Let's ride mopeds recklessly!

Derbi TT and the Arrow Pipe

I got a nice little pipe from 1977 the other day, it's for my Derbi, as the title implies. It looks very similar to an Estoril because of the silencer, but that is about as far as I would compare them. This pipe, was of course, built for some newer Derbi, perhaps one where the swing arm pivots with the motor, as the rear bracket was at the very back, and had nothing to attach to. Also, the stud holes on the pipe had to be narrowed a smidge to fit the factory spacing of the stock cylinder. I had to go purchase a new dremel, because my old one was lost in the move apparently. Once I had the cut off wheels, I removed the factory welds, and put the bracket on the top of the pipe right near the stock hanger location, and it worked out quite well. A quick trip to Indiana Oxygen for some Argon/CO2, and my little pop box was back at it. The pipe feels solidly mounted, and with a 12:12 SHA, lightened vario weights and increased travel on the vario itself, the bike does nearly 40. It's too cold to get a real GPS reading, but I would venture it does a real 37mph at least. I'd like to put on a larger carb, so we will see what comes of that, I'm pretty happy with it at the moment. Knobby tires are great for the snow as well.

Also, here is a picture of a van in my neighborhood.
In case you can't read, it says "Juggabago". I wonder what an all Juggalo moped gang would be like?

Rural King

My new favorite store here in Lafayette is called Rural King. It's the largest farm supply store I've ever been in. Farm supply stores have more in common with mopeds than most auto parts stores in my opinion. To begin with, there is always free popcorn to eat while you browse. Help your self. But don't let yourself into the cabinet below, as it is clearly labeled "Employee's only". Whatever is in there must be rare, it's the employee's only one. You can buy Grade 8 metric hardware from a bin by the pound. Yeah, by the pound. Since they are grade 8, they are also dyed red.

Pretty much any belt you could want.

A whole row of little mini-bikes. They retail for $350 I think.
They also carry every brand of oil that most mopeds call for. SAE 30w non-detergent, Type F. The also have 6v bulbs and the real cool penetrating oils that aren't found at auto parts stores.

If you ever come to visit, we are going to Rural King.

In more directly moped related news, I pulled a few Maxis into the basement and I'm disassembling them. I'm going to be rebuilding and powder coating them for sale this spring. I'm going to do 4 or 5 all together, I haven't decided which. I really enjoy disassembling these things. Putting them back together is even more fun once they are all pretty and new. New hardware, new cables, new tires, steel wool shined up chrome and polished clutch covers, new grips, just everything wonderfully new and carefully and cleanly installed together. My goal is to build 4 or 5 bikes that look nothing alike. Kind of tough, when they all start out as the exact same. We will see how it goes. Oh, plus I finally bought a moped with Cateye signals. They are complete, I just need to replace the battery. Not sure what bike I'll put them on.

K.S. Barnes

Built in 1981 with help from Morgan's Mopeds ,Grand Rapids,MI This GN frame has cross brace support for early Cafe style seat.DeLorto 19MM carb on custom manifold using Methanol and Castor oil,modified 50cc cylinder w/cut piston,Mototech ignition,milled head,custom clutch shoes w/Hartman linings,custom adjustable "Blimp pipe" for higher RPM's (13,500) Digitron Tach/Temp gauge and 16 to 39 gear ratio. Runs around 60 MPH with this gearing.We built a lot of fast peds back in "the day". We had to make all our own speed parts 25 years ago.

Another Bratload: PLUS WIN MONEY!

I picked 4 more bikes the other day, and these are in a bit worse running shape than the lasts load. At one point, all but one of these bikes belonged to me, and were sold off to college friends. At a point after I had left, the magic ran out of the mopeds and they stopped working. A friend of mine made it his job to go around and try to collect as many of these phil-powered mopeds as possible. I went and snagged them from him and will be attempting to put them back on the road, although several of them are missing vital components, and one is pretty well stripped down to not much, so it won't be just carb cleaning and new tires for these peds. Also, there is a contest associatedI will pay-pal $1 to the first person who correctly names (via comment) all 4 bikes pictured in the Brat. Good luck!

LOLOLOL @ Lance Campeau

I was looking for a parts diagram of a Tomos A35 Kickstart motor over at tomosmopeds.org and found this hilarious gem as a sticky in the general forum. I will shoot myself in the face if Moped Army 2.0 looks anything like that UBB forum. Uuuuuuugh. It's like bizzaro moped army over there. Anyway, read this, and laugh at LC and people who just don't get mopeds.

Call me alarmist if you like but If you plan to increase the performance of your moped using a "Big Bore" kit, you need to consider the following...

-A larger displacement changes your motorbike classification. (From a moped to a motorcycle)
-If you fail to report this to the DMV and your insurance company, your insurance will become NULL AND VOID in the case of an accident causing injury or death.


*This means you will NOT be financially covered for medical expenses if you sustain a serious injury from crashing your moped.*


Here is a scenario of just how serious this could be...

It's a fine afternoon and you decide to put your new 80cc Metra kit to the test by hitting the throttle and blasting away down your street. After a few hundred yards your speed hits a whopping 47 MPH. At that moment, a boy steps out into the street without caution for danger. You see him but it's too late.... Thump... you fly off the bike. Your protective clothing allows you survive with non life threatening injuries. As you limp back to the scene, waiting for the police and ambulances to arrive, you see that your excessive speed has killed the small child who was only 6 years old.

You go into shock as the police arrive. After medical treatment, the police start asking questions (they already have statements from witnesses on the scene). The police officers are interested in your moped because, according to witnesses, you seemed to be going excessive fast for a motorbike that is only
supposed to have a standard displacement of 50cc. The bike has already been taken for evidence; it's now a criminal investigation.

It is already clear to the police that your bike has been modified. After a few days, you recover from your cuts and bruises only to find out that the police mechanic has uncovered the truth about your engine modifications. The insurance company is also interested in the police report. After looking over the evidence, your insurance provider denies your claim for any coverage. Their reason is simple...

-you signed a contract.
-When you illegally modified your engine, you broke the original contract.
-you then failed to update your policy to reflect the changes you made to your engine.
-because of these factors, your coverage is justifiably denied.

Your lack of judgment has just opened you up to a large civil suit not to mention that you have also taken a young life in the process.

Not smart....

So, with that information in mind... My ped project got started on the right track....

At this point Lance goes on to describe in painstaking detail how he increased his performance and speed with modified stock parts, WHICH ALSO MAKES HIS MOPED A MOTORCYCLE LEGALLY BY INCREASING HP AND MAKING IT GO FASTER THAN 30MPH, BUT AMAZINGLY HE HASN'T RUN OVER A 6 YEAR OLD CHILD YET. I can't wait for the video version of this.

Kalamazoo & QK

I went up to Kalamazoo today and stopped in to visit Chad Burke of Mopeds @ Quarter Kick. Chad kept drooling on the BRAT and tried to pay me big money to put a giant sized QK decal on the hood, but I declined, even though I admit it would look pretty good. In the BRAT you can see my Puch Maxi and a TX50 Tomos AKA lil' tom. Trading $40 and a stereo amplifier for the two I feel like I got a pretty good deal on my way up to Kzoo. I had lunch with Dan Kastner and talked about moped shops. Hanging out at QK, I got to look at pretty much every rare moped in America. Including my new favorite, this 3 speed wonder-mobile. Best feature? It has a cable operated ringing bell, the trigger is right under the throttle. It's awesome.

Chad also showed me something he was working on, it's a little flange he had made up that welds into any Vespa pipe, and then miraculously, it is exactly a Hobbit pipe, even bolting up to the hole in the subframe for rear support. Then he talked about how Hobbit was a clone of Vespa with a better engine. The frames, the way the tanks mount, gas filler necks on the tank, identical. Vespa went square, Honda went round. Fun little tidbit. The moped shed is getting quite full now. Time for some warm weather to unleash some of these beauties.

Fantic Motor Concord

Of my new recent moped additions, I've really enjoyed the Fantic Motor Concord Invader. It might make its way onto my keep list, we will find out. If it had a killer set of mag wheels, I think it would have to stay. Everyone likes Puch mopeds because they are like a blank slate, just waiting for customization. In my opinion, most Minarelli powered bikes are about as perfect as they come. Bianchi , Motron, Concord, Milani bikes are all pretty awesome.
Concord was starting to make some really awesome mopeds, it's such a shame that America refused mopeds after the 80's. Although it would be better for business if mopeds were widely accepted, it would remove some of the joy of discovering forgotten and neglected machines.