running to stay free

It's been way to long

2012-01-31T13:15:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd post up a minute here as its been way to long. Let's see what happened...well I quit my job and went back to school to study nursing (hence no posts)...I got to go to the guns rally and made this:

which never gets old...then more school and we're up to date.The weather was 60 degrees yesterday (in January!) and all I could think about was being outside. I was able to find some garage time and Oh by the way...here's the new garage space...

and my work space...

We've been in here for a while but it dawned on me that I hadn't posted it up. Shared with 5 other bandits which we rent from a mutual friend named Joe. It's awesome having so much more room. While there I tried further diagnosing the vespino...yeah i know...I've been working on it for years. But really not years. I only get time here and there. But I just can not figure out what the hell is going on. I still have really low compression (90 on the tester). I've replaced gaskets, tightened it down, and permanently plugged the decomp and still...90. hmmm. My latest idea is that the brand new 65cc metrakit head I got from spain might be warped. My old one has a stripped plug hole, but oddly enough I just got an email from Rocky Malin (who is the only other person I know who has vespino parts in the US). So hopefully I can try a few more things. I'm so over this moped being stupid...

$10 moped

2011-09-23T12:11:00.002-04:00

What does a $10 moped look like? Well it looks like this...

In other words, it looks like a Kinetic Magnum held together with zip ties and bungee cords with an extra Puch E-50 strapped to it.

Oh and it also came with a box of random parts... Sort of random, but I ran into someone who used to ride mopeds who no longer does and they sold me this for $10. The engine turns over just fine, and if you didn't notice, its a variated Kinetic. Didn't know these existed. It's literally in pieces, so i'll have to put the whole thing together, but its in relatively good shape. The paint is good, the seat is pristine...in light of my recent accident, It might just be getting my old ciao setup...When I find the time that is...

Yellow Ciao...R.I.P.

2011-09-15T20:52:00.000-04:00

Its with great sadness that I report that my humble, reliable yellow ciao has been destroyed. Late Monday night (early Tuesday morning) Elliot, Raymond and I went for a late night ride and none of our bikes returned...What started as an amazing ride ended in tragedy. Our last leg was to go up a large hill in Iroquois park to see the Louisville skyline. There is a gate for this road, which was thankfully open. Unfortunately this road is not intended to be used after dusk and so there were no street lamps. As we gained confidence by our tiny headlights we began to go faster and faster. And then it happened... Elliot was riding in front of me when I heard this loud POP! I saw his head light quickly point down. All I had time to think about was "what happened to Elliot" before I too wrecked; and Raymond behind me. I felt the impact on my shoulder and helmet (thank God we were all wearing them). At that point time had stopped. It was pitch black and as my senses started to return, all I could hear was the moaning of my compatriots laying on the pavement around me. While the gate was open, there was a downed tree covering the length of the road. We each hit the tree going somewhere between 30-35 mph. I flew the farthest (I won the moped rider throwing contest). I tried standing up but found myself lying down. As I stared up at the sky I realized that I was "spacing out" and in fact had passed out for a moment. I sat up and made Elliot keep talking to me. I was "out of it" but apparently "with it" enough that I directly Elliot in how to put my arm into a sling. The pain was excruciating. Nate Bandit came to the rescue and rushed me to the ER with what he thought was a broken collar bone. After waiting a while, the x-rays came back negative. I am lucky to walk away with only a sprained shoulder. It's still very sore and painful, although I regain some movement every day.Thankfully we were all wearing helmets and no one was seriously hurt. All of our bikes are toast (at least the forks and front wheels). My yellow ciao however (i am told) might be unrepairable. They aren't made from that great of material anyways. Here are the photos Nate took of the bikes in the back of his truck.

check out my front wheel...

How'd you break your moped?

2011-09-11T23:57:00.000-04:00

So I got a sweet deal on a fully loaded grande; malossi hit, carb, pipe, variator...the guy I bought it from had been having trouble with it and when drill starting it, sucked the decomp into the engine. Apparently it wasn't put together correctly and shot into the cylinder. I knew that this wouldn't have caused much problems because it can't get passed the piston. I tried convincing him to keep the bike and that it was fine, but he insisted that he wanted to sell it. So i jumped on it at a unbelievable good price.The decomp situation should have been an omen...I took the engine apart and the first thing I noticed was that HE DIDN'T PUT ANY CIRCLIPS ON THE PISTON!!! WTF!!! Did he just forget? Did he think they weren't necessary? Who knows...sure enough on inspection of the cylinder there is a nice mark left by the piston pin.

It's not scored that badly and isn't raised. So other than a slight loss of compression, it should still run. Wheh!And then we get to the crank...notice anything wrong here?

let's give you a close up...

WHAAATTT??? That's right...you're looking at A BOLT that was WELDED on the crank. The crank must have been broken in the past and the "fix" was to just weld a bolt upside down in there. Unfortunately the crank is hardened and so the weld isn't actually welded. It's only a matter of time before it just breaks off.Other minor issues of note: no case gasket...just slathered some indian head on there...nuts for the front wheel were finger loose as well as the front fender...All in all however I'm getting this thing tightened up and rebuilt. Should be another reliably fast bike (fingers crossed)

almost...

2011-08-22T11:50:00.002-04:00

A few weeks back Nichols helped me with the vespino. This thing has been such a pain in the ass...we worked it down to a possible problem with the decomp. The design of this bike is annoying at times (most times) because just to check the head you have to take so much of the bike apart...the engine is tucked up in there. So we used we used a car lift to hold the front of the bike up.
Unnecessary, yes...makes the job easier...yes. When we took the head off to inspect it, here's what we found...
Brand new metrakit head with a chunk missing from the decomp area. There's no way that the decomp will seal properly with that. We tapped the decomp hole and threaded in a bolt with JB weld to seal it up. I took it down the street and instantly it started right up. Unfortunately it had very little gas and I forgot the tank key at my garage...woof. A day or so later I got it doing wheelies UPHILL down my alley. Excitedly I rode it to moped Wednesday...it was running fine until about 3 blocks from the Monkey Wrench; it just slowly died. Soft seize? Nope. Compression still good? Yep. Turns out it was the bike lever cable that I installed. The cable came loose from the housing. Yesterday I replaced the cable housing and still no dice...vespino time out...again...

way cooler than mopeds...

2011-07-19T23:45:00.003-04:00

real life

WB4 Teaser

2011-07-19T08:38:00.000-04:00

hijinx

2011-07-14T22:14:00.002-04:00

Still little progress on the vespino build as life seems so crazy lately. But I am finding time to hang out with bandits...just not working on bikes. The bandits have an EPIC 4th of July celebration every year with home made fireworks (bombs), etc. this year however, Kentucky law changed and we had access to all the fun things that we used to have to drive to Indiana to get. Here's a great idea for using full face helmets for something other than they were designed for:

Notice that Sean thought he'd cheat by using 2 roman candles...but he got what was coming to him. karma ladies and gents...karma...

life through the lens...

2011-06-17T14:06:00.002-04:00

Experiments in analog photography thanks to the Diana Mini...

Holy Hole...and Peter's Piper...

2011-06-10T14:12:00.002-04:00

The other day I was helping my friend Michael do some case matching for his Grande and dremeling we discovered a cavern in the his cases.

It's just some sort of casting flaw...I guess It'll be OK and we'll just have to smooth the transition into the case. Unfortunately he also blew through the wall of the cases and will have to add some aluminum and continue matching. Bonerjamz!

Also, a local moped dude named Damon bought a rare pipe from Italy.

I'd heard that the gianelli pipes were pretty sweet. So far the reports I get from him are that he really likes the pipe...although I haven't seen it yet myself. He's trying to keep his ciao stock and I'd like to think that this pipe is meant for something so much more...

Vespino the international moped of mystery...

2011-05-15T14:38:00.003-04:00

Sometimes when you get frustrated with mopeds you just have to put them in "time out" for a little while..I'm just starting to get back into tearing into the vespino. After losing compression while going over the bridge, i was hoping that i just blew a gasket. After checking the head and cylinder however, the gaskets are still complete and brand new. my next thought was that maybe i blew a seal...but when inspecting the seal on the stator side it too looked to be in good shape. hmmmm. right now...
Marshal suggested that maybe I have a decomp issue. My decomp is not hooked up, but i guess it could have worn out (so was an issue he had with a moby head)... While I'm not convinced this is the case...I'm really taking any and all suggestions. The plan right now is to get it all put back together and run a compression tester (which is honestly what i should have done before tearing it all apart again)...Then proceed from there. Any thoughts out there?

Rain, Rain, Go Away...what to work on when you can't work on a moped...

2011-05-02T19:37:00.004-04:00

So with all this rain we've been having I've been unable or unwilling to work on mopeds...why work on a moped you can't subsequently take out for a test ride? I went to to the garage to hang out anyway to find the lawn had turned into a swamp.

Thankfully I was able to back in and still work on my garden. Since I'm at an apartment in Old Louisville now, I don't have a whole lot of yard space. I opted for doing everything in pots. The lady at Lowe's suggested I use paint buckets for my tomatoes and I'm so glad I did. I drilled about 5 holes in the bottom for drainage and planted away. I'm growing two different varieties of tomatoes, green peppers, spinach, basil, and a few varieties of lettuce. I also started jalepenos, cilantro, and more basil.

Mullberry...Bandits...I love you...

2011-04-09T19:54:00.004-04:00

Thanks Gabe for putting this video together from the most recent Mullberry hangout. More footage of the vespino (when it was running)...

What a great time.

The Vespino Aquatic...

2011-04-07T15:03:00.002-04:00

I finally got my decals for the Vespino and I have to say that they really set the bike off...

Here's a shout out!

I'm off for spring break this week (first time in 6 years) and have been enjoying my time over at the garage. Jshay and Sean came over for some afternoon grillin. We made some nice eats.

Here's the boys comparing...meat swords...

Here's Sean working on his batavus...why anyone would want a batavus is beyond me...

In other vespino news...I have been unable to get the bike to run consistently. I don't know what the problem is. It will start easily and rip up and down the street...then the next time I go to start it, it takes FOREVER! I don't get it. I finally had it running to where I was happy enough to try and ride it to moped Wednesday. Unfortunately, I never made it all the way across the 2nd street bridge.

My bike just cut out and whirred to a stop about half way across...When I tried starting it again, It was obvious that I lost some form of compression...Soft seize? Blow a seal? Gasket? Who knows. My theory is that the problem involves the cool air coming off the river and all the wind blowing into my forward facing carb...Back to the fucking drawing board. Woof!

Crazy Vespino Videos

2011-03-25T16:02:00.003-04:00

Well it didn't take long before I found these gems...
Wheelie

MORE WHEELIE!

Two engines

THREE ENGINES!

Dia de Los Vespino pt. 2

2011-03-22T12:43:00.004-04:00

Here's the video that gabe put together from Saturday. Bear with the long drill start intro...

Here's some more photos from the day that I stole from Gabe's blog

Gettin' my hair did..THANKS MAGS!.

In bummer news, while cleaning out the rear wheel hub to hopefully improve my rear brakes, I noticed this...

A cracked mag! It's cracked almost halfway through. Here's a close up...

What a freaking bummer. Now I'm trying to source a new wheel. I know that I can get one from Spain, but I have a small lead on one in the US (strangely enough). Fingers crossed...The other option however is to try and weld this one back together. I'm told by Francesc from vespino.es that I can "solder weld aluminum" or so that's what google translate tells me he says. I'll have to look into that option as well.

Dia de Los Vespino pt.1

2011-03-21T14:04:00.003-04:00

This weekend was full of cooking out, drinking beer, playing lawn games riding and wrenching on mopeds. Here's Sean and Neal playing ladder golf.

The most exciting news however was that I worked out the ignition problems in the Vespino! While checking for spark we noticed that it was sort of weak and orange in color. By Responsible John's recommendation I tried to adjust the coils a little bit so that they would run a little closer to the inside of the flywheel. After adjusting and readjusting I got them set just a little closer. We also used an existing timing mark on the stator and lined it up with the edge of one of the bolt holes. You can see the timing mark by the right screw...

This was a stab in the dark that paid off because the bike fired right up! I got to ride it down the street a little bit. The Metrakit seems like it has some good potential and feels a lot like the Puch kits. The circuit pipe that I have didn't really let me get up too fast (nor does the 14/12 carb). I still have a lot of tuning to do. Gabe took some video of the maiden voyage which he's editing together and I'll post up soon.

I still have issues however. The rear clutch is constantly engaged and kills the bike when trying to idle. After taking the clutch bell apart, reviewing diagrams, etc. I had an idea. Nate and Mark thought that I was missing a piece that holds the start clutch arms together mostly due to this image...

This photo makes it look like there's a piece that the little arms connect with...But I really dont't think there's anything missing.

Here's my take on the Vespino clutch:
1. It's a poorly designed system. It has two little spring like tabs that force the clutch out inside of the bell.
(picture from vespino.es)
2. It works as a "slip clutch". It's always engaged, but when the bike slows its allowed to slip backwards as the clutch bell spins. This means that when you try to push the bike forward its engaged; you can move it backwards with no problem...but forward is hard work.
3. However at idle or very low rpm's it doesn't know what to do, so it occasionally grabs and kills the engine.
4. With this in mind I realized the function of the bicycle mode. The original design for the vespino had a separate throttle on the left side that you twisted to engage bike-mode. This is necessary as it disengages the clutch and allows the engine to idle at a stop.

I tested this theory last night and was finally able to get the bike to idle. Because I was starting the bike without the decomp lever, I just used that cable and lever for the bike-mode.

All it all it was an awesome day. So glad to get this thing at least starting. Still needs work though. Venga!

Pictures from Friends

2011-03-18T16:33:00.002-04:00

Been working in the garage after work most nights...Sam has been joining me as she has been trying to get her maxi up and running. She took these the other night and I figured I'd post them up here for historical record and whatnot. Sometimes I view this blog as a yearbook...

Try and try again...

The days are long at mullberry...

2011-03-16T14:13:00.003-04:00

I've been putting in a lot of good time at the ole' mulberry garage...the other day I did some spring cleaning and things got a little messy...

You may notice the little monster in the middle there...

That would be if this...

and this mated...

Surprisingly more parts lined up than I thought would. It started as a joke when someone mentioned that I should do something with that little frame and it turned into something that might actually happen. It's going to be super short, and instead of foot rests will have shin rests. You'll ride it sort of superman style with your shins resting on planks. Not going to be fast...but going to be ridiculous. Here's the most recent mock-up sans fairing...

Speaking of monsters...if you want your foam air filter to turn into the incredible hulk, just spay it with brakes parts cleaner...

It get's all angry and expands to 3 times its original size. Watch as Adam Gruber make this mistake and can't put his air filter back together...

The solution...just give it some time to cool down and it eventually turns back to its original size. If your foam filter remains expanded for more than 4 hours you may want to consult a doctor...

Cables and Spark

2011-03-15T13:44:00.002-04:00

We're in the final stages now. After some tricky maneuvering I was able to get all the cables run.

You'll notice they all go in the head tube and inside the frame. There are little holes that pop out at various locations so that the cables can run directly to where they need to go.

Nice and clean.

At first I wasn't able to get spark. After changing out the spark plug boot (which seemed sort of loose) spark was attained. I have gotten the bike to back fire with carb cleaner, but have not been able to get it to stay running or to start with gas alone. I have no idea what direction the stator is supposed to go on (which I feel is the first part of my problem). This is how it is currently set up...

From here I've just been trying to start the engine with a drill. When that doesn't work, I pull the flywheel readjust the stator, and try again. So far its been unsuccessful. There are two little marks (one on the stator and one on the case) however when you line these marks up the screws don't line up. I'm not sure if they are just some sort of damage, or intentionally there. Any suggestions out there?

Vespino Day Dreams

2011-03-04T17:09:00.002-05:00

Sketched this out in a meeting...

Rain, rain go away...

And so it begins...

2011-02-28T14:58:00.004-05:00

Even though I'm waiting on the correct needle bearing to come from Spain...I found something that will work for now...So last night I got crackin'. I finally was able to put the engine together and mount it to the frame. Because one of the case halves is the subframe, you have to start with the engine and then attach everything to it...kind of. This is a very excited me...

Here's a close up picture of how the engine fits snug up under the frame...Notice that the pedal chain is somewhat internal. It fits under a metal plate that separates it from the variator and clutch.

What's that carburetor doing down there?

Here's another picture after fixing the clip on's, adding the controls and grips, and attaching some fairing...which I will most likely will leave off the bike. It's looking beefy so far...

Lots of good moped work being done at the ole' Mulberry garage. Sam (our new friend from Cincy) was over working on her maxi and used her first angle grinder.

Real friends, blog friends, awesome friends...

2011-02-22T00:13:00.003-05:00

After searching the majority of the day on Friday for the missing link to my build (previously posted needle bearing hunt), and coming up without avail, I decided to join a few of my fellow bandits for a trip to Goshen for moped fix it party/welcome back to Indiana Responsible Jon bash. I didn't take a camera with me so I'll steal some photos from the blogosphere...
I passed the time by drinking and playing ping pong...

I then moved on to tall bikes...but the tall tall bike was too scary for any of us non-circus folks to actually tackle...

I strangely found myself in a threesome...

And borrowed a quarter (that I'll inevitably forget to pay Responsible Jon back for) to find out that my life expectancy was "average"...

All in all it was a pretty fun weekend. Lots of East Bound and Down in the car on the way to and from...

In more awesome news: Devin from Motion Left gave me a contact for someone who already has the specs for the vinyl I need to complete the tank and seat pan on the vespino. I want to add the G3 stripe in yellow and white. Super stoked about that.
Big thanks to Gabe and Phil for their photos. And of course Devin at Motion Left for hosting such a great time.

On the hunt...

2011-02-18T17:23:00.002-05:00

The hunt for a needle bearing solution continues. I spent the better part of the day going from bearing shops, to chain saw world, to the hardware store, etc etc. and no one could help me out. What I really need is a needle bearing that is 12 X 17 X ? (13, 14 or 15) should all work. All can be found in Spain from my vespino parts dealer, but I'm having great difficulty finding them here. This SUCKS because it means that I'm missing 1 small part which will not only take time to get here, but also I'll have to go through a bunch of hurdles just to pay for it. I'm hoping that I can figure something equivalent, but so far its not looking good. Bonerjamz.

Mellow Yellow...

2011-02-13T23:10:00.002-05:00

Two posts in two days! What the?!? The weather has been kind to me and has allowed this to happen...that and I need to keep busy in order to not be depressed. Went to the garage today to F I N A L L Y start putting this engine together and...the crank that I had pressed in has a different sized diameter the original! What the deuce!? I'll have to figure something out. The needle bearing for the pin is too small...so I'll either have to find a different needle bearing (with an ID for the pin and OD for the conrod) or find a brass bushing to press in that allows me to use the same needle bearing...bonerjamz. It figures that right when I start getting some forward momentum, that I run into something else...but that's life right...er mopeds...

So in the meantime, I installed the yellow-wall inserts.

I tried a while back to put these on and just could not get them to seat right. You have to deflate the tire, shove them between the rim and tire and then re-inflate. Then when you see that the inserts are way off on one side, or that the tire is no longer seated properly...deflate, push, or pull to get it back to center...and repeat. I spent a few hours doing this once and gave up for a little while. Thankfully today I got both tires done in under an hour.

While I had the engine set and ready to go, I figured I'd take some photos of the 65cc Metrakit that came with the bike.

Pretty excited at the potential of this kit. The Metrakit for Puch is such a solid kit, and I'm assuming the quality extends to other brands as well.

While inspecting the engine, I noticed this little lever that lives within the rear wheel between the brake...

At first I thought it was some sort of clutch, as it disengages the rear crankshaft from moving the rear wheel...but then it was brought to my attention that its just the "bike mode" lever. On the original handlebar set up there was what looked like two throttle assemblies...one for the gas...the other to engage bike mode. Why? Why would you ever need to be cruising around on your moped and just decide, "bike mode sounds good about now." I don't know. That's why I thought that this was some sort of clutch mechanism (and was honestly scared at the prospect of having to pull it every time I came to a stop light just to stop my rear wheel from engaging). I'm hoping to run a cable to a lever instead of having to add another twist throttle. Should be easy enough.

Ryan Nichols: Man of Steel

2011-02-12T19:52:00.002-05:00

I needed some more welding help the seat mount...Thankfully, Ryan Nichols (welding master) was able to help me out this weekend. First we had to create a tab for the slide mount located on the Sachs G3 seat. We did this using bar stock, but because it wasn't quite thick enough, we doubled it up. We did this by cutting a piece of bar stock, drilling holes in another and welded them together.

The holes work to add extra strength.

Next we scored the bar stock, bent it to a 90 degree angle and welded in the hinge. Once we had our tab, we drilled more holes to weld it to the seat post on the frame.

If you didn't notice, I have this problem where I paint things and THEN realize that there is still welding to be done. Oh well. At least the back bracket lined up perfectly.

We cut the tabs on the seat and used what was left to weld a longer bar with drilled holes for mounting to the existing tabs.

Here it is all put together.

Vespino Progress: Engine building

2011-02-01T13:21:00.004-05:00

So finally its time to get cracking on the vespino. I've had it too long and I've been nervous to dive in to it. So I did like this guy:

Thankfully the vespino model that I have take two 6203 bearings which were easy enough to get from my local bearing shop. The first step is to get the bearing on the small shaft side on.

This can be done easily by putting the crank in the freezer and heating the bearings in an oven. I cook mine till tender at a temp of 300. (This is due to metal expanding when hot and shrinking when it gets cold) Then you get gloves and just drop the bearing on the shaft and whalla! If the temperatures were different enough the bearing should slide all the way down to the base of the shaft and you'll hear a "clunk." If not you need to work quickly to force it all the way down.

Next you have to maneuver the crank into the case. You have to make a plan of attack because like before we're going to be heating and cooling things again. Because I forgot to take a better picture of this process I'll borrow a picture from my friends at vespinos.net.

Once you have a game plan, you then need to start by heating the case to receive the bearing...and put the crank in with the frozen foods.

3-2-1 go. Work quickly to wrangle that crank into place. You can tap the long crankshaft with a rubber mallet to really make sure the bearing is seated properly. It should look like this.

Next you need to install the bearing into the long single sided subframe thing (which strangely is the other case half). This time you need to use reverse thinking by heating the opening and freezing the bearing.

Even after doing this, I had a hard time getting my bearing to drop in right...it might be because my case is a little dirty...I used a hammer to tap it into place.

Now its time to join out cases! First things first though. When using a gasket for a Spanish moped that wasn't supposed to leave Spain...it might be a good idea to make copies of your gaskets for later use...

I always add a little Right Stuff to help with the seal...place the gasket and continue heating and cooling! Heat the inside of the bearing in the subframe and cool the half with the crank already installed.

Then join the halves and tighten down the bolts in a cross patter so as not to pinch the crank webbing.

If installed properly the crank should still spin freely. Lastly, once everything has cooled down, install the seals. I used a handle bar to ensure that it was snugly in place.

This is happening...

2011-01-16T14:29:00.002-05:00

So after some life hiatus, I'm back with some changes and updates. First...I'm in a new shop! Fellow bandits, Elder, Adam, Kitty, and Neal adopted me into their garage...unfortunately in one night the garage went from having 10 mopeds to 17...yikes.

That's my space there in the corner.
The other day my friend Michael were working on his grande and we discovered this:

double yikes. He also had a cracked subframe in two places...but we won't get into that. ha. Onwards and upwards. He's rebuilding and kitting his Grande. I have seen 3 Grande subframes fail...in similar fashion...I might suggest some reinforcements.
I on the other hand had my own flywheel problems as I have continued to put together the engine for my yellow ciao. For some reason I just couldn't get the flywheel to seat properly. At first I thought that I just wasn't aligning the key hole with the woodruff key...so I took the woodruff key out and it still didn't seat. And then I realized this:

The stock flywheels require a spacer to be placed on the shaft that are either metal or plastic.

And it seemed that the spacer I was using wouldn't allow the flywheel to go all the way down. Then I noticed this:

stock flywheel (never mind the broken parts)

Euro CDI flywheel. See the difference? Spacer built in to the flywheel. Thus I solved my problem.

My name is Judge...

2010-10-18T11:28:00.002-04:00

I picked up some euro vespa CDI from one of the Swoops and got a package deal...With the cdi came these cases.

Above is a picture of the small case side. You'll notice that there are gears headed into where the bearing is. Apparently there's also gears on the crank itself. So these gears grab and it spins the crank.

I was told that they were for a "kickstart engine" but after further inspection I'm wondering if its electric start.

Any thoughts? You be the judge. I'm not using the small case side, just the large one as it has the right mounting for the CDI. Last night I started breaking this engine down and adding over my components from my yellow ciao. On comparison between this CDI and the Kinetic CDI...its crazy. They're so different. I'll get photos of that soon.

Back on the Road!

2010-07-14T14:14:00.002-04:00

During Whisky Business 3 my super ciao was running GREAT! It was the fastest its ever been. I made it through most of the long ride, but on the final stretch it started doing its strange extreme revving thing again. I pulled over and tried to figure out what was going on, but I couldn't really make sense of the extreme surge of power that was going on. I gave up waiting for chase and tried riding really slowly (since I was only a couple miles away from the end)...This however led to a soft seize...Bonerjamz. Just lost power and the engine whizzed to a stop.

The ciao has been in time out ever since. UNTIL this past weekend. I pulled it out of the basement, tightened a head bolt and an intake bolt (that were really only slightly loose) and fired it up. Runs great. No leaks. Its rich now however because of how hot and humid it is now rather than in may...But I'm not complaining. It must have just been too lean and had a tiny air leak which led it to seize. I'm just glad that I get to ride it again. Looking forward to bringing it to our weekly Wednesday night ride tonight. All of this has really reminded me however that I can't rely on this bike to be my everyday rider. It's awesome news though for sure.

Mission Peugeot 103

2010-05-17T01:44:00.003-04:00

I realized that I need another reliable bike. After surveying the basement to see what was the "most complete" I decided to finally put the 103 together.

Yes...that's a seat belt holding on the seat. Don't ask me why...it came like that. The reed valve set up is so small. Each little hole opens up to about 8mm. Extremely limiting the bike.

At some point I'd like to put the 19mm intake on that I also got in the trade. I'd also like to toy around with the stock reed set up and see how far I can open it up and cut my own reeds. For now I'll look for a set up via treats, including a different intake. They're pretty reasonably priced. I'll probably just run a 14/12 dell for now. This will hopefully help with reliability...but then again it is French...

In other news. This happend to Mark Ryan this weekend. He seized his hobbit, took apart his engine and found this...

That straight thing in there is not a paper clip or a staple...its his cir-clip completely straightened out. SCREW THAT!

Paint by number

2010-05-13T23:12:00.003-04:00

It's be a bit since I've updated. I've been super busy with non moped life related stuff...But about a month or so ago I went ahead and painted the frame and some fork pieces with white spray paint. I figured everyone looks at the tank anyway.

Snowstorm nose...

Best Buddies Kentucky

2010-04-20T13:23:00.002-04:00

Painting: Phase 2 and Ciao sealed bearings

2010-03-19T02:45:00.002-04:00

I have a few parts bikes that I'm trying to get up and running. One of which is a ciao that i got from Nate during the "French Revolution." I had some ciao wheels but i thought I'd seal up those bearings. I popped out the cup and took the wheel down to the bearing shop and found that a 6201 fit nicely.

Next I found a pipe that would work as a spacer. You need a spacer that will touch the inner races of each of the bearings. As you can see, my pipe is too long...

So you have to cut it down to size, you big dummy.

Is it getting hot in here, or is it just my crotch?

Now that my spacer is the right size, I decided to do myself a favor by packing the outside space with some shop towels. This will make it so that the spacer stays relatively in the same place when you take out the axle...which in this case will just be a bolt (pictured above).

All that's left is to pop in the bearing for the other side and wallah it's sealed.

In other news...I got my Sachs G3 tank and seat pan back from the sprayer...BLUE!!! At least there's Vespino cosmetic progress...

Whisky Business 3

2010-03-16T02:01:00.002-04:00

I'm getting pumped. Whisky Business 3 is just about a month away. Here are some photos from last year that I just got from a coworker. He took them and then forgot to give them to me...until now.

Painting: phase 1

2010-03-09T13:57:00.004-05:00

I got the opportunity to do some painting at the TBS ice cream factory this weekend. Most of the time was spent sanding down the frame and the fork pieces. Then it was on to the tank. TBS uses an old ice cream mixing tank for their spray area. You have to crawl in a little hole in the side of the tank (which is made out of 3 inch thick steal). The hole looks small, but you can fit a frame in relatively easily. Respirators are a MUST. You see in the video that once you get going it just turns into one huge paint cloud.

Here's everything post painting.

I used gray automotive primer. I'm going to paint the rest of them with automotive quality spray cans (since I'll be back in Louisville). I don't care too much how the frame and fork pieces look since most people don't notice them anyway. As long as they are one solid color with decent quality I'll be happy. I am however getting the tank and seat pan painted professionally for a good price. Larry the paint guy is hooking me up! More pictures to come as we progress.

A big thanks goes out to Paul for helping with the process and for the paint.

Parrrrrrrrts

2010-03-06T01:24:00.002-05:00

So I've been at sort of a stand still on "actual" progress on the Vespino. I need to get some pretty important parts that are simply non existent in the US. I found my way over to vespino.es and was able to locate what i need. Even though at times there's a language barrier, they've been very helpful and haven't given up on me for being a stupid American who speaks little Spanish (or at least the Spanish words needed to talk about moped parts). It turns out that some of the Vespino community saw this blog and were following it on their forum! So rad! They even gave me a login which I happily accepted. They too have been a helpful resource. For now I'm finalizing my order and hope to get this put together for the upcoming riding season.

Top tank progress

2010-02-11T01:28:00.006-05:00

Finally got the inspiration to get some more work done on the vespino. I picked up a square, steel rod at Home Depot for the crossbar and match the square frame.

Mock up and cut.

Nate gracefully welded it up. You'll notice that I also cut off the frame tabs for the gas tank. Won't be needing those.

Cut a seat post and welded it between the crossbar and frame for the tank mounts. Will have to wrap some tape on the ends to cushion it a bit more.

I had to make some adjustments when mounting because the fork tubes were hitting the tank. So I just dropped the tank back a bit creating a nice cup holder.

All together with the seat it looks like this.

Next up painting and decals.

Peugeot Test Begins

2010-01-31T14:49:00.004-05:00

On my visit to handy bikes I came up with a very vintage Peugeotest which is supposed to diagnose those crazy electical problems (that seem to plauge the french). Here's a run down of the procedure.

Step 1. Unpack and assemble Peugeotest.

Step 2. Place lead in sparkplug boot. Attach alligator clamps to areas for testing. (metal clamp to ground, Red insular clamp to testing area)

Close up of Alligator Clamp (be careful, they bite)

Step 3. Turn on machine and count down to test...3-2-1, engage.

Step 4. Use diagram to determine if there's a problem and how to go about solving it. In this case we find out that it's the points!

Other than this, I've used it once to diagnose some vespa electrical issues. So far so good.

The French Invasion

2010-01-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

Woah. So I traded Nate Bandit for a bunch of French that he (or I really) didn't want...but it was too much (good?) to pass up. Some of you might be asking yourselves, "huh, I thought I heard Jason blubbering about 'Italy or Die'?" And the answer is yes, I hate the French. But here's what I got anyway...

Complete Motobecane 40T
Complete Peugeot 102
Mostly Complete Peugeot 103 (missing front forks)
(Not pictured)
Garelli Eureka frame w/NOI Katika(?) engine
Fully Rigid Ciao frame
Motobecane 40T frame

All that traded for my Vespa Si. It hurts to let it go, but feels good to gain so much to sell and barter with.

I sold the 40T frame in 9 seconds on the buy sell; and the complete Moby sold today as well.

Move em' in. Move em' out.

Bandit Basement Shop Love

2010-01-06T02:01:00.004-05:00

Thank you Santa for the new shop lights and for the new Shop Roomies who get me to clean up my space and make it more workable.
My new organized, well lit work bench.

My new fun loving basement shop mates. Lots of Bandit bike building love in 2010!

Photoshop mock up

2009-12-17T01:16:00.002-05:00

Here's a very poor photoshop mock up of the direction I'm going for.

Subtract Rust, Add clip-ons.

Team Zissou!

It's cold as balls and time for new a winter project...

2009-12-15T00:48:00.012-05:00

Christmas came early as at my door two large bike boxes arrived. Brad investigates...

I got the bike sent from the land of the cuperteens and in hopes that this rare bike wasn't in as rough shape as I feared...

I soon came to realize two things:
1. This is a really bizarre moped
2. It needs A LOT of work!

History Lesson: Vespa opened a factory in Spain that birthed the Vespino. It was widely popular throughout Spain but few were exported outside the country. This one came to California in a shipping container.

The case...huge transfers, case inducted that comes up from the bottom of the engine. I'll take better photos of of this engine mounts soon you can get a better idea.

Reed Cage...Rusty old, two petal...honestly it seems like a lot of material that restricts what could be a HUGE intake.

Frame: Sort of ugly, hollow tube frame that hides cables and wires, forks use sealed bearings and have a weird scooter type fairing (which is being ditched)

Wheels...Awesome! Sealed bearing 5 stars.

Rear Clutch...Big and thin. Here it is compared to the stock vespa size. Looking forward to what sort of power I can get out of that.

Other things...The bike came with performance variator and metrakit. More on those later. I was looking for a winter project and I got it.

Raiders of the lost Ark...Handy Bikes

2009-12-06T14:21:00.003-05:00

There's a lot of updates coming shortly, but for now I'd like to tell you a story about the giant ass moped warehouse that everyone knows about but doesn't REALLY know about because if they did, they'd crap themselves. That's right, I'm talking about Handy Bikes. It looks like this:

Look familiar? That's because it's the warehouse from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Seriously! I swear it looks JUST LIKE it...Except instead of state secrets and ancient religious artifacts, it's full of new old stock moped parts. Every nut, bolt, and rare part you've ever lost while working on your moped at night or in a low lit area can be re-discovered in this warehouse of mystery and intrigue. Shelves and shelves of forks, fairings, fenders, clutch parts, CEV electrical components, throttle assemblies, tanks, carburetors, engines, decals, pedals, and other parts, parts, parts!

While the the ark of the covenant could not be found here, the wheel room that's bigger than my apartment blew my face off.

Adventures in air leaks: Exploring 100cc's

2009-11-21T01:26:00.012-05:00

A little while back my bike began running like total garbage. MAJOR air leaks. Since it has been steadily getting colder and colder, I sort of put the problem on the shelf. I wanted to open up the engine this winter anyway to see what sorts of improvements can be made. INSERT: lighting coil here.

Tonight I scratched the surface of a magical land. I thought I'd share my discoveries here.

Our journey begins with the Port of Simonini. This holy land is treacherous and is fill with many ports spanning the cylinder.

BEHOLD! The spectacle of ports!

Peer further into the inner cylinder with this port map as your guide

Next we cross the expanse separated from the Port of Simonini and head to Transfer Town. Scientists have many theories as to why the transfers of Transfer Town and the Ports of it's neighbor line up so perfectly. They explain this phenomenon as case matching pangea.

BEHOLD! The awe that is Transfer Town!

Next we head to Coil and Case Caverns! COMING SOON!

Simo dirt bike

2009-11-16T18:50:00.002-05:00

1977 mopeds went to a huge conference in Europe and came back with some awesome photos. These in particular caught my eye...

In case you didn't notice, it's got the same simo engine that I have on it.

I know that these are already posted on their blog, but its just too cool not to post up here as well. I don't think I'd ever really go for the dirtbike style but I still think its pretty awesome.

Even More Simonini Ridiculousness

2009-11-09T13:47:00.002-05:00

So somehow I now own not one simonini side intake...But two.

The kicker is that I have no project that involves this intake anywhere in sight...it gets added to the project pile with the 90cc simo and matching calibratta pipe...

Someday...

WTF points replacement

2009-10-30T17:29:00.007-04:00

So I stumbled on this at the vespa-ciao.nl site. They were selling this strange points replacement unit.

Seems super elementary.

Just mounts where the points were.

In this video you can see the box through the window in the flywheel. Seems to be running nicely. Super interested in figure out A)what this is exactly and B)getting one.

The end of an era...

2009-10-20T01:51:00.010-04:00

I sold my sparkly red maxi this weekend. I'm "puch-less" and fully committed to vespa. I really hadn't ridden my maxi in some time, but still had it around as a back up. After I sold it I got sort of sentimental and looked up old photos. Here's after bringing home my first moped.

This was the day after picking up my bike. My car had died for the final time and I decided to do something different; something that I had to fix because I couldn't get it repaired anywhere else; something I could get my hands dirty with.

I'm soooo dorky in this photo and have come a long way in regards to moped mechanic knowledge and intuition.

After I got hit by a car, the bandits rescued me. We picked up my mangled bike, salvaged and scavenged parts to make a red maxi.

Now it's "Italy or Die!"
With my Italian brand of choice being the Vespa.
More to come on that soon...

Heavy Shreddin'

2009-09-29T13:50:00.004-04:00

Fall is here and the weather dropped yesterday causing my bike to go the fastest yet. I realize that I've probably been extremely rich with my jetting (mostly for caution). But with the temperature drop I finally got to taste the potential of this bike. And Holy Crap was it fun.

I just kept pushing it; going harder and harder for longer and longer and the pipe just kept going. At one point I felt the bike strangely surge. I looked down and saw this...(click on the picture for a close up view)

If I'm going to ride this thing as regularly as I have been, I'm going to need some new belts...

a rope, a pulley, a plan

2009-09-27T23:26:00.006-04:00

I've been meaning to post this for some time. This was the last issue I had to overcome in order to get my bike ride ready. The simo engine has HUGE compression, but no decomp...leaving one to wonder how the hell to start the thing. I've seen video of euro dudes run starting their bikes (see pink ciao) I couldn't really wrap my head around how this can be done so smoothly. The first time I started my bike (after the whole drill/exploding variator situation), some Bandits helped me use the rear wheel of another bike and ran it up against the variator so that it'd turn the flywheel...It worked, but it was definitely not something I wanted to do at every gas up.

I know that rufus had tried a number of pull starting methods. He had mentioned that he was most successful with a stock ciao pulley. Without seeing pictures (at the time), and with the help of some fellow bandits, we plotted a method using that as inspiration.

What we came up with was to weld the variator nut (final nut that goes on the crankshaft to one side of the pulley. Then we welded a larger nut on the opposite side so that the pulley could be impacted on. The pulley spins with the variator, but is light enough not to make much of a difference. You'll notice that it looks similar to Rufus' set up, except that mine doesn't fly off every time you start the bike...

Frame-tastic Seat Magic

2009-09-12T21:51:00.015-04:00

So the seat setup I was running has been failing...miserably. There wasn't really any true support; it was just a hack job mounted to the seat post (on the frame) with some nuts and bolts. While this worked for a while, the seat started to bend the frame due to pressure. when I took the seat off to fix this problem further I discovered this.

Too much stress on the frame...cracks! Thankfully Nate Bandit came to the rescue with a great idea.

First we had to kill this ginormous spider lurking outside the garage.

Seriously it was HUGE. Biggest spider I've ever seen in the U.S. outside of a zoo or pet shop. I know the picture is blurry, but I didn't want to get any closer than this. Apparently its harmless, but still scary.

Next we had to harvest a new tab from an old seat post.

I cut this one off and Nate welded it to the frame to mount in the existing holes on the seat pan.

(I love how this photo came out)

Lastly Nate rigged up a mono-shock from a pocketbike(I think?) to my seat pan...

...with the other end mounted to a steal plate welded to reinforce the cracked frame, I now have a much more reliable and smooth ride.

Back to the Future

2009-08-24T19:25:00.005-04:00

So I'm way behind in posting updates on the ciao...

1. Disc Brake failure...again. I was running the bike up and down the alley tuning the carb. On my last trip of the night I let her rip, but when i went to hit the brake...POP! The aluminum tab I was using on the forks broke off, leaving the caliper to hang and ping back and forth on the snowflakes. Thankfully I was wearing decent shoes and had a bit of room to stop myself. I meant to add a bridge and knew the tab was not a complete fix...but I pushed it too hard.

2. So once again I had to David Bowie the disc brakes (cha cha changes). Some stock alluminum, some dremel work, and Nate Bandit's allumium welder and whalla! We have a better braced, better placed, and more ugly disc brake setup.

3. Ghost Ride! Was able to take the ciao for it's first rally debut.

Loaded up the bikes in the volvo and headed for Grand Rapids. The rally was awesome! It felt like more of a vacation than a rally. Sara Mier was an AMAZING!!! host. For some reason everywhere we were housed that weekend was a pool and a hot tub. The rally was super chill and I had a great time getting to know some more TBS members as well as chill with Ghost Riders, Guns and a few gen forum favs. While my rigid ciao didn't like the absolutely terrible Michigan roads, (it was like riding a bucking bronco)...

...the ciao wasn't running as fast as it should. I need to continue on working on the carb tuning. PHBG is new to me. I also noticed that it shreds belts. I'll need to keep some spares or drop some cash on something super strong. The belt's also not variating out the entire way so I'll have to tinker with the weights. Either way I was loving it. I'm not as comfortable with fast bikes yet, so I'll blast to comfort for now.

Disc Brakes pt. 2: The Final Frontier

2009-08-12T00:01:00.010-04:00

The final stages of my disc brake setup...I meant to take photos of the process, however for some reason I forgot. So this is what I have.

I used a hobbit variator plate to work as a brace. I had to use a dremel to widen the hole in the middle of the plate so that it would fit around the inner axel.

I then drilled 3 holes in the plate and 3 holes in the opposite side of the wheel. Then I bolted it all together nice and snug. Thus holds the disc on the wheel.

NOTE: Drilling holes in the super duper hard metal that makes up the hobbit variator plate was VERY unsuccessful at first. We went through many drill bits; crappy bargain supply ones first and then nicer ones. I had to go out and buy another set.

Thankfully mounting the calipers wasn't too difficult. There was an extra set off of a chinese scooter in a box that Ryan Nichols had in the garage that fit nicely. In order to get it to mount I had to turn the forks inside out for spacial reasons. Then thankfully there were already tabs on the forks that lined right up with the calipers. MOPED LUCK! One bolt, a spacer and a few washers later and it was ready to go...After going through the whole brake fluid bleeding process.

Things are coming along nicely.

Disc Brakes pt. 0.5

2009-07-21T23:12:00.008-04:00

So while I'm finishing up with "pt. 2" I thought I'd Pulp Fiction this particular project for a second to let you know what DIDN'T work the first time around. In my first attempt I tried to simply mount a disc directly to the wheel hub itself.

I had to grind down the hardware to fit snugly inside the hub so that I could bolt it down.

This however did not work because the outside of the hub is curved rather than flat; making spacing just about impossible. The disc would bend at different points making it uneven (which would not work for the calipers). Sorry no pictures of this.

So that's the reason for going with the ridiculous "pt.1" method shown below.

*Side note: The 100cc Simo engine does not have a lighting coil. Rufus runs a battery for his lights. Since there is now a rotating flywheel in my front wheel hub the Bandits are going to help rig a system so that I'll be able to get function (rather than just mounting method) out of the flywheel.

You know...something like a coil mounted to the forks so that it will run a LED headlight...it's going to be awesome. The only downfall will be that the front wheel will have to be spinning for me to have lights...but that's nothing an extra little battery couldn't help with.

Disc Brakes pt. 1

2009-07-06T17:36:00.002-04:00

What's going on here?

That's a puch flywheel with the middle cut out welded to a disc brake so that it will fit in my front vespa wheel hub. Crazy. Yes. But it fits!

...And it looks sooo nice. Perfect clearance for the snowflakes.

next step securing the the new disc brake using a hobbit variator plate and some nuts and bolts(you have to use what you got), then mounting the caliper!

It's Business Time...

2009-05-18T00:27:00.003-04:00

In an effort to save my already powder coated frame (purchased that way) I wrapped the frame in tinfoil to help prevent as much "pocking" as possible. Since welding involves molten metal it often leaves "Pock marks," little extra bits of molten metal that spark out and bind to areas you don't intend.

Frame Modification phase two: Welding. So I got some help from fellow bandits to help up the newly prepared piece. Here it is welded up nicely.

Then we cut inside frame out to create the pocket for the simo engine's large fins. Since it doesn't have fans on the flywheel it needs these large fins to cool the engine instead. While a lot of people cut them off to get them to fit, most then have cooling issues. I wanted to preserve these as best I could.

After mounting the engine it took a series of measuring, marking and cutting to get to fit just right. Here you can see that I had to cut further material to allow for the side intake to be mounted post engine mounting.

Here's the complete mount with engine, side intake and carb.

Frame Modification

2009-05-11T13:09:00.003-04:00

Thus begins the odyssey. After some measuring and talking with some Bandits it looks like I've come up with a solution to my engine fitting problem. I need to expand one side of the frame, without loosing structural integrity.

I need a piece to extent the frame. This was harvested from a junk ciao frame thanks to Gabe (Shout Out!)

I cut the opposite frame side off from the gas tank down about half way.

Zack and Gabe explore the caverns of a rusty carcass.

Aerial view of the excavation site...Are those hieroglyphics and a petcock sarcophagus?

I then trimmed off the remaining metal that composed the gas tank. This will be in the way.

After some cutting and grinding the piece is now ready to be welded to the frame...

Coming up next time...
BUT WAIT! ISN'T IT ALREADY POWDER COATED!?!?

TREATS

2009-05-05T01:13:00.002-04:00

So while waiting for parts since January to complete this project I stumbled on a new idea. TREATS hooked me up with this...

Simonini's complete 100cc engine. It's all there; engine, side intake, cdi, crazy flywheel, 21mm carb, pipe...

Now I just need to figure out how its going to fit in my ciao.......
I'd like to do it differently than others have documented before. The issue is one side of the fins.

As you can see the right side of the fins extend past the engine mount while the left stays pretty symmetrical. Rufus cut the fins and installed extra fans to help with cooling. Pink ciao from Europe created an extra area on the frame for the fins to fit.

Not sure what direction I'll be going, but I really don't want to chop those fins if I can avoid it as I'm pretty sure they're detrimental to cooling this thing. Vespa engines are traditionally air cooled and have fan blades on their flywheels, this flywheel is flat and round like a puch. I don't know how they expect it to cool properly...

Sealed Bearing Conversion pt. 1

2009-04-14T18:13:00.004-04:00

So i you've never done one of these before, you have to first rip out the cup and cone set up out of the wheel. Mine came this way shipped to me. This leaves a space for a bearing. For my sealed bearing conversion I went to the local bearing shop and came back with a bearing that had an OD that fits snuggly in this space. The challenge was finding the right ID. They only make bearings in certain sizes. What I decided to do in the end was go for a 1/2 inch ID. WHAT!?! Not Metric! I know. The only thing that will be standard on my bike. I sold out, but I don't want to get some crazy weird metric size that I'd have to search and search for the nuts for. And since I can't use my original 11mm axle, I took it in a new direction. The plan is to do a bolt through style similar to the Kinetic setup (which I just recently realized has sealed bearings). One bolt that goes through and a nut to seal the other end (with the appropriate spacers of course).

The axle however was much bigger than the 11mm. So I had to make adjustments to the wheel hub as well as the forks.

Rear Clutch Discovery!

2009-03-13T00:45:00.008-04:00

So I'm not convinced that a ton of people realize this...mainly because I've heard no mention of it before, but I noticed some differences in two rear clutches that I have.

So this one is the original clutch I was running. To my measurements it has a 9 3/16mm plate. It also has large clutch pads.

On closer comparison you can see that the second clutch has a larger plate (10 3/16mm). This would allow for more bottom end than the smaller plate. Since both have the same inner piece this would not affect top speed. This smaller clutch also has smaller pads.

The coolest realization from all of this came when I took the clutch apart to clean it out. The second clutch is stamped with the vespa logo and a "2". It uses clutch springs that resemble those used for non-variating ciao clutches...the first clutch has springs with one longer side. This means something to me because a while back I ordered variating malossi clutch springs from treats; tried to install them, but couldn't because they did not have the long side that was needed...See this link for clutch number 1 innards...Notice the long sided spring? The second clutch has same sided springs, making the malossi springs usable.

I'll try to get pictures of inside the clutches so that this makes a little more sense to people other than me...

Update!

So this is what the inside of the clutch looks like. Pretty much similar except for the small, even sided springs. You also can see the vespa and #2 stamp.

close up

Finger ports

2009-03-05T01:41:00.009-05:00

So in my waiting for parts, I started tooling around with a stock vespa cylinder. After consulting with a few others I tried out an idea to make finger ports. This borrows technology from a puch #2 cylinder (I think) and allows for extra porting on the inside rather than the outside.

If you have a stock cylinder you'll know what i mean. Those tiny triangle ports are now open since I cut the cylinder skirt away.

Will it pay off? Who knows!?! I hope to try it out this weekend while I CONTINUE TO WAIT!

Evaporust

2009-02-13T17:54:00.002-05:00

I've read up about Evaporust. Apparently its a environmentally safe way to get rid of rust. You just soak whatever you want and then you can just dump what's left and it won't kill anything. I want to eventually try using this for my tank, but I thought I'd first experiment on my rusted triple tree.

Before:

After:

It ate through the rust, and also took off some of the paint (which I don't mind because I want to repaint anyways). It said that It wouldn't damage powder coating...I think it only took off paint because it was chipped due to the rusting anyways. On to the tank!

Comparisons

2009-02-09T01:52:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd take some pictures to compare my new performance stuff with their stock predecessors. First up we have the carb. The Calibretta is sooo massive with added length and a giant expansion chamber.

Which leads to the cylinder. Check out the difference in exhaust ports! It's the difference between my thumb fitting in there vs. my pinky.

There are obvious porting and cylinder size differences...Not sure what I'm going to have to do to case match as there are so many more ports. I'll have to look at that when i get my new cases.

I couldn't find my stock head, so this comparison is between a 70cc Olmpia header...I'm probably going to run into problems with this bad lad as well. Hopefully it will fit...???

When comparing the flywheel for the cdi unit, I noticed that on the inside has a straight cylinder where it fits over the cdi as opposed to the mellow ramp of the stock flywheel. I'm sure I'll figure out why soon...my assumption is that is just the shape that needs to fit with the cdi.

Waiting

2009-02-04T11:33:00.002-05:00

So I've been waiting for parts to arrive at treats...I'm getting a little anxious. I know that he has the best deals, and he's been the most solid in terms of getting parts shipped quickly...But I'm getting anxious. Mr. Malossi needs to ship the parts to treatland soon!

what I'm working with

2009-01-20T13:08:00.003-05:00

So after some trial and error with my previous ciao, I've decided to start anew. I think that once you upgrade performance into your stock setup, the stock parts can't take the added pressure or force put upon it; I've had pressure cracks in my cases and a broken crank. So I've decided to upgrade everything than one thing at a time. First, I got a new frame, compliments of the West Coast. Secondly, I found a set of new, old
stock bravo forks. While I got nice
powder coated ciao forks with the
frame, I wanted something beefier.

After acquiring some drop bars from brad, I went to a local motorcycle shop to help me with mounting the bars to the forks.

It was at this point when my treats order arrived...90cc Simonini Kit, Calibratta pipe (30mm for simo kit), Simonini racing CDI, red seat cover and foot rest.

Here's a close up of the simo kit, the head is an interesting shape as it is not semetrical; it was one long flat side. I'm hoping that the head will fit into my frame without modifications.

more to come

2009-01-19T22:04:00.002-05:00

I'm getting ready to start a large ciao build. I know that I've appreciated reading up on other peoples moped blogs and thought that I might be able to add to the moped blogging community. More to come soon. Follow my friend Brad's blog too as he works on his many piaggio projects...Go team Vespa!