Hot dang! Edited!

So I went to Hawaii and guess who's house I found?


October has nearly got behind me. Here is what's been happening! First of all, I bought a Brat. Check out my new blog at http://bratitude.blogspot.com to enjoy those offerings and to keep the MopedHQ about mopeds.

Secondly, Pacific North West Moped Racing season has come to an end. Thanks to the 6 or so guys who consistently showed up, and thanks to the 5 or 6 more who always said they would come and did occasionally. Mike Naz finished first in season points, and thus since we were the only racing league to complete the season, he has been unanimously declared the Number 1 Moped Racer in the USA. Travis Knarpsworth was this seasons most winning rider, with 3 1st place victories and several last place "blued up / crashed" in first place moment. Watch for a heated battle for first next year as Travis attempts to learn how to keep his moped rubber side down. Big thanks to Mike Rafter for showing up to race this year. The rest of California really missed out, we have some awesome tracks and fun racing.

Immediately following the races, I took off for Hawaii and was there for a few days, one of which included renting a scooter and riding the island. I took some video of which I will upload later, some is cool to watch, most is not. This is what an officer of the Mosquito Fleet in the Moped Army looks like. Keep that in mind, prospective branches.

Undoing mistakes

To correct the race bike after last races big wheelie, I went a head and dropped some bank on a nice set of hydraulic forks. By nice, I mean, the cheapest I could find. I got these from 1977 Mopeds, and boy, they sure don't seem cheap. Super heavy duty, excellent finish, a quality fork especially for the price. The casting looks almost identical to the magnum springer EBR's. They pretty much bolt right on to a hobbit using stock hardware, just adds about 2 inches to the front end height though. I'll be adapting these for disk brake use, thanks to West Seattle for the use of his wheel and caliper for the weekend.
I've got them mounted, but I haven't had time to snap a picture.

Here is Naz using the bicycle stand to fix the electrical on Gorilla's Peugeot. Works great to hold the bike while you spin the motor on a bike with no kick stand. Little known fact, Naz doesn't actually touch the bikes physically when he works on them.

Subaru Justy

In my recent obsession with Subaru of the 80's, I've discovered a wonderful car I never knew I needed. A Subaru Justy. 3cyl economy car boasting 40+mpg, and 4wd. Also available with an eCVT. Thats right, a car with a CVT, only this one is electronically controlled. Look at that beautiful yellow little cube, how could you not want that car? Is there any reason they don't make awesome cars like this now? Or am I just unaware of them? At any rate, I guess I'm glad these awesome cars I want were made in the 80's, because that puts them squarely in my price range.

Subaru Brat

The object of my most recent obsession has been the Subaru Brat. Never heard of it? It's a Japanese 4x4 El Camino with T-tops and backwards facing jump seats. They get around 30mpg, and have the wonderful Subaru pancake motor that runs for ever. The only real enemy of the Brat is rust problems. Shift on the fly 4wd, with some models having high/low range. A majority of the 82-87 models have "Fun Tops", or awesome windows that pop off or open up gull wing style. A majority of them also came with 4 or 5 speed manual transmissions. The rare "Turbo" model had a 3 speed automatic transmission, but who wants an Auto Trans? One of these sweet little rigs will be mine some day, as I'm on the active search for a rust free example to live and drive on into the 21st century. The Black and Gold model has to be the best color scheme. Perhaps someday I'll repaint mine to match. I would like to get a sliding rear window and camper top, so that I can take 4 people to a cross country moped rally pulling a little trailer of bikes, and enclosing my passengers in the bed in comfort and with enough room to lay down and nap! I haven't been as obsessed with anything like this for a while, I'll be happy to give you a ride once I get one!