Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Powder pics


Here are a few shots of some of my recent stuff. This is a 5 star wheel in full gloss black. It's for Brony's Maxi N, which has been shot in Gun Metal and now clear coated. The gloss on the clear is awesome, and when you get up nice and close, you can see a slight metal flake. Nothing wild, just awesome.
In other news, Joel needs to get back to Seattle so I can stop taking pictures myself in the kitchen and let him do it so they turn out nice.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas


Gabe Bandit took a trip to Handy Bikes where I requested that he purchase me the smallest and cheapest moped part they had, and then the other day I got a letter postmarked from Kentucky. What a guy! And on the back side of those Christmas wishes are two stickers that each say "MOPED". I want to put one on my wife's car.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gun Metal

Brony's frame fresh out' the oven. It's a gun metal gray, and it will get a clear coat tomorrow.
The gloss black 5 stars really stand out against this bike, I think it will look pretty killer if it gets some white decals, as suggested by Mr. Knarpsworth.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Brony Rigid

Responsible Jon's DeLuxe Powdercoat also does custom mopeds. Here is a Maxi N frame I'm working on for Mosquito Fleet member Tony. Yes, this is the rigid that will be racing MF member Dr. Voltron's Plan B racer in a high dollar grudge match. I've boxed up the swing arm to reinforce this little flimsy guy. A cross brace also stiffens the frame up for a colon jarring ride. The rectangle braces look so much better than those bolt in round bar jobs. The largest hurdle in this job was figuring out how to clear the gas cap with the brace. The notch has been boxed up on the inside as well, so no worries there. I should toss it back into the blast cabinet and have it shot sometime before Christmas.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

DeLuxe pt3

Check out my new website, www.deluxepowdercoat.com

I've got myself a little business now and hopefully it will provide me opportunity to build some sweet mopeds. I can do bicycle frames, which will include a lot of fixies, car parts, wheels, small jobs and any manner of small to medium objects. I can do many different colors and special effects! Stay tuned to my other page as I add photographs of my work. If you are looking for powder coating in Seattle, give me a shout!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Derbi TT Variant


I came home for Thanksgiving to Nebraska, and had eye-balled craigslist for something to go look at, but all I could find was a nice set of AMF Roadmasters about two hours away. I decided I wasn't buying any mopeds this trip, and then my sister called me from an auction and said "Hey, there is a moped here". Nebraska never had any dealers other than Honda and the occasional Vespa, so I was expecting a Bravo or Hobbit, and I asked what kind it was, so she replied it says "DERBI" and I said "I'll be right there!" We said a lot. I had to stand around all day and wait for this thing to go on bid because there was no schedule for the auction, but after about 5 hours of standing, it was time to bid on "the yellow scooter". The bid started at $500, and no one made any noise, and I let the auctioneer get down to $75 before I made an offer, and then it was back and forth between me and some soccer mom. I scowled at her, and I think my tough wrangler flannel shirt showed that I wasn't an auction rookie, so she backed off and I got a heck of a good deal on it. It's a piston port, and it's all complete, including a very odd dealer extra, a Derbi sissy bar. Look at that! My first Derbi! I think this ones a keeper.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

DeLuxe pt 2

I decided I wanted to powder coat after visiting those fine gents at MotoMatic this summer. Any way, people who spend any amount of time with Devin from Motion Left Mopeds will also be able to sing praises of powder coating in moped applications. Since I don't have the big fab tools to take two ovens and stick them together like MotoMatic, I wasn't sure how to build an oven on the cheap. Then one night I sat up in bed with the answer that I had dreamed, and immediately got on craigslist and started searching for file cabinets. I found a nice 5 drawer legal size unit, which is about as big as they come with out going lateral, and big enough to hang a maxi frame in. Then I got a free electric oven, pulled the coils, thermostat, controllers and then chopped down the wiring harness removing the flim flam and what nots. I chopped the faces off the drawers and welded hinges on. A bit of fireplace seal ropes plug up any gaps, and with both coils running at the same time I can heat this little leaky hot box up to right around 400 deg. Very simple to make, and it fits just about anything moped related fine.

The tank pictured is one I'm shooting for Mrs. Rocketman, and it is actually a beautiful teal color.

Also, to help keep costs down, find cheap labor to run your blast cabinet.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

DeLuxe!

Here are a few photo's to keep the blog from getting bogged down into the murky death of stagnancy that most suffer from. What have I been doing lately? This summer I took a trip to visit those fine fellows at MotoMatic Mopeds, and was impressed by their operation. It looked like they were having so much fun I wanted to be a part of it. So I got one of these, and built myself an oven that can be disguised as a file cabinet or robot, and now I'm doing this! Huzza!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Motobecane 50v


I've got a limp pipe. Moby's have a square or round swing arm depending on type. The fine folks at Ninja include two sets of brackets to accomodate either swing arm. Except in my case, when instead of two round and two square brackets, I got one round and one square. So that means no more Moby for the day, and now I have to go down to the shop and fab up a little round guy. Or see if any MF has an extra one laying around. Almost ready to ride!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Double Trouble!

I had to make the walk of shame last night with my Magnum. It soft seized on me about 2 miles from my house. I reached down and was able to turn the flywheel over by hand after a little convincing while I was still rolling down the street, but I pulled over to check it out anyway. The plug looked nice and dark, sparked beautiful blue. All head bolts snug, exhaust and intake nice and tight, and the carb was nicely jetted with no clog or foreign substances, but it just refused to start after that seize. So, I will pull the head and look to see if I have any ring left, I suppose.

Then!

I got up this morning and hopped on the AD at 6:45 am to go to work and found both my lights out. I went inside to get a battery light, but couldnt' find it, so I just rode residential streets in the dark to where I was going. Blew both bulbs. I wired in a voltage regulator, but its 12v and I'm still running 6v lights, so I dont' know if it will help, and 12v lights for the AD are about as hard to get as the 6v ones! ugh!

I <3 Mopeds though...

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

"Oh, you lock your mopeds up?" or "DO NOT LOAN THIS MAN A MOPED"

Daniel from Tennessee came to visit and had a good time with the Mosqutio Fleet, enjoying the AD for a nice ride. It ran like a champ, he was perhaps too friendly and well liked by everyone, and then promptly crashed it trying to start it on the way home. No damage to the bike, and small damage to the rider. Nice to meet you!

Sachs 504

I've been working on a Sachs 504, so here are some pictures, so you don't think I'm dormant. I replaced the points and condenser, and this happened to be the convenient post type, rather than the solder type. Strangely enough, I do enjoy soldering, so I was a little disappointed. Here is the main drive that is responsible for the engine being locked up. The jug looks great, the crank bearings are nice and fresh, but this weird shaft bearing is locked up. It has little metal barrels, caged by a ring, so it's kind of like a giant needle bearing from the little end of a crankshaft. The manual I have says the big gear pulls off of the shaft, but mine refuses to budge with a large puller. I can't get in there to clean out the bearing and re-pack it, so it's time to find a used one. Anybody got one laying around?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

14mm Puch Intake

I've got a 50cc TCCD kit and it happens to have a square intake port. I do kind of like square ports, I feel like they flow better than the round port brethren, if nothing else, they look bigger. Sadly, I didn't have any more 14mm square port stock intakes. I think the 14mm square ports puch OG intakes flow better than most of those 15mm intakes sold these days. But good ol' Joel had a 14mm round port intake for me. In this picture you can see the square port clearly outlined on it from being used on a square port cylinder with appropriate gasket. So a little bit of dremel, and presto, a square port intake. It's not quite as nice looking as a factory job, but let me get my hand file in there and give it another look in a bit.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Motobecane Pulley

The Panda Express got fired up yesterday and made an awful ratchet noise when you would let off the throttle. Motobecane and self-fulfilling prophecy guru Ian T was able to diagnose it quickly. The pedal switch on this bike is normally rivited on, but this one was bolted in. Apparently, someone had damaged it and then had it repaired. Sadly, the teeth were barely making contact. Since everyone knows that pedal mode on a Moby is better off served by removing the drive belt anyway, we decided the best course of action was to relocate the arm for maximum contact and weld. Tada!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Motobecane Motor Mount Replacement

The Beautiful Panda 50v I picked up the other day has been getting some attention recently. I cleaned the chrome with steel wool, and I'm going to try and take off the red overspray on the tank with some carb cleaner. As far as mechanically, the motor was seized up big time, and the mounts were shot. Luckily, since I've had a moped addiction for several years now, I just happened to have a ported and rebuilt stock-ish Motobecane motor waiting in the wings for just such an occasion. My new mounts arrived the other day, and then after some pestering, I was able to borrow the factory tool for removing and pressing the mounts. Had I not been able to get access to it, the correct size socket and bolts can substitute. Here is the stock mount, which didn't hold up too well to the elements and time. And here is a picture of the mount removed next to its new counterpart, and the wonderful tool in the background. The new motor is bolted up and all it needs is a spark plug, a belt and some gasoline, and then it's time to ride the Panda Express to happy town!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Accept No Substitutes


Don't be fooled by cheap imitations.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

50cc TCCD Racey

I've got quite a bit to blog, so I'm going to spread it out! This is my 50cc TCCD "Racey" kit. I've used a 50cc TCCD kit before, and I really enjoyed it. With a 14bing and a Boss exhaust and normal-ish gearing, I was able to hit 40mph on a Maxi, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoy a moped where you can go as fast as that tiny little piston will push you, always. I've got some 50+mph bikes, and they accelerate to rip your arms off, but something is fun about going wide open and not worrying about blowing up your bike or getting a speeding ticket. Anyway, so here is the port shot of my Racey kit. My first impression is that it reminds me an awful lot of my old Parma 50cc kit, of which I was never able to coax that much speed from. Although with the Parma, the exhaust port was very small, and the ring pin ran very close, so I was never brave enough to open it up. This one has a very large exhaust port, and the ring rides the groove that splits the boost port in the top of the cylinder. Here is a shot of the case with the gasket snug on it, you can see the transfers open up a bit wider, but not too crazy. I didn't take a clear picture, but the cylinder skirt is very similar to the low torque puch aluminum cylinders, with open side transfers skirts instead of closed ones like a high torque. I'll bet this cylinder will really wrap out the RPMs if a fellow put a man sized pipe on it, like a Homoet or Motomatic. I'm going to try it out for starters with a Bullet exhaust, because I think the Bullet is really designed for high rpm better than the Boss, and I'll also try out a Proma Circuit pipe on the same bike.

On another note, I would like to see some standardized comparisons and put together a nice little ranking sheet, of running different pipes on the same stock and kitted setups, taking time to correctly jet each one as we change the pipes, and measure top speed and acceleration to 30mph, something I think people might find very useful.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Box - o - Goodies


Perhaps the only thing better than riding a moped is getting parts in the mail!

What's New?

I did a little bit of stitching recently. Here is the before,
and here is the after. It really isn't very hard to recover a seat. The most tedious part is perhaps the ripping (or un-sewing) of the thread that holds the original cover together. Then you just lay the pieces out on new vinyl, trace it, and sew it together. I borrowed Mrs. Rocketman's sewing machine and did the deed in less than 3 hours all together. It isn't perfect, but looks 3.5x better.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Wild Kingdom

I find creatures in my back yard enjoying my mopeds pretty frequently. Here is our little squirrel friend enjoy some nuts on the wheel of the hobbit trike.
In this photo, you can see a wild "Nerdspeed" in it's natural habitat. Nerdspeeds are attracted to shiny objects, and will grasp them with both paws as they admire their newly won prize.

Monday, September 14, 2009

The Results are in!


Ol' Mister Knarpsworth and I have had a Magnum Metra80 speed title contest the last 4 months or so, ever since I got my brown delight ever so motivated. The title has been handed back and forth a few times already, but always because the other persons Magnum Metra80 wasn't running. Well, tonight when I pulled up to moped monday, there it was! So it was time for a race. We set out a track that was by estimate, right around 1/4 mile. The specs on the bikes are as follows.


Magnum MKII
ZA50
Metra80 Largeport
19mm Dellorto
Homoet 8p
18 x 40 gearing


Big Red XK Magnum
E50
Metra80 Largeport
21mm Dellorto
MotoMatic N8P
16 x 45 gearing

After several very close races and a few rematches, our bitter rivalry was finally laid to rest and everyone now knows the truth that I've know this whole time. I have the fastest Brown Magnum Metra80 in all of Seattle.

Friday, September 11, 2009

No, those muscles aren't photoshopped...


Thanks very much to Mr. Rocketman for the pictures. He is way better at taking photos than he is at updating his blog, at any rate.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Moped Tank Rust Removal

Long time blog readers will recall my previous bloggery about using acid to clean out a rusted tank. I'm back at it again today, because even though I enjoy having an Astro Diamler gas tank strapped to the back of my Maxi Sport, it just doesn't seem to fit the look I'm going for. I rode up to Crown Hill hardware to get what I needed.
  • Gallon of Muriatic Acid
  • 2 ft 3/8" inner diameter vinyl tubing
  • hose clamp
So with these 3 things, and the baking soda (in case things get out of hand) and isopropyl alcohol (to chase my rinse water with), I'm ready to bake.

I put the hose on the spigot, and it threaded on, but I put the clamp on anyway (safety first!) and then tie the other end up higher than the filler nozzle. Next, I just poured the acid in a funnel into the tank (don't want to dribble and ruin my paint!) and watched as the level rises every so gently up the tube. I'm just letting the acid bake away at that rust for about 1/2 an hour, and then I'll go put the tube back into the jug the acid came from, let it drain, and viola, a less rusty tank! Rinse it out a few times, chase it with alcohol, and keep it full of good old premix. Tank treated for less than $12, and I can re-use the acid on the next poor moped that comes my way.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Stripped Stud Removal

I wanted to use an old stock cylinder I had, and when I pulled it out of my box today I found a stripped stud stuck firmly in place in the exhaust. I tried threading a nut on, and it was too far gone to hold any threads. The vice grips wouldn't hang on tight enough, although I did only try needle nose, and usually the regular version lock a bit more securely. So I pulled out my welder, pushed the nut on as far as it would go, and just ran a nice little bead inside the nut, welding it to the stud, then out it turned. It feels good to have a welder in my arsenal again.

Slow News Week


It's a slow news week, so here is this.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

External Fuel Sources


I've got a super rusted out Maxi tank, and while it isn't anything that is beyond a little acid bath, I need way to get the bike home. So I bungied on this Puch AD plastic fuel tank, and it worked pretty well. It got me thinking, it would be nice to have a small, plastic fuel container with fuel valve and hose that could carry between 1/2 and 1 gallons of gasoline, and could strap easily onto most mopeds. I've found some tanks that come close to what I want, but they all seem to be large and bulky. I just want something to carry a little fuel that could be used in rust tank bikes and also for servicing mopeds or what not, and would perhaps be very cheap. I might try my hand at making my own out of something or other.