Bruce The Pipe

Here is my old Tecno Boss pipe cut and welded to fit an angled exhaust port. I have removed it, and it is for sale, which means one thing. New angled exhaust coming soon. Stay tuned!

Swinger1

I made a seat for my Swinger1, and I wasn't happy with the post mount or the sewing job on the cover, so I re did both and I am much happier with it now. It sits very low for not having a cut post, riding strong so far, but I've only put about a mile on it. I am working on the kickstand to see if I can ruin a perfectly good kickstand. I need to tighten up my clutch springs a wee bit more, but once this bike hits the 6p power band, it really comes alive like Peter Frampton! Wow! I need to jump up from 14 in the front to 16 and down from 45 in the rear to 38. Top speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!

Stands and such

As it sits, I'm not satisfied with my seat height. I've modified the seat to sit lower, and also cut half the foam out, but there just seems to be no way to get it low enough with out cutting the frame. I tried putting on taller bars, but they just looked quite ridiculous, so I need to swap back in my straight bars and then cut the post to see where that gets me. I can also modify the seat pan more, perhaps to take another 1/2 inch out, but after all those welds I put on there, it isn't coming off easily! I'm also going to give another try at sewing my own seat cover. The first one turned out better than I thought it would, but it is far from great!

The Homoet6p is perhaps one of the best pipes available, but I have yet to run it on this setup. It's been hanging on my garage wall since September. I like the sound, and the sleeper look of it, but it interferes with my kickstand. So I guess I'll try to modify the stand to clear the pipe and still be a decent stand, another challenge for my welding skills. I dislike side stands, because there is no kick starting, and a bike with big compression is a pain to bump start.

Hot diggity!

This bike is polishing up nicely! I forgot an exhaust gasket so I didn't get a chance to bolt up my 6p, and I still have to ditch the kickstand because of the clearance problems with a Homo. Too bad, I love kick stands, nothing like kick starting your moped, but it looks like bump starts for me, unless I can modify the stand to clear the pipe, the problem is that the left foot of the stand hits the pipe, and consequently drags the ground in tight left runs, which is a bad thing. I finished the wiring harness and hooked the coil up on the back right instead of hanging it like most Swingers, they look better back there. I want to ditch the coil and perhaps put in an internal ignition coil. I also need to get a hold of some yellow spark plug wire, this bike needs some yellow and white to it!

Super Ped

So today was nice enough I took the old Newport (now maxi) out for a spin, and it rides super nice. Not as rough as I thought it might with a rigid front end. It starts right up on the first kick, which just feels great, there is so much compression in the engine, you can feel it. The bike rides pretty sweet, and the seat is just perfect. I'm stoked! The new forks should be finished next week, so it will become a springer again, and sport a front fender. I think a Maxi w/o a front fender looks a little goofy. Now I need to find someone to buy this bike for a little bit more than I have invested in it! Or else I guess I'll just have to keep it, that would be too bad! ;)

Cheap Seats

I've been puzzled briefly by what to do for a seat. The long seat I had on my Swinger2 wasn't ever a great seat, and it wouldn't work on this bike without the rear rack to support it. So, I decided to go with a lower seat pan since the stock one sits oh so high. I took the stock post, knocked out the pin holding the suspension on the seat, and then bent the post to fit nicely on the bottom of the pan. It took me a few tries to get a good weld (or good enough) since I'm not the best welder, but after sitting on the bike, I feel at least a little reassured the seat won't simply buckle the first time my rigid frame hits a pothole. I added a lot of material and welded the heck out of anything I could, so it ought to be okay. Now I just need to sew up a new seat cover and put some foam on there. I think I'll cut the foam down a bit, the seat still isn't as low as I'd like it. Rumor has it, if I cut the post down past the first bolt hole it will drop my seat about 1 1/2 inches. I might give that a try if I am unsatisfied with this height, making me feel like I should have powder coated the bike after I had it exactly like I wanted, but who wants to wait for that!? I think I'm going to repack the wheel bearings today and address the shoes and hubs.

Swinger1

What is it about Rigids that are just so awesome?
I'm not sure why they look so much better than their suspended brethren, but what ever "it" is, Rigids have "it" en masse. Perhaps it is the less is more sentiment, but at any rate, I'm already in love with my Swinger1!


Oh, P.S. I'm moving to Seattle this summer! Hooray! I think. I like it here, plus I'm right in the heart of Midwest moped rally strike zone. I went to 5 1/2 last summer, and I skipped Chicago! I have a moped shop full of NOS moped parts at my disposal, plus a small moped gang of my own. So now I have to figure out when I'm moving, how I'm going to purchase and bring all those parts with me, and how I'm going to move 8 mopeds to Seattle.

Is the Mosquito Bus coming to Kalamazoo?

Star Spangled

I thought since those red forks are taking longer to be finished, and considering I had that white fender just sitting around waiting to go on those blue forks, I might as well toss it on, no matter the fact that it is not July 4. I kind of dig it, but I think I will change it out once the red forks are done. Upjetted today to 70 and it ran a wee bit rich (it was 4 stroking, but just barely) until I tanked up with fresh gas and extra oil, in which case it started running like a madman. I realized that it is not a good decision to put what "looks like pre-mix" into a moped that I've just rebuilt. I'm sure there was some oil in it, but who knows what else was drained into that gas can. I need to have a "waste gas" can that is clearly marked so I know not to put it back into peds. I usually try to just pour it into my van when ever I have any, but I think I failed at disposing the combustive mixture of whatever the bike was running on. At any rate, this bike got new pedals and grips today, the grips I got are from a bike shop and they are more of a tear drop shape than a circle, and the tear drop feels good on the hand, plus I positioned the throttle side in such a way that when you are at WOT the drop is pointing toward you, meaning you can hold the throttle open with your palm, not having to grip it the whole time. Hooray!
P.S. I know the fender needs another bolt and the wire to keep it off the wheel, this was just to see what it looked like!

Om nom nom nom!

Behold! The face of 50cc destruction!

The face of 50cc destruction needs a chamfering!
Here comes one fast ZA50!

Pack Attack

I received the Bullet exhaust for my Red Maxi in the mail today, and I went to the shop and bolted it up. I've always had a little trouble with Bullet exhausts being a pain to fit on the studs, and this one was no exception, but I was able to get both nuts started and pull it tight. I had to bend my left crank, it was a little tweaked, but now it clears the exhaust no problem. So, with that said, I assembled the 14 bing and put it on the 14 intake, slapped it all together, and put the bike on the stand. I set the choke, primed it, and on the first kick, she roared to life. What a great feeling! No screwing around to get it to run, I'm excited. I took it for a spin, and it accelerates a little sluggy, but it has a nice top speed, I would say about 33. I'm running 16x45 on it, I think I might kick it down to 15x45, but we will leave it as is for now, I can tell I'm running a bit lean with a 66 jet. I will put in a 70 and see what happens. This is on the open port Aluminum stock cylinder, too. The high torque cylinders are much more awesome for acceleration, that is for sure. I was happy to ride it around, and quickly went back inside and took off the wheels, and repacked the bearings. They had not been done, and it is a night and day difference. The nasty old junk in there hardly counts as grease. They spin effortlessly now. Between the repack of bearings and the sanding of the drums and pads, as well as light cross hatching on the pads, this bike rolls and stops like a new chassis. I'm constantly amazed at how different a bike feels when you put 45 minutes of work into the wheels. It rolls smooth and stops hard! The new seals and bearings did the trick for the engine, it fires up easily and with no problem. I think I might mill the head to give it a little more torque, but I do have a factory high torque head, so I suppose I'll give that one a try first, and see if it helps. The seat height is perfect, it feels low enough to be comfy, but not too low. I kind of like rolling the rigid front suspension, its a unique ride, like nothing I've ridden before. Hopefully the suspension forks will be finished with powder soon so I can have the bike together on final assembly and call it done. It does need some killer pedals and grips though. No bike shops around here are open on Saturdays though. Lame.

It looks like I'll be attacking the Swinger 1 soon.

Oh, plus I found the perfect ferring for my Motobecane 40. It's pretty cool, and large, and awesome and the right color (eventually the MBK will be black). I'll try to get some pictures up of it later, but it is one of the old TRAC moped ferrings. The cool kind, not the lame kind.