Filed under: nothing to do with anything
none of my moped blogs have been getting much love lately. i am currently one of three full time techs (one of which is out with a broken collar bone and the other who is moving away) at one of san francisco’s busiest motorcycle/scooter shops. i am also trying my best to run a moped repair shop out of a space i rent from said motorcycle shop, a repair shop that has yet to pay for itself since i opened it six months ago or so. needless to say, i haven’t had much time or spare money to work on my own bikes.
however, i miss them dearly, and hope to be back to working on them before too long. i have picked up a couple projects here and there when i did have a few spare bucks, and i’ve also got big plans for ciaociao.
my hope is that within the next couple months both this blog and the destroymopeds.wordpress.com blog will be back in action. i’ve got plenty of work to fill these pages, i just have to find the time to do it!
now i’m going to go and cross post this to the destroymopeds blog.
Filed under: wheels
so i’ve got lots in store for ciao, and i’m starting to collect parts. i’m going to be going back to 17″ spokes for now (anyone have a rear wheel in good shape?), and i will be selling the si X wheels with the sava tires mounted. anyone interested? i’ll be posting them up on moped army too, but site is down this weekend for the long awaited update, and i don’t think i’ll be ready to let them go by next week.
i’ll post them on here first and wait like a week or so before going to the buy/sell forum over there.
i don’t know how much i want for them, probably similar to what they go for on treatland.tv, and it’s still going to be a little while before i can give them up, but now’s your chance to call dibs if you want them!
front has been converted to 12mm axle and sealed bearings.
brake plate is stock si modified to work with stock ciao fork, also worked perfectly with the bravo fork. if you have the chrome ebrs like i do now, you’ll have to modify something to make it work. i welded some metal to my fork to make it stick further out and it works great.
the front brake pads are newish, probably around 80% life left. i can check that when i pull them off.
front tire is sava 16×2.25, rear is 16×2.5. rear has around 50% life left, front more like 80%.
i’ll grab pictures when i remove them.
as i’m sure you’re all very well aware of by now, both 1977 mopeds and treatland now have pinasco kits and other goodies available for us on our side of the water!
ciaociao’s been rocking the pinasco 70cc kit for 3 years now and it is awesome. i’ve yet to be passed by another vespa, and most “more gifted” brand mopeds have quite a hard time passing me too. i’m sure it has a lot more to do with than just my pinasco kit, but that’s definitely a huge factor for sure.
those other pinasco goodies are awesome too! that flywheel is about as good as it gets without going crazy like i did with mine.
i’m not sure you can use that case half without the special pinasco crank, but i’ve not really looked at them in person. i could be wrong on that.
anyway, i’m super stoked. when it comes time for a new kit for ciaociao, i’m either going with a 50cc water cooled top end (i’ll have to make a moby cylinder work or something) or another pinasco, for sure.
Filed under: general
reno rally was a success, of course. the ciao is pretty reliable these days. i did have my wire going from the stator to the coil break on me, causing intermittent spark, fouling my plug, but a new spade wire connector and a new used b7hs and ciaociao was back at it!
sorry, no pictures.. forgot about my camera and it sat in my bag the whole weekend.
i ended up leaving ciao in reno again, too many cop crack downs in sac and ciaociao isn’t exactly legal.. reno will be taking it to sf rally for me.
i’ll be throwing on a new belt and grab a new plug while i’m at it and i have faith that ciao will make the whole rally! well, as long as i don’t get it ran over again.. eeeh.
Filed under: nothing to do with anything
that’s because the ciao’s been in reno since the reno rally. i should get it back this weekend, i think! and then it’ll be my daily rider in this 100+deg heat! sweet!
also, if you are looking for something to read, check out my all encompassing moped blog called destroy mopeds.
i got sick of making a new blog for every bike i build, so i made one blog for all my projects! i should have done this years ago, i have like 3 or 4 build blogs that rarely get updated, and here i’m updating the destroy blog nearly every day, sometimes more than once a day! dang.
anyway, check it out if you want! i’ll still be posting here about ciao stuff, but don’t expect very frequent updates.
this is really the only picture i got that was moped related at all from the reno rally.
the bike did well, made all the rides and everything, but it seemed slower than usual. while blasting down a hill during the long ride, i noticed that i’m only half way variating!
i think it’s because of the weakened spring in the rear pulley and light weights i have to use. i found another clutch and am going to rebuild it using my red malossi spring and throw it on there, do some variator tuning, and see if i can’t get my full range back.
despite missing a good chunk of transmission range, ciaociao was one of the fastest, if not the fastest, bike in reno again. that’s what i love about riding in reno, the rides aren’t all super fast and hectic, they are mostly slow and fun!
anyway, i had to leave ciaociao in reno due to not having a ride back to sacramento for it. austin is supposed to bring it back for me sometime. once he does, i’ll swap clutches and see what i can seee.
got the stupid $15 piece i needed to put ciao back on the road! that dumb pulley back!
still need to address the collapsed rear spring.. only one of the coils still functions. i ran it last race like this and it did ok, i just had to lighten up the weights a lot.
there being only one coil of the spring actually functioning, the rear pulley likes to bounce. it’s hard to explain in text, but the same thing will happen with a french bike if you have the spring too soft.. the weights will cause it to variate quick, then the spring will push back and you’ll have your motor bouncing on the spring. on a french bike the belt can come off when that happens, on a dual variated bike it’s mostly just annoying. still usable, though!
man, it’s weird to be back on the ciao. i’m not used to it anymore at all!
i swapped out the drag bars for some bmx lookin things that rafter gave me. i had to weld about a half inch to the ends to make them wide enough for my grips, but that wasn’t a big deal. not sure how i like them. more comfy, for sure, but dunno if i dig the look.
those forks have always bothered me, too. they are too long. digging through the pile of trashed forks, i found an old set of ebrs that clamp the fork tubes up top and bottom, like the more expensive ebrs do. the forks are trashed, but the top plate appears to be good! except the chrome is rotten as hell, but whatever, i’ll just sandblast it.
i’m sure it’ll look stupid with the fork tubes sticking out the top, but whatever, i’ll work it out in the end.
anyway, more later! i’m going to build a battery box/license plate holder/tail light thingy here pretty soon! it’s gunna be neat!
hello everyone, did you miss me? no? oh.
anyway! ciao is sitting at the shop and i’ve started converting it back to street use. that pretty much just means i’m putting lights on it.
i’m using magnomos’ old headlight because that’s what i happen to have laying around. besides, the terry dean edition mf headlight sticker suits ciaociao.
if you’ll remember, i’ve got some dinky little cdi system from a kids dirt bike powering the bike, so no lights. once i get my battery back from alan, i’m going to build a little battery box and mount it back by the rear wheel.. i’ll take pictures that better explain it as i’m doing it.
not sure what i’m going to use as a tail light just yet.
also, here’s a better picture of the damage done last time ciaociao ran..
i’ll never use malossi variator bits again! well, except weights and rear springs i suppose..
anyway, that’s all i’ve got for the moment. now that ciaociao’s going to be my daily rider, i’ll be changing a lot about it, so there should be more fun times ahead. new pipes, new bars, maybe new paint.. watch and see!
Filed under: race
i’ve said it a couple times in here i think, i’ve retired ciaociao from racing. ciaociao wasn’t ever supposed to be a track bike, just a fast, fun street/rally bike, so that’s what it’s going to be from now on!
and ok, MAYBE a back up bike for the track if something goes wrong with the race bike..
anyway, i’ve started a build blog, much like this one, for my 2010 polini cup bike. well, hopefully it’ll be so rad that it won’t just be my 2010 bike, but the bike i race from now on.
i’m not going to go into it here, but i am going to leave you with a link to the blog. while it’s no vespa ciao blog, it’s something else moped related for you to read, and you can see why this thing never gets updated with new stuff, all my time and money is being spent over there!
theVX4.wordpress.com
