A shop day, back on the Pugeot

I was able to get a day in my workshop finally after several weeks. When I started making mopeds my business, I had plenty of moped time to go around and was able to keep up on a running bike or two, my projects, etc. Now that life has gotten crazier all moped time (which is much less) goes into making parts now, and a pure, unadulterated, shop day of just dicking around and sorting things out, is a rare joy.

I cant remember where I started, but first project was Le Peugeot. This was easy stuff but frustrating/time consuming BS. When I loaned it out at the rally, somehow (this was probably happening before the rally but I didn't notice) the exhaust rapidly began disintegrating into its component parts. This is that stupid pipe that started life as a 'faco' and is now mostly hand fabricated with only a section of the chamber original.

From Puegeot

The flange that screws into the cylinder broke off, so i welded in the higher-quality stock peugeot flange and a section of pipe, along with the peugeot stock nut which was much nicer. This held for most of the summer, but finally let go sometime during the rally. My apologies to Seth for the bum-ass loaner bike. The wimpy little sheet metal bracket under the engine disintegrated even after being welded closed, and it didn't take long for the flange/header to break and let go.

So yeah, i welded that back together. The handlebars that I started replacing a couple weeks ago finally got new longer cables that aren't frayed and corroded, and now the handlebars aren't bent and hastily welded back together. Also a much more comfortable angle.

From Puegeot

True to form, she fired up on the second kick after i dumped a carb-bowl full of varnish gas out. My bone head brother stole my good fat OEM peugeot belt and i was forced to use his rolled-over shredded to heck belt of unknown provenance. The bike was a totally new animal with the thinner belt, definitely helped even though it was slipping like crazy.

From Puegeot

Rode to work yesterday and made it, although i still cant figure out this top end 4-stroking/misfire thing. I've tried different timing, different jetting, different plugs, and i'm still totally flummoxed. It just feels gutless, like bad timing, on the top end, then when you go down a hill or pick up speed around 37-38 mph it starts to four-stroke like crazy and slow down.

The intake is still stock and who knows what is going on with that pipe, so either of those could be causing the flow to choke abruptly. In the next couple weeks when i get paid for a few things (most notably selling my precious X-50 motor) i'll invest in one of those malossi SHA intakes and put the 16 SHA that came off my 'ella' maxi on to the Peugeot and see if we cant get her blasting properly. Also the variator still needs attending to, so that will probably happen all at once.