It's been a while since my last post. Been busy with many other things going on in my life that is taking most of my time from working on the bike.







 good news is that I had a chance to put some work on the SkyTeam ST200 dirt bike a couple of days. the first time I try to start the engine it wouldn't start. I had a hard time trying to get her started and with no luck, so I slow things down and took a moment to figure what could be the problem with the no start issue. took a break for a day or so to collect my thought. once refresh  got to work to check things over like Carburetor, CDI, Stator, check for good grounds. one of the problem was a bad ground.

ST200 primed and base coated/clear coated

I have been working on this SkyTeam ST200 off and on for the past six month now. I been searching the Internet trying to locate OEM or aftermarket parts for this dirt bike. If people had this SkyTeam-ST200 they must of got rid of it in the dump somewhere, It's hard to find parts new or used anywhere in the united state from my search on the internet I just don't know anymore now. I brought this bike in westerly,Rhode Island and they must be more SkyTeam ST models out there somewhere in the united state.
But anyway let back to the build on the ST200, from the last post I was talking about stripping it to bare metal and that process got done on all parts that was going to be painted on, but it took some time had to re-apply the paint remover a few time then wet sanded and apply a few coat of primer sealer, once all parts were done with the sealer I store the frame, swing arm and gas tank once it was painted black back in storage and took a break from the bike for a couple weeks due to other projects that needed my attention plus I wasn't sure what color I wanted to paint the bike. One day I was going through my storage room and found a box of automotive paint from a airbrush work I did on a  youth center club van and one of the color was a nice Toyota light gray I picked from one of the books at the auto body supply store. It was one full 1 quart of light gray that I just used it for painting in shadow on the lettering. I felt it was enough paint to cover all the parts on the bike also it save me some money where i can use the money on other things on the build. So the paint supplies were taking care of but I have other problem with my 27 gal. compressor I brought some time ago on Craigslist I got burn on the compressor I didn't notice the regulator was bad on it it seem holding compressing on the gauges and brought it and took it home and put it away until i needed it. I thought it was working find until I used it on a project using a sprayer that's when i notice the regulator was not working correct, So I had to take some to jimmy something up to fix it by by passing the old regulator and screwing on a harbor freight regulator. Now I can start the paint process and prep parts for paint.

There is one thing I skip was the fabrication of the rear fender bracket that I made and welded to the frame. Now all the parts are painted and clear coated, I let it sit for a couple more weeks before I  putting it all back together.


        

Skyteam-ST200 stripping to bare metal.

It's been a slow tidiest process of carefully removing parts and logging each parts in plastic zip bags. The parts that are needed on my parts to order list has been harder then I thought to be, try to find them on the internet like eBay,Amazon,chinese parts website. It seem like this SkyTeam ST200 chinese dirt bike were more available in the UK and other country then the united state. But I wont give up I'll try to match up other parts from other chinese dirt bikes to help to put this bike back together. I really need the tank side panel and the rear side panels. I found one of the rear side panels on the UK eBay but the shipping are expensively high, I'll buy the side panels at the end of the build from the UK or maybe I'll get lucky and score a set on ebay new or used.

I been real busy stripping off the paint on all the parts on the SkyTeam ST200 dirt bike to bare metal. Wasn't a easy task to get it done it was work. I probably could of payed someone to sand blasted the parts to make things easier on me, but I like to be involved in the whole process of the build from start to finish. It just take a little longer, I really don't mind the work at all, It's fun for me to do this type of work. its all about the end product and the processes getting there and enjoying every moment of the process of any of my project builds. I like new stuff but something about buying something beat up and old and to bringing it back to almost show room condition if I could is what I like to do. By no mean I am not a professional by trade but I have had many different type of work experience over the years.     

On this picture are the lower right is the gas tank
after the heat gun sweating out the deep sand paper scratches on both side oƒ the tank. You can tell from the picture its smooth enough to applied the primer adhesion promoter for plastic. 
I already have order a few parts like the steering bearing kit and the swing arm bearing kit from the UK and the rear brake pedal with spring it was used but in excellent shape with no rust it was power coated and that's great. 

ST200 Tear down dismantle.

It's that time to start the process to dismantle my SkyTeam-ST200 dirt bike.I got my black sharpie marker and a box of large plastic zip bag to help organize the parts as I am taking them off the bike to help keep them together. before I get head of myself I took some time to take a few pictures to help me later when It's time to put it all back together, the pictures will help me just in case I forgot how the part went back together. So here I go I hope it all comes apart with no problems like stripped bolts or snapped bolts or anything in between , I got my tools out and my coffee, now I am ready to take on this beast. The seat came off first real easy it was already not bolted down, so those bolts will be needed for remounting. Started to remove the rear wheel and brake caliper. I had to hammer out the rear excel bolt was seized but not as worst as the swing arm bolt, that took some ferniest using weld blaster and hamming on one side of the bolt and being real careful not to mangle the swing arm shaft bolt. The front end triple tree steering bearing was shot, steering bearing kit so you know that's on the part list to order. Exhaust pipe and muffler seem okay the front pipe outer surface had surface rust, I think it can be brought back with a wire wheel and a few coats of black heat resistant paint.      

On the photo you can tell that the gas tank is black when it was red before. I spray on some Aircraft paint remover on it. really wasn't digging the red on the tank. Once I got the paint off the tank the surface of the tank was in rough shape on both side of the gas tank was cover with deep scratches from the priest owner using the wrong grid side sand paper on it. To remove the deep scratches from the tank I had to use my heat gun and sweat it out and flatting out the scratches in the plastic down, then I wet sanded the whole thank and repeated the process a few more time until I got it smooth enough to apply a few coat of Dupli-Color primer Adhesion Promoter, then I painted it black. It doesn't show that the tank is painted on these picture but you can see the dull spots on the tank.

I had to take some more picture of the wire hardness before I cut off the zip-ties that's holding the wire to the frame. The electrical was a mess, it was tangle and hack back together not neat at all.  possibly I can save part of the electrical system and replace what is needed. I know I have to find a wire diagram for the bike to wire up the lights to the electrical system that I want to install on the bike. If I can't find the wire diagram I'll just use one from another bike that is similar to my dirt bike that has a light system. Okay the electrical is bag and label, now it time to remove the 200cc engine out the frame with the mounting bolts and brackets and set it aside for later to be degrease and cleaned with the frame and other small parts that

Frame and swing arm degrease and cleaned ready for stripper.

need to be degrease. I am going to strip all the parts to bare metal wet sand them and then prime all parts that are going to be painted.

The condition of the ST200.

Here's the bike out back in day light

  Time to remove the SkyTeam ST200 dirt bike from the back of the van and bring it out to the sun light to completely check out the bike and the condition it's in. I can tell from the condition of the bike it was stored out side for some time from all the rust,dirt and the rusted out rear bearing. I guess the priest owner painted the gas tank/fender red and the frame and the engine was painted the same color a light gray. Most of the body panels were missing its panels, no rear fender,side panels or the gas tank panel. the loose parts that the bike came with was the air-filter box with missing filter top and the battery bracket holder that was damaged and the battery cover. No rear brake pedal, no rear brake master cylinder, seized front brake lever. plus the wrong size clutch cable and the electrical hardness was hack and mangle a big mess. I have a big under taking on this Chinese cloned Honda XR200 dirt bike. It's funny I didn't even know really not thing about dirt bike. the only experience I had was way back when I was around 17 years old when i fixed up my friend bike that he have giving to me fro free because he couldn't get it running right. I fixed that bike real nice and then my friend wanted it back. I had fun riding it around the neighborhood, than it got impounded by the police, I had no paper work for the bike. Now that I am 48 years old  I kinda want to relived that experience fixing and riding a motorcycle again and this time around to do it right with a frame up restoration work. just cause i want to. no real reason way I  just want to rebuild a old  dirt bike and ride it at this age in life.           

On the picture on the right, bike has a white front fender. I order a used dirt bike body panel set from Ebay from a early Honda XR200 to see how it will fit. Since I can't find any body plastic panel for this model in the united state at all, just in the UK selling on Ebay. I took these shots before I tear down the bike down to start the process of labeling and bagging parts and making a list of parts needed and supplies for stripping part to bear metal to prep ready for primer. 

SkyTeam/St200 dirt bike I bought off craigslist.

This all started out when I was on the internet checking out Craigslist website and searching on used motorcycle for sale. I came up on an add on a SkyTeam ST200 dirt bike that came with an extra engine for the sum of $300.00 which needed some TLC, at the time I really didn't have a lot of knowledge about dirt bikes, so I did a internet search on the dirt bike and came up as a clone of the Honda XR200 kinda of a bootleg version that was made in china. This chinese dirt bike is no longer in production so the parts are very hard to locate in the united state but you can find some original parts in the United kingdom.

So I decided to set up a day and time to check out the Skyteam ST200 in person, it was about half an hour way from me, when I was ready to head down it was raining real hard that morning so I ask my little brother to ride shock-gun with me to kelp me load the bike on the van if I buy it. Once I got to the location where the bike was kept at it was a car garage turn into a bike shop/Team club, I got a chance to see the bike in person and it was in bad shape missing most of the plastic body panels no brakes or rear brake pedal plus it was faded and some surface rust all over the frame. He had the bike running but I couldn't test drive the bike due to no brakes, so I offer him $250.00 he said he can't let it go for that amount, so I offer him $275.00 and he said okay but he didn't had change for the $280.00 so that's what I payed for it.

This is the photo that was used on 
craigslist add.

   picture taking in my van 
after purchasing the bike