Thursday, August 14, 2008

Mo-pack

Mopeds in the back of my truck
  • Puch Magnum MKII - Big 50cc
  • Puch Maxi - 65cc Metra
  • Puch Maxi - Weird 50cc Puch cylinder
  • JC Penny Swinger1 - 64cc Polini
  • Vespa Bravo - 13:13 - To be sold
  • Vespa Bravo - To be sold
Parts in my truck
  • Puch Snowflakes
  • Racks, bars, rails and pedals
  • 3 e50 cases
  • 1 and 3/4 e50 internals
  • 5 or so puch cylinders and some pistons
  • A few small carbs
  • Ninja G3 for motobecane
  • Ported AV7 with Vairoplus and 15:15
I spent half the day packing my truck and cleaning my garage out. I am leaving about 2/3 of my tools in storage. Some day I'll have a garage again. For now, let us drive this giant rig across the country for the love of mopeds.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Pacific Time

So I've been in Seattle all weekend, and I've seen mopeds riding around and I am just wishing I had my bikes to be ripping around on at the time. I missed Blood Drive :( I didn't get a chance to head out to the mars bar tonight. Worst of all, I still don't have a place to live! So I'm leaving my wife in town while I go back to Nebraska to pack all my mopeds up and hopefully we will have a place to live by then so I can head back out. At any rate, let me know if you guys seen anything in the Ballard area that I should check out. I'm be ripping it up in the Emerald City before too long!


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Update
A place has been leased. Living on Nickerson a block or two from the Ballard bridge. I'll be at the Mars Bar monday on my own ped! Hooray!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Mama Mio!

On my to-do list this summer was mount my GPS onto my maxi. Nate Bandit had a similar GPS unit to this one mounted on his hobbit, and I quickly fell in love with the idea and bought my own. I'm not innovative, what can I say. All sorts of ideas went into my head of how to mount it and were, and none of the ideas were any good, because I wanted to retain the factory dash mount because it is nice for the wife and myself to take in car trips. So that meant no grinding or cutting the original plastic parts. Then today as I realized it was my last day to do something about it other than dream, the idea came to me at lunch and I came home and knocked this thing out in literally 5 minutes. The original GPS mount with suction cup has two points of articulation, one side to side, and one up and down, both adjustable by thumb screw. I removed the thumb screw from the horizontal joint, and when you rotate it all the way to the side, makes a very nice straight up and down hole were the thumb screw had been. So I drilled and tapped the handle bar clamp and ran a screw right into the clamp. The GPS can clip into and out of the bracket easily, and the bracket can remain on the bike when not in use, but can come out with one screw if we need to use the GPS with the windshield mount in the car. It runs off internal lithium batteries, and lasts about 4 hours of solid use with the backlight. With the light off it last much longer, and charges from USB. I can do bike routes, non-highway routes, points of interest like gas stations and food, it gives me distance, ETA and speed as well. I love this thing, it is useful, but more importantly, a cool gadget.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Make Trails

I'm once again packing my garage. A box of cylinders, a box of engine cases, a whole box full of nuts, bolts and washers, plus all my tools. I have moped tools, car tools, saws, grinders, plumbing stuff and who knows what. I don't think I have room to bring everything to Seattle, and I've been thinking about what I'm going to do, since it's more than likely I won't have a garage. I had been thinking of buying an old full size van once I arrived in Seattle to keep tools and peds in, but then I ended up with a better solution. I have an enclosed trailer now, and I'm pretty stoked. Got it used, and in decent condition. It has a workbench in it and 12vDC lights, I think I will wire it for 120v AC as well so I can run my power tools in it. There will be room for my toolchest, welder (yay!), vice, bench grinder and air compressor, in addition to secure moped storage for the bikes I'm not riding at the moment. It is pretty good size, but I think it will fit in a full sized car parking space, and could be moved by hand with two guys. So now I have quite a few more options when it comes to looking for a place to rent. Basically any off-street parking or decent flat parking space ought to hold my trailer and provide me with a rent free place to work. So I'll be towing this bad boy with me through the mountains when I make the move next week, and then after I empty all my household junk out of it, turning it into a mobile moped workspace.

I also finished mounting the fenders on the Swinger1 today, they look pretty good. The seat I think could stand to come down a little lower, now that I look at it with fenders on. I will try to mail them off to Motion Left Mopeds to get powder coated on Monday and get them put on before I start riding that bike around Ballard. I'm excited to ride in packs again, I miss having a swarm of mopeds to take over the street with. What a great feeling!