Saturday, December 12, 2009

"Blast those kids that think they own the road."

For the last couple of years, my wife Rosanna has been riding the first moped I ever built. It's still a pretty speedy bike considering that the only features that are not stock are the estoril pipe and the 15mm bing carb. Sadly though, it has been looking a little shabby as of late. The paint is chipping, the brakes are bad, and the taillight has fallen off.
Now that my fellow UMMU brother has started up his powdercoating operation, I think that a restoration of this bike will soon be in order. In the meantime though, I've been working on some projects that will hopefully make this bike, as well as all mopedkind less death-trappy.
Today Rosanna and I are in Long Beach, California visiting her Grandparents. You may have heard about Long Beach in some of those rhythm and blues albums all the kids are listening to. In the couple of weeks prior to our departure from Seattle, Rosanna had almost been run over by inattentive drivers a handful of times, so I have been thinking that a REALLY loud horn might do just the trick. So we happened to be at Harbor Freight today, and I was able to score an air horn for $9.99. As I was standing in the aisle in HF, a guy next me said, "Yeah, get that and blast those kids in the cross walk that think they own the road." I looked at him and replied, "I was thinking of the cars that think they own the road."
When we got home I hooked it up using a trickle charger and a dumbbell as a ground.



Now the trick will be to find a good way to conceal the horns and compressor in such a way that it won't detract from the small moped aesthetic. The compressor itself is slightly bigger than a coke can, more like a Fosters can. I may be able to fit it within the body of a moped.