while the rest of boston's mopeders were in newton fixing their bikes, i was banished to central mass as my brother commandeered my apartment (but for ducats, so not a total loss).
buuut all was not lost as i managed to fix marley's float today!!! i bought her on ebay in late may and when the petcock was turned on after three or four seconds she was pouring liquid out the carb overflow like an excited puppy. you might recognize her as the old shriner columbia commuter moped, or my little rasta moped, as i lovingly call her.
i took apart the carb, thought i fixed the float, put it back together, found out i hadn't, took it apart, lost the pin, found the pin, lost the pin, cleaned everything with carb cleaner and adjusted the metal rings holding the float in place, found the pin, used toothpicks to get random weird pieces of gunk out of brass tubes (this bing looks nothing like bones's gurtner) put it back together, and voila, she runs like a champ, doesn't drizzle gasoline at the sight of me, and clocks at at least 25 according to a wobbly gps that i held as i was steering with one hand going up a hill not at wot.
this might not seem like much to any of you but this is the first time i have taken apart a carburetor without tim's immediate assistance, and the first time i've ever seen a bing.
today was a pretty good day after this float success, minus the disaster of the rest of my life. now, am i bringing her back to boston tomorrow? if i can clock her going over 30mph i'll bring her and maybe test her on the wednesday ride.