Coupla things, and stuff for those who were and were not present at the BBQ.
#File under "interesting"
Stock Tomos Piston= 38mm, with available oversize to 38.50mm.
Well, upon examination, the Garelli apparently uses a 40mm piston, and the it LOOKS like it would fit, the wrist pin hole looked to be about 10-12mm, so I would think it's doable to bore a Tomos out to 40mm and use one, which could be neat.
Upon close examination of various rear sprockets, it seemed to me as long as the sprocket itself was just a flat piece of metal, it'd be fairly easy to machine one to whatever size you'd want, as long as you have a good idea of how the teeth/diameter issue works.
In addition, it really does look like the Tomos 22/23 rear sprocket WILL fit many of the 'peds that use a flat-type rear sprocket, if the bolt holes match up, and they look like they will...and it seems a pretty "far-out" mod for some of them, one of them had a 44-tooth rear sprocket, so you'd be reducing the rear by about 50%, which is pretty extreme.
I don't have a real solid idea of the ratio/teeth issue on many of these 'peds, so I dunno if it would make it near-impossible to accellerate or anything like that, but I figure sooner or later, someones gonna try it - just make sure ya post the results, ok ?
For you Batavus owners - as far as I know, most of you poor guys are stuck with the 20-25mph carbs, and it seems pretty hard to get S-22 30Mph carbs, well...rejoice, I seem to have solved your problem.
Model numbers aside, all the old Tomos Bullets that used the Encarwi carb used the same damn one that Batavus does, and they were ALL 30mph versions, and not nearly as hard to get your hands on, so instead of waiting and wishing for an S-22?, just grab yourself an old Bullet carb and slap that on.
Two notes on that are that you also might wish to replace the exhaust, and the airfilter (metal screen type) that comes with the Encarwi, they seem quite nastily restrictive...the DelLoro airfilter (metal screen type) isn't nearly as much so, but I am not very sure they cross over that well.
#Special note.
This for the guy who graciously let me take a spin on his Tomos Golden Bullet TTLX,
I was considering something for a while, and it seems to me, that the 'ped "hits it's stride" way too early, and how it's rigged now...it hits the greatest power output right AT the damn shift-point, making it WAY more difficult to shift than normal, and really wasting tons of power right around that point, cause yer already at the top of 1st and it just can't be applied, and the way the centrifugal clutch works, it would logically make shifting harder than it had to be.
I thought on this a bit, and I'd say you really need to widen that out, kinda spread the power out a bit so it's not crammed all at the end of 1st gear...so I would say get the 27tooth sprocket and put it on there, cause while that might cut into your accelleration some, it would help evenly distribute it so that you could actually USE more of it, giving better performance over a longer range...it should also save you some clutch wear, I would think.
So go with the 27-sprocket if you can, and whatever other mods that might distribute all that power more evenly across your gear range, cause you got plenty of it, but the way it's set up now, it wastes a damn lot of it at the top of 1st.
#The dollhouse.
Made mention to a coupla folks that I also build dollhouses/models and miniatures, and it occurs to me that many, if not most, moped people seem to have other interests or hobbies in small-detail work of that type...it'd be interesting to find out how universal that is amongst moped owners.
And, cause it cannot really be described (tho I tried) I'll see if I can cull out and attach a couple of the better dollhouse pics here...they were taken with a fixed-lens polaroid by me and scanned, so if they're a bit blurry that's why...I ain't no photographer of any note by a longshot.
#The ride from in to/from BBQ.
You guys gotta try that, it's awesome!
As I said several times, there's folks who pay big $$$ for scenic tours like that, and this is right in our own backyard, so to speak, and can be seen on a couple bucks worth of gas, so it's well worth the doing...although in the future (rubbin sore arse) I think I shall make sure to try this venture on a 'ped with better shocks, heh.
No offense at all against those Mbecane-7's tho, Ron, those are SWEET 'peds, a true classic and tough as nails..I was pretty impressed by 'em, all in all.
I get that Targa up and runnin, I will definately try this run on that as well if I can manage to do so.
Happy moppedin one and all,
-R