I am the new guy...just scored what I think is a 1972 MiniTrail Z50 for my son. Looking to purchase some items to get him riding and hoped someone could steer me to the best place to start. I see lots on Ebay but have not had the best of luck on that sight over the years.
I need:
Carb and Cable
Front fork rebuild kit if they are available.
Seat
Tires and Tubes
Wiring harness
Welcome to the madness! I use CHP because they are close to me here in Texas. Check out their site, lots of good stuff and old Honda parts book photos to help you figure thing out. GOOD LUCK! Ill bet you buy another one!
Welcome to the madness! I use CHP because they are close to me here in Texas. Check out their site, lots of good stuff and old Honda parts book photos to help you figure thing out. GOOD LUCK! Ill bet you buy another one!
Welcome to PM! Most of the items you are looking for are available from Hondatrailbikes or one of their dealers like tboltusa (you can add .com to either of those names to get to their sites.)
Whichever is cheaper. If you know the carb is the problem and want to keep it original then a rebuild is king. Most repops are gonna be fine function wise, but may not look the part. Throw up some pics! Also worth thinking about if you want to do and engine mods. For mini stuff I’d recommend sticking to Tbolt, chp, dratv, any of the other ones listed prior. They all specialize in minis. I know I’ve had awesome experience with Tbolt and Dratv in the past. Mind you, other places have never wronged me, but Tbolt has awesome resources info wise as well as being located in PA, and Dratv is great for restoration stuff PLUS their shipping is stupid fast. Good luck my friend.
As stated above welcome, fellow 72 K3 Z50 owner here. I was able to rebuild my carb with parts available. I have used every one of the retailer’s listed above with great success. With everything going on parts have been a little hit and miss.
If you have a stock carb...433a I think it is, I'd rebuild it. At the very least...don't scrap it. If you ever decided you want to do a proper restoration...you're gonna want the correct carb.
That DOES look like the OG carb, and intake, and air box. The missing cap, needle and slide kinda sucks tho. They can be hard to find sometimes.
The stock carb is a Keihin, with 433A stamped near where the carb mounts to the intake.
Great news for us! I am going to keep it for sure....will buy one to get it running for him now and rebuild this one and look for the missing pieces as we go.
I recorded some info for that carb a while back. It might be useful for you when looking for the missing parts.
I'll look it up tonight and post it for you.
looks like a fairly complete survivor! With some love she can be up and running in now time and looking nice.
my 72 K3 has the 655 carb and I was able to find everything to rebuild it and even larger jets, jets were a tough one. But there are a lot of parts that show up on eBay or resellers like NE Vintage Cycles. Keep us posted on your project.
this site has some amazing resources. I knew nothing about these Z50s and mine was in worse shape than yours and thanks to the members here she looks and run better than ever.
looks like a fairly complete survivor! With some love she can be up and running in now time and looking nice.
my 72 K3 has the 655 carb and I was able to find everything to rebuild it and even larger jets, jets were a tough one. But there are a lot of parts that show up on eBay or resellers like NE Vintage Cycles. Keep us posted on your project.
this site has some amazing resources. I knew nothing about these Z50s and mine was in worse shape than yours and thanks to the members here she looks and run better than ever.
Many thanks! we have it torn down to sub assemblies now and my son is helping with it all. Great times and he's going to enjoy for many years to come for sure....we looked for a long time to get one we could build and teach him to wrench on something that's his....
Yes....all mine are kick and they can be a pain sometimes...usually one kick bikes but whenever people come over to look at the bike as your leaving the bike seems to know and makes you work for it!
Can someone point me in the right direction for a fork assembly? My chrome tubes are straight I think but when I look down on the gold tubes on the upper portion they don't look symmetrical. I don't think I can "bend" these back into shape and may have to purchase....CHP does not sell them Chad told me to check Ebay....want to make sure I am hunting the right item...anyone have a lead or a PN I could search?
They are known for that. My dad has a 72 Sportster, what I basically learned to ride bikes on. never looked forward to having to kickstart it, with a built motor you had to really commit or get launched. haha
Yes....all mine are kick and they can be a pain sometimes...usually one kick bikes but whenever people come over to look at the bike as your leaving the bike seems to know and makes you work for it!
Hondatrailbikes.com sells the fork tops. If the tubes are true, they will usually line up once the wheel and top clamp are on. The tubes can be straightened if they are actually bent:
Also check TBParts as I picked up a fork upper from them in their “clearance” section because the color was off a bit for a great price. My forks had the headlight ears cut off by previous owner so this is the route I took.
if bending works and they are in good shape keep the originals and rebuild them as mentioned above.
Awesome and thanks....I will keep the ones I have and try to get straight for one day when we decide to make it original and nice. Now just trying to get him riding. Anyone have paint code for this bike? Rattle can I could buy?
There are a couple of places that sell the the candy gold paint but I have not seen it in spray cans. I believe it’s because it takes three parts in order to get it right, this is what I have read. A silver base is layer down then the candy gold followed by a clear. If you Google Honda z50 paint kits you will see the key sites. I have no experience with them. I believe Marble Motors has them in spray can kits but have not varified.
when I do my “restoration“ on my bike I am probably going to send it to someone like Mikes who is familiar with the colors to get it looking correct.
We are getting close. Kicked over and we have spark...need to run fuel line and install throttle and I think she's done.
Two questions:
Is the front tire supposed to be this offset? I see how it will need to be a little to facilitate the brake on but this seems extreme. If not whats the fix? I have the spacer in on the left and its a new triple tree with the original down tubes with new plastic bushings inside.
Second can someone ident the wires for me? I want to use the switch I have but not sure which to connect to ground the coil out to turn off....the others I assume are for a headlight I don't have yet.
Gonna try to fire it up tomorrow if all goes well.
It looks to me like the stub that sticks out of the right lower leg is NOT fitting into the groove on the brake plate. It should almost bottom out in there against the brake plate.
I've seen this before with a aftermarket brake plate...on a CT70.
Also...you should loosen the axle some and nicely compress the front shocks/springs a couple times...make sure everything is moving smoothly and all...before you torque the axle.
Make sure the left and right fork legs are the same length with no weight on them.