Fitting the air filter & performance CDI round one.

I finally got around to stripping the bike back & fitting the induction K & N 'style' (it isn't an actual K&N brand, I doubt there's one to fit anyhow) air filter.

It wasn't as bad or as much work as I thought it would be & just involved removing the rear, then front seats. After removing the butterfly bolt (it's bigger than a wing nut) from under rear seat the front seat can be removed. In fact the removal of the front seat was the most pain in the ass part of it all. One of the clips at the front on either side would catch on to the frame causing it to be impossible to remove in a sliding manner. It was best to put it back then really prise it apart at the very front near the tank then just pull it up & off, without damaging the seat. This may be the best instructed method to do this in fact? But, there was no instruction on how to do so anyway so.

Next up was to remove the petrol tank. With the front seat off you can get to the main bolt on the tank at it's base, This needs to be removed. At either side of the tank there is a loop with a rubber type ring around it, plastic pins from the fairing just pop in. These need to just be carefully popped back out (you should just be able to make these out on the photos).
I removed the two screws from the plastic trim on top of the tank expecting it to also be holding the tank in some way but it didn't seem to be. That might not need removing after all, it might just be a decorative addition to hide the wiring etc below the tank. In any case not knowing, I removed it anyway.

I did not fully remove the tank, that would involve pulling the fuel line out along with the other lines, draining fuel etc & I need the fuel line connected for when I start it up test the filter & later on adjust the carburettor. I rested the tank on a small step ladder off to the side.

The CDI unit can clearly be seen in the above picture, the black box to the top left. & the standard airbox filter at the bottom with the carb the silver looking part it's connected to in the middle.

The Airbox:

The Airbox can be removed by removing the two bolts seen on the above pic & by removing the jubliee clip on the carburettor.

It should then just lift off with not too much force needed.

It was the smaller 38mm diameter filter of the two that fit best snug to the carb, so that was the one that was used. Again just tighten up the supplied jubilee clip over the carb's inlet mouth to secure the new filter. It's obvious, it goes straight on where the old one came off, it's pretty straight forward stuff.

There's a bit of a gap there where the old airbox was and although I'm sure it would be fine I should be able to dismantle the old airbox & put just the back part on where it bolts on to act as a shield to stop any mud flicking up off the rear wheel & clogging up the filter over time, so I will. It's not so much the water but the mud I'm concerned about. The beauty of these filters is that they are washable and reusable anyway. However if I can prevent it I may as well.

The carb isn't set up yet as it's evening, early dark nights are drawing in & I'm working in the garage. I would like better light so will wait till the daylight to go poking around with the carb screws at the minute, they still don't look the most easily accessible from here either, luckily I have an L shaped screwdriver, a bit like an allen key that should help with it. I would suggest buying one!


The bike itself sounds nicer and is a fair bit beefier sounding to be honest. It sounds more like a motorcycle & less like a 4 stroke 125 cc lawn mower. To be fair though the two are pretty identical engines in size & type, all 125cc 4 strokes sound that way, good if you want a quiet bike! But it's nice to have it sound better if anything. The video doesn't really give a true representation of the sound but it's a lot nicer & is definitely louder, bear in mind it's still got the standard exhaust not a bigger louder high performance one yet, so the sound change is purely from the adding of the filter itself.

I tried to give the performance CDI unit a go too but in the small amount of time I played around with it, it didn't seem to want to know for now and wouldn't fire up. I put the original one back on. Could the info I was given be wrong, could it be in fact an AC firing system after all?

Well I'll take another look at it but they're so cheap I can just pick another AC unit up instead if so & set the record straight. There's a Lifan this DC one will work on so I won't be left dangling with it either way.

*Update

Once again the CDI unit didn't seem to want to know. The bike definitely seems to be DC fired as theres one single wire in the 2 pin plug. That's one of the give aways to look for, although the standard unit itself is quite small like an AC would be. I've ordered an new DC unit and might order a combined AC / DC performance CDI just to stop the hassle of one not being right next time around, due to them being really cheap. I can always keep one as a spare if they both work. Skeptical if these dual set up ones will work tbh? Worth a look.


I snapped out the two plastic pins in the back part of the air box and fitted it like I mentioned as a shield to the new filter. By looking at the picture you can see what I'm getting at:

That should stop the filter being clogged with muddy spray from the rear wheel over time. In fact,  maybe that was the original thinking with the standard air box, it shielded the foam filter inside? Either way there only needed to be a metal or plastic piece bolted to the same point to stop it from happening like above with an induction filter anyway.


While the tank was off and the plastic clip on the top of it I decided to dress it up with some gold carbon fiber vinyl wrap as a kind of precursor to work on the bikes fairings. Don't think I'm wrapping the whole bike in this gold though, I'm not!:

Once again the trusty heat gun is the tool to make this pliable you can use a combination of fingers or a plastic card to smooth it out. Try to avoid air bubbles & creases. If there's an air bubble you can't smooth out or move out to the side you can pierce it with a fine pin / needle so it's not noticeable, heat the area & smooth the area out again. It's not the easiest of shapes & you will need to really heat the wrap & lift & pull it taught to get it as smooth as possible.
Leave a little to spare to fold around the edges.

Remember the circular parts on the front. You will have to carefully cut around with a knife after heating the area up, then the shape should easily be seen. The two screw holes will need piercing with a pen or similar. Remember too high on the heat gun & you'll melt the wrap!