Nice little cruise-about.

This weekend we went on a little ride. It rained for a while in the morning, and we waited it out. Eventually the skies cleared and we stretched our legs in the woods.





I found this Sea-doo seat on the side of the road. Topseat mopeds are the new Toptank mopeds. And riding mopeds with a man is way cooler than riding doubles with a cute girl. I swear. Welcome to the future.

Little Big Rigs' Big Day Out

Our truck has been in need of attention for quite some time.
The clutch was slipping pretty badly and halfway through blood drive the brake pedal began going all the way to the floor. scary!

So after a month or so of postponing the inevitable, my awesome dad volunteered to help me overhaul Little Big Rig.

First up, new master cylinder.



After replacing the master cylinder we pulled all the wheels off and put new brake pads on.
Front:


Back:


Next we attacked the drive train and transmission in order to drop the bell housing and replace that old slippery clutch.



Working as a team.

Bell Housing

Getting out that old clutch.


When the job was done, even the lady folk came out to wash and wax Little Big Rig and give him some much needed love and attention.

We were rewarded for our work with one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.


I have to say that there is no way I could ever have done any of this without my dad. I really appreciate his company. He's not too feeble for an old 60 year old and his mind isn't completely gone yet.

Ok Little Big Rig. When's the next cross country trip?

It's summertime!

I love this city. And when summer eventually arrives, Seattle is glorious.

We've been going to Gas Works park.
Matt Smith contemplated his former life as a world traveling mariner.

We had a fantastic rally. A lot of friends came to visit.

Thanks for the photo Chris.

I just got my pinto frame back from Responsible John, and boy does it look sweet.

This bike is going to look really mean. Little children will cry when I ride by and my neighbors will stare in horror as I run over their animals and the sound coming from the exhaust pipe will lay waste to all glass within one mile.
Travis says that he is going to build one just like it but with reverse colors. The only problem is that he keeps calling it Cherry Red. This is Mirror Red. Geez get it right, Travis.

SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

They run. Both of them. How well and with what amount of dependability is yet to be seen. The film fest is over and now all I wanna do is moped work on mopeds work work on mopeds!

This is the song that my moped plays when I ride it.

Rosanna's bike:

-naz'd weights
-lathed variator
-18mm intake
-18mm phbg
-tjt springs
-Zen 65cc pipe
-stock cylinder

My Bike:

-naz'd weights
-lathed variator
-tjt springs
-15mm SHA
-Metrakit pipe
-stock cylinder

They're both getting some cosmetic changes soon but I just wanted to say how stoked I am that we have two running mopeds again!

Reasons to simplify your wiring.

For the last week or so I have been struggling to figure out What is wrong with Rosanna's new Derbi.

I have the jetting pretty good but for some reason when I would pull up to a stop sign the bike would die. Now, on the surface this sounds like a jetting issue, perhaps I should just change the idle jet and get it to idle higher...

But I've been doing that for days! With the same problems still persisting. This morning I was about to give up on the 18mm PHBG and go back to the 15mm SHA, when it struck me, it only exhibits this issue when I am slowing down. Could it be that somehow the brake light switch was causing the electrical to short?
So I pulled the wires off of the switch and tried to start it up. Nothing. I pinched the wires together and it started immediately.

OH FRABJOUS DAY! I figured it out! So, in my joy I stripped the switches off the bike and decided that it would be solid enough to ride to work, (I told Rosanna to standby in case I broke down on my way). I am really stoked that it was something so simple and hopefully Rosanna will be able to commute without fear of breakdowns soon enough.

Oh, yeah and speaking of bikes breaking down, BLOOD DRIVE 7 is coming up. If you're coming you should register, dawg.

One of these is not like the other.

I'm nearly done with Rosanna's bike. I finished the fuel system and I was able to get it to idle.

All I need now is a throttle cable and we'll be ready to go.

Here is a picture of the derbi clutch that is missing all of the material on one arm:

Travis was kind enough to give me a hobbit clutch that is nearly identical.

But there is one major difference... can you spot it?
Hobbit clutches spin the opposite direction so I had to modify the derbi clutch plate a little and I had to drill out the hobbit clutch arm because the mounting post is slightly larger on a derbi. Once I had that done, I put some TJT's on and I think this thing is ready.


I'm pretty excited for these projects to get done, though solving problems and working on these things is pretty fun too.

In completely unrelated news, someone posted this video in the members forum of mopedarmy and I remembered what an amazing summer song it is. When I was growing up my family was totally into waterskiing and Alan Jackson's goofy revelry in '80s/'90s cheesiness really takes me back. Enjoy.

Working on Derbi Too

So rosanna's new bike needed some love so every day I've been putting in a couple hours of wrenching before I head off to work. Apparently the cracked petcock is a chronic issue with derbis because when I looked into the body I noticed that the petcock on this bike had been replaced with a rubber grommet and just straight fuel line. Fuel line that was too big for any of the carb banjos I have. Finding myself covered in gas is becoming a disconcerting trend.
Here is the solution I (really Michael Mike) came up with:

I lathed a piece of delron to 16mm and then tapped it to fit this barb fitting. I'm going to get an inline fuel valve and then we should be good to go.

I should also mention that this last wednesday I had an opportunity to head to the Responsible Naz's Shop of Wonders. I worked like crazy trying to make progress on as many projects as possible. I was able to make seat supports for the pintos, lathe the above fuel adapter, lathe some lighter variator weights, Naz welded me a big intake for Rosanna's bike, and I discovered that one of her clutch pads has no mo material.

Here is the intake we made:

And here it is in the frame with a nice little air filter. Also, you can see the fuel solution the previous owner came up with and how I had to use a socket to cut off the fuel flow:


In related news, Rosanna got some new parts in the mail. We decided to try out this pipe made by Zen. So far it looks like a really quality pipe, spring mounted, hydroformed, and really solid construction.
Once we weld on a support brace it will be ready to rip.


Check out this support brace at the stinger, it's just one nice quality detail of this pipe:


That's all for now! More later I'm sure.