Results 151–180 of 2297
Legendre — 18 years ago
The tires are slick from the mold-release compound that was left on them after molding. Hit the tread face with some carb cleaner, or you could scuff it off with a little medium sandpaper.As a rule, whenever I put new tires on a bike, I always warn the owner to take it easy on turns for the first 50 miles, until the mold-release has worn off.
Legendre — 18 years ago
I admit, that from the photo, it definitely looks small enough to fit in your pocket.Snerk.
Legendre — 18 years ago
I did a little looking, and as it turns out I had an Express.. 1979 or thereabouts, blue in color. It was almost 10 years ago. It was the only bike of this model I had ever serviced. I recall that I had to do some rebuilding of either the starter or transmission. All I remember of it, was going to Honda Town and buying this really big, long gasket that cost way too much.So, my comments are probabl
Legendre — 18 years ago
FWIW, I once had one of the small honda mopeds, either an Express or original PA50. Getting that exhaust cleaned (difficult) was half of the battle, but even afterwards, this bike 4-stroked like mad at full throttle. Never made it past 20mph.Played with this thing on a daily basis for about 2 weeks, and I'll be damned if I could ever get it to run right. This was when I was working fulI-time
Legendre — 18 years ago
Hm, just seems like extra weight to me. I'd rather have zing than bling.
Legendre — 18 years ago
Max,I couldn't agree more. Champion plugs are OK (not great, just OK) in older equipment that was designed in the era when Champion was an industry leader.But in just about anything else, they are utter trash. Really a black & white issue; that is, the insualtor is white, but the tip is black ;-)In a world of NGK, Denso etc, I fail to see how they stay in business.(Apparently they work in
Legendre — 18 years ago
It might have been a fuel issue, and that's easy enough to rule out - just get some 97-100 octane and retry. But as you point out, I also would have expected some detonation or pre-ignition, if fuel was really the issue.I'd go after spark timing and quality at this point. Moped ignitions can be kind of marginal at times, and I wouldn't be surprised if the ignition wasn't up to
Legendre — 18 years ago
No, changing the head has no effect on TDC postion; that is a function of the crank design.A high compression head also does not affect the displacement of the engine (a function of bore and stroke). It does reduce the volume of the combustion chamber, which increases both static compression pressure and BMEP (brake mean-effective pressure).Higher compression engines (usually anything over about 9
Legendre — 18 years ago
I checked the e3sparkplugs site, and they don't seem to have any types for moped or motorcycle.No crosses from NGK B5HS, B6HS, Champ L86C, Bosch W8AC, etc.Loads of types for power equipment and most cars, just no cycles. Go figure.BTW, the animation is pretty cheesy. If my grandpa were still alive, he'd look at that and say (with a wink) "See how that works, kid?".
Legendre — 18 years ago
Find out who distributes NGK in your area, call them up, and ask for a copy of the Motorcycle/Moped/ATV/Snowmobile book. Really useful.
Legendre — 18 years ago
There is a nice little measuring tool you can buy at most motorcycle/snowmobile/outboard shops, or online. It's called a "Ratio-Rite", and makes creating any mixture very easy.The Ratio-Rite has several calibrated scales, for amounts of fuel vs. oil. Buy one, they are like $4.If you know how much fuel you have, and what ratio you want, it measures the correct amount of oil for the j
Legendre — 18 years ago
Sounds like the primary jet is OK with the filter, but the main jet is too large.Try a smaller main jet; you should be able to get good performance in both ranges.I'd assume it's a Mikuni or Keihin off of the Honda. Jets should be available.
Legendre — 18 years ago
Scratch,When it comes to conventional wisdom on port design/modification, the old Firesign Theatre line "Everything You Know Is Wrong!" applies. I'm no expert in these matters, but I've been learning a bit of cutting edge stuff recently, thanks to my friend Steve.Steve builds HRD Vincent motorcycles, and is currently in phase two of his attempt to break Rollie Free's famou
Legendre — 18 years ago
By "boost bottle" I think he's referring to what we call a plenum tank in the motorcycle field.Imagine tapping a pipe thread into the top of your intake manifold, installing a fitting, then running a short hose from the fitting to an inverted plastic bottle. This setup behaves kind of like a vacuum capacitor.When the engine is sucking in an intake charge, the manifold vacuum pulse p
Legendre — 18 years ago
The lamps we use have a standard base (like an 1154/1157 tail lamp) but have an LED array instead of the glass bulb. I'm pretty sure AutoZone sells them, but then again, the ones we use are 12V. JC Whitney also sells LED bulbs, check them for a 6V version. Also try the LEDTRONICS website.If you do manage to find a set that works with your voltage, you'll probably need one of the electron
legendre — 18 years ago
More lighting is a great safety measure, but I'd be careful about it.Just adding two 6W bulbs to a 6V system will increase the load by a full 2 amps. These systems don't have a lot of extra capacity. There's a reason that moped headlamps are in the 20-30W range, and not 55-60W like a car.Consider that a 60W lamp on a 6V system is drawing a full 10 amps - that's the amount of cu
legendre — 18 years ago
Ok, let's stop for a moment and look at things.First, maybe I'm blind, but I can't see anywhere on this site exactly what make/model of moped these kits are designed for. That seems like a pretty imporant detail to me, but not to them I guess! Can someone clue me in?Second, they're using words like "awesome", "agressive" and "extreme" to describe t
legendre — 18 years ago
I think you've got that backwards, Scratch. Take a look at :http://www.ngk.de/Heat_rating_and_heat_rating_nu.657.0.htmlBut fully agreed that NGK is #1 for bikes. And they only cost pennies more than a crap plug, like a Champion or Autolite.
legendre — 18 years ago
Torque converters are inefficient. This is one of the reasons that in a given vehicle (take a car as an example) the automatic versions put less power to the road than standard transmission. The power is lost as heat into the fluid, which then requires cooling. This is the point of lock-up converters; once the vehicle is at speed, the converter can be locked, which improves efficiency.Moto Guzzi 1
legendre — 18 years ago
Err.. all gas tanks need to have some sort of venting. You need to make up that volume some way, as gas is used.I've never seen a gravity-feed fuel system without a vent; either a vented cap, or a seperate tank vent with a vent tube.
legendre — 18 years ago
The difference is heat range. With NGK, the higher the number, the colder the plug; (an 8 is three steps colder than a 5).The heat range of a plug determines how effective the plug is at transferring heat from the plug tip & insulator, to the cylinder head.Use the specified heat range for your engine, unless you have modified it.
legendre — 18 years ago
I'm sure it's been discussed, but my searches aren't finding anything..If I wanted to buy a moped specifically for kitting it, what make/model is the best choice?I'm speaking in terms of best selection and availability of performance parts; not just for the engine, but better tires, brakes, suspension as well. And a bottom end that can take the power.Would have to have mag whee
legendre — 18 years ago
This is going to sound like heresy, but just forget about using a "hemi" design in the head. Hemispherical combustion chambers are an old, and outmoded design. Modern wedge or penta designs with matching pistons are generally superior..I'm well aware of the massive "marketing breakthrough" that Chrysler has had in recent times with the "Hemi", but truth be told,
legendre — 18 years ago
The performance exhausts incorporate what we generally call "expansion chambers". You'll see that the pipe starts out small, tapers up to a larger diameter for some distance, then tapers back down to a small diameter for the rest of its length. The small diameter portion at the end is called the "stinger", and is usually fitted with a silencer (muffler) at its tip.On a 2-s
legendre — 18 years ago
Very interesting info.. I didn't realize that the piston/cyl matching was not required in the later models.By the way, since (I'm told) the motobecane has a chrome bore, how do you prep it when you are installing a new piston / rings? Bead hone? Brake cylinder hone?
legendre — 18 years ago
Just curious.. since it seems almost impossible to buy a correct NOS piston for a Motobecane 50 (they had 8 different match codes for cyl/piston) what about using an Airsal 70cc kit as a stock replacement set?Basically, can you bolt up a 70cc kit with stock carb & exhaust and run, or will it create a problem?I know the Gurtner jets are near-impossible to find, but going a little larger should
legendre — 18 years ago
Speaking of T-500 Titan (what an awesome bike..) I've got a bunch of T-500 stuff to sell. Complete bike, plus a load of motor stuff, and lots of various parts. Includes a complete set of mirror-polished engine case covers.What's a good forum to sell this stuff?
legendre — 18 years ago
Hm.. I wasn't trying to start up an LC vs. AC debate, but was mostly reflecting on several recent posts about homebrew liquid cooling measures.Just trying to spark discussion, and hear about others' experiences. Seems there are a number of knowledgeable folks around here.
legendre — 18 years ago
In old times, liquid cooling was initially accomplished by evaporation. For example, stationary engines (Like John Deere, for farm use) used reserviors of water for cooling. As the water heated and boiled off, heat was lost faster than via air-cooling.Moped engines don't produce that much total heat, why not surround one with a water jacket and let the heat boil off as steam? Safe to say, the
Legendre — 13 years ago
Since you asked - a couple pieces of info about plug gaps..Most all flywheel-magneto ignition systems seem to specify 0.40-0.50mm (~.015-.020") gap.Running the gap wider than specified can have two negative effects. First, the system may not be able to reliably fire the gap under all conditions. Secondly, the wider gap forces the coil voltage to rise to a higher point before it can make the j