Roughhouse 50 Wisco build

[RH50Wisco]

Starting another thread to document my Roughhouse 50 build. There are a few things I have worked through that have not been talked about yet in the other RH50 threads, plus this seems like a great place to document my build and experience. I want to thank Zino and hippo008 for their extensive documentation on their RH50 builds. I have relied heavily on their threads for learning what to do with this strange beast.

I picked up a 2015 RH50 for next to nothing. It has been driven in the salt splattered streets through the winter and always stored outside. Lots of rust and corrosion. It has been dumped before so parts are bent and broke. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at a mod build. I also own a 2008 Zuma and a 2020 RH50 so I have machines in good condition to compare things with. When I picked it up it was in a no-start condition.

After some quick tear down and troubleshooting I quickly determined it was a faulty CDI, so the grocery list starts. At this point I was not committed to the mod build yet so was just trying to keep costs to a minimum. I also know literally nothing about mod'ing a scoot. Even with the mod build I was thinking of, I did not want to spend thousands as I have seen in other builds documented here. My goal was to have something fun to run around town with without spending a fortune. With some very high-level guestimates, I figured I would probably be in it for around $1K.

First purchase: CDI Naraku Performance (Amazon) - $25

New CDI did the trick, as I knew it would since I did a quick swap with my working unit to validate the faulty CDI.

With it now running I could start looking at everything else that was broken. I will most likely just fix it up and turn it.

Now for my once-thru of everything I would want to fix to make it legit street drivable again.
    Missing and broken mirrors, one is sheared off, so stud is still stuck in mount hole.
    Glove box broken off (gone)
    Seat trunk broke, seat is only being held on by the lock/latch
    Air filter box broken off, gone. Has been replaced by cheap air pod, was told it previously had a small air filter with a Gatorade bottle over it. It has also been reported to not run very good, most likely due to lean condition caused by OEM air filter gone.
    Ignition key cover gone, the plastic around the ignition is not aligned so wouldn't fit in until fairing alignment is fixed. Something bent somewhere causing this.
    Some of the bolts holding metal floor pads down are rusted and sheared off.
    Rear shock very rusty.
    Front caliper has lots of corrosion
    Center kick stand is broken. Upon further inspection the mount rod for it is broken and the end is corroded into the mount tab on engine block. Not coming out, so only way it is getting a functional center stand is by replacing the small half of crank case.
    Tires are not great, but will do for a while.
    Exhaust is completely rusted and had brazing repair attempts made that are not good.
    The cylinder is a big rusty mess. Caked on rust between the cooling fins.

More to come as I make progress.

 

[RH50Wisco]

First grocery list from scooterlounge:

LH switch case (where mirror screws in) - 13.20

Mirror set - 33.20

Seat bucket - 36

Front glove box - 5

Screw washer & bushing (for front fairing) - 4

Ignition cover (key hole) - 2

Shipping - 31

Total $125

[RH50Wisco]

In an attempt to remove the corroded center stand mount rod I ended up breaking the mount tab off the crank case. I was able to JB Weld it back on and nothing critical was exposed. Will accept the fact that this unit will never be able to have center stand. From what I have read, the racing exhaust may require it to be removed anyway.

[aeroxbud]

That's had a hard life. Still not so far gone it wouldn't make a nice scooter.

I have done a few Yamaha centre stand replacements. They were cast into the cases and needed drilling out. Not a fun job.

[RH50Wisco]

My planned mods:
Dellorto clone PHBG 19mm carb
Stage6 70cc Streetrace
Yasuni R
Polini Hi-speed variator

Plus lots of other miscellaneous bits and pieces:
clutch springs - Polini
New cylinder studs (originals were completely rusted)
Intake manifold adapter - Malossi
Carbon Reeds - Athena
Small end bearing (for piston rod) - Stage6
Exhaust bracket - Yasuni Z (I will have more details on this later, with pics)
Throttle cable 90 adapter
Remote cable choke
Air filter pod
Belt - going with the Dayco vc31191 as suggested by Zino with his build.
Brake pads
Throttle cable - (TBD) need to determine if stock will be long enough for new carb placement once I get the engine mounted again.
Rear Shock - YSS Pro-X
Bearings for steering column
Caliper Piston and seals
45 bend hose for connecting intake to carb
Front wheel bearings and seal - not immediate need, but will eventually need to replace these.
Front fork oil - seals still look good.
Paint - for wheels, caliper, and plastic


I will provide additional details on all of this as I get to those points of assembly.

[RH50Wisco]

Nov 15, 2022 16:03:19 GMT -5 aeroxbud said:

That's had a hard life. Still not so far gone it wouldn't make a nice scooter.

I have done a few Yamaha centre stand replacements. They were cast into the cases and needed drilling out. Not a fun job.

Since the mount tab is now held together with JB Weld I wouldn't trust the weight of the bike on it anymore, so in my mind drilling it is out of the question. I had thought of going that route though.

[RH50Wisco]

I have set up a little assembly line for reconditioning all of the corroded fasteners as I pull them off. Acid bath, rinse, Black oxidize, rinse, dry, oil bath. Most of them are coming out pretty good. There have been a couple that will need replaced so source those from local hardware store.

[RH50Wisco]

Here are the wheels after paint job.

Also shown is the front fender after using the Trim and Bumper paint. I didn't get a before picture so I just set the other piece in there to get an idea of how faded the plastic was. The fender was actually worse than that. I am very pleased with the results of the Trim/Bumper paint.

[RH50Wisco]

On to figuring out why the front plastic is so out of alignment on the right side where the ignition key is, so time for more dissection. There are obvious road rash signs that indicate it has hit pavement. The screw holding the Lower Front Cover on the right side is definitely not correct. As I get more plastic off and have a look behind that panel I see the screw in question is about a 6-inch drywall anchor screw. Someone's attempt at securing that panel when the mount holes no longer lined up. The culprit to the plastic alignment issue is found. This mount bar had some major bend in it. Using a combination of bubble and laser levels I believe I have it back to where it should be. It still looks a bit mangled, but screw holes should be close enough. 

[RH50Wisco]

Now that I really have this thing stripped down I notice a new issue. As I look at it from the front, I see that the wheel has a slight tilt to one side. Might consider it more of a "significant" tilt vs a "slight". The tire is not riding on center, more of the outer tread. I don't see any noticeable difference in tread wear on that side so it must not have too many miles on since this condition started. At this point I still have not committed to the purchase of any performance parts, still need to make sure it is roadworthy. Time for more tear-down, so off comes wheel and front shock assembly. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pics of it in this state. Once I have everything off I can see that the steering column is bent. I can't seem to find anywhere to get just the column/fork bracket, although I can buy the whole column assembly with forks for 325. This will be a show-stopper. That is more than I want to invest in this thing and would put me over budget. I'm still thinking I will just turn this and make a bit of $$. I am able to find someone with a shop to get it bent back to where it should be. Used lots of heat and about a 5 ft pipe to pry. With this obstacle resolved I am ready to start ordering the fun stuff. Here are some before and after pics of the bent column.








After bend repair and sandblast. This first pic still looks crooked, but it's just because of the way it sits. It wobbles a little. 

[RH50Wisco]

Roughhouse forks:

Now with the forks off I might as well freshen them up. While I was working on removing a seized on screw for one of the cable brackets I accidentally spilled some of the fork oil out, so I only have one to do a true gauge of oil amount. Scouring the web everywhere I cannot find any specs for fork oil amount or weight for the Roughhouse. I found specs for Zuma stating 88cc of 10 wt. Comparing the RH fork with my Zuma I can see the Zuma is considerably bigger. Just a bit longer and also fatter, so can't go with that number. I saw someone state that the oil should be filled to the level of the dust cover. My oil looks to go about half way up the exposed shaft so that suggestion is no good for this unit. I measure the level, then carefully drained all the oil into a measuring cup. Looks like 60ml on the nose, and I am going to assume that 10wt is a defacto for scooters around this size. I read a lot of complaints about the RH front suspension being too soft and bottoming out which could have been a factor for how the steering column got bent. I can imagine some heavy person hitting something or maybe just doing wheelies, bottoming out the shocks and presto bendo...I'm considering going with 15wt, just to stiffen it up a bit even though I really have no idea what it came with originally. The seals appear to be fine so I won't attempt a shock rebuild. I'm not sure I can find replacement seals for this anyway. I did do some searching for these and came up with nothing. The boots are actually in good shape so this is about the only thing on this bike that was saved from the salt corrosion. 

And by the way, my count so far for removing corroded, seized on, sheared bolts/screws is up to 4. Lots of drilling and tapping.

[RH50Wisco]

Just some quick pics of the mess on the motor to clean up. Lots of work with the wire wheel/brushes to take care of that.

[RH50Wisco]

Roughhouse aftermarket racing exhaust mounting (Yasuni R):

Now for the story on the exhaust.

I was really torn about which system to get. At first I really liked what I read about the Leo Vince system, but they were not easy to come by. I was then looking at the Stage6 Pro Replica MKII, but ended up settling on the Yasuni R. One of the biggest factors in this decision was making sure I purchased something that would fit. Found references of multiple people using the Yasuni R on Roughhouse so that is the way I went. It also gets great reviews as a very versatile pipe for wide range of performance levels. Now that the performance goodies have started coming in I can post some updates on those. Zino had mentioned the Yasuni R pipe works but with the additional Yasuni Z bracket package. I didn't order the extra bracket at first because I really wanted to see if the included bracket could be modified to keep costs down. Well I will now supply all the pics necessary for you to make your own decision on this. I ended up getting the extra bracket package and I do not regret it. The included bracket might be able to be modified but it would not be pretty. It would take more than just widening a couple of existing holes. The material is just not there is some places. 

1) The 2 holes to mount to the engine case are not correct. This could be resolved with widening one of them.
2) You can then get 1 of the 2 pipe mount holes pretty close, but it makes the other one way off, like off the metal off. The shape of the bracket is just not correct to make it work.

The Yasuni Z kit actually comes with 2 different brackets. One that is similar to the included, engine case holes still don't line up. The other works perfect. All holes line up. It sucks that you have to essentially pay for 2 more brackets, plus all the mount hardware again, but at just under $30 it is not too bad.













Here are the pics of the extra purchased bracket with some comparisons to the included.






The lower one is the one that fits.


The one on top is the one that fits.

[RH50Wisco]

Roughhouse BBK:

Just some pics of the Stage6 Streetrace 70cc, and of course the nastiness of what was removed. Nothing real special to note here, pretty cut and dry. There are plenty of videos out there on this install. My fav is the one titled "70cc top end rebuild (2-stroke)" by Rolling Wrench. I have also purchased their video on the Zuma 4T rebuild for a previous project that was a life saver. Could not have gotten that one back together without it.






I would show the completely rusted cylinder studs I pulled out, but they already found their way to garbage.

[aeroxbud]

Coming along nicely