if it was radial play, but not axial/side-to-side play. As otherwise, how could you even put the sprocket onto the cush drives without hammering them on? Some detective work ensued, and eventually I'd have the answer : The original setup had a spacer I was missing. Enter the spacer.




I even made a video to show the differences.



Eventually, however, I couldn't just be looking at differences. I'd have to check the bike itself, and so I'd begin the re-assembly stage:










It was then time for the test ride.

I now had far less drive lash, and overall a quieter chain, when adjusted correctly! My old chain would sometimes made odd noises when the adjustment was correct, so I'd loosen it off from the recommended 15mm of play to around 25mm, which did the trick. This was perfect. Except I now had a slight hum above 15mm in the drivetrain, power on or off. I played about with the adjustments and checked everything. All was OK.

It then occurred to me, it could be two things:

-The clearance of the sprocket had been taken up, so while the old loose item may have caused different noises before, this probably caused new noises new. Who knows, it may even be part of the reason why the spacer was no longer there. A tighter fitting sprocket will relay some noise accross
-The chain and sprockets may be settling in. This is what a bike mechanic claimed.

Searching Google alluded to the latter. But the bike had never ridden better. Furthermore, the chain didn't actually need adjusting anywhere near as often. So that was a result.

I would keep the bike for another month after this, where I would do my big bike test, for reason I'll discuss next time.

But unfortunately, it was time to part company with this CG125. A great bike, which I debated keeping, but with the new bike budget going up and up, and me re-evaluating life choices, it couldn't stay. As Echo and the Bunnymen said, nothing lasts forever.