traded the hobbit for a garelli ssxl

A local friend of mine has wanted a hobbit ever since his friend got one and quickly smoked his e50 while pulling away from a stop sign...variators will do that to you. Well, when he heard that I found one, he offered up his other bike to me, which is the garelli ssxl that you see here. I know that hobbit isn't the fast one, but thanks to the link that Responsible Jon posted, he should be able to make it fast in no time.

This is the first top tank I have had. I really like it...the color, the seat, the bars, the factory tool set, and the front rack...all very cool.

giving up on the roadmaster

I figured out that I'm just not that motivated to work on this bike. I think it is partially due to the lack of factory parts on it (fork, wheels, light, throttle) and also the lack of parts that are available to fix it. If it were a really cool bike, I wouldn't mind taking the time to scour the interweb one part at a time, but it just isn't.

The bike is now on CL:

picked up a hobbit

I drove out to the Quad Cities last night to get this Honda Hobbit. It's the first Hobbit I have owned/worked on. From what I have read, it is a lot like the Vespa I built a few years back. I'll have to dig into it shortly and see what I find.

The 2" receiver carrier came with it. I built a similar setup about five years ago, but this one is much nicer. I may have to keep it.



Only 600 miles...not bad.

new tires for the AMF

Thanks to everyone that posted up and filled me in on the tire size. As most of you suggested, I do not have stock AMF wheels. These are 80's BMX mags, which I kind of like.

I picked up some new Kenda tires for them this week and got them mounted last night. I think they look a lot better now that they are cleaned up.





I'm still working on cleaning up the axles and bearings. I hope to have those done soon, so I can put the wheels/tires back on the bike.

new project

Sorry for the posting delay. For the last few months I was working on building a car for the 24 Hours of Lemons race. Now that the race is finished, I'm ready to work on mopeds again.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a really cheap AMF Roadmaster. I found it on CL and immediately fell in love with the mags and dry rotted 80's BMX tires. I just had to pick it up and find out what it was all about.

Last night I took both wheels apart in an attempt to rebuild them. I think most of the bearings are salvageable, but I probably need at least one axle (10mm x 1.00 x 140mm).

The tires/tubes are definitely shot. I'm going to shop for new ones today. However, the size listing is interesting. Both tires said 20 x 2.125, but the wheels are only ~16-3/4" OD. I'll have to see what I can find on that subject.

Pics:

trip down to the river

The Newport is running better now. It's not great, but it is better. I can at least keep up with traffic. So, I decided to take a quick trip down to the river and see how my latest round of tuning worked out. I can get the bike up to 3/4 throttle now. I ended up upjetting and playing around with the needle some. I think I was experiencing a lean bog, because it doesn't make any noise like a 4-stroke. It just starts to slow down and die out.

One of my friends just asked me, "why now?" I'm not sure. My gaskets could be breaking down and I could have a minor air leak. I've checked it thoroughly with carb cleaner and I'm not coming up with anything. So, who knows.

Quick photo of the bike/bridge:

difference between four stroking and lean bogging?

Well, I finally got my Newport put back together after finding the crunchy metal bits inside my engine. I was really excited to ride it...it's been since the Cranks rally. That's just too long.

I was excited to find out that the bike fired up and idled great after just 3 kicks. I quickly called another local mopeder and we went for a ride around town. The bike seemed great at first, but I quickly realized that the problem I had before this all started was still there. It pulls nicely up to nearly half throttle and then it falls on its face. If I left off a bit...it'll start to accelerate again. It definitely bogs out, but I have no idea if it is four stroking or lean bogging. What the heck is the difference? I mean, I know conceptually what the difference is, but I have no idea how to tell the difference while riding the bike. I feel like this is something I should know by now. Don't you?

After I got home, I realized that in my haste to ride this bike again, I completely forgot to:
A. Put any ATF in it. Nice job!
B. Tighten my spark plug more than just by hand. Again, nice job!

I fixed those items and took it out again, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

So, last night I checked the bike for air leaks. It may be leaking slightly between the cylinder and the head. I could hear a faint drop in RPM as I sprayed carb cleaner around that area. I was comparing that to spray carb cleaner right on the metal mesh air filter. I could definitely hear a drop in RPM there.

I then tightened up the head a little more and up-jetted from 82 to 86 on the main jet. I also down-jetted from 50 to 40 on the idle jet. I've been wanting to do that for a while.

I wonder if my crank ended up failing because I was actually running lean (air leak?), when I initially thought I was running rich. See...knowing the difference between four stroking and lean bogging really could have helped me out.

BTW, my Pinto is currently doing something similar. It doesn't run above half throttle. I've even heard it backfire a few times. Do you know how lame it is to ride kitted bikes at 20-25 mph?