Fairing Pt 2

I have this desire to bang things out as quick as possible when I get really excited, so I ended up painting last night and although it isn't totally satisfactory, I wanted to see what it would look like on the bike. When I mocked it up, I didn't like the high bars with the fairing, so I've ordered some clubmans, but I'm not sure if I will end up putting them on. Once I fabbed up some brackets real quick with some aluminum flat stock, they were pretty easy make, just a small bend to kick the fairing mount points out away from the headlight a little. I also got some dome head allen screws in black, which fit the look nicely I'm going for. Now that the fairing is on, I'm very pleased with how it looks. The paint, although it could use another coat, matches my powder coat quite nicely. The whole reason for this fairing, aside from aesthetics, is so my GPS can ride all nice and protected from the elements, which it fits quite nicely underneath.

Fairings

So I've been in touch with that dude who makes repro magnum LTD fairings, and I got to try out his first new batch from his new mold.
They are super thick, not flimsy at all, and they come decently finished, but it will take a lot of work to get them to be perfect. There are quite a few small pinhole pips, little air bubbles in the surface that need filled and sanded. I have a couple fairings, so I thought I would try just sanding, priming and painting to see how it turns out. I've put on the first of the finish coats, and it looks pretty good, but it isn't perfect, the primer didn't fill the little pips completely, so I'm undecided if I will sand it all down and prep it perfect, most likely I won't on this one, unless I make a run in the paint like I always seem to do. I'm stoked, they are top quality other than the finish work, but I doubt you can be picky when trying to get a hold of parts like these.
I'll put up some pictures of the finished product later, I'm supposed to be writing a paper at the moment.

The Repair forum can be hillarious

Puch - Bent Wheel Rear

• Author: Gil (---.hlrn.qwest.net)
• Verified User: ganjar
• Date Posted: 10-22-08 09:03

I looked at my Puch maxi the other day and i noticed the wheel was bent. You can definately see it when it spins and even when it’s not spinning. You can also slightely feel it while riding. I need to know if i can kinda hammer it back into shape or if i can get a cheap replacement somwhere else. Dont have cash to get a set of mags right now, so just looking for a fix or anoter stock rim. Any ideas, looks almsot liek hammering could get it almost back to normal.

Re: Puch - Bent Wheel Rear Author: Craig (---.hsd1.mi.comcast.net) Verified User: oldscoolvw Date Posted: 10-22-08 09:13 is it bent or just needs to be trued up?

Re: Puch - Bent Wheel Rear

• Author: Gil (---.hlrn.qwest.net)
• Verified User: ganjar
• Date Posted: 10-22-08 09:40

Well im not positive what trued up means. but i can see the metal out of shape on the outside of the rim and you can see where teh wheel is not longer perfectly flat in about a 2-3 inch stretch of the inside of the rim. You can kinda feels it when riding, but not really, but you can see it . hope that helps. i kinda beat it wih a hammer and made it slightly better but still bugs the hell outta me.

Pictures that never went anywhere

I have this bad habit of thinking "Hey, I'll write this up on my moped blog, let me snap some pictures!", then I take one picture, finish the project and then realize that I don't have enough pictures to tell a decent moped story. At any rate, I'm uploading these lose pictures and I'll do the best I can. Use your imagination!

I replaced the wheel bearings in my Motobecane 6 star mags, they were quite shot and due to poor (non existent) spacers, there was quite a bit of metal flakes running around in those bearings, contributing to their desire to stay still rather than roll. After punching the old bearings out and hammering the new ones in, a few washers for good spacing and they were spinning quite nicely. So nicely that I felt compelled to let the front wheel grab my finger and smash it as I watched the wheel spin so quickly.

I also got some diodes from Naz to keep my tail light blowing problems to a minimum. My wife's mostly stock bike was really cranking out too much juice and popping bulbs, so I did hers first, 3 diodes dropped it by about a volt, which is enough, she hasn't popped any yet. I also put them in my tail light that I legally harassed and threatened Brendan for, although I had to use 5, dropping the current by nearly 2v because 3 didn't do the trick.

I'm thinking about going big on my Magnum, I'm tired of it being slow. By slow, I mean going 35. Seems slow.