All I can say is ... wow. If you have even the slightest bit of gasoline in your veins, these youtube videos are stunning to see.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Moar parts
Had a busy weekend, finally was able to finish up a couple products I've been developing during the last few weeks.
It sounds kinda silly saying that, because most of you (especially if you had a machine shop at hand) could have made any of these things in a couple hours, but its totally different when you are producing things to sell. Testing, quality control, all kinds of things have to be done. A big part of what this experiment with the moped business is teaching me is the concept of 'design for manufacturability'. It means altering your design to make a product easier to produce, or more consistent to mass produce. Its the missing link often between a good product and a great product, or making a profit/not making a profit.
If you're going to stake your reputation on a product, you better be darn sure its going out the door correctly made, a big part of that is consistency. When you make one intake you can mock it up on your bike, tack it in place, bend it to fit, finish weld... when you make 10 intakes you have to make a jig to cut the tube, a jig to bend the tube, a jig to hold it while you weld. By the time you're done with all that you've spent weeks engineering a process. The good news is, it pays off in time by ensuring a high quality product and making them cheaper to mass produce. Oh yeah, I'm learning a lot as well, and as my mom always says 'education is expensive'.
The first part i'm excited about i've been making for awhile, just for my own use and for friends. These 'E50' stands- which fit all puch engines, of course- are really handy for rebuilds and for starting your engine on the bench. The originals had goobery welds on the outside, and weren't always 100% perfectly square. I made some changes to my design and managed to hide the welds, make them stronger and more accurate, and shoot some pretty blue powder on them.
What do you think? The blue powder was a reccommendation of my brother who is always reminding me I should work harder at getting radical. Black would have been the safe choice, but I like this blue, and now when you start seeing all my stuff coming out in blue, maybe you'll recognize moped factory products when you see them on other people's cool mopeds, or something... I'm retarded when it comes to marketing, so y'all should know that MF stuff is less than 2% hype. Boring eh? Whatever, if you want hype go buy some Coke or a pair of Nikes.
The other part that i've put a ton of time into lately... and boy have i ever... is this A35 to 16SHA intake manifold. Ever since Handybikes ran out of Daelim manifolds sometime around 2008, there has been a lot of hair-pulling by the moped community about finding a good, well fitting, 16mm SHA manifold to fit the A35. You can use that straight shot one from treats, maybe, if you have just the right carb and the gods are smiling upon you. And dont even think about changing a jet or running an air filter.
A guy emailed me asking if I could make him one and it got my juices flowing about this part again. I'm literally going to bleed money on these things, but they are so cool and so badly needed, consider it community service or something. It required about 10 modifications to my plasma-cut flange, to get just the right angle on the pass-through of the tube. A jig had to be made to ensure the bender would bend the tube at just the right angle, a jig was made to hold the tube and cut it at just the right angle, and the tube itself requires a machining step to put the clamp-mount spigot on the end just perfect.
After about 10 prototypes moving the carb into different locations, it ended up here. I mocked it up on an A3 so hopefully it works on A35 frames just the same. I cant exactly remember how those frames are different (if at all) but it should clear side covers and everything, so you can keep sleeper status even with a kit.
This week I'm cleaning up the garage and getting ready to put together my ZA-50 finally. This stupid thing has taken me forever, basically because I want it to be perfect and run forever. Is that too much to ask? The last ZA-50 I rebuilt had at least 20k on it before the bearings got so sloppy that I finally had to retire it. Hopefully this one with improvements like relined clutches, roller bearing crank, and higher quality bearings (I've replaced almost every single bearing in the whole engine) will allow it to run hard with a Polini for many years to come as a daily blaster.
 |
| From Moped Factory Products |
It sounds kinda silly saying that, because most of you (especially if you had a machine shop at hand) could have made any of these things in a couple hours, but its totally different when you are producing things to sell. Testing, quality control, all kinds of things have to be done. A big part of what this experiment with the moped business is teaching me is the concept of 'design for manufacturability'. It means altering your design to make a product easier to produce, or more consistent to mass produce. Its the missing link often between a good product and a great product, or making a profit/not making a profit.
If you're going to stake your reputation on a product, you better be darn sure its going out the door correctly made, a big part of that is consistency. When you make one intake you can mock it up on your bike, tack it in place, bend it to fit, finish weld... when you make 10 intakes you have to make a jig to cut the tube, a jig to bend the tube, a jig to hold it while you weld. By the time you're done with all that you've spent weeks engineering a process. The good news is, it pays off in time by ensuring a high quality product and making them cheaper to mass produce. Oh yeah, I'm learning a lot as well, and as my mom always says 'education is expensive'.
The first part i'm excited about i've been making for awhile, just for my own use and for friends. These 'E50' stands- which fit all puch engines, of course- are really handy for rebuilds and for starting your engine on the bench. The originals had goobery welds on the outside, and weren't always 100% perfectly square. I made some changes to my design and managed to hide the welds, make them stronger and more accurate, and shoot some pretty blue powder on them.
 |
| From Moped Factory Products |
What do you think? The blue powder was a reccommendation of my brother who is always reminding me I should work harder at getting radical. Black would have been the safe choice, but I like this blue, and now when you start seeing all my stuff coming out in blue, maybe you'll recognize moped factory products when you see them on other people's cool mopeds, or something... I'm retarded when it comes to marketing, so y'all should know that MF stuff is less than 2% hype. Boring eh? Whatever, if you want hype go buy some Coke or a pair of Nikes.
The other part that i've put a ton of time into lately... and boy have i ever... is this A35 to 16SHA intake manifold. Ever since Handybikes ran out of Daelim manifolds sometime around 2008, there has been a lot of hair-pulling by the moped community about finding a good, well fitting, 16mm SHA manifold to fit the A35. You can use that straight shot one from treats, maybe, if you have just the right carb and the gods are smiling upon you. And dont even think about changing a jet or running an air filter.
 |
| From Moped Factory Products |
A guy emailed me asking if I could make him one and it got my juices flowing about this part again. I'm literally going to bleed money on these things, but they are so cool and so badly needed, consider it community service or something. It required about 10 modifications to my plasma-cut flange, to get just the right angle on the pass-through of the tube. A jig had to be made to ensure the bender would bend the tube at just the right angle, a jig was made to hold the tube and cut it at just the right angle, and the tube itself requires a machining step to put the clamp-mount spigot on the end just perfect.
After about 10 prototypes moving the carb into different locations, it ended up here. I mocked it up on an A3 so hopefully it works on A35 frames just the same. I cant exactly remember how those frames are different (if at all) but it should clear side covers and everything, so you can keep sleeper status even with a kit.
This week I'm cleaning up the garage and getting ready to put together my ZA-50 finally. This stupid thing has taken me forever, basically because I want it to be perfect and run forever. Is that too much to ask? The last ZA-50 I rebuilt had at least 20k on it before the bearings got so sloppy that I finally had to retire it. Hopefully this one with improvements like relined clutches, roller bearing crank, and higher quality bearings (I've replaced almost every single bearing in the whole engine) will allow it to run hard with a Polini for many years to come as a daily blaster.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
central standard daylight savings time
It has been a crazy summer, too crazy to 'blog' about in fact.
My lovely girlfriend and I had a kid:
My brother moved in with us to go to school for industrial design
I partied in Chicago
(photo redacted)
I made some moped parts
And I worked on a few projects
New Bridgestone 100GP
1948 'Sea-Bee' by Gale outboard, totally rebuilt and restored
plus lots more!
I'll try to start writing up some of my summer projects here and there when i have time. The outboard just got finished yesterday, so if the glue is all dry i'll probably start it up tonight and post up that restoration process soon.
The red sachs 'sally' has also come a long way, but it really makes me depressed with the constant not-running-ness, and now its leaking out all its trans oil, so that one might be awhile.
There is a really nice Polini ZA50 in my garage also on the cusp of going back together with lots of custom goodies. I'll be taking pictures of that as it goes together and posting it up as well.
Most of my moped time has been going into Moped Factory lately, building the product base and expanding our offerings, plus keeping up with demand. More good stuff on that front is coming also.
My lovely girlfriend and I had a kid:
 |
| From Blogg |
My brother moved in with us to go to school for industrial design
 |
| From cranks rally 11 |
I partied in Chicago
(photo redacted)
I made some moped parts
 |
| From Moped Factory Products |
And I worked on a few projects
 |
| From Bridgestone |
New Bridgestone 100GP
 |
| From Sea-Bee outboard |
1948 'Sea-Bee' by Gale outboard, totally rebuilt and restored
plus lots more!
I'll try to start writing up some of my summer projects here and there when i have time. The outboard just got finished yesterday, so if the glue is all dry i'll probably start it up tonight and post up that restoration process soon.
The red sachs 'sally' has also come a long way, but it really makes me depressed with the constant not-running-ness, and now its leaking out all its trans oil, so that one might be awhile.
There is a really nice Polini ZA50 in my garage also on the cusp of going back together with lots of custom goodies. I'll be taking pictures of that as it goes together and posting it up as well.
Most of my moped time has been going into Moped Factory lately, building the product base and expanding our offerings, plus keeping up with demand. More good stuff on that front is coming also.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Peugeot, finally
If you're a compulsive moped tinkerer such as myself (and why would you be reading this blog if you aren't one?) you probably have had periods in your life where you were forced to daily-drive a bike that just isn't right. For me that period was this entire winter. I rely on my bikes for 365-days-a-year transport to school and work, so its pretty frustrating when my daily driver isn't sorted out, and having my workshop way the heck on the north side, without a station wagon or truck to move mopeds in, this winter has been very frustrating indeed. The poor little Pug has spent most of the winter maligned, and limping along way out-of-tune.
Since this little green 103 is my first foray into Peugeot tuning, there have been some speed bumps this winter getting the old girl running just right. Since it is an ongoing project, and pretty much the only thing i'm doing that I can talk about, I've been whining on here about the trials and tribulations encountered while setting it up.
So, it is after a ton of mucking around that I am so happy to report that this bike is finally sorted out and will be receiving a 'cranks' headlight sticker, as it is finally worthy.
About 2 weeks ago, I forced open a hole in my schedule and stopped by Blaze's garage, which is about 1/3 the distance to my workshop, and he has the Pug puller set. I was concerned that the last time i put the flywheel on, i clocked it in the wrong position. I removed the flywheel and reinstalled it, started up the bike, and was very confused by the fact that the pedals were spinning vigorously. D'oh! Put the damn flywheel on backwards, so the engine was running in reverse. Pulled it off again and re-installed it to find that the timing marks i had on there from the first time, and i had lined up to the second time, were still dead-on.
I set the timing at 1.40 mm as accurately as possible, and took off. By the time i got home, i was seeing the same heat fade, loss of torque, etc. as i was before re-clocking the flywheel.
About a week ago I finally got the Peugeot head machining Jig finished and turned an extra stock head I had laying around. I swapped that on later that day, noticing a ton of carbon buildup on the piston face, cylinder head. In my experience, carbon buildup usually means too advanced timing (leading to the heat which cooks oil into carbon) and too-rich mixture (too advanced timing feels like running lean and most people richen up the jetting to try to fix it)
With the hi-comp head, i found that when cold, my torque was through the roof, but the heat fade was getting worse. It seemed pretty crazy, but my timing spec (.1 mm retarded from the stock setting) was apparently still too advanced. I finally backed off the timing to some eyeballed amount around 1.2 mm and couldn't believe the difference. The bike is now pulling hard all the way up to top speed, which still feels a bit lacking, but that could be due to variator tuning, worn-out-after-a-harsh-winter-outdoors wheel and pulley bearings, or the restriction still present in the un-ported intake manifold.
Also, now that the timing is adjusted properly i should be able to dial back at least 5-6 jet sizes in the 14mm bing. It isn't four stroking right now but the plug is dark and sooty. We'll see what that plug looks like after a few miles with the correct tuning, then adjust and hopefully realize some performance gains from the right setup.
I just saw someone had posted the transcription of Jenning's chapter on spark plug selection and timing advice. Great advice and a must-read for any up and coming tuners. Personally I think that Jennings book is pure gold and a a great place to start for anyone who wants to get into 2-stroke tuning, but that chapter is especially good. Its pretty crazy when a long period of trial and error prove exactly what Gordon wrote over 30 years ago, to the letter.
Since this little green 103 is my first foray into Peugeot tuning, there have been some speed bumps this winter getting the old girl running just right. Since it is an ongoing project, and pretty much the only thing i'm doing that I can talk about, I've been whining on here about the trials and tribulations encountered while setting it up.
So, it is after a ton of mucking around that I am so happy to report that this bike is finally sorted out and will be receiving a 'cranks' headlight sticker, as it is finally worthy.
About 2 weeks ago, I forced open a hole in my schedule and stopped by Blaze's garage, which is about 1/3 the distance to my workshop, and he has the Pug puller set. I was concerned that the last time i put the flywheel on, i clocked it in the wrong position. I removed the flywheel and reinstalled it, started up the bike, and was very confused by the fact that the pedals were spinning vigorously. D'oh! Put the damn flywheel on backwards, so the engine was running in reverse. Pulled it off again and re-installed it to find that the timing marks i had on there from the first time, and i had lined up to the second time, were still dead-on.
I set the timing at 1.40 mm as accurately as possible, and took off. By the time i got home, i was seeing the same heat fade, loss of torque, etc. as i was before re-clocking the flywheel.
About a week ago I finally got the Peugeot head machining Jig finished and turned an extra stock head I had laying around. I swapped that on later that day, noticing a ton of carbon buildup on the piston face, cylinder head. In my experience, carbon buildup usually means too advanced timing (leading to the heat which cooks oil into carbon) and too-rich mixture (too advanced timing feels like running lean and most people richen up the jetting to try to fix it)
With the hi-comp head, i found that when cold, my torque was through the roof, but the heat fade was getting worse. It seemed pretty crazy, but my timing spec (.1 mm retarded from the stock setting) was apparently still too advanced. I finally backed off the timing to some eyeballed amount around 1.2 mm and couldn't believe the difference. The bike is now pulling hard all the way up to top speed, which still feels a bit lacking, but that could be due to variator tuning, worn-out-after-a-harsh-winter-outdoors wheel and pulley bearings, or the restriction still present in the un-ported intake manifold.
Also, now that the timing is adjusted properly i should be able to dial back at least 5-6 jet sizes in the 14mm bing. It isn't four stroking right now but the plug is dark and sooty. We'll see what that plug looks like after a few miles with the correct tuning, then adjust and hopefully realize some performance gains from the right setup.
I just saw someone had posted the transcription of Jenning's chapter on spark plug selection and timing advice. Great advice and a must-read for any up and coming tuners. Personally I think that Jennings book is pure gold and a a great place to start for anyone who wants to get into 2-stroke tuning, but that chapter is especially good. Its pretty crazy when a long period of trial and error prove exactly what Gordon wrote over 30 years ago, to the letter.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Busy Weekend.
Pulling a couple long days here trying to get these all finished up.
I was going to link to the category of my heads on 1977mopeds, but it would appear that they have all sold out except for the 44 mm hero puch. Wow. Or its a glitch.
Either way, Moped Factory parts are now for sale at 1977mopeds.com. I promise i'm working on the website with all the information on models, specifics, and tips for the best setup, but right now I'm pretty slammed.
Also got a whole pile of stuff in development that should be coming out as soon as i catch up on my current production. I'll be putting out big shipments to The Treats Gang and 1977 Mopeds as soon as I make them. Rollers, Batavus stuff, and the other little random parts will be getting done soon as well. promise!
The Moped Factory is becoming a real second job for me right now, and I gotta say, as much work as it is, its pretty great to be able to make this my job. Thanks so much to everyone who is supporting me and buying my stuff, helping with development, and testing products. I'm undergoing a real tight spot right now because I'm a bit too big for my current production level, but not quite big enough to afford the equipment and help that it will take to push this to the next level. Thanks everyone for being so patient with things, I'm trying to focus on keeping my quality #1 no matter what size I am, so there will probably continue to be long waits for the next couple months while things grow. If you have any questions or want to know where your parts are at, or how long out something might be, feel free to email me.
 |
| From Heads |
I was going to link to the category of my heads on 1977mopeds, but it would appear that they have all sold out except for the 44 mm hero puch. Wow. Or its a glitch.
Either way, Moped Factory parts are now for sale at 1977mopeds.com. I promise i'm working on the website with all the information on models, specifics, and tips for the best setup, but right now I'm pretty slammed.
 |
| From Heads |
Also got a whole pile of stuff in development that should be coming out as soon as i catch up on my current production. I'll be putting out big shipments to The Treats Gang and 1977 Mopeds as soon as I make them. Rollers, Batavus stuff, and the other little random parts will be getting done soon as well. promise!
The Moped Factory is becoming a real second job for me right now, and I gotta say, as much work as it is, its pretty great to be able to make this my job. Thanks so much to everyone who is supporting me and buying my stuff, helping with development, and testing products. I'm undergoing a real tight spot right now because I'm a bit too big for my current production level, but not quite big enough to afford the equipment and help that it will take to push this to the next level. Thanks everyone for being so patient with things, I'm trying to focus on keeping my quality #1 no matter what size I am, so there will probably continue to be long waits for the next couple months while things grow. If you have any questions or want to know where your parts are at, or how long out something might be, feel free to email me.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
increases to the motion of ambient particles (including myself)
This spring business is finally starting to take hold, and as the little particles of matter all around me increase their non-directional molecular activity, I'm gradually feeling the pull of life wrenching me from what now feels like a winter of hibernation. Funny to feel that way, as I"ve basically been as busy as humanly possible, in fact I think I'm getting enough done right now for two or three people., but I do.
The last few months here and the resulting snow melt have resulted in a near constant need to empty water buckets, move tarps, and re-arrange my already tiny cramped workshop to accomidate a constantly leaking roof. The combination of weight from snow and standing water managed to drench a lot of my stuff in acrid, sticky, vaguely organic 'roof juice' which anyone who has ever lived with a leaking roof will know exactly what i mean. Aside from the property damage, the big loss was at least 3 or 4 saturdays spent doing nothing but disassembling and rearranging the elaborately constructed makeshift organizational system at the workshop. Shelves, my paint booth, all the roof bits, light fixtures, and tarps and buckets constantly shifting to mitigate the damage from the drips which never come down twice in the same place. The 15 gallon drum i was using as a catch-all, with tarps, funnels,buckets and hoses running into it, was filling up just about once a day, sometimes overflowing and re-soaking anything near the floor. So yeah, that has been a bitch.
Good news is, the frustration of all this, plus my brother moving down with us has motivated Caitlin and I to find a house with onsite garage so i can save money on the shop and work closer to home. I'm finally back on track with the Moped Factory parts and chewing my way through a 3 week backlog. Sorry to everyone who is patiently waiting on parts for spring.
Also contributing to the backlog was me taking a week to check out the ConAg (construction/agriculture) expo in Las Vegas. This was unbelievably rad. Especially to engineering nerd types like myself who have chubbs for huge construction equipment, 2500 hp diesel engines, turbochargers the size of a dorm fridge, etc. It was great to meet so many cool people in industry doing amazing things, and so many of them wanting to hire young engineers. Definitely didn't look like a recession at the vegas expo center, thats for sure! All in all it just encourages me more to get my act together with this whole engineering degree thing and git-r-dun as they say.
On the moped front, things have been slow, mostly working on moped factory parts.. boring stuff really, not even doing r&d, mostly just stuck in production. Dont get me wrong, i love making parts especially when i know how many bikes will run better this summer because of me. Especially getting to see my parts on bikes at rallies built by people i dont even know... its pretty great, but its a lot of work and as fast as things sell out i dont ever feel the sense of completion.
I got a chance to work on the sachs for a few hours last weekend. Got the seat all set up, just need to pad it and sew up a cover now. I painted all the bracketry black because it had been rusted out by bird shit before i got the bike. I also made a really awesome air cleaner housing out of fiberglass that i'm pretty proud of. I've done 'glass work in the past but i always forget how easy it is- and rewarding. Metal can be a lot easier to work with in simple shapes, especially when you have the tools, but fiberglass is basically like paper mache' with some nasty chemicals. When done right it can yield non-structural parts in crazy geometries, which this air filter had to be. I think it will make the tuning go a lot better with a little capacitance on the intake, and the carb comes out right into the front fender, making it impossible to fit any other standard sized pod filter on there. This will bring the air intake up high, under the tank where it should stay clean and dry. Plus I want this bike to be ninja-quiet so the airbox should help with that too.
Cant wait to get this bike on the road, when i mocked-up the seat i took it around the shop a little bit and boy does it have some nuts. Probably wont be wanting to do clutch-droppin' wheelies with the touchy sachs clutch, but having that manual gives you such nice control of your clutch engagement, and it feels really unstoppable.
anyhow, i gotta get back to homework. i'll try to put up some pics so things aren't so boring on here.
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