Saddle Bags & The moped culture of Lafayette

I met up with a few local riders this Thursday night. We were supposed to go for a moped ride, but as many moped rides turn out, it became a fit it party instead. In the light of an apartment parking lot, we watched as two guys tried to repair a tomos that had been converted from pedal start to kick start. "Think this washer is important?" "Nah, but we probably should put in a gasket." The evening ended with the starting of the moped and a cacophony of destruction from the bottom end. "Do you think that washer was important?" So no real riding to be had, although my Derbi preformed admirably on the way there and back. I do love the knobby tires, which you can just see peeking in the bottom right of the picture. More successful rides will occur I believe at a later point in the year. The overwhelmingly Tomos supply of mopeds from a mysterious character shall soon be rectified with Responsible Jon's DeLuxe Moped sales now a legitimate garage business of Lafayette Indiana.

In other news, I began to prepare for my road trip in a few weeks to Nashville, and thought I should get around to making some saddle bags for the Derbi. I got some remnant marine grade vinyl at the fabric store for 50% off, made some quick measurements, cuts and ran it all through my sewing machine. It turned out pretty good. The next one will be better, as I'll remember to hem the edges before it all goes together, making it eaiser, but it is going to work pretty well. I still need to make the frame for the inside to stiffen it up, but I think that shouldn't be too hard either. I also made square corners on this one, I think the next one will have rounded corners, it might help ease things up a bit. Over all, pretty pleased. Nicely fitting moped saddle bags are something that are hard to come by and I think under appreciated. Perhaps I'll make a few and try to sell them. I imagine if they came ready to drop in and go, they would sell pretty easily.

I made an order with 1977 Mopeds 2 days ago and it arrived today. Living in the midwest is much better for receiving packages quickly! I got the caliper and master cylinder disc brake set up to put on my race bike, as rumor has it a new Thunderdrome series is going to start up in April and I want to be ready to race. The caliper looks very heavy duty, and even has the sweet little "abs" module that helps keep from locking the disc. I strongly recommend this unit for your disc conversions! Pair it with those sweet hydraulic forks or the incredibly cheap and awesome general forks if your are real cheap, toss on a CR80 17" disc brake wheel easily had from ebay for cheap, and your moped is another league of comfort and safety.