My Rokon Project

[rimfirematt]

I found a rokon. It was in Fairbanks. I called on it, I was told that the bike was in good shape, it runs, and the only problem was it needed a little crack in the frame welded up. His qoute was "*hit yeah, this is a great bike, its good to go" The guy had 3 pictures of it on craigslist And it looked okay. I told him I would buy it and have a freind in fairbanks pick it up.

I should have probably had my freind look at it first! The thing was a total mess. Missing parts, parts that are on it are broken. The "little Crack" was multiple big cracks. When I first see it Im in shock that I was so blatantly lied too and that It looks like I need to do a total rebuild.

Hears how it looked when i got it.


I had to totally strip it. Luckily I have a neighbor that came over to see what i was doing and he offered to weld it back up for me. he did a great job on it. I painted the frame OD green and will probably do a woodland camo pattern.

While I had it apart I inspected all the major parts and the expensive stuff seems fine. Motor looks good, transmission looks good, Miter boxes good.

Still, with all the litte parts I had to get Im now up to 500 bucks in parts. Im not sure if the tailpipe is any good. If its not that will be another 300!

This thing is pretty neat. I had it totally dissasembled using only a handfull of wrenches and 2 screw drivers. And I did it in less than 6 hours. Im pretty confident in being able to fix this thing anywhere should it break down.

Most of my parts will arrive here next week so hopefully I will have it back together soon.

[Grayling Slayer]

I always tear my new toys down when I first get them. I always find at least a few problems that could have caused me big problems down the road.

I just bought a used boat with only 183 hours. I was tempted to just gas and go as the seller said it was ready for the water.

While servicing it, I found a missing grease zerk on the pump bowl. I could still see grease inside so I replaced a 50 cent zerk. Not checking could have cost me hundreds of dollars.

[rimfirematt]

Well there was more than a missing zerk on this thing. Even though guy said it was good to go and it ran, it was missing the recoil starter, throttle was inoperable, axles and brakes rusted solid so bad the tires wouldnt even roll.

Lesson learned about buying sight unseen

[tboehm]

Little hard to tell how bad it is from the picture but your discription sounds bad. So spill the beans.......what did you give for it and how old is it?

[rimfirematt]

Well I bought it for 1000.00. It would have been a good deal if it did indeed run and just needed a little welding like I was told.

So far I am into it about 1000.00 in parts. She should be up and running in no time and be dang near complete. It will be like new.

Here is the list,
Axles, bearings for the wheels.
New Brake cables, pads
New throttle cable and grips
New drive belt. New primary clutch
New recoil starter
New chains
New part in the tranny that controls the shifting
New exhaust pipe
Sent the carb out to be totally rebuilt
New fuel line, fuel filter, air filter
New shock for the seat
All new bolts and frame hardware.
Used (but like new) fairing covers.
Rewired.
And a rattle can paint job (woodland camo style)

The year of the bike is 1995. I figure I could sell it pretty easy for 2500.00 if I want to

[ironartist]

is that a 2 stroke or honda motor on that. I ran rokons for years you gotta be agile to ride them be careful. I drug a tow sled behind mine that was the best way to transport gear. Send me an email and I will send you a word doc on parts factory and aftermarket by the rokon gurus

[WaterWolf]

HWne ya get it done, bring out so I can try it out. Kinda been wanting one of those myself, and If I rode one it might push me over the top. Lol

[hunt_ak]

Keep us updated!

[rimfirematt]

is that a 2 stroke or honda motor on that. I ran rokons for years you gotta be agile to ride them be careful. I drug a tow sled behind mine that was the best way to transport gear. Send me an email and I will send you a word doc on parts factory and aftermarket by the rokon gurus

It has the 2 stroke motor in it. Which was a suprise to me Cause i was told it had the 4 stroke over the phone!

I let you know when its available for Demo Rides. Shouldnt be too long now. Waiting on parts from Rokon. They sent my parts up parcel post! And it was the first part I needed! Let me tell you this, The Factory hasnt been the greatest to deal with. Im pretty dissapointed in their performance and attitude. They actually scolded me for not having part numbers for them! When I called yesterday, they were a little better. I made sure and told them to mail out my parts priority this time. And They dont even have the drive belt for this thing. They said it will be 3 to 4 weeks. Luckily I found one used.

[ironartist]

No rokon has their hands full selling large quantities to forign armies and such they have a hard time dealing with selling just one part of anything. go to rokon world . com there is the rokon guys there that can line you up on parts. Theres a guy name dave fillman machines parts at fillman enterprises and you can even hook up with orla he is the origanal designer of them. Orla has I believe 2 crated bikes still from the early 70's still packed in the origanal crates for shipping and never been assembled. Check out the site it is full of good info.
you need to send me an email to john@visionssteel.com and I will forward you this parts list of suppliers I have, also I will dig I think I have a fresh new belt out here, I usually bought mine at napa they are usually in stock. Also if I have extra stuff I will hold onto it for you. I have a guy out here in the valley has lots of extra parts also

[rimfirematt]

Thanks John, yeah I am over at Rokon World. I orderd my axles and bearings from Fillman. I had Mark wood on there rebuild my carb. The only reason I messed around with rokon is cause i needed a part for the transmission, the primary clutch (rokon now owns the tooling and rights to the salsbury clutch) and an exhaust. Everything else I was able to source out.

Id be interested in that belt you got from Napa. So far those guys at Rokonworld said that Rokon was the only place to get belts for my machine that they knew of.

My card still hasnt been charged for my order 2 days ago. they must be sitting on it. Im getting really frustrated. Worse of all its the CEO your talking too so it is what it is.

Ill send you an email. I already did through the forum yesterday though.

[rimfirematt]

Well Im about Halfway done. I was going to replace the gear selector in the transmission, but Im tired of waiting on my parts. Thought Id get as much put together as I can so when my parts get here I can ride quick. Im still waiting on parts, found out they got sent to the wrong zip. The zip is in anchorage but who knows if or when they will get here.

Putting the tires back on was the biggest challenge. Would have been way easier with another set of hands. I need to make more freinds I guess. And it took me a little bit to get the transmission, driveshaft and miter box all lined up. I welded up my shock mounts. I now need to get them bolted in but wanted to see where exactly the tire was going to sit.

Well here is a picture

[broncoformudv]

She is looking pretty good Matt!

[greythorn3]

how well do you think it will wheelie?

let me know if you need a hand late nite im usually available.

[rimfirematt]

how well do you think it will wheelie?

let me know if you need a hand late nite im usually available.

Someone other than me might be able to wheelie it. It only has 7 hp. Thanks for the offer of help. I need to take the rear wheel off and do it over again. I didnt get the spacers in right and the wheel is not in plane with the sprocket