Trying this again. . . Or how I became a moped mechanic

Well, it looks like my last post was coming up on a year ago. It's not at all that I got out of mopeds, but rather that I stopped having anything to write about. Our last summer in Manchester, all my bikes were running fine and I rode and rode and rode, but there wasn't much interesting to share.

In the middle of September, the shippers dropped off my boxes and five of my mopeds were disassembled and boxed up [3 1969 SP93s, 1 1970 AV92 and 1 1972 X7]. Sadly, I decided to sell my beloved 1963 AV88 to offset my shipping costs. A week later, the shipper picked up the boxes and my mopeds began their incredible journey.

At the beginning of October, we got on a plane and flew back to Seattle. We had three weeks of hanging out with friends and playing with mopeds. Phil was in town one of the weekends and we all rode around on Vashon Island -- one of my favorite places to ride.

I rode my 1965 Suzuki Hill-Billy which was running fine after sitting in my Mom's garage for two years. Also while we were back in Seattle, I finally managed to convince Scooby to sell me his Tri-Ped Micro Car.

We had an awesome time riding it around Ballard and Fremont before it had to be partially disassembled and loaded on the truck to New Jersey. After three weeks of awesome times with our friends, Allison and I loaded up and moved to Somerville, NJ where I started a new job. One of the perks was the giant modern garage that came with our rental house which easily holds both our cars and all my mopeds. This is the first time in my life, I haven't had to pull a tarp off my bikes before going for a ride and I love it. It's also pretty sweet to be able to spill gas at will and not worry about stinking up the kitchen.

After a few months in NJ, my mopeds from the UK finally arrived, safe and sound

Here's one of the SP93s, ready to be put back together

 Having a garage for the first time is amazing!

 Plenty of room for everyone, even the parts donors

 Hill-Bily, Rust Bucket and Sacre Bleu after a long two year's hibernation

 And of course, the Micro Car, coming soon to a rally near you, once it can top 22mph

I finally got around to assembling the X7 and rode it around the neighborhood a little. Both exciting and terrifying. Currently it is fitted with a stock 30mph motor with a lightened variator [2 balls for 4], but I have big stupid plans for this bike with a super AV10 motor and race fairing some day soon.

 So absurd, 10inch mini mags.

 I bought this as a 'farm bike' in the South of England for about 50 quid

 Just a photo for scale, so so silly.

PRESENT DAY:

So in the last month or so, I have become something of an amateur mechanic for hire. Back in January I purchased a trio of Motobecanes to restore my seriously depleted stock parts cache.

After chatting with the duo a bit, I agreed to trouble shoot and repair the non-running bikes they buy and sell in the area. These guys regularly find all kinds of bikes up and down the East Coast and it is a lot of fun seeing all the crazy bikes they come up with. I realized recently, that I should start cataloging all the bikes that come from sheds and basements, through my garage and on to a loving new home.

Most of the time it's basic stuff: dirty carbs, fouled points and wiring, and sometimes they are really rough. But is is the perfect set up for me. All my bikes run pretty regularly at this point, so I don't get to do a lot of tinkering. Now I have as much tinkering as I can handle, and I don't even need to spend money on parts. Bikes come and go, I get to play with each of them, and then they leave again for a happy home. All the fun of discovering little details like old dealer stickers, hidden compartments and original tools and manuals, with out any of the cost or 'owning too many mopeds'. It's good times. Plus I am getting pretty quick getting non-running bikes going again, which is pretty rewarding.

So far, I have worked on quite a few bikes, but I only have pictures of the last two most recent. A blue 50V, and orange 50L, a Puch Maxi II with ZA50, another blue 50V, a blue Hercules with 20mph motor and finally these two:

A really sweet little blue rigid Puch Free Spirit

and this somewhat strange silver Puch X40 which was made for the German market and has a kph speedo so I am guessing it came in on the Grey Market

Both are already good to go, and I think already have new owners lined up. 

I definitely don't make much income from this tinkering for hire, but it sure is fun. It's also kind of neat to get a little bit of a sneak peek at what will be hitting Craig's List in the next month or so. I am planning on trying to keep up this blog again, now that I have a pretty steady stream of projects -- both for these guys and my own stuff. There is a racing series in New York this summer which I am planning to participate in on a 50cc performance Motobecane, a pimped out SP93 for the end of the rally season, and a reliable and robust doubles machine for the Spring/Summer rallies up and down the East Coast. 

So far we plan to attend:

Nashville

Louisville

Charlotte

New York

MopedLarry

Worchester

Ann Arbor

Seattle

Dayton

Kalamazoo

Some of these rallies overlap with track days, so we will have to see how I do in the first few races and whether I am a contender or no. 

Good times; it's nice to be back in moped land again!