I just got a Brat-load of mopeds!

Leaving behind Seattle and the Mosquito Fleet for the snowy agoraphobia of Indiana will not end my love affair with mopeds. It will evolve into something more suitable for the midwest. In Seattle, bikes are expensive, so you tend to take good care of the ones you have and make them fast and stylish, as they are usually the fastest and easiest form of transportation available to you. In the midwest, bikes require more effort to go find, as you end up driving 7 towns over to your friends cousins house who used to have one of those. However, the reward is usually a very cheap almost runner. Part of the joy of mopeds is sharing it with others, and thus, I need to stock up on bikes to spread around into Lafayette. So I've begun "importing". It's a process I used in Anderson to get my old gang together. The Creatures did it. You just get a butt-load (butt-load is equivalent to about 4 brat-loads, or 8 baby-butt loads) of mopeds, and then ride yours around, and when people ask to buy them, you can say "sure, I've got plenty." A good cleaning, some new tires and light bulbs, and you have a very presentable moped for a reasonable cost to sell someone. So I've got my shed filled with 9 mopeds at the moment, a ttxl in the basement, and I'm getting ready to start preparing these bikes for sale. Most of them already run. The trick is to make them work as good as new. They need to not leak, idle, run smooth, stop well and look clean. No busted switches (remove them!) no ripped seats (recover!) and rusted chrome parts replaced with good spares. I went to Ohio last night and got 4 mopeds from a guy. All run, I got an 85 Grey Maxi (now I have two! twinsies!) and 80 Red Newport 2 speed (with side covers!) a Yellow Moby 40t with the sweet brown decals, and my favorite as always, a moped I've never owned, a Fantic Motor Concord Invader! With a V1 and loads of style, this bike is excellent. The front air dam and head light are the look Hobbit's really were trying to capture. The side covers boldly proclaim in gold "INVADER" and the wonderful toolkit sits in its bright yellow cloth pouch labeled "Fantic Motor", hiding away securely under the seat. The built in switches on the Domino controls need some attention, but I really dig their style, so I'm going to try and save them.

All that being said, here is a little shot of my garage, and I hope to see my midwest friends at a welcome home party with a to-be-decided date, perhaps in Grand Rapids, most likely in January.