Motion What?

I had my last ride as the leader of the Apocalypse Ponies last night, and it was fun and bitter sweet. There was 12 of us, and we rode all over Anderson, downtown and our traditional out of town routes, and had a good time. I've left Dane in charge, as he seems to know the most about mopeds, but the outlook appears to be grim for the 30+ mopeds I've brought into the community here and put back on the road. It is difficult to be a leader of a group and try to get people enthusiastic about something you love, and to take ownership and be excited about the process, not just the riding.

We were racing around the cemetery like usual, when a cop pulled in. We all saw him, and I was going to go talk with him, but then everyone else panicked and turned around and headed for the secret exit. I'm not going to be the only one explaining to the cop why we running from him, plus I can out run all of those guys, so I turn and we all dart. We split up and take a confusing way back to my garage, where I see a police car waiting for us. "Crap" I think as we all stop our bikes, and I approach the officer. I walk up to the young cop, and I say "I'm the one who is responsible for this, what's the problem?" The cop looks at me and is silent. My roommate speaks up and says "Actually, thats not true. The police are here because our neighbor was masturbating naked in his window while watching us standing outside."

"Oh. Well, then I retract my statement, officer."

I did get accepted to grad school. So now, I have to figure out if I can afford it. Seattle might have to wait a year, but I want to be there, so we will see what I can make happen.

WhisKY Business

Hola, Mi Amigos. Been a while since I've rapped at 'ya. This post is mostly about the Louisville Moped Rally, and all pictures are stolen from flickr. I just simply don't know how anyone could ever go to a moped rally and not have a good time. The Bourbon Bandit's rally in 07 was my first Rally experience, and it was amazing. I didn't know anyone, and I made a few friends, rode mopeds, and had a blast. The thing I didn't realize, as I headed off to Cincinnati for my 2nd ever moped rally, was that many of those people would be there. I was thinking to myself, "Hey, I'm not making new friends every city, I'm meeting old ones!" What a realization! The summer was spent traveling to different cities, and meeting old friends, making new ones and riding mopeds. Even for a guy who isn't big into partying, there is always something fun to do at a moped rally. I try to explain to people who don't know about rallies, and it usually goes something like this. "So you just ride mopeds the whole time?" "No, we do ride, and it is usually a major part, but mostly we just hang out." "And just talk about mopeds." "Some talk, but mostly, talk about other things and play games and just be friends." "Games?" "Yeah, like kick ball, or red rover, or climb trees, just do what ever with fun people." "Why do you have to drive 4 hours to do that?"

Wrapping up

In preparation for my 140 mile ride to Louisville on Saturday, I worked on the Magnum all day and finished up a few lose ends. It wouldn't start yesterday, and I assumed it was spark related, so I changed the plug to one that was laying out on the counter. It still wouldn't start, so I checked the points, and they weren't gapping, so I set the timing, and still no start. Crap, now I guess its time to see if the plug is sparking, except the bike has no stand or pedal chain at the moment, so I rigged up a spark light tool that blinks when the plug should be sparking, and it lets you know if you have juice from the coil, and it was blinking. So I said, now I know! It is a fuel problem. This is nasty old partly muratic acid gas with too much oils in it. I will drain it all out. I clean my carb! As I am letting my fuel drain, I start to think about the plug I have put in there, and look at it again. It looks fine, but I can tell it isn't new. On a hunch, I go to Dane's pinto and pull the plug, and put mine in there. No spark. I put his back in. Bright blue spark. Son of a biscut! I put in a bad plug, no wonder for all that crap! Any way, I also replaced the head with one that had a properly threaded spark plug hole, and it is also high torque. Yay! I made sure to seal the decompression hole in my 65cc metra kit, since the high torque head does not have that little decompression hole block off. A little JB Weld does the trick (even though I hate that stuff). I thought about tapping the hole and putting a little flush set screw in it (think clutch spring screw), but went the easy route. I took about 30 minutes of cutting and welding, but I made a little bracket out of a drop cut off some handlebars and welded it to the Estoril bracket so it would bold up to the Magnum without too much work. It is nice and solid now, I should pain the Estoril soon, though. I will after I cut and weld it to fit angled exhaust ports for my ZA50 that I will pick up this weekend.

I also honed my old Metra cylinder and pulled and replaced bearings and seals on the crank for my friend Opie, and installed a fresh piston into that motor, and painted the head with BBQ paint. Here is my Maxi, its motor is now the one to get the attention and the 2nd to last E50 I'm going to build in the next few months. If you have a good eye, you can see my next project behind it! Yay! Another plain maxi!
I find out tomorrow if I am accepted to school, so we will know shortly if I am moving to Seattle.

Head Games

The engine that I replaced the stud on is now bolted up to the MKII and it is running and riding. I've got a rich mix in the tank and the biggest bing jet I could find (94) in my stack of jets. I think I'm going to switch carbs from the 15mm to a 12mm bing just to choke it down a bit for break in. The gearing is waaaay to tall for break in. I've got a 16 on the front and a <38 on the rear. What ever the stock 2 speed gearing is on the back, I have it. It just doesn't pull while only trying to go 1/2 throttle. I found my way to the top of a hill, and rode down and then look out, the bike pulled quite well and ran 35+ at half throttle. So I either need to put a 14 up front or pull that rear sprocket and swap it for a 45 for the time being. I had to add washers to the chain tensioner to get the chain to fit correctly, I didn't want to cut it too short since this will have an 18tooth up front once the ZA50 gets back on it. Also, the threads in the cylinder head seem a little wonky. The spark plug screws in, but not all the way, and at a slight angle. However, there is no air leak around it, so it's fine for now. I will swap the head out, but I need to ensure I put one on that has the little decompression valve blocker on it, so I don't cause a massive air leak at my exhaust port.

Who that reads this is going to be at Whisky Business?

Studly

A problem arose today while working on an E50. I split it, pulled the bearings and seals, replaced all of them, and then matched the case to my Metra65 kit that I intend to ride to Louisville for the Rally. It's my best work to date, the case matches itself and the kit perfectly, yamabond goes on nicely, and I"m super stoked. I go to put on the cylinder, no problem, but when I start to tighten the head down, one of the studs keeps turning. Oh great. I have not a broken stud, but a stripped out stud hole. I think for a few minutes about trying to JBweld this lousy stud into the bike, and realize that JB Weld is always a bad idea. Think a little more, and remember that Tomos studs are 7mm and puch are 6mm. I look at the Metra, and the holes are large enough to accept the 7mm stud. They almost look like they are made for it. The stud doesn't clear the cylinder head though. No problem there. I get a drill bit the right size and drill out the head for the one stud, and then tap the case with a 7mm x 1.0 thread. I spin that bad boy stud in there and it tightens down more secure than any of the other 3. The cylinder slipped on easily and it all bolted up quite well. I was very satisfied and felt quite resourceful. I liked that stud so much that I might just go ahead and replace all of them with 7mm studs on the next engine I build. The motor is all together and Friday morning I'm going to put it on the MKII and put about 100 miles or so on it and get her ready for the trip to Louisville. Which, by my calculations is almost a week away. See you there! Or not!

Updates!

Accomplished

• Rebuilt E50 for Metra65
• Visited Seattle
• Re-jetted my Swinger1
• Blog Updated
  

To Accomplish

• Rebuild 2 more E50s and match to Metra65
  
• Place 1 of those on my MKII to ride to Louisville on April 18th
• Prep a Magnum for powder coat
• Pick up my ZA50 from Devin
• Cut & Weld my Estoril for angled exhaust port
• Repair flat tire on the Swinger1
• Replace defective speedometer on my 50v with a NOS.
  
• Turn Green Maxi into rolling Chassis hopefully before Elkhart
• Swap the MKII engine onto the Green maxi and install my ZA50 on the Magnum
  

I've got plenty on my plate right now! It's just so nice out! I've got a few days off this week, so I hope I can get some of this stuff wrapped up!