Hi, I had a ss50 yellow one in 1978 16 year old .went to Skegness on it with my mate on his fizzy what a good day we had long ride at 40 mph, in 5th gear. Now 61 year old and enjoying my 42 year old Honda cb250 super dream, had one in 81 past my test on it. Memories. 😂
@@justinformed7367 I had the later (1976) version of the SS50, and once got to 53 mph with a strong tail wind. More usually 45 mph, to be fair. The main differences were a 5 speed gearbox, and cable operated front disk brake.
@@roberthuntley1090 Yeah, your newer version was much better. My FS1E was good for almost 50mph, but my dad back ported the piston which increased it to just over 60mph. Great days & such freedom at 16yrs old.
AP50 and FS1E were without doubt quicker but and it was a big but on 70s apprentice wages it would go to the moon on a tank and didnt need a rebore every month. When my SS finally died from abuse it got the head and barrel from a c70 and went much better ( 45 on a good day)
I had a 1976 “P” plate as a young chap, some of the best days of biking I ever had, still biking to this day on BMW R1250 GS and a Kawasaki Z1000 SX touring.
I had one 44 years ago as my first bike. Used to ride to school in a three piece suit and cowboy boots!😂. Opened up the horizons for me and my other biking mates. I would buy it but only when it gets a bit of patina again. Those pedals were nothing more than a nod in the direction of the moped regulations as they were so low geared they were completely unusable.
Your right re the innertube . One nut outside and one on the inside of the rim . The one on the inside lies under the rubber strip that runs between the tube and the rim . I have a SS50 5 speed 1977 with only 5000 miles on it and want toeither sell it or restore it . Its in good condition and runs like a Honda should. .Great stream . Thanks 👍👍👍
When I was kid,my mate,had an ss50 on the canal,I had an honda c90 on the canal.those days are long gone,its incredible the price ss50,s are selling for these days.
I bought one of these for around £ 50.00 off a farmer back in the late 70's, my first bike. Ran great when I first viewed it. Got it home and it wouldn't run, found out the tight arse had drained the petrol out. Anyway set me off on the road to motorcycling freedom.
I had an ap50 when i was 16 ,had a lot of bikes since but my best biking year was on the ap50 ,a group of us all had 50cc bikes ,great days, good to see the ss50 👍
I was so lucky. On my 16th birthday 1973 my parents brought me a new SS50. Same colour. Loved it. Took it with me when in the Royal Navy. Eventually part ex,d it for a Triumph Thunderbird 6t.
All tye years I've tinkered with bikes,about 50 years, I can't remember ever seeing a valve nut on the INSIDE of the tyre having been removed. The one that comes with the tube doesn't usually come off easily ,if at all. Worth a check I suppose, but I bet there's already one stuck fast on there.
My first bike one of those in yellow! Brings back memories. Put a 70cc top end on it off a step through if I remember correctly. But it had to go for my Rd250dx if only I had them now!!!!
A mate bought one of these cheap when we were students in Swansea. I sorted all the bugs out for him and we sprayed it metallic green 'cos the carpet and wallpaper in the front room were green so the overspray wouldn't show. Made a lovely job of it and he sold it for a profit.
At the Honda dealership I worked at the head mechanic said that the 2 nuts on the valve stem are there because the lower nut tightens onto the valve stem plate (washer round the stem), clamping the tube rubber between itself and the inner flange of the stem so the tube can't be pulled from around the valve stem, as to the smokiness I bought my brother a 5 speed SS50 for his sixteenth birthday that smoked and burnt oil told him to check the oil level every time he used anycase he didn't do as I said and the bike lost compression and wouldn't start, back then (late 80's) only SS pistons avalablle (SS pistons are 10:1 whereas C (and others) range are 8:1 iirc) were genuine Honda, no oversizes so actually meant a new barrel and piston and rings (full piston kit not available) which worked out pretty expensive back then so we decided to use a C70 barrel and piston (cheap as chips) working on the principle that although the C70 piston was lower compression, the greater volume of the bore size in the smaller combustion chamber of the SS head should give somewhere near 9:1 compression, we radiused the "corner" of the combustion chamber, head gasket face to resist chances of detonation, this combined with the "performance" cam of the SS head ( C range (and S65 the SS was based on) power peaks about 7 - 8000 rpm whereas SS peaks at 9 - 9500 rpm) gave us a bike that wasn't as sedentary as a S65 (and the 5 speed box had a top gear more usable than on the SS because of the better torque) but not as frenetic as on the SS50 trying to keep the revs in the power range.
I bought my first bike in 1976 when I turned 16, SS50 in Lime green. Had front disc brake and they had done away with the flat handlebars so they sat up higher. Bought it brand new from Pride & Clarke on Stockwell Road, London for £159. It was my daily ride to work in that hot summer of 76. Had a couple of ride outs to Bognor Regis from London with a friend who had a yellow one 😂 oh those were the days. Traded mine in when I turned 17 in 1977 for an RD250. 😊 Happy days.
Great video Mickey - I’ve subscribed. Love your attention to detail and your talking us through the issues…Will work through your back catalogue now. 😀👍👍
The very first vehjicle I drove on private grounds was a Seddon Diesel 32 tom lorry. The number plate was NNR 44M. Very similar to yours. Around that time, I always wanted an SS50. Never wanted a FS1E. I liked the SS50 styling more.
My first bike was a 67 SS50 virtually unkillable very easy to work on , push rod engine . Not sure about the 73 but the 67 had a sparkplug that you had to get from Honda . Fill it up and you might have 1/2 tank after a month of riding :) thanks for memory :)
I bought one in 1976. Three main problems that I can recall: a. "Wooden" tyres which would slide if there was any moisture on the road. A trip to the Avon tyre dealer was the first job on the bike. To be fair, most Japanese tyres of that era were like that. b. Generally fragile and not suitable for the UK climate. As an example, there was only a splash of paint on the underside of the fuel tank with rust spots developing within a year. Similarly, one of the front fork stanchions started pitting. c. The naff cable operated disk brake - used to partly stick on if there was salt/grit on the roads. Also, not great at clearing water off of the disk when you first stared out (I can remember hacksawing some water clearing grooves in the pad material to try and help).
@@Mrxsara2001 Your right, I forgot that - had to have strut welded on mine to strengthen it. Another one, the switch that turned on the brake light was prone to sticking on.
You can fix it. The problem is almost certainly that the piston rings are either excessively worn or are broken. Breakage of the rings is caused by over-revving. Could possibly also be piston rings incorrectly fitted or very worn valve guides.
Lovely rare ( and valuable) bike . I myself was a FS1E boy back in the 70s, but plenty of my mates had ss 50s ( 2.5 bhp compared tp my 4.8 !). Btw, that head is a Chinese knockoff,
Carb from eBay, shipped out from China within 2 weeks. Manifold from Amazon, arrived in about a week I think. I made up a gasket/insulator from 1mm thick gasket paper. Hope this helps
If it’s Leicester reg either as the other guy says Eric Holmes’s or Ken Ives. The two nuts on inner tube are what Michelin recommend for high power bikes as tube can move a bit. Think SS50 is fine with the old way nut either side of rim. Confused me when I changed the tyres on my Bonnie.
A nice bike, I'd have thought that it would have been worth putting proper Honda bits back on thought, you'd get much more for it. Those two nuts on the valve is very common, when I worked at a Honda dealers I never saw a nut on the inside, would have thought that it'd damage the inner tube. I used to have its predecessor with the old pushrod engine and only 3 gears. It was still a fantastic bike.
Hello Tony, thanks for your comment. I have sold the bike now and the new owner is indeed fitting a lot of Honda parts to it. He is also getting the pedal mechanism working again. It is indeed a lovely bike and I enjoyed getting it up and running again.
Loved this video. Bike is from my era when I first dreamt of having one of these,or a fizzy. Was this year bile issued with the black n silver number plate? I think so,probably. Personally I think it would look better with that left on the bike. Also doesn't a smaller plate look a bit smarter also? And as for a front number plate....I just say NO! Oh no.Leave it aaht! But all just goes to show-personal taste differs so much.
Most mistakes are made by reboring the cilinder. Original piston-cilinder is 0, 01 mm. A lot of restorers don't dares this and grind it to 0,04mm. Sure you will have to brake it in carefully but after that no oil problems.
Hi, I had a ss50 yellow one in 1978 16 year old .went to Skegness on it with my mate on his fizzy what a good day we had long ride at 40 mph, in 5th gear. Now 61 year old and enjoying my 42 year old Honda cb250 super dream, had one in 81 past my test on it. Memories. 😂
I had the same as in the video same color 1980 never let me down I'm 62 now seems long ago 😱👍👍🦊🏴
Ah, the venerable SS50. It was the sensible 'ped' your parents chose for you when you wanted an AP50 or an FS1E.
Spot on. I used to have the FS1E & my mate had this SS50. His was terrible performance & wouldn't do 35mph.
@@justinformed7367 I had the later (1976) version of the SS50, and once got to 53 mph with a strong tail wind. More usually 45 mph, to be fair. The main differences were a 5 speed gearbox, and cable operated front disk brake.
@@roberthuntley1090 Yeah, your newer version was much better. My FS1E was good for almost 50mph, but my dad back ported the piston which increased it to just over 60mph. Great days & such freedom at 16yrs old.
AP50 and FS1E were without doubt quicker but and it was a big but on 70s apprentice wages it would go to the moon on a tank and didnt need a rebore every month. When my SS finally died from abuse it got the head and barrel from a c70 and went much better ( 45 on a good day)
Ah yes but in the right hands the ss was also known to be able to hold its own against a standard fizzy or suzuki Ap.
I had a 1976 “P” plate as a young chap, some of the best days of biking I ever had, still biking to this day on BMW R1250 GS and a Kawasaki Z1000 SX touring.
26:19 off on the pull! 😄 Well done, she's running great
I had one 44 years ago as my first bike. Used to ride to school in a three piece suit and cowboy boots!😂. Opened up the horizons for me and my other biking mates. I would buy it but only when it gets a bit of patina again.
Those pedals were nothing more than a nod in the direction of the moped regulations as they were so low geared they were completely unusable.
I learned to ride on one of these across the local park in Braintree, Essex in the 70's and it was fantastic! Best times
Your right re the innertube . One nut outside and one on the inside of the rim . The one on the inside lies under the rubber strip that runs between the tube and the rim . I have a SS50 5 speed 1977 with only 5000 miles on it and want toeither sell it or restore it . Its in good condition and runs like a Honda should. .Great stream . Thanks 👍👍👍
When I was kid,my mate,had an ss50 on the canal,I had an honda c90 on the canal.those days are long gone,its incredible the price ss50,s are selling for these days.
I bought one of these for around £ 50.00 off a farmer back in the late 70's, my first bike. Ran great when I first viewed it. Got it home and it wouldn't run, found out the tight arse had drained the petrol out. Anyway set me off on the road to motorcycling freedom.
I had an ap50 when i was 16 ,had a lot of bikes since but my best biking year was on the ap50 ,a group of us all had 50cc bikes ,great days, good to see the ss50 👍
I was so lucky. On my 16th birthday 1973 my parents brought me a new SS50. Same colour. Loved it. Took it with me when in the Royal Navy. Eventually part ex,d it for a Triumph Thunderbird 6t.
lovely little peds , fond memories of me mates having the 4 and 5 speed ones
All tye years I've tinkered with bikes,about 50 years, I can't remember ever seeing a valve nut on the INSIDE of the tyre having been removed. The one that comes with the tube doesn't usually come off easily ,if at all. Worth a check I suppose, but I bet there's already one stuck fast on there.
My first bike one of those in yellow! Brings back memories. Put a 70cc top end on it off a step through if I remember correctly. But it had to go for my Rd250dx if only I had them now!!!!
Nice bike, had one of those too😊
A mate bought one of these cheap when we were students in Swansea. I sorted all the bugs out for him and we sprayed it metallic green 'cos the carpet and wallpaper in the front room were green so the overspray wouldn't show. Made a lovely job of it and he sold it for a profit.
At the Honda dealership I worked at the head mechanic said that the 2 nuts on the valve stem are there because the lower nut tightens onto the valve stem plate (washer round the stem), clamping the tube rubber between itself and the inner flange of the stem so the tube can't be pulled from around the valve stem, as to the smokiness I bought my brother a 5 speed SS50 for his sixteenth birthday that smoked and burnt oil told him to check the oil level every time he used anycase he didn't do as I said and the bike lost compression and wouldn't start, back then (late 80's) only SS pistons avalablle (SS pistons are 10:1 whereas C (and others) range are 8:1 iirc) were genuine Honda, no oversizes so actually meant a new barrel and piston and rings (full piston kit not available) which worked out pretty expensive back then so we decided to use a C70 barrel and piston (cheap as chips) working on the principle that although the C70 piston was lower compression, the greater volume of the bore size in the smaller combustion chamber of the SS head should give somewhere near 9:1 compression, we radiused the "corner" of the combustion chamber, head gasket face to resist chances of detonation, this combined with the "performance" cam of the SS head ( C range (and S65 the SS was based on) power peaks about 7 - 8000 rpm whereas SS peaks at 9 - 9500 rpm) gave us a bike that wasn't as sedentary as a S65 (and the 5 speed box had a top gear more usable than on the SS because of the better torque) but not as frenetic as on the SS50 trying to keep the revs in the power range.
I bought my first bike in 1976 when I turned 16, SS50 in Lime green. Had front disc brake and they had done away with the flat handlebars so they sat up higher. Bought it brand new from Pride & Clarke on Stockwell Road, London for £159. It was my daily ride to work in that hot summer of 76. Had a couple of ride outs to Bognor Regis from London with a friend who had a yellow one 😂 oh those were the days. Traded mine in when I turned 17 in 1977 for an RD250. 😊 Happy days.
Lovely example
Friend of mine had one in 75 ( he’s actually 65 today), like a little Swiss watch
Swiss watch, who, the bike or your friend?😊
Great video Mickey - I’ve subscribed. Love your attention to detail and your talking us through the issues…Will work through your back catalogue now. 😀👍👍
Thanks Andy 😀
Love the ss50 well all the small hondas c100,c50,mt50 etc etc
BLOODY HELL REMEMBER IT WELL THAT AND THE YAMI 50 NICE TO SEE 👀 👍
The very first vehjicle I drove on private grounds was a Seddon Diesel 32 tom lorry. The number plate was NNR 44M. Very similar to yours. Around that time, I always wanted an SS50. Never wanted a FS1E. I liked the SS50 styling more.
It was My first bike, so much fun 😍
My first bike was a 67 SS50 virtually unkillable very easy to work on , push rod engine . Not sure about the 73 but the 67 had a sparkplug that you had to get from Honda . Fill it up and you might have 1/2 tank after a month of riding :) thanks for memory :)
I bought one in 1976. Three main problems that I can recall:
a. "Wooden" tyres which would slide if there was any moisture on the road. A trip to the Avon tyre dealer was the first job on the bike. To be fair, most Japanese tyres of that era were like that.
b. Generally fragile and not suitable for the UK climate. As an example, there was only a splash of paint on the underside of the fuel tank with rust spots developing within a year. Similarly, one of the front fork stanchions started pitting.
c. The naff cable operated disk brake - used to partly stick on if there was salt/grit on the roads. Also, not great at clearing water off of the disk when you first stared out (I can remember hacksawing some water clearing grooves in the pad material to try and help).
Avon Speed(lol)master on the back, Dunlop rain cheetah on the front... sorted 🙂
My recollection is the centre stand was failure prone on these.
@@Mrxsara2001 Your right, I forgot that - had to have strut welded on mine to strengthen it. Another one, the switch that turned on the brake light was prone to sticking on.
IRC tyres!
Often the cause of these smoking , is the rings haven't been put on properly. It's easy to put them on upside down and the oil bypasses the rings.
I had one of the SS50 pistons as a gear knob on my car, still in a box somewhere.
The same bike I had even the colour,not the fastest mobo but pulled like a tank?loved it rode miles so nice to ride😢I miss it?
Hello Michael. Thanks for your comment. You could relive your memories as its on eBay now 🙂
£3,500😱not missing that much🤣?
@@michaelbratton3319 👍
Thank god you changed the black plates to yellow!
Did check for 2t petrol oil in the tank
You can fix it. The problem is almost certainly that the piston rings are either excessively worn or are broken. Breakage of the rings is caused by over-revving. Could possibly also be piston rings incorrectly fitted or very worn valve guides.
Lovely rare ( and valuable) bike . I myself was a FS1E boy back in the 70s, but plenty of my mates had ss 50s ( 2.5 bhp compared tp my 4.8 !). Btw, that head is a Chinese knockoff,
@Mickey’s Mopeds Please could you tell me where you got the carb and manifold. Thanks 👍👍👍@Mickey’s Mopeds
Carb from eBay, shipped out from China within 2 weeks. Manifold from Amazon, arrived in about a week I think. I made up a gasket/insulator from 1mm thick gasket paper. Hope this helps
@@MadMickey58 Thanks . 👍👍👍
Sounds like rings or bore is worn allowing oil to.pass into the combustion cylinder, or valve seals worn.
Sounds sweet
If it’s Leicester reg either as the other guy says Eric Holmes’s or Ken Ives. The two nuts on inner tube are what Michelin recommend for high power bikes as tube can move a bit. Think SS50 is fine with the old way nut either side of rim. Confused me when I changed the tyres on my Bonnie.
A nice bike, I'd have thought that it would have been worth putting proper Honda bits back on thought, you'd get much more for it. Those two nuts on the valve is very common, when I worked at a Honda dealers I never saw a nut on the inside, would have thought that it'd damage the inner tube. I used to have its predecessor with the old pushrod engine and only 3 gears. It was still a fantastic bike.
Hello Tony, thanks for your comment. I have sold the bike now and the new owner is indeed fitting a lot of Honda parts to it. He is also getting the pedal mechanism working again. It is indeed a lovely bike and I enjoyed getting it up and running again.
Wow same as mine . Same year same colour.
any teen of the 1970's will know a rebore on it will get you 60mph, easy worth the money
Is it for sale yet? And if so what is your asking price.
Loved this video. Bike is from my era when I first dreamt of having one of these,or a fizzy.
Was this year bile issued with the black n silver number plate? I think so,probably. Personally I think it would look better with that left on the bike. Also doesn't a smaller plate look a bit smarter also?
And as for a front number plate....I just say NO! Oh no.Leave it aaht! But all just goes to show-personal taste differs so much.
So how much is it for sale ?
Always sounded like the choke was on, and was struggling to get up to speed.
Fantastic bike.
had a blue one at 17 it was great 55 mph
mine had a c70 cylinder in it beat any f1se lol
Looks similar to my first ever bike, a Casal 50 (unrestricted)
Had one just like your red one
I had one in 1973 brand new got me a girlfriend 😂
You can not reuse the head gasket.nice looking bike though.
o m y cool esy fix
First registered in Leicester. Maybe Eric Holmes, OR Some other Honda dealer in Leicester which I cant remember ! 🤣
Yes
Had one of those 34 years ago..
Nowadays they are too expensive..
I had one of them bikes
Looks nice , if it went any slower it’ll be going backwards lol 😢😂😂😂😮😊
They took number plates off the front mudguards because of the injuries to pedestrians in accidents.
They didn't like it up them Mr. Mainwaring....
Needs a rebore, possibly might get away with fitting cord piston rings
New barrel new piston and new rings and change the oil
niceeeee
Fizzy 50 ...nippy
replace piston ring valvle seal
Oi! Finger! give it a rest. 🙂 c70 piston and rebore it.
Valve seals for a guess.
Most mistakes are made by reboring the cilinder. Original piston-cilinder is 0, 01 mm. A lot of restorers don't dares this and grind it to 0,04mm. Sure you will have to brake it in carefully but after that no oil problems.
Good riddance to that slug, back on to the GT250A.
ART piston is original.
Chinese cylinders, ready with wear from new ;-)
the engine is not original
Fs1e was better😂
He's tucked you up like a kipper.. If you're lucky, it will be valve guide rubbers, but it's probably a full engine rebuild..