At last it can be told...

So, if you look at the custom cylinder, you'll notice it has a third case transfer. It also lacks a piston-port intake. This is because I made the cylinder only compatible with a case-inducted motor. The ZA50 motor pictured here has the reed-block welded to it already. It uses a malossi VL6 reed, usually found on smallframe vespa scooters and certain moped cylinders. (Gilardoni Puch) I actually cut the two huge chunks that became the reed block out of a single piece of aluminum by hand with a hack-saw.

That took F O R E V E R...

The block is pitched to the flywheel side, to create proper clearance for the rear-facing carburetor. My buddy Ratboy did most of the welding, alot of which was pretty difficult, in exchange for a six-pack of cold ones. Rat works at one of the coolest places in the world, and gets to horse around on stuff like the #2 & #3 LeMans winning Ford GT40's from 1969, Amphicars, Nazi Staff Mercedes', Isettas, $300,000 Porsches, Loti, Ferraris etc..etc..

I've actually had this laying around for over a year, but without the custom cylinder it was made for, it didn't make much sense to share. Some of the gross welding on the case transfers I did myself, and I'll probably end up fixing before the cylinder goes on. I'm getting a sense that this motor, while absurdly customized and DIY, isn't going to win any beauty pageants.

Taste the Rainbow

I've always thought that the malossi team race bikes always looked great, albeit ridiculous and fruity. Like starburst, skittles kinda fruity. (the Derbi GP1 pictured below, an example) Most race bikes go for a more tough-guy approach, with lots of black, red etc... Anyways, I've always wanted a Malossi scheme racer. As you can see, Plan B's paint is nearly there and very very ridiculous.* =Awesome! Now all I needs is more shop time and a few small parts.








*-funniest book ever written, IMO.

Custom Cylinder = CAST!!

So yesterday was a pretty big day for Team Nerdspeed. I went ahead and cast my first cylinder. The mold has been sitting around forever, waiting on me to build another furnace and iron out the kinks in the process. Every time I do this I learn something. Yesterday's lesson was: Don't stop pouring until the mold is full. When I poured, there was an exceptional amount of flame coming out of the mouth of the mold, also enough steam & smoke so that I couldn't see the mold's gate even though I was standing right over it. I backed off for a second and starting pouring again. Mistake! The mold filled really well during the first pour, had I just continued pouring the quality of my custom cylinder would have likely been much better. Even so, my cylinder is usable, after some clean up and machining. I'm really happy about it, I've been waiting a long time to do this one. If this is the first you've heard of this, check out some older posts: The Prestige, Step by Step, Vulcan God of Fire & Metal, Updates 5/14
gilardoni 75cc

Daelim-ish intake

Per RJ's suggestion, I'm working on a daelim-style intake manifold. It should fit a variety of applications, anything with the tomos, puch polini, or peugeot style reed intake. It's designed for a Dell'orto PHBG clamp-style carb and should flow from 16-20mm. If this casts well enough, I may have to make a few to share. This one is different than some of my previous molds, as it's almost entirely wax.