pinto tail light

I added the tail light last night. I hope it is bright enough. Has anyone used these yet (Tun from treats)? It's 12V with either .1w tail or 2w brake. I wasn't sure which wire was which, so I went with yellow for power and black for ground. I guess I'll try the red once I get the bike running. I'm just not sure how the 12V LED setup is going to work on my 6V system.

The light is super small and it was really easy to find a place to stash it. I'm not sure where I am going to put my license plate now though. I may have to make a custome bracket for both. Or maybe I'll get one of those 1977 Mopeds license plate hangers that bolt to the shock.

pinto wiring

I started wiring the pinto last night. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to pull the old wiring out. It was tucked up nicely under the tank and I had to remove quite a few brackets before it was free enough to remove.

It's nice to finally have a decent soldering iron. It makes a huge difference. This is part of my headlight wiring with solder and heat shrink.



The location for my kill switch, also with solder and heat shrink. Yes, I know I need clean around it.



I hope to get my tail light mounted next.

dellorto race edition

After getting the engine mounted to the frame, I was able to get the carb and intake put on. I'm happy with how it turned out. It's low profile and I think it will work well.





Just the right amount of clearance on the Malossi air filter.



I believe this is the first time I have ever been able to get a fuel line to go completely downhill from the petcock to the carb without making any hard 90 degree turns. I always hate fighting that problem.

I was also able to get good routing on my throttle cable. I'm glad I picked up an extra one of those 90 degree cable parts the last time I was at Handy Bikes in OH.



One more picture...I like the location of the coil pack on the Pinto. It makes for a nice, short straight line between point A and point B.

site down

Sorry about the site being down for a couple of days. I've been trying to get the redirect figured out, so leftovermopeds.com automatically goes here. After a few days of bad advice, I finally got it straightened out.

In the meantime, I have made a ton of progress on the Pinto. I'm really just down to getting the chain on and doing the wiring. I'll post some pictures tonight. The Destroyer looks great.

Gila case work

So, a few weeks ago I did all the work on grinding the transfers for the Gila kit that is going on my latest Pinto project. I then carefully reassembled the engine, sealed it all up, and locktited in the engine studs, only to find that I didn't do any clearance work for the lower part of the cylinder that slides into the engine. Damn. I thought about trying the clay method to close off the crank area while I ground down the rest of the case, but a friend of mine talked me out of that. He said that I really need to take it back apart and do it the right way. I'm definitely glad I listed to him. There is no way I could have done all of that work with the cases still together.

I spent probably 3 hours this weekend working on the cases. I used my angle grinder to hit the larger areas and then went back with my dremel tool to dial it in. I think I put the cases together and took them apart for test fitting about 5 times before I finally got it. It was a long process of removing and reinstalling the engine studs, test fitting, find the problem areas, and doing more grinding. I finally got it to a point where I was happy with it though.

Here is what it looked like when I was finished:


One of the halves:


Partially assembled:


Mmm...Gila:






I'm anxious to get the kick stand mounted and put the engine on the bike. I'm tired of having the pinto leaning up against my wall without a stand.

Free Spirit

Last week I found this Sears Free Spirit on CL. A buddy of mine was nice enough to pick it up for me on the way to his camping spot for the weekend. He delivered it to me tonight and it is pretty nice. It only has 1200 miles on it. It's a 2HP model. It has a title. And it only needs a few maintenance items. Not bad.

This bike will go to another friend of mine. I tried to hook him up with that yellow motobecane, but he was having a hard time getting it running. This bike should work out much better for him.

cross country mopeders

A guy and a girl that were traveling from Manhattan to Nevada to go to the Burning Man had put up a post on Moped Army asking for anyone that might be able to help with tools and possibly a place to stay somewhere along their path. I sent them a text and let them know that I wasn't directly on their way, but I definitely had enough tools to help them out. A few days later I got a call and they said they were hoping to stop by to get some help with their tail light and possibly exhaust pipe.

They arrived last night at 8:30-ish on a Motomarina Sebring and a Honda MB5. Both bikes were stock and for the most part they were holding up well. The MB5 is running in the low 40's with all the gear, but the Sebring would only do 27. That's not very fast when you are traveling that many miles.

I helped them out with whatever I could...and gave them a place to crash for the night...and sent them off with a "good luck" this morning. What a crazy adventure!

They were both super nice. I really hope they are able to make it without too much trouble.

Here are a couple of pictures of their bikes:

Cranks rally

Here are the pictures from the rally over the weekend:
LINK

My buddy and I drove up from IL to hang out with those guys at the Rockerbox Vintage Motorcycle Show. It was a really cool show and I got to see all kinds of bikes that I have never seen before.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a ton of time, so we weren't able to hang out until 5 for the long ride. But we did get to see quite a bit of Milwaukee by heading out on our own.

Some highlights:






Parked near the lake:


A couple of weeks before the rally, my Newport started running poorly at half throttle. It had started to get hot/humid out, so I figured it was a jetting issue. Well, after going over ALL of the maintenance on the bike and changing jets and needle settings, I still wasn't able to figure it out. As my buddy and I rode around Milwaukee, the bike just kept getting slower and slower. Eventually, the engine starting making really bad noises and it eventually grenaded. This is where it stopped. :(


I'm going to work on the Pinto for a while and I'll eventually be tearing into the Newport again to find out what went wrong.

tail light for the pinto

Treats finally got the tail light back in stock that I've been wanting for the pinto. I think it will work out well underneath the frame/seat.

New format

I've been working on mopeds a ton lately and I don't feel like my site reflects that very well.  I'm going to try a single blog where I can keep track of my doings.  I think it will work out better for the people that want to see what I am up to these days.