My gold maxi has that place in my heart. It’s the moped that got me back into mopeds and has helped save me from depression and anxiety.
I quit mopeds 7 or 8 years ago. I had a lot of fun with my first maxi, rode that fucker everywhere for a few years. It was stock as fuck, but I always dreamed of kitting it and doing big things. My sisters tomos ate a transmission, so we stole the top end and bolted it to the maxi. Had fun until I got port happy and bricked it. Got a magnum in a trade at some point. Was told it was some sort of rare model, but that didn’t mean much to me at the time. My goals for that we’re bigger. It had the Za50, which was intriguing. After some research though, all the naysaying and misunderstanding of the Za50 scared me away from building it. Not until recently did I know that under a can of red spray paint(previous owner) there was a ups magnum.
After a while, the scene just wasn’t around me(that I knew of), and I had other things going on so I gave up on mopeds altogether and sold the maxi and magnum. Fast forward to the end of 2019, beginning of 2020 and I started talking about a moped again. This time I had a goal set. To find a moped relatively cheap and build what I always wanted, a kitted moped. My preference being a puch or tomos. High on my list was a Za50 powered maxi. One, because my first moped was a maxi and two, because I never gave the first za50 the love that it needed. I searched and searched for a few months until I came across my gold maxi. A 1979 maxi ii. Crusty, rusty, and the Za50 in desperate need of rebuilding.
I picked it up when covid was on the rise, things were starting to shut down and everyone was hunkering down. I had suspicions of problems in my relationship before and covid really put a magnifying glass on that. She wouldn’t see me in person, even if outside, wearing masks, and socially distanced. I had a feeling she was using covid as an advantage to push me away. My breaking point was being on a video chat and seeing her drinking a Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee, while telling me she never leaves the house and doesn’t touch outside things in fear of covid.
At one point I jokingly said “this moped will be on the road before I see her”... well it is, has been and I still haven’t seen her. I do wish her the best, but I also wish never to see her again.
It was a daunting task to take on. I’ve been working on cars for years, but I’d never rebuilt a moped before, let alone a Za50 engine. My initial goals were mild, but after a bunch of research, I set myself a big goal and started buying parts immediately. With covid driving a wedge in the world and me dealing with a break up, I was distressed and depressed. Building the moped kept me sane. It kept me busy and kept my mind working, it still does every day.
Mopeds, that one specifically, saved my life this past year. If it weren’t for that I don’t know where I would be today. I’ve always struggled with depression and anxiety. Having something to keep me busy and keep me thinking has always helped, but nothing as much as mopeds has. With everything else I’ve ever tinkered on, there’s always a “best way” to do things and everything is so uniform. It gets boring an monotonous. With mopeds there really is no right or wrong way to do something. There’s soo many different directions you can go and so many different mopeds to build in different ways. There is no “best way” to do things no matter which route you go and there’s always room for improvement.
Mopeds in general mean a lot to me, but this gold maxi holds a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Saving her from an ugly unknown future, saved me from the same and set me on a path to do the same for others when I can(Mopeds and humans). I cherish her for that.