This is Bill Murray in 1982.
This is Bill Murray in 2009.
Got him off of Craigslist for $150. The bike is complete, except for a rear brake cable and the left side cover. And it included a title, which was worth the $150 alone.
I was the first of about 20 phone calls, and, thankfully, the guy didn't try to jack the price once he realized that it was worth more than he was selling it for. He was selling it for his dad and I think just wanted to be rid of it.
The moped was located in the middle of nowhere, luckily I work with people that live in the middle of nowhere and I gave one of my co-workers $50 to go pick it up and deliver it to work the next day.
The bike was filthy after having spent the entire Bush administration hiding out in a barn. It looked like a basket case, but I pulled off the flywheel cover and turned the flywheel and it sounded and felt perfect. The stator was super clean, and the odometer had 1300 miles on it. The gas tank is clean, with absolutely no rust. Once the bike is cleaned up I don't think it will look bad at all.
It's a 1.5 HP, but some simple work should fix that. It has a really restrictive air box, a plug in the 14mm intake reducing it down to about 7 or 8mms, one of the tiniest bing jets i've ever seen, a 13 tooth sprocket, probably restrictors in the pipe, and probably also a really thick head gasket.
An hour's worth of work and I had it running. Drained the old gas, threaded in a fresh spark plug, adjusted the clutch cable, cleaned the carb and adjusted the float. Adjusting the float, and troubleshooting a bad spark plug boot took the longest.
The bike is still here at work. This morning I put air in the tires (we'll see if it holds). Later today I'll install some brake cables that I hobo'ed together from spare parts in the garage. After that it should be ready for it's maiden (albeit slow) voyage home.
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