MOPED ARMY

Right on man! I don't abuse my mopeds but at the same time, I ride mine and make it work. The ride to work is downhill but coming home is mostly uphill so my little ped gets a workout. I put it in front of the turbo heater at work and it helped big time. I think I'll start heating the engine up before I head for home then I won't have to ride hunched over grabbing the choke for about 3 blocks in order to keep it running. :-)

Glad to hear that I'm amongst die-hard ped riders on this list. I have been kind of entertaining the idea of making a third wheel that clamps on the side of the ped and sticks out about 2 feet (like a sidecar would) to act as a guide so I don't have the tendency to fall down in the snow. I figure that a dirt bike wheel and fork combo would work well for this. The idea of having a set of ski's was mentioned to me but that sucks if you hit bare concrete. A 3rd wheel would certainly make things safer.

Erin in the frozen SE corner of Nebraska.

BTW: I'm 29 years old! :-)

On Monday School was called off for me at noon because it snowed so much here in Chicago. I work Monday through Friday at and usually drive my truck that I have. I start at 1:20(Get out of school early every day at 1:15). With the extra time on my hands, I went home and parked my truck. I took out my moped and started her up. While I was waiting for it to warm up I put on my scarf, ski mask, gloves, hat, wrap around glasses for eye protection and my bright orange backpack. I started to make my way out of my garage when I ran into my neighbor. He told me "You're Fck'in Nuts!" I just smiled and went on my way. The streets were plowed a little bit, but still had some of the freshly laid snow on them. This is the first time in riding in snow w/ a motorized two wheel vehicle. I got out of my drive way ok and not even half way down the block my Tomos Targa LX slipped from me. I did about a 90 degree turn and stuck my left foot out so that I wasnt going to hurt the bike or fall on my ass. I heard a SCRAPPING sound as the bike leaned. I was hoping it wasnt the side of the bike. What it was, was the kick stand that sticks out a little bit. No biggy. I kept on riding and made it fine for about a mile, where i felt some more freshly laid snow. I started slipping again. I saw a lady who was w/ her husband snow blowing. I'll never forget her voice saying, "OH---My----GOD!---." I just smiled back at her. I started slipping a little more and as I looked back I saw a cop behind me. He started to talk to me. He told me, "Little too dangerous to ride that." I told him, "yeah, I should have brought my truck." He asked me how far I had to go and I told him less than a mile. He said, "Be careful." I thought he was going to give me more shit than that. He was probably thinking in his head, "What a Fck'in idiot." I really don't care what people think when I'm on my moped. Right where the cop talked to me, is where I had to get onto a main street. I made my right hand turn and stayed in the left lane(since my work is on the left side). The road was alot better than the previous. It still had snow on it but was a lot more slushed up. I road in the left side tire track. I went about 15-20mph on this road. There was a bunch of snow where I had to cross over train tracks. The snow was up to my nees when sitting on my 'ped. When a truck had passed over it, the tire(two back ones that are together) made enough room for me to squeeze through the passage way. My work was right past the tracks on the left and I made it in there fine. I opened up the garage to park it. When I left work, going home was not as bad as going there. Still was a struggle. I dont know if I will ever go out in that kind of snow again with my moped. We had like 8-12 inches of snow. If I plan to go out in it, I would like to take a snow mobile or even an ATV would be nice. Snow tires would have helped my Tomos alot since there is no grip w/ the stock tires in the snow. Dont let anything stop you(as long as your safe).

Swarm and Destroy!

I have never tried this and obviously I do not recommend that anyone do this.... insert your own "weasel words" here. I recall reading a tip from a two wheeled snow and ice rider who claimed that wrapping brass (to protect the chrome wheel) chain from the hardware store around the tire and rim gives great traction.

Ron

Welcome to the party Erin...glad to see another 30-ish "Geezer" of mopedism out there.

I have a design for that third wheel assmebly for Tomos, but no working model - I drew up the designs after losing a leg in a near-fatal wreck, but since I got a Tomos trike shortly after, never really needed to build it.

Yeah, stock tires suck, you want Cheng Shin PR4 16x2.25 Street Eaters, but it's hard to find the right tread, since each one has multiple tread designs that are not listed properly in the catalog.

I wish I could drop a diagram of what the tread looks like, but all I can do is describe it, it looks like regular street tread but it's really deep, and cut in sections of 1-3/4", which works like knobbies in snow.

Outriggers aren't a bad idea either, and can be made from shelf brackets, if you know what you are doing.

That was me, and it does work, but the chains eventually break, so keep some extra footage of it, with S-hooks and something to cut it with in yer saddlebags.

You wrap it all the way around at 4"-6" intervals and hook it secure with small S-hooks.

The chain itself is this light, flat-link brass stuff they use for decoration and marking off gardens, etc...and because it's soft, you don't chew up the tires with it, works on mags or spokes, but check spoke trueness and tension more often if you are going to use it with spokes.

Myself, I wear a full snowmobile suit...I dress warmly, with thermal underwear and a light sweater, then put the liner from an Mk65 US Field jacket on, and my O-neal motorcross armor on top of that, then cover the works with the snowmobile suit.

Stomping boots, goretex cycle gloves and a skimask/goggles top that off, even if you do look like a bug.

Don't forget to take the ski-mask off when you stop at 7-11 for coffee, though, hehehehe, I once forgot and the lady behind the counter pushed the alarm button thinkin I was gonna rob the joint, oops.

I wear the armor underneath mostly because I am from baltimore, and it paid at the time to not let on that you were so-covered to the crowd of brick and bottle throwing thugs you'd find on many corners - it really puts a dent in such a thing to hurl a chunk of stone and watch it bounce off the guys chest as he just glares at you, and possibly gives chase...

I saw a couple of guys out yesterday on Honda Elites as I was driving my roomies car somewhere (out of our crowd, I am the only one who can drive a car in this mess either) and was tempted to stop and give em kudos, but I didn't wanna take the risk of runnin em over by accident, or get a chain through the windshield if they mistook me for someone with an attitude problem before I could say hi.

On that note, I still do reccommend swapping the brake levers, so your rear brake is on the same hand the throttle is, that way one can operate the moped with one hand without worrying about goin over the handlebars, as you would with the front brake....and this frees you to fill your left hand with a fistfull of chain when need be.

As for being frozen-in, or having frozen hand controls, I carry two items that help a bunch with that, first one is a spray bottle loaded with isopropyl alcohol, with makes a pretty good de-icer, and a can of WD40 to spray down the visible part of the throttle cables.

The reason for the second was that one longer ride in the snow, the melted ice re-froze and locked the throttle cable wide-open, and the engine run/stop button was not only frozen, but shorted open by ice as well, so I hadda lay the bike into a snow drift at 35Mph and roll off using the fall technique which anyone who rides should know (rolling off the shoulder to minimize impact, they teach it in some karate classes, and it's good to know if you ever wind up takin a dive offa the 'ped).

Luckily, The Tomos had a shutoff in the Del Lorto carb for that, when the bike pitches too far over, it cuts off the fuel..handy, that.

Anyhow, it's a real good idea to spray down any visible cable with the WD40 before starting out, if you don't want them freezing in position.

Be careful out there folks,

-Ree

No shit... it snowed for 24 hours and he got a whole 2 inches?

What do you teach Miguel?... nevermind .. I don't want to know.

Our education system is pathetic.

So Ron... you live in Howell MI?

I'm right over here in Waterford... we got 13" at my house Mon night.

No riding for me.... there is not enough room on the road to take evasive action from the idiot car drivers.... drifts and piles are 2 to 5 feet (that's 24 to 60 of them inch things).

Miguel,

I figured it out, see my reply to Fred.

Ron

The night before the blizzard hit here in Kalamazoo I was proclaiming that I was going to get my moped out of storage and ride the next day -- When I woke up I could barley move my 4-wheel drive truck, let alone my moped!

I'm almost convinced that my statement actually caused the blizzard...

Cool

Well I see I generated quite the traffic with this post! All I can say is that I'm having a blast. Today when I got up, the temp was around 0 to 5 degrees F and right now it's currently about 5. I go to work around 7:45 in the morning and ride home past 6:00 in the dark. The winds were blowing about 25 to 30mph straight gale all day and I saw many a U.S. Flag in shreds on the poles. But there I was, still riding happy and strong on my little ped. We've had about 12 inches of snow in the past week and there are now drifts and snow plow piles in excess of 8 feet tall sitting all over the place. So this is pretty rough conditions but I still ride my little reliable ped back and forth. He just keeps on running and not complaining. Every evening I treat him to a heat bath in front of the kerosene heater at work and then I'm rewarded with a quick startup and smooth ride home.

I'm getting better at this - using my legs for skis and sensing when the ped is going to tip. I then apply just enough pressure with that leg and up I sit. Turning corners in the snow is a no-no though. You pretty much have to stop or at least slow down a lot then walk the ped through the turn and start up again.

Enjoy riding your ped's no matter what the weather!

Erin in chilly southeast corner of Nebraska!