I've put a few hundred miles on this Bravo since I got it, and the bike had a progressively worse rear wheel wobble. I decided the rim was true, but the old tire had a flat spot from sitting for many years. Sometimes the tires get hot enough from riding around that the flat spot will work its way out, but not on this bike.
The last few months I've been trying to understand why someone would buy one 16" white wall tire from the moped shop, and leave the other sitting on the rack, taunting me every time I walked in. I finally found a place that had them in stock, and made a purchase. The showed up today and since my wife was at work, up the elevator comes the bike! Changing the front took 15 minutes, including polishing the rim up with steel wool. I also discovered how to remove the speedometer cable, by twisting the actual housing of the cable, which was a new-to-me trick. The rear tire took much longer. Something to the tune of an hour and a half. Side covers off, engine mount bolts loose, push wheel back, deflate tire, remove belt, hold the moped in one hand up in the air while pulling back and down the deflated tire so there is enough room for it to drop from the subframe. It took about 20 minutes to clean the wheel up, and I got to mess around with that transmission in a rear wheel for the first time, what a novel idea! To put the wheel back on, I had all kinds of trouble, and I also forgot it needed to be flat to get in there, so I had to let all the air out, and then once again hold the bike with one hand up 2 feet in the air while bringing the wheel into the right position lining the variator up into its bracket. The next 45 minutes was spent trying to stretch the belt back over the variator, which was no good. So then I disassembled the variator so I could just put the belt on without stretching it and cheat. Unfortunately, I have no piston stop, and I couldn't find my usual rope, so I had to wad up some cloth to feed into the cylinder, and it did not work as well as rope. Maybe I should get a piston stop as a gift to myself for Christmas. After assembling the variator, then realizing I didn't have the inner cheek properly aligned, I had to remove the whole shebang again, including the "piston stop rags" which took a while to get properly inserted into the cylinder. So finally it came all back together, and here is the finished product.
I think I need to up jet just a smidge more, I'm in the mid 60's with a stock cylinder, 13:13 high flow filter and the Sito exhaust. In case I didn't write about the Sito, I like it, it clears my pedals, kick stand, looks stock, sounds quiet, costs $50, bolted right up and gave me a 3mph top end boost and some low end grunt.
The last few months I've been trying to understand why someone would buy one 16" white wall tire from the moped shop, and leave the other sitting on the rack, taunting me every time I walked in. I finally found a place that had them in stock, and made a purchase. The showed up today and since my wife was at work, up the elevator comes the bike! Changing the front took 15 minutes, including polishing the rim up with steel wool. I also discovered how to remove the speedometer cable, by twisting the actual housing of the cable, which was a new-to-me trick. The rear tire took much longer. Something to the tune of an hour and a half. Side covers off, engine mount bolts loose, push wheel back, deflate tire, remove belt, hold the moped in one hand up in the air while pulling back and down the deflated tire so there is enough room for it to drop from the subframe. It took about 20 minutes to clean the wheel up, and I got to mess around with that transmission in a rear wheel for the first time, what a novel idea! To put the wheel back on, I had all kinds of trouble, and I also forgot it needed to be flat to get in there, so I had to let all the air out, and then once again hold the bike with one hand up 2 feet in the air while bringing the wheel into the right position lining the variator up into its bracket. The next 45 minutes was spent trying to stretch the belt back over the variator, which was no good. So then I disassembled the variator so I could just put the belt on without stretching it and cheat. Unfortunately, I have no piston stop, and I couldn't find my usual rope, so I had to wad up some cloth to feed into the cylinder, and it did not work as well as rope. Maybe I should get a piston stop as a gift to myself for Christmas. After assembling the variator, then realizing I didn't have the inner cheek properly aligned, I had to remove the whole shebang again, including the "piston stop rags" which took a while to get properly inserted into the cylinder. So finally it came all back together, and here is the finished product.
I think I need to up jet just a smidge more, I'm in the mid 60's with a stock cylinder, 13:13 high flow filter and the Sito exhaust. In case I didn't write about the Sito, I like it, it clears my pedals, kick stand, looks stock, sounds quiet, costs $50, bolted right up and gave me a 3mph top end boost and some low end grunt.
2 comments:
Nice to see you working on that bike. I'm not sure how I feel about the whitewalls, but if you like them....great.
Any chance I can talk you into figuring out what size side cover screws you have? I need to get mine ordered.
whitewalls lookin' pretty snazzy!
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