Malossi kit RIP

Ciao was running so well last night. With the new Polini clutch spring I was hitting higher RPMs than I ever had before. The entire RPM range was spot on. Until, after a couple of miles of blasting, I took off from a stop. The bike ku-chunked and the belt squealed as the crank completely locked up.

Alas, my first seize ever.

Also, note the double circlips. The imbedded clip is from the other side of the piston. My guess is that it came loose, shot through the cut outs in the piston and got stuck when it hit the cylinder wall. Rad.

Manventure 09

210 miles to Portland with near and dear friends. I'm currently 29 hours away from departure. Tomorrow 4 of us will hit the road, traveling light, on mopeds headed to P-town.

Wednesday, we'll ride 100 miles to Centralia, WA, and stay overnight at a vintage hotel with old hostel-style rooms, a brewery, and movie theater.

Thursday, we'll finish the last 110 and ride into Portland for the sure-to-be-epic Puddle Cutter rally.

Can't wait...

On Any Sunday

There are films that I've been meaning to get around to seeing. On The Waterfront, Citizen Kane, Roadhouse. Also on that list was On Any Sunday a film about motorcycle racing in 1970.


Last night, with nothing better to do, I sat down with a few beers and watched it. I can't believe how good it was. These are some of the most awesome you'll ever see. If you thought you were a half-decent rider, you may as well forget that. Watching these guys rip will either make you never want to ride again or begin riding even harder. It's just that bad ass.

Mini Bearing Press

I've been meaning to do a write up on this for a while. I've tried explaing this to people on the Moped Army repair forum before and it hasn't translated very well, so here goes in detail with pictures.

A bearing puller is a must have for any moped workshop. A lot of people swear by the freezing the crank/heating the bearing method, but this works a lot easier and is way quicker.

So, bearing puller. Sure, it pulls bearings. But swap a few things around and it'll work as a mini bearing press, too.

Here's what you need:

Two piece bearing puller, several different lengths of bolts, a few sockets, and a couple of spacers (lengths of handlebar tubing or exhaust pipe work great.






























Place the bearing puller flatside against the underside of the crank, wide enough that it's resting on the crank cheeks, not the bearing itself.

Rub a little bit of grease on the bearing's inner race. Place the bearing onto the shaft and make sure it's level.

Place a socket over the shaft against the bearing. Make sure that the socket's only contact is with the inner race of the bearing. Ensure that you've got plenty of distance between the inside end of the socket and the threads on the shaft. Otherwise, as you torque down the bearing, eventually, the socket will come in contact with the threads and your expensive race crank is now hosed.

Thread on the top half with appropriately length of bolts and it'll look like this.

It doesn't take too much force to press the bearing on. You should be able to hold the wrench in one hand and the puller in the other. Again, as you torque it down keep an eye on where your crank threads are at. If need be, switch out the socket for a spacer and shorter socket halfway through. All in all, it should only take a couple of minutes, tops, to swap out a set of bearings. Super easy, and it doesn't require an over, freezer, flat head screwdriver, and hammer. My bearing puller is from Grainger and ran about $60. Cheaper ones can be had from Harbor Freight. Definitely one of the most handy tools I own.

Clutch-be-gone!

This is not what you want to see when you pull your clutch.

Damage from the freshly built Metra 65 engine.

The clutch pads themselves are showing some minor wear from only about 6 miles of use. Obviously way too much slip. I knew the clutch was engaging super late. It was revving out like a chainsaw engine and grabbing hard. The low end was fantastic, but I knew they springs needed to be adjusted. The arm that sheared was probably engaging first and taking the full strain of the clutch which caused it to break free.

Prior to the clutch exploding, it wasn't fully disengaging causing the bike to insta-die at idle and pushing the bike forward, not running, would cause the clutch to chug-chug-chug without even pulling the starter clutch.

I suspect something else is the culprit here as this is the second clutch that's given me problems in the past couple of days. Possibly some issue with the main gear which seems to be making more noise than it should, although no teeth are missing and it seems to be in good shape. Or possibly a spun bearing on the crank since I'm using the crapped out Rito that spun a bearing previously (stator side). I used some bearing compound which is designed for that sort of thing, but it may not have been enough or the crank is just too far gone.

I'm going to install another stock 2-shoe with stock springs and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll be time to crack the case again, and replace the crank.

Moped Garage Sale

Matt Coles threw a moped garage sale Saturday morning, getting rid of new and old parts he'd had stashed for years.

My purchases:

Vespa engine top and bottom end (turns over freely) $4
Complete 14mm Bing w/ intake $5
Various Puch & Vespa sales pamphlets $10
Ciao top cover bracket $0.25
2 sets of handlebars $3
Sito Vespa pipe $1
Bing Hi flow filter $5

Pretty sweet score for less than $30.

Snordly's Interceptor

Snordly always blows me away with his perverse creations. This one is no exception. It started out life as one of these:

And became this:

Purchased from Dean for the price of a burrito, and after quite a bit of freakish work is now a ripping little pike bike-looking thing. Complete with non-functional pedals, top tank, and 14mm Bing carb. Genius stuff there, Steve.