i was suuuper close to buying the rear variator cheek from treats today (so cheap!), but i couldn’t do it! race season starts in just a couple months and i need every spare dollar i have to make my new race bike happen! it’s a bummer, but rest assured, ciaociao will see the road again soon!
finally! here are a couple photos of the damage done at the last polini cup.
as you can see, a huge chunk of the rear cheek broke off! i think i mentioned in one of my last posts that i saw something just fly up into the air and keep going until it disappeared.. it was that chunk!
it started making noise, but i kept going through the twisty part of the track and as i rounded the last corner i the noise got real bad and suddenly the motor just froze. at first i though i killed the motor, but nope! the belt riding up high on what was left of the rear cheek as it started to variated caused the cheek to bend inward and lock into the frame! it’s really jammed in there, too!
this is why i don’t use malossi variator parts any more, other than weights and springs for the rear pulley. i don’t know what it is, but the malossi parts are weaker. i round out the notched holes on both the rear cheek and the face plate, the center shaft that slides over the crank has fell apart on me, and now this! polini for life! until i eventually get around to putting a french bike variator on there, that is..
anyway, that’s it for now. treats carries the rear polini cheek separate now (which is crazy, every polini dealer i asked said i would have to order a whole new variator just to get a cheek!), and it’s only like $15. i don’t have the extra cash, but once i do ciaociao will ride again!
Filed under: general
well, i found my camera. that means i can finally document the damage done at the last atwater race! that also means i can do a better job of keeping everyone up to date on what’s going on with ciaociao. i’m about to convert the old girl back into a street bike. that pretty much just means lights and a real paint job, but still, exciting! right? right.
i have some other projects in the works, too, but they are not ciao related. i think i’ll make separate blogs or pages and have them linked here, though.. i’m sure some of you might be interested in them!
anyway, more soon!
well i’m going to post some photos from the last race, though i figure most of you who read this have probably already seen them.
the ciao did pretty good considering my rear malossi spring was broken and i had to try and compensate with lighter weights. i’ll explain more about that later when i dig out my camera and get some photos of the damage.
and now some pictures
jimmy’s one of my favorite people to ride with and i love when i can keep up with him on the track. his motomatic bike is just too much for me to hang with once we get out of the corners, that dual variated 103 has too much top end for ciaociao!
this is alan, he’s one of my best friends in sacramento and is on the motomatic race team. he kills it out there on his polini e50. his bike may not be all that competitive in the open class up against superderbs and megahobbits but it cleans up in the polini 65 class!
i think this was taken right after i heard a loud CRACK come from my motor somewhere and all the crazy noise and vibrations started happening. i say that because i’m looking down at my bike and not at the track in front of me.
this is half a track away from the last picture, right after my broken front pulley cheek (that was the CRACK) jammed itself into the frame and stopped my motor. everyone thought i seized but that kit will never seize! i coasted down to little less than walking speed then bailed off the back and let the poor ciao topple over. i wasn’t mad or frustrated though, under my helmet i was all smiles, that was the funnest race all season!
there was this really rad photo from one of the practices of i think tommy and jimmy going at it and way in the back ground you can see me doing a cart wheel after i crashed, but i can’t seem to find it! i know it’s on flickr somewhere, but i have no idea who took it.
anyway, i tried to keep these photos on topic and post mostly a bunch of me and ciaociao, but there are some amazing photos of my friends that i’m super stoked on so if you get bored you should go to flickr and type in “polini cup” and be ready to spend hours looking at moped kids going crazy on a gocart track!
well, there’s your photo update from the last race. sorry it took me so long! i am most of the way unpacked, so i’m thinking my camera should surface soon (man i hope so..). once it does, i’ll get some pictures of the damage from my variator mishap and maybe finally pull the top end off to show you the port work i did.
i have some crazy builds underway for the next season of polini cup, so i’m not giving ciaociao a whole lot of attention right now, but there is still a lot in store for her! paint, a new pipe, a larger carb, lights of some sort, and more! so check back every once in a while!
later taters
well, i apologize for promising you a rad update and then never delivering it. what a jerk i can be sometimes.
i just moved into a new place and am trying to get everything squared away. that, plus working on mopeds for motomatic, developing crazy race tech for next year’s polini cup and having a super slightly more active social life due to the move into midtown sacramento have left this poor ciao blog neglected for far too long.
nate, rafter and i are just about to head to a machine shop, though, so hopefully tonight once i get home i can finally show you some pictures from the last polini cup and talk about things to come for little ciaociao.
soon my pretties, soon
so remember how i said i was working on stuffing a 24mm mikuni carb into my ciao frame? well i pretty much gave up on that idea.
thanks to tony s., i was able to bust out a super nice intake plate to get the carb bolted up to the motor without much trouble.
problem is, there is no room for the carb in the frame!
i would have to loose the pedals all together and chop a huge chunk out of my frame to make it fit in there, and i’m not about to do either of those things.
there might still be a 24mm carb in the future for ciaociao, but it will be a smaller carb that will fit in the bike easier. no need to cut up the frame for a mikuni when there’s other, smaller carbs that will get the job done just as well!
polini cup 5 post coming soon! with pictures!
almost a month since you’ve heard from me! well, the racing and rally season is over, for me at least, and so you should be seeing more out of me here pretty soon.
i had an awesome time at the last polini cup race. i’ll tell you about it and show you some pictures soon!
i’ve got some rad stories about my spectacular fail 2 laps from the finish in the last race, winning some money, crashing for pretty much the first time all season (three times!).. it was an awesome weekend.
more soon!
i was able to grab a couple photos with rafter’s camera the other day, so i can show you some of the stuff i’ve done.
first, tony was nice enough to take my variator to his lathe and rid me of that big ring that’s part of the polini pulley cheek.
it’s actually part of the cheek (the part of the pulley the belt rides on) but it’s too high up to be used, at least by my current setup, so it was nothing but added weight to me. i also had him mill .5mm off the back of the cheek so that the variator would close up further, giving me more top end! that was the idea anyway. not sure how well it worked, i did so many things all at once that it’s hard to say what’s doing what!
pro work done a pro dude, thanks tony.
and here’s a blurry picture i took of the brake stop peg i had to weld in to work with this wheel and brake plate;
rafter has a fancy super camera and i don’t really know how to use it. i miss my crappy point-and-click deal with the built in flash.
i finally got around to making a fork brace for the bike, too. i was going to put it way down close to the tire, super tight tolerance like, but i decided to leave some room in case i go to 17″ wheels later on.
not the prettiest brace on the block, but it gets the job done quite well.
also, i’ll be going up to a 24mm mikuni from my 21mm dellorto, hopefully before next race!
it’s going to be tricky getting it in there, but i think i’ve got it covered. thankfully nate of motomatic mopeds and tony are both super skilled at welding aluminum! i’m running out of time, though, and both are busy with their own stuff, so we’ll see if it happens before october 3rd!
inside the cylinder pictures will probably have to wait until after the next race. no time to pull it apart!
anyway, there you go!
i can’t find my damn camera!
the next race is two weeks away and i’ve got some things going on. bigger carb, fixing my pipe, new not-sticky throttle. some lame little stuff and some rad big stuff.
i’ll see what i can do about getting photos!
after this last race, i don’t plan on really riding this thing much for a while, so i think it’s time to tear it down and finally paint the fucker. i’ve said that before, though, so we’ll see.
tommy’s been waiting forever for me to paint my wheels.
