Randoms from end of March

Powder Coating on one of Wayne's General Tanks

JJ putting some finishes on MB5Moby

White Garelli VIP

We're building up a Garelli VIP. Powdercoating things White is hell.
Anything floating around this filthy shop that can land on the part seems to.

Whitewall tires, and a filthy jump suit.

Starting to come together.

We're doing a pretty modest engine build on this one. Porting the stock jug, and running a simonini exhaust.
Expect it finished and up for sale around the end of the month.

Finishing my SF Vespa V9A

This was my bike at the end of last race season.

Sort of glorious in it's own fucked-up way. Frame twisted, spray-painted, sticker covered, multiple tears in the body, clutch wasted... It still started on one kick, and went fast. I rode it to band practice on the freeway twice a week.

Everything stripped down...

Body Work finished, body filler over low spots.

Primed, then 3 hours of sanding.

Powdercoated everything but the frame.

Painted, coming together.

Stickers by Miguel Rivera.

Look the Fuck out.

JJ's race SF. Holy god.

Small Frame Body Work

The first track day is this Saturday. My frame came back from the metal cleaners Monday. It was worse then I thought under all the bondo.

JJ gave me a crash course in Metal working.

Re shaping the engine side cowel.

The entire rear end was twisted and shifted off to the right.
Whatever he's doing up there, it worked great.

I make some pretty cool faces when not wearing protective eye wear.

Welding up all of the tears.

Tears are welded.

Today I grind down all of the welds. Skim coat a small bit of bondo, and spray primer.

MB5 Suspension on Motobecane

Since we put the MB5 Front end on this moby, we decided to make the swing arm fit with the matching rear wheel. It's quite a bit longer and the sprocket sits quite a bit further out from the wheel. JJ did some nice welding.



Clip on Handlebars made from an old triple tree top, and some pipe. All JJ's idea.
Again, nice welds, JJ.

Pretty nice so far. The rear sprocket holds a 420 chain. The front sprocket holds a 415 chain.
A dished Moby rear sprocket welded to the stock MB5 sprocket fixes the chain alignment, and chain pitch problems.

My LeoVince SF pipe. Powdered red for practice.

SF engine coming together. New shift cross, rear axle bearing, gasket set, and clutch will get this ready for the year.

I've been busy, and my bench shows it.

One week left before the first race, and my scooter hasn't been painted.

Randoms from last week

The Orphans stop by on Thursdays to work on their race bikes.


JJ cutting swingarm mounts off a moby frame...

...To make room for a MB5 Swing arm.

Mykitech Pulley and the beginnings of my future beer belly.

Small Frame Vespa Clutches

This is the clutch that I pulled out of my engine. It has one year of daily driving on it. My engine isn't putting out anything close to the power of most of the bikes coming to the track this year. It wont be. I want to ride it on the street and keep it together after i'm done with a race. This being said, if I do anything impressive in this years scooter racing class, I'll find some sort of riding ability in me.
These clutches have three thin plates, a cork lining, and a wimpy spring. Perfect for a stock 125 that is intended to max out around 50mph.

This year i'll be running a 4 plate clutch with six springs. Six springs even out the tension and provide quite a bit more tension. The cork is replaced with carbon on this guy. Hopefully it will hold up against the type of riding i'll be doing.

The woodruff key couldn't be any smaller.

Trip to Seattle

Last weekend I went up to Seattle to work with Michael Mike. Emily came too. He's used his large brain and large tools to get a standard 150 scooter clutch on to a doppler pulley.
Basically, I can spend $450 on a Mykitech pulley, 200 on a Doppley pulley, or make one. I didn't have my camera with me, so this post will feature high-quality cell phone pictures.

Thanks Mike.

Columbus Josh was there welding a giant fucking riser plate to the cases for a SF Vespa. It will be interesting to see what kind of jug he's putting on it.

The group of Mosquito Fleeters that rode down to mike mikes shop with me got bored quickly. We rode mopeds back to Ballard/Greenwood to grill meat and have a bonfire.
Brendan's clutch bell exploded in Downtown Seattle, and we left him there to get a ride.

His bike still looks cool though.

Powder Coating Oven Part 2

I stole this idea from Responsible Jon's moped blog. Straight up Stole it.

I got a file cabinet off CL, took all of the controls and heating elements out of my oven.





Maybe I shouldn't be showing pictures of this mess...


Plasma cutter makes quick work out of all the sliders inside the file cabinet.


I have lots of work to do. Next is to make a door, wrap the whole thing in fiberglass ceiling tiles, mount up the heating elements and wire it all together.