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The Official Madass125.co.uk Blog
January
My madass arrived new as OTR (On The Road). Unfortunately there was no tax disc . . . I had to wait until it arrived in the post.
Regardless of what the dealer told me (that I could ride it with no tax disc) I know for a fact you cannot ride a new bike without a tax disc . . . so I waited.
When the tax disc did arrive a week later (the bike was also registered to me during that time) it bloody snowed so I couldn't ride it at all!
Once on the road I found the Sachs Madass 125 easy to ride and surprisingly stable. Its' light weight makes it a doddle to push and shunt with your feet.
[ Essential - Read and obey the manual for running in and warming up ]
.
Having cycled thousands of miles I needed a rest so to speak and this Madass looked as though it would fulfil my requirements . . . which it has so far.
Wow! - Really strong winds today. I have added handlebar muffs to keep the wind and rain off my hands and switchgear, but the wind was so strong I had to keep the levers off 'engaged' positions to get home!
I needed a plan, so I bought and fitted enduro bush guards. These solid guards would stop the muffs from being forced onto the levers . . . alas the ones I purchased broke as I was fitting them! Grr, cheapo crap.
So while I am waiting for a set of acerbis rally to arrive I bought and customised a helmet for myself (my old helmet needs a re-vamp). You can see it in the photograph above, I like it, it turned out well.
Oh Dear . . .
This is the vid of my bizzare no fit acerbis rally profile handguard fitments! . . . a sad day :(
purchased from dirtbikebitz.com . . . they say they have never had any complaints about this item! . . . yeah I believe you, or am I really so stupid I cannot fit simple brushguards!
Okay . . . February SO now I have made the acerbis brushguards fit. They are just plastic, no metal protection but hey, they are just to keep the muffs off the levers in high winds so they will be fine, and they look awesome too actually. Very pleased indeed – a better look than the other make that broke.
Maintenance 01 I got to work, parked up and noticed - - - OIL DRIPPING ONTO THE TARMAC . . . Noooooooo!
I got into the building and immediately asked my boss for the day off explaining that I didn’t want to risk leaving 8hrs later to find all my engine oil on the car park floor and not in my engine. Awesomely I was granted the day off! I scooted home, stopping off to buy some high grade 4stroke motorbike engine oil and then to business . . . 'found an old container, got the correct socket, confirmed the procedure by reading my owners manual and drained and refilled the oil sump.
I checked the tightness of bolts that were in the vicinity of the leak and indeed some were not as tight as indicated in the workshop service manual. Luckily I posses high quality torque wrenches . . . these are ‘spanners’ that have a manually adjustable tightness so over / under tightening is not an issue as you set the force to equal that as given in the service manual.
Boom . . . no leak – chuffed.
IDIOT I left work today [07 feb 2013] and, being the first time with no high winds nor rain, found myself doing 52 mph in a 50 zone – ooooh, tidy! I stopped at a set of traffic lights whence I saw smoke in my headlight beam. I thought it must be the car behind me . . . nope, the smoke was coming from my Madass! I hit the kill switch, turned off the ignition and motioned to the driver behind I was ‘dead’ and moving to the pavement.
I wheeled my Madass (to be known from here on in as White Lightning) onto the pavement and let it cool. To cut a long story short I pushed White Lightning home, trying to electric / kick start at varying intervals. Six long miles up-hill (those I work with will vouch for this) . . . six long sweaty hard miles. I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t angry. I just wanted to get White Lightning home . . . a fix is always possible at home.
When I got in I phoned my mum and told her the bad news (in case errands were being planned!) . . . I fired up the computer and started looking for solutions . . . ‘fried spark plug cap’ ‘overheated electrics’ and so on . . . then I saw a description ‘kill switch bypass’ . . . no, it can’t be ?
I grabbed the key, went outside, opened the lockup and lo and behold, like the idiot I seemed to be . . . the kill switch was in the same position it was when I shut White Lightning down all those hours ago at the traffic lights . . . OFF.
I flicked it back over, turned the ignition on, hit the starter button and ‘pppffffopp . . . purrrrr’ . . . WOOT! . . . the problem was simply my ineptitude! White Lightning rides once more, there was no problem other than a smoky spark plug lead outer casing. Oh well, at least I had a hell of a workout!
Actual cause of smoke discovered It was quite simply a 'thing' that landed on my exhaust tube and melted . . . nothing more, nothing less . . . look:
Yes, I do feel very very stoopid this morning, at least I waited until theExhaust cooled down.
In Retrospect I Feel Good about pushing White Lightning home. Hells bells, smoke from a brand new motorbike, on a dual carriageway, at night, after two weeks of snow,
mega winds, torrential rain and me riding - It could have been anything. I now also know I can push my Madass 125 home from work should I need to. A good day and a positive one at that.
Crap . . .
Improvement of indicators now
Standard clip improvement . . .
Rear light unit waterloged now !
March now my electric starter has decided not to work ! Luckily White Lightning kick starts very very easily so other than convenience, there is no issue
just a bit miffed as they say. I did pull the battery and use my Optimate 4 to charge it, but there was no need as the battery was already fully charged.
I like the Optimate 4 as it first diagnoses the battery and then, if needs be it starts to charge, otherwise it just glows Green at you saying all is well.
I just found this video that explains the battery charger I use. . . NOTE: This is motorbike type battery capacity specific because of its charge rate. . .
('Save' means the Optimate 4 is trying to save the battery from the bin as the battery is either flat due to being discharged or fouled internally)
Here is the 'Save' mode professionally assessed on a knackered battery . . . Oh, and at the end of the video click 'pause' to stop the music if you so wish!
How To Ride A MadAss125 recommendations imminent!
April
April Believe it or not I find the best way to ride a Madass125 is Motocross style. To explain . . . I used to ride White Lightning with a lot of weight on the front due to pushing on my handlebars. I had speed wobbles (at 50mph!?!!) and had difficulty in keeping a smoooth line around 90degree corners . . . nothing dangerous, just not cornering with much confidence, and the front feeling ‘gritty’ – I do not mean a bearing gritty, but tyre gritty – every nuance in the road felt,
and I mean every nuance, so much so I could have sketched the road surface almost exactly!
So, what is this motocross style I speak of . . . though I ain’t no motocross rider I have discovered my own style is exactly that; weight rearward on the seat and pegs, gentle pressure on the handlebars, and sitting quite a bit upright around bends effectively levering the Madass left / right under me to crank around those 90degree corners. On the car-park type corners (= under say 112mph oops typo sorry, I mean 12mph!) – pull in the clutch in and coast around then throttle on a wee
bit to exit since I found ‘power on’ cornering was twitchy and also wanted to push me in a straight line and interfere with the turn.
Result ?
Enjoying riding my Madass125 so so much more now, no speed wobbles, turning quicker and tighter, powering out of corners using all 8horses and no more gritty road feeling through my front tyre. To convince myself I was doing the right thing I did a Youtube search and eventually found this . . . It’s a bit long winded but it does convey the technique I developed for my own ‘MadassCross’ riding style . . . and this dude is a TEN TIMES world champion so listen to him!
May Well the only thing to happen to the 'bike this month was: I managed to snap the mirror and casing off the metal stalk - left hand side.
I leant White Lightning onto the side stand nice and close to some railings ready for locking while I went in to the nearby shop and lo and behold - clack! Mirror unit on the ground!
Nuts !!! - So i went immediately to my local 'bike shop and bought a suitable replacement unit which actually offers more visibility via the underarm technique than the original (for my physiology - you may be fine with your set up)
Yeah, so a good month all in all
June LUCKY AS HELL . . . . Ignition wires broke of their own accord just as I was leaving for work ! OMG . . . could have been miles of pushing uphill again . . . in daylight and in heat!
I phoned work and got a day off with no penalty - fixed the wiring in a few hours and am considering replacing the whole loom to be on the safe side - though the wires only break where there is lots of 'turning' if you can see what I mean. Like a paper-clip you wiggle back and fore, it will eventually simply snap.
I need a solution for this as one day it's going to be bad news (I ride into some very deep coastal valleys so no way would I be able push White Lightning out of some!!!)
Stay tuned, More as it happens . . .
2014 quick updates
Perfected the paint, serviced the bike, put new break pads and top spec bearings in, new chain, and polished it all up beautifully. Then GONE ! . . . White Lightning has been stolen :(
Website updated 1445 01 Dec 2014
Maintenance 01 I got to work, parked up and noticed - - - OIL DRIPPING ONTO THE TARMAC . . . Noooooooo!
I got into the building and immediately asked my boss for the day off explaining that I didn’t want to risk leaving 8hrs later to find all my engine oil on the car park floor and not in my engine. Awesomely I was granted the day off! I scooted home, stopping off to buy some high grade 4stroke motorbike engine oil and then to business . . . 'found an old container, got the correct socket, confirmed the procedure by reading my owners manual and drained and refilled the oil sump.
I checked the tightness of bolts that were in the vicinity of the leak and indeed some were not as tight as indicated in the workshop service manual. Luckily I posses high quality torque wrenches . . . these are ‘spanners’ that have a manually adjustable tightness so over / under tightening is not an issue as you set the force to equal that as given in the service manual.
Boom . . . no leak – chuffed.
IDIOT I left work today [07 feb 2013] and, being the first time with no high winds nor rain, found myself doing 52 mph in a 50 zone – ooooh, tidy! I stopped at a set of traffic lights whence I saw smoke in my headlight beam. I thought it must be the car behind me . . . nope, the smoke was coming from my Madass! I hit the kill switch, turned off the ignition and motioned to the driver behind I was ‘dead’ and moving to the pavement.
I wheeled my Madass (to be known from here on in as White Lightning) onto the pavement and let it cool. To cut a long story short I pushed White Lightning home, trying to electric / kick start at varying intervals. Six long miles up-hill (those I work with will vouch for this) . . . six long sweaty hard miles. I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t angry. I just wanted to get White Lightning home . . . a fix is always possible at home.
When I got in I phoned my mum and told her the bad news (in case errands were being planned!) . . . I fired up the computer and started looking for solutions . . . ‘fried spark plug cap’ ‘overheated electrics’ and so on . . . then I saw a description ‘kill switch bypass’ . . . no, it can’t be ?
I grabbed the key, went outside, opened the lockup and lo and behold, like the idiot I seemed to be . . . the kill switch was in the same position it was when I shut White Lightning down all those hours ago at the traffic lights . . . OFF.
I flicked it back over, turned the ignition on, hit the starter button and ‘pppffffopp . . . purrrrr’ . . . WOOT! . . . the problem was simply my ineptitude! White Lightning rides once more, there was no problem other than a smoky spark plug lead outer casing. Oh well, at least I had a hell of a workout!
Actual cause of smoke discovered It was quite simply a 'thing' that landed on my exhaust tube and melted . . . nothing more, nothing less . . . look:
