I was thinking the same thing, maybe we should all have our U-Locks shouldered. 
[quote=āratlungā]. Has anybody done the #7 branch that goes up to HeHuan from Yilan.
[/quote]
Been there, done thatā¦Beautiful, but not a one day trip.
All this sounds great and makes me jealous. Would love to join this once I have made it to get a bike too.
If you take the 7 to the 8 and go down to Hualien you have to consider some mud track on the way down. They are just repairing lot of parts between the āHoly Treeā down the stepest part. Several times just half of the street and some section with just mud instead of a street. So with rainy weather you can do something for your skin. 
But besides that it is a great road for sure.
[quote=āMJBā][quote=āratlungā]. Has anybody done the #7 branch that goes up to HeHuan from Yilan.
[/quote]
Been there, done thatā¦Beautiful, but not a one day trip.[/quote]
Hmm, thatās exactly what I was wondering about. I figured it would be a 2-day trip after seeing how long it takes to get to Yilan along #7. And HeHuan is still up to 3300m. That would take some time. Might be the climax of a great motorcycle season.
[quote=āratlungā][quote=āMJBā][quote=āratlungā]. Has anybody done the #7 branch that goes up to HeHuan from Yilan.
[/quote]
Been there, done thatā¦Beautiful, but not a one day trip.[/quote]
Hmm, thatās exactly what I was wondering about. I figured it would be a 2-day trip after seeing how long it takes to get to Yilan along #7. And HeHuan is still up to 3300m. That would take some time. Might be the climax of a great motorcycle season.[/quote]
But first youād need to get to Yilan. I reckon it would be nicer to start on the #7 from the Fuxing end and avoid Taipei City, Yilan and the #9 altogether, then take the branch down. By my calcs, Yilan was more or less the half way point of that loop we did on Sunday, so taking the #7 from Fuxing has got to be a quicker way (not to mention nicer) as the branch coming off that road is a fair bit south of Yilan anyway.
You guys need to do the trip south when the weather warms up. Tapei to Kenting can easily be done in two days. Great roads down here and nice beaches. Iād be glad to go for a ride and guide you around. With new Hartfords, I think this trip is a must.
bobepine
[quote=ābobepineā]You guys need to do the trip south when the weather warms up. Tapei to Kending can easily be done in two days. Great roads down here and nice beaches. Iād be glad to go for a ride and guide you around. With new Hartfords, I think this trip is a must.
bobepine[/quote]
Roadtrip!
There was mention some time ago about a brewery down that way that is worth visiting. Dodgy place IIRC.
Noā¦ they are 1 down and four up
Noā¦ they are 1 down and four up[/quote]
mineās 5 down. It would be great to have 1 down 4 up, several occasions so far I have been approaching a corner and change the wrong wayā¦interesting
Itās bad enough shifting from top into neutral when youāre not expecting it, but it could be worse. Yamahaās very first (1973) RD350 was equipped with a six-speed gearbox, but the engineers forgot to put the stop on the shift drum. This allowed the rider to shift āupā from sixth into first 
resulting in many broken motorcycles and not a few broken riders.
To the new bike owners congratulations and many safe miles to you.
A question:
Did either of you consider buying the 200cc model?
Why did you not get that model?
Just curious as you both seem quite knowledgable about the bikes here on the island.
Thanks 
Noā¦ they are 1 down and four up[/quote]
Well, the HD Iāve had for 3 years and rode in to work this morning is 5 down.
Of course, Iāve been up here in the office since 0840, so it may have changed.
[quote=āTainanCowboyā]To the new bike owners congratulations and many safe miles to you.
A question:
Did either of you consider buying the 200cc model?
Why did you not get that model?
Just curious as you both seem quite knowledgable about the bikes here on the island.
Thanks [/quote]
mainly cos it is another 15k or so, and according to others it is not worth that.
[quote=āTruantā][quote=āTainanCowboyā]To the new bike owners congratulations and many safe miles to you.
A question:
Did either of you consider buying the 200cc model?
Why did you not get that model?
Just curious as you both seem quite knowledgable about the bikes here on the island.
Thanks [/quote]
mainly cos it is another 15k or so, and according to others it is not worth that.[/quote]
Also, from what I heard, for everything greater 150cc, you will have to pay tax, which might make it more difficult to sell the bike 2nd hand. It looks easy enough to equip the 150cc engine with a different cylinder to get 200cc if one wants to. Although, the 200cc appears to have an oil cooler, not sure if it is necessary.
The 150cc seems faster than probably 90% of the bikes you mainly see on the road and it is powerful enough for some good mountain riding.
MJB and I just looked at a 200cc job that had been stroked out to 280cc.
51,000nt for the 150cc road bike.
90,000nt for the stroked 200cc to 280cc job
140,000nt for the 280cc modified into a monoshock and stainless steel swing arm with large rear tyre.
It looked cool but Iād probably just go for the 280cc.
MJB and I just looked at a 200cc job that had been stroked out to 280cc.
51,000nt for the 150cc road bike.
90,000nt for the stroked 200cc to 280cc job
140,000nt for the 280cc modified into a monoshock and stainless steel swing arm with large rear tyre.
It looked cool but Iād probably just go for the 280cc.[/quote]
But there was no 150cc modified to be a 200cc? What kind of bikes were those?
Not that I know, but Iād heard in the past that boring out the cylinder dramatically reduces the life of the engine, anyone else ever heard that?
Usually there is a special hardened layer on the cylinder surface, so you donāt really want to drill around there. Afterwards you would probably have to put some sort of hardened tube, that would fit to the piston.
I think it might be easier to buy a 200cc cylinder + piston and replace the 150cc cylinder. The engine block of the hartford appear to be identical, although there might be some variations in the engine block that are not recognizable by looking at an assembled engine.
I agree. The way motorbike engines are built, generally the cylinder (or Barrel) and piston come in a kit. I would assume that for ease of manufacture, the bottom end of these engines is the same, although it is possible there is some differences.
The Chief is right, by increasing the top end power, it will load up the bottom end more, BUT, if they are the same bottom ends, then there should be no difference in a kitted 150 -> 200 that an orig 200ā¦so it would be worth investigating that further.
Form an engineering point of view tho, they might use a quality standard to determine what is designated a 150 bottom end and a 200 bottom end, based on machining tolerences, so that is where it might ādramaticallyā reduce the life of the engine. But otherwise the life expectancy might be just lowede a little, not dramatically.
The oil cooler would be worth looking into as to why it is needed for that extra 50cc.
Perhaps Mr Redwagon has contacts down that way that could fill us in?
[quote=āTruantā]
The oil cooler would be worth looking into as to why it is needed for that extra 50cc.[/quote]
I was thinking the exact same thing, Iād be interested in knowing.