Cables & Wires

On the new BFW moped coming up, I decided to simplify the wiring. It still has a horn, brake ligh, speedometer light and a kill switch, but it is much cleaner and all accomplished with one beautiful CEV switch. New cables look good, and if you spend a few minutes routing them correctly, they can look quite nice. To hide the wires for the switch, I drilled a hole in the handle bars and ran the wires down and out into the top plate of the forks. First time trying that, I think it really keeps the bars nice and clean while preserving all the function of a good switch.
I should be pulling this beauty out of the basement this weekend for its first road test to Sno Castle, the finest Sno Cones in all of Indiana. Yee haw.

Well there's your problem right there

It's always nice when the problem presents itself in a very obvious fashion. Take for instance, this bearing, the cause of the nasty crunching sounds and refusal to turn over smoothly. A wirebrush to the crank to clean off the gunk, a new set of bearings and fresh seals make this bike pop to life. I love the feel of kicking over a bike with new seals, it just wants to run so badly you can feel it in the pedals.

New Moped Hauler

"Custom-made truck for delivering mopeds to Flandria dealers. Probably made for the world-expo Brussels in 1958."


Do you ever look at all the wonderful things that were made in the glorious years of the middle century, and then ponder "what ever happened to that?" Is this still in operable condition? Sitting in a warehouse somewhere, forgotten? Disassembled for scrap? Used as a bus in some weird poor country?

Recumbent Magnum w/ Harley style ride

I'd like to get this fabricator together with the Chopper guy and see what happens.

Garelli Rally SL

I do love white wall tires. I would be lying to saymy motivation to acquire more Italian bikes didn't revolve around how good they look shod in 16" Sava whitewalls. On a side note, I live in Lafayette, home of Purdue University, and arch rival of Indiana University, who's colors are Crimson and Cream. I think I'm going to get hassled more than usual riding this around. I should also mention, having learned the proper method from Nate Bandit, I've successfully installed my first set of tires using only my hands. Savas were pretty easy, I'm sure I'll get a chance at some tougher ones.

Tohomos

I picked up this little beauty last night, a wonderful little Tomos A3. In very good shape except for that it doesn't work. Previous owner said "I can build a V8, but this thing got past me." Well, after a quick inspection revealed no spark, no spark revealed oily points, which indicates bad seal. Just how bad? Watch this video.



Quite comical, if you spin the motor fast enough it sounds like the Absent Minded Professor's flying car. Too bad you can't make the bike work and keep that sound. At any rate, I'm going to order some new seals, a set of white walls, and call it a day!

The Good Life - Gangles

Why don't you have a seat?

One of the things that attracted me to mopeds is the fact that you can do almost everything yourself. I have rebuilt engines, polished chrome, stripped paint and powder coated. I have ported, milled, bored, fastened and loc-tited. I have torqued, I've welded, fabricated, ruined and created. It doesn't matter if you have ever done anything before. Read a bit about it, then give it a shot. At the end of the day, it's only a moped and has no large dollar value attached. Recovering seats is one of the things I take joy in. I'm getting better every time I try it. Just a cheap sewing machine, some remnant vinyl from the fabric store, and you are making your bike all yours. I did this one for Megan Bandit's LEM, I'll be making another one soon for my BFW's new moped.


Sometimes you try out an idea and it doesn't work, and sometimes it looks good. Either way, you did it and learned something. Go Mopeds!

Louisville to Nashville

It was a sweet ride, just a smidge on the cold side the day we left, but the weekend was excellent, and 160 of the 200 miles were just plain awesome one lane black top through the hill country. We had about 40 miles of boring and annoying 55mph two lane highway, but other than a run in with a very polite Sheriff, it was uneventful. Especially for Shawn Bandit, who attempted to go with us, but didn't quite make it across Louisville to Nate's house before destroying his moped.