Filed under: belt, brakes, carb, clutch, cosmetic, dellorto, frame, intake, lighting, new parts!, transmission, variator
remember moped blogs? what ever happened to these things? photobucket being a dumpster fire sure messed this particular blog up. facebook and instagram have all but killed blogs and forums. oh well!
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!
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!
ciaociao is already down in sacramento waiting for me, i left it there after the reno rally.
by the way, my “reliable” bike seized a main bearing at the reno rally, so i did the rest of it on ciao and ciao had no issues whatsoever! it has became my most reliable moped!
the belts i ordered from malossi direct showed up, plus the one from treats i’ve been carrying around with me, i should be good on belts for a little while. those malossi belts are awesome, but the shred apart after a while. the one i’m currently running is starting to fray a little, so i think i’ll be replacing it soon.
i also need to pull the carb off the intake plate and put some loctite on the threads of the mounting bolts, the carb likes to start to wiggle loose after a while. it doesn’t even seem to notice the air leaks, but it’s something that needs to be addressed.
anyway, more to come when i’m in sacramento! goodbye for now, seattle!
Filed under: brakes, carb, cdi, dellorto, electronics, fail!, intake, new parts!, port timing
since my last update i’ve gotten a few things taken care of. firstly, i took care of the rear brake.
i have never had a moped with crappy brakes, especially the rear. i know the front does most of the stopping, but all of my bikes have always had awesome rear brakes, like skid worthy. i was a little disappointed in ciaociao’s rear brake hardly slowing me down even.
i pulled the rear end apart to sand the pad and see if there was anything i could do to make it work better, when i remembered i had a kinetic rear hub floating around. i dug it out and discovered the brake pad on it was over twice as wide as the stock ciao pad!
here you can see the stock pad compared to the kinetic pad, which i had already mounted in this picture;
the kinetic one is probably a third bigger than my “large” vespa pad from my si that got saturated in gear oil. totally found another good thing about kinetics! can you believe it?
after mounting it, i got it all sanded and ready to use, and threw a new pedal sprocket on with fewer teeth for good measure.
it works awesome now! skid city!
i also fixed my flywheel fan for the last time, i hope!
i made a new spacer on the lathe, only this time i gave it a cheek for the fan to rest on. i pretty much re-created the same spacer from last time, but left it a super thin shelf for the back of the fan.
then i chucked the fan itself up in the lathe and turned out a step for the spacer’s shelf to fit into.
here they are side by side;
and put together;
poured on the 4000lb test glue and it works perfectly! no more fan falling into my expensive coils!
speaking of expensive coils, after installing the new set and putting the bike back together, i wasn’t getting any spark at all. took the bike all the way apart again to discover my coils were faulty. either they came that way, or i some how broke them while installing them.. at any rate, i thought i was up a creek.
after calling around to literally 20+ ktm dealers in my area, i finally found on that had one in stock! it ended up costing me a good deal more than the other coils, but the ones i got are true made-in-italy ktm50 coils, not after market knock-offs like the last two sets i had and broke. the actual ktm coils are way better quality and totally worth the extra money.
i put the new new coils in last night, cut and bent up a lever choke for my phbg so it would fit, and it fired right up. it was about 11p and i got yelled at by the neighbor, so i put it away for the night. i started in on tuning today and discovered i have an air leak at the intake plate i made, but i have a few ideas to fix that pretty easy. for the meanwhile, i’m going to be slapping on the black rtv and get to tuning!
she’s almost ready to rip!!
Filed under: carb, cdi, clutch, electronics, fail!, intake, motor, performance, variator, video
so early last week we had a 90+ deg. day here in seattle, which means it probably got up to 3000+ deg. in my bed room. my computer melted down. 😦
i haven’t had a chance to assess the damage, i’m hoping it was only the video card.
this has made it difficult for me to keep you guys up to date. sorry!
ciaociao’s first start! sorry so dark, austin took that at 3am last thursday, the first day of the rally.
it made the first day! i was stoked.
however, i was plagued with problems. haha
about half way through the ride the clutch bell was billowing smoke. i have yet to tear into it to figure out why. my guess is that one of those malossi springs broke and i was dragging a pad the whole time.
also, i noticed the fan was ungluing itself from the spacer mikemike and i made for it.
the fan was just kind of pressed onto the spacer, and then glued.
the concept was perfect, just the execution was a little off. it fit perfectly.
and it worked great! but the glue was failing, so it’s time for something new. i think we will build another spacer like this one, but give it teeth around the out side, heat it up and press it into the fan. THEN i’ll go over it with some epoxy.
the plastic fan with the tiny rotor reaaaally made this thing rip.
you can kind of tell in the video above that the throttle response is amazing. with no weight on the crank, it would speed up and slow down super fast.. and the whole thing was super simple! well, again, the concept was simple, actually making it happen took some work.
first we made the stator plate and got the coil and everything bolted up. we used a timing light to time it.
then the fan/spacer combo slides down the shaft and rests on the rotor.
then the fan shroud gets bolted on and it’s ready to be put in the frame.
once in the frame, the variator is installed and the big nut smashes everything together.
also, as you can see, the carb fit right in there! it took some manipulation of the frame, and a razor blade to shave down a plastic phbg bowl in just the right spots, but it fits perfect.
so anyway, riding it. i had it jetted waaay too rich. anything past quarter throttle sounded like i was riding under water, it was four stroking so bad.
but it was fast.
man, when i found the sweet spot at 1/4 throttle, the fork would unload and off it went.. it was a little scary. i can’t wait to see what full throttle is like.. oh man.
after the smoky clutch and fan coming apart on me, i decided to put it away for the rest of the rally and to ride a less intense bike.
creature rally is in a month and a half. i was hoping to have this thing painted and finished by then, but i have some serious tuning to do before then, so we’ll see.
i need to jet it proper, need to drill out or find new weights for the variator (it was variating before the clutch would grab, yet would ride wheelies on command), make sure this clutch doesn’t blow up on me and get the fan issue tamed.
and hopefully get the fork finished and loose the heavy bravo forks.
and get the frame braced and welded up.
yay, mopeds are fun again!
ok, i’ve been all over the place about my carb issues. this evening i committed to running the 21 phbg like originally planned. why? because it was the quick and easy, i have jets for it, and i love milling the fuck out of things, even if it’s a $150 chunk of aluminum carb body.
oooh, what?
what’s going on here?
nooooo!
yeah, i milled the spigot off the back of the carb! as well as a few hairs of material to make it flat and fit as close to the intake plate as possible. i’m tight for room!
you might also notice i milled the spot for the idle screw flat and installed a block off, and move the idle screw to the other side of the carb. i was going to do the same for the air mixture screw, but that’s more involved.. and i think i can get away with drilling a small hole in the fan shroud and be able to access that on the bike.
i could have just ordered up a right handed phbg, but i don’t have time for that shit.
here you can see where i milled the plate to hold the reed block;
all that’s left for the intake is to drill a couple holes in the carb it self, tap them, and drill a couple countersunk holes in the intake plate. make a gasket and bolt them together! done!
here you can see how nicely the intake plate matches up with the carb;
once i have it bolted solid to the plate, i’ll match them together even better and call it good.
i wish i had gotten pictures of milling on the carb, but i didn’t have my camera handy. oh well, i’m sure you can imagine how fun it was!
tomorrow i’m going to make the gasket, mark where the holes go on both the carb and intake plate and return it all to mikemike to let him finish it off. i think i may have to cut a little chunk out of the frame down at the bottom of the fender (not the actual fender it self, but the support below it) to clear the float bowl, but i’ll have to wait and see once i start putting it together.
ok, that’s enough for one night. it’s time for bed.
well, it’s crunch time again. i decided it was time to prioritize what i had left to do for ciaocioa to finish her. i decided the most important, at the top of the list thing that needs to happen, is to get the electronic system and the intake finished. these are things that absolutely need to happen before she’s on the road.
last sunday i went down to mikemike’s and did some work on the mill to make the stator plate we are using fit. all i really had to do was drill some holes in it, and mill it down to be half as thick as it was. then we had to turn the inner hole out a bit larger to clear the bearing seal and it was golden.
here it is sitting in the motor.
notice all the extra holes everywhere. this plate originally went to something else, we used it because it took little to make it fit proper. we’ll only be using the three holes that bolt the plate to the motor, the rest will go unused.
here it is with the rotor and coil set on it something like it will be when it’s all mounted up proper.
you can see how small the rotor is. the little holes in it will be drilled out a bit more and tapped for the alum fan adapter plate to bolt on, which will allow use of the plastic fan i stole from a parted out kinetic.
i hope this weekend to go in and bust out the intake for it. i’ll be using the dellorto si carb to start with.
it uses crazy car-carb-like press-in jets, but they are readily available at pretty much any serious scooter shop. i can also order up what ever i need at the shop, so that’s good.
these carbs are found stock on the old, bigger vespa scooters, so there’s a bit of novelty using it on my vespa ciao.
i chose it for a few reasons; flat slide, down draft (makes building an intake much easier), novelty, availability of jets and parts, and best of all, it was free! thanks jeb!
ok, so those are the things i am going to focus on until they are done.
however, a running engine is no good if you don’t have a bike to put it in..
since my time at mikemike’s shop is reserved for those two bits for now, i’m going to put off the fork swing arms until i get them done.
even if i had the swing arms done, i’d still have to lathe out the stem adapter before i could use that for.. so for now i am going to just use the heavier bravo forks that i was rocking on the orange ciao for so long. i’m also using orange ciao’s handle bars, controls and grips.
tonight i bolted the fork on and threw a too-small axle in the front wheel just to put everything together to see how it looked, and it’s going to be awesome. i forgot my camera here today, so no pictures. i’ll get some tomorrow.
yay!
ok, so here are the pictures of my sealed bearing conversion for the front wheel all ready to go. i thought i got some photos of the bearing cups and knocking them out, and making the spacer for between the sealed bearings, but i can’t find them.. 😦 lame. oh well, if enough people want to see it, i’ll find another wheel to convert and make a walk through for it.
here are pics of it ready to go on the bike!
you can see the spacer in the last pic, showing the bearing inside the brake hub. it’s just a piece of chromoly tubing cut just long enough to support the lateral load of being bolted into the fork. if you do this conversion, make sure you use good steel tubing of a high grade, cut the ends SQUARE, and make sure they only touch the inner race of the bearing.
i’ve also started on the new swing arms for the front fork. originally i was going to make a bracket that bolted to the axle to hold my shock dampeners, but then i realized i needed to mill out the axle slots to fit the larger axle that goes along with the sealed bearing conversion, and that there is no good way to build those brackets to begin with, so i decided custom swing arms were the way to go.
first, i took a block of aluminum billet and cut out two chunks large enough to whittle down to size.
once i had those, i had to take them to the mill and mill them down to the proper width. then i started to shape the inside bottom corner of the arms so that they could pivot in the fork like the originals.
corners shaped, it was time to mill the hole for the bolt that they will pivot on. i made them the same diameter as the holes in the original arms so that i could use the bushings and spacer from them.
the bushings press in nice and tight, and everything fits the fork.
next is to drill the hole for the axle (it will be in the same place as the original, just larger for the bigger axle) and to mill in the slots for the dampeners. once i have that done, i can figure out where i want to drill the holes for the bottom of the dampener and mill off excess aluminum from the arms to reduce weight.
then it’s just a matter of building the upper brackets and picking up some pins to hook everything together! i’m hoping for three different shock mounts at the bottom, maybe two up top. or, to keep it simple, i might just go with one up top and two down below. that would give me a “hard” and “soft” setting.
if i were real fancy, i could do the math, figure out the angles and everything, and know exactly how stiff the front end will be in each mode. but i’m not fancy, i’m just going to wing it. if it’s too stiff, i’ll pick up some 60lb dampeners from the same people i got the 80lb ones from and try again.
so yeah, that’s where i stand. i still don’t know for sure which carb i’m going to use (i have three to choose from), and don’t have the electronic system all ready to go.. and rally time is like a month away! jeez.
sorry about the lack of updates, i’m kind of at a stand still. it sucks because the portland rally that i am supposed to be riding this bike to is approaching so quickly..
i don’t think i’ll be running the dellorto 21 phbg, at least not at first. seattle is kind of on a diaphram carb kick at the moment, i’m going to be testing out a 20mm tillotson carburetor. should be interesting!
but yeah, the list of things left to do before ride time include:
- build intake for tillotson
- build stator plate for cdi, hope everything works
- build swing arms for fork
- build brackets for front shocks
- build stem adapter for stem
- weld in cross bar and weld up seams
- make up my mind on what bars to run
- buy the rest of the little bits (grips, tires, etc.)
- obtain bolt for front axle
- make spacer for front wheel bearings and install
- drill out brake plate to fit new axle
- various other little things
and i’m running out of time! jeez.
running a moped shop makes a lot of that easier, such as collecting the small bits and whatnot, but some of that stuff i need to get on asap. like last week.
anyway, stay tuned. as rally time fast approaches, i’m sure this thing is going to get busy again.
ciaociao 