MOPED ARMY

"Nobody is making any money on this project, its like helping a newbie out and get him into the hobby."

What are you teaching - how to get other people to fix your bike?

Rockettman is getting something for his labor, so if he's happy with what he's getting, I suppose I shouldn't get bent out of shape about it.

I drove over to the owner's house, so there's a gallon of gas. Then I took the engine and wheels to Toledo for free, essentially, because I was going there already both for the Zeros event and to take other items to a third party for a trade I've set up.

When I took the engine off of the bike, I learned that the exhaust needs welding, so there's a possibility of additional cost involved.

Plus, once the work is done, one of us will have to drive to Detroit or Cleveland as there's a little electrical work to do on the wiring harness. With new tires and your basic rebuild, plus a tank of gas and turnpike tolls, there's probably $50 to $75 profit to be made. And that's if the issue doesn't involve a condenser or spark plug coil.

When I priced things out at treatland in a worse case scenario, parts alone totaled $325. It can't be THAT bad, but I wanted the owner to be prepared. He didn't want to end up paying as much as $450 to fix a moped.

Rockettman had started a thread about the high cost of rebuilding a motor recently. I see what he was concerned about.

Yes screw helping people out. I had a noob question my work far before he even started the bike after I spent over 8 hours on it. I pushed it outside and asked him to leave. Selfish fuck. I’m happy to loose time and money only to never deal with some gothic punk ever again.

So Rockettman finished the rebuild, and with some add-ons approved by the owner, the job came in at the $415 price, closer to my worst case estimate of $450 than the $325 he would liked.

The bike is now reassembled at my house and back in my parked mini van. All I really need to do is get some good gas mix, add several cups or the like and fire the bike up. Richard slapped the motor on my Motron mule he's had for the last year, so the motor has been road tested, but on a different bike.

The owner wants me to bring the bike to his house. Personally, I'd like to ride it the 15 miles there and have the owner bring me back home. The owner doesn't want me to do that. He'd like me to drive a total of 60 miles as I would have to borrow my brother's pickup, and he lives in the opposite direction.

After I deliver the bike, he's going to take it to the Honda shop that connected the two of us so the Honda mechanic can check out a 40 year old moped they know nothing about.. Oh, the Honda shop is 3/4 of a mile away from my house.

I would just as soon have the guy get the bike himself from my place on a day he can arrange for the shop to look at it, or I could drive the bike down the street and walk home.

With all the BS this job has gone through, Richard probably isn't making any money on his labor because he delivered the bike from Detroit to Cleveland, and I'll be out some gas money if I end up driving a total of 90 miles for this guy. There was a box with a sha and a Runtang carb in it that might make me happy to get for my trouble.

I do like helping people out, but this is ridiculous.

Yeah there’s little respect for your time especially among younger crowd.

We aren't really 100 percent sure why the bike stopped running.

After the rebuild was complete, Richard had the motor running on my Motron frame with the original capacitor and spark plug coil.

He brought the motor over from Detroit and spent about 6 hours putting everything back together. As the tail light base was missing, a little bit of time was spent on that.

I discovered that there was a short section of bare wire near the tail light from the tire wearing, and two wires had cracks where the wires plug into the fixture. One of the bulbs was missing, so I'm thinking a short and blown bulb?

As usual, the seals were dried up and there was some bad wear on the starter clutch leaf spring. Kind of disappointing for a motor with 600 miles on it. SOMEONE needs a little lesson on V1 starter clutch usage.

Now this guy is bitching that Richard and I put too many miles (12) on his bike and should get a refund.

Richard drove from Detroit to Toledo to meet me and pick up the engine. Then he drove from Detroit to Cleveland to deliver the motor and reassemble the bike. And I will end up driving about 90 miles after picking up the bike and later delivering the bike.

Plus, Richard tested, timed, tuned, and broke in the motor by putting it on one of my bikes for several hours and miles and I'm not bitching about that.

I won't be this helpful the next time.

Yep. Bill him for the work, and file a lien when he doesn’t pay. Prick!

that dudes a butthead. id just stop replying at that point he obviously does not understand what parts cost. "he got a good payday even though he said he made nothing" man that upsets me :^( I bet you the nut on the housing just came loose, take it out, put it back in.