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!

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.

I'm an idiot.

So, it turns out that the Derbi was out of gas. the stock Derbi petcock looks like this:

The tank of a derbi variant is plastic and so rather than having a petcock that threads on, the petcock slips inside the outlet a the base of the tank and then a hose clamp secures it in place.

Now, if this petcock had been made with metal it would have been great. The problem is that every time someone needs to change the jetting in the carb, you have to push the petcock out of the way and eventually all of this tweaking just makes the plastic valve portion of the petcock crack and leak and then drain all of your gas out. I'm working on a solution right now but since I currently working, I don't have much time for moped work.
Here is where the crack is on my petcock:

One idea that I came up with was to take a pinto petcock (12mm) and adapt it to fit the 16mm opening of the tank. I called my dad and asked for his advice and he suggested wrapping the pinto petcock in teflon tape.

It didn't work.
So, Jona from the Ghostriders is sending me a replacement stock petcock and hopefully that will do me just fine.

In other news, I did get some TJT clutch springs.

Travis has been telling me that these particular springs are a necessity and in the brief test ride I took I have to agree. From a dead stop they really rev up nice and high before engaging which creates a sensation like popping the clutch on a manual transmission. Rooooom!!! BraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! That's what it sounds like.

Update: Rosanna just traded old Red and Gold for this...

This one is for my baby boo.

So the derbi is still a little sick. Not pooping your pants sick, just like a cold that won't go away.
Specifically, everything is running good, the jetting is pretty much right on, the timing is extra nice, and the bike goes at a pretty good clip, however, right about when I get up to top speed and I'm thinking, "Yeah! Finally this thing is solid." And then it goes, "Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah." If you can't figure out what that onomatopoeia means, basically it's like I run out of gas instantly. Not the zing noise like a seize, or a sputter noise like a fouled plug, no this is like I just cut the kill switch or ran the tank dry instantly. I have a theory that involves fuel flow but I can't be sure.
So in the meantime while I try to figure out the inexplicable, I'm improving the things that I DO know how to fix.

1) 12mm x 220mm Super Strong 10.9 axle.

This is 20mm longer than the stock axle. I really wanted the low-end power and long seat of the derbi to be put to good use so I bought some buddy pegs and this longer heavy duty axle so my boo can ride on the back. I'm really excited, we'll see how excited Rosanna is.

2)M6 set screws for my variator weights.

So Naz in his infinite handiness turned some weights for me out of a plastic material called Delron. Isn't Delron a mans name? Anyway, this material is pretty much perfect for variator weights if not just a tiny little bit too light. Hmmm how to increase the weight just a tiny little bit... Ah HAH! By tapping those delron weights with a tiny M6 set screw I can incrementally increase the weight. (By the way this was in no way my brilliant idea. This is all Naz, all the time.) So I bought two sets, M6 x 6mm and M6 x 8mm. Hopefully they should do the trick.

3)TJT Clutch Springs

I haven't been home to look at these things yet but I should have these fancy lads sitting on my desk when I get home.

WAIT A SECOND!!!

While googling for the pictures above, I found these pictures from the netherrealm of Cupertino:


What the What?!
Well apparently the cuperteens have already done the EXACT same pipe modification that I did but they beat me by about 10 months. Dang. Well, good job gentlemen, you reign supreme in the land of Derbi.

Derbis are weird.

First off, in my last post I mentioned that my piston and cylinder were pristine. Here are some photos:

As you can see, there is a little but of scoring but really it's not too bad. The rings look good and based on the performance right before the seizure(?) it seems like it's all good.

In other news, I got some new treats! First off, I'm a big fan of quality controls. Like these! These new controls are really cool. Long pull throttle, moped length tube, nice S shaped levers, and neat little levers for choke and decomp.

I also got some new reed material for my polini reed setup. Green reeds, .35mm of thickness will take me to the promise land of speed!

So I began digging elbow deep into the derbi, and I discovered some things:

Derbi swingarms are really solid.

Also, Derbi was REALLY into branding everything they manufactured.

Pop quiz: In front of you is four pullers. What do they have in common?

Answer: None of them fit into this flywheel. Looks like I'm in the market for a three jaw puller. Or at least in the market for borrowing one.

When I pulled the cylinder and head off the Derbi I discovered this HUGE spacer/ gasket. Based on the thickness of a cylinder ring I'd guess this thing is 3mm thick. I don't understand at all. Is this necessary so the piston won't hit the head? Wouldn't this raise the timing? or is the cylinder decked so the spacer is necessary for timing? I don't know.

And lastly is the pipe that Naz and I cut and rewelded. Naz did such a good job rewelding the header after we cut it that it looks like it's always been that way.

Anyhow, that's whats up in my shop. I hear that there is some scooter rally going on in Kentucky this weekend. Wish I could be there but them's the breaks.

OH NOES!

Monday I was riding to the Mars Bar and cruising down 8th st in Ballard which is pretty much a slight downward incline for a couple of miles.

I was enjoying my new derbi, and just kind of blissfully riding when I thought, "You know, Phil is right, I shouldn't kit this thing. It goes plenty fast on 50cc and this way it will be more dependable." SQUELCH! The back tire locked up and I skidded for about 50 feet.

My initial thought was that I hard seized the motor... but how could that be? I pulled the plug and it looked perfect, I didn't notice any loud blats right before it seized that would indicate an exhaust leak or a massive case seal blowout...

Well, this morning I took the head off and the piston and cylinder look... spotless. Pristine. I removed the jug and have come to the preliminary conclusion that the crankcase bearings kicked the bucket. I'll post some pictures later, in the meantime, any derbi gurus know what size bearings and seals I need to get to rebuild this engine?

*Update*
I read up in the Variant Manual and it looks like these are the bearing sizes:
Crankshaft - 6203/ 17.40.12 and 6204/ 20.47.14
Main Gear - 6301/ 12.37.12 and 6302/ 15.42.13

Now, the diagram in the manual shows a case inducted engine and I'll be rebuilding a piston port, but we'll see if the bearings are the same size.

DERBI

Recently I bought this bike and brought it home from LA:

I was really excited to finally have a derbi to play with and this was to be my first foray into variated bikes. Lucky for me the Mosquito Fleet has some really talented and helpful people. Within a few days of me returning from the Latebirds invitational Michael Mike and I had done the following improvements:
-I had naz lathe off the restricting collar on the variator cheek
-he turned some lighter weights out of delron
-we welded a nut onto the wheel adjuster that was stripped
-we cut the header on the pipe and rotated it so that the pedals clear and the stinger kicks up at a radical angle like a simonini
-I swapped the stock 12-12 carb for a 15 SHA
-we properly spaced the front axle so that the bearings weren't just floating from side to side
-took off the crazy stock handlebars with the welded on perches and made a neat little handlebar bridge (This is one thing that drives me nuts about Derbis, the triple tree is so long that the top plate is wavy shaped and it's difficult to replace the bad stock handlebars with new nice handlebars, also, what if these forks give out? What forks have the same length head tube?)

I've been slowly going over the bike finding sketchy things and making them ultra solid so that when I'm wheelie-ing down the road with rosanna on the back I won't have to worry about whether or not the front wheel is going to fall off or if the variator is going to spin off into my leg.

Today I made some really nice aesthetic and functional improvements to the bike:
I put on some neat low rise handlebars and some new red grips, and during the process decided to simplify the wiring.


I HATE messy handlebars and the bane of my existence is ugly switches and a snarl of wires. So I had the great idea to put little switches on the riser that Michael Mike made me:


As you'll notice, there is a red switch for killing the bike and a yellow one for going into ninja mode (lights out). The caveat to ninja mode is that with the lightened variator weights when this thing is running reved (revved? rev'd?) out it is very loud. It sounds like an angry weed wacker fighting a cheetah.

Last but not least of my favorite things about this bike, the sweet ass pipe.

This was a Metrakit pipe that was right in the way of the pedals. I've always like the swept up angle that simonini's have so while Michael Mike and I were refitting this pipe to clear the pedals I positioned it in such a way that it looks really nice and aggressive. I love it. I couldn't be happier.

Further possible improvements on the way:
-New Seat. I love the stitching and the logo on this stock seat but alas it is rusted through and won't last much longer. I'm thinking about putting on either a Brooks saddle or that neat futuristic cafe seat from polini. NOT. Actually I'm thinking more along the lines of this:

-Install foot pegs so my boo can ride doubles
-Powdercoat. But what color?
-New shocks
-New Forks?
-Puch Reed kit? I have a polini four petal and a kit just sitting here. Oh the possibibilities!