Team Nerdspeed

Seats & Cylinders

2011-10-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

So back in September I worked on a seat, the first I've made in awhile (2002). I think it came out pretty good. Liz gave me a few pointers patterning the pleather and did some of the final sewing of the cover. I built four identical seat frames and one for the smallframe. This is the only finished example so far. Its made out of wood and some high-density foam. Threaded inserts allow it to be mounted on the Vespa Si or a Puch type seat post.

The other day, thinking about the forthcoming SUPER STOCK class of moped racing in 2012, as well as my old Swamp-Thing Cylinder I decided to bring it in to work on Saturday and spend some quality lathe time. After fabricating a few bushing out of ABS to properly stabilize the cylinder in the lathe (one with a bearing) I was able to get to work. I'm glad now that I went to the trouble to make those bushing, as there will be more work to do with the cylinder. Working with lather-beams can be a sketchy re: dangerous proposition, particularly on your big floppy homemade cylinder.

Plans are in the works to bring both my first bike a 1961 Vespa VBB and first moped, a Puch Maxi-Luxe out to the Pacific Northwest. The cylinder will certainly be powering that bike at some point. I bought and rebuilt a hobbit PA50II recently, I'm debating selling it or keeping it, as they are such nice bikes to own.

PSRA @ PIR

2011-06-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend PSRA took the track with OMRRA, and got out on the big track for some hot, sticky, race action. PIR was originally designed for F1, it's 2 miles long, 90ft wide in places - a completely different venue than most scooter or moped racers are used to. The 'knife fight in an elevator' replaced with 'Battle for Pelennor Fields'. And while most of the technical challenge of racing might be lost, its good fun to let all the ponies loose for a change.

Thanks to Angus Muir for letting us ride along!

Sadly, predictably? I was not able to participate, due to my work commitments and still plenty to do to my smallframe. More on that soon.

And ... we're... back ...

2011-06-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

What a difference a day makes. Just like that, Monster Zero is Pre-Op for a heart transplant! With some luck, I'll be on the track crushing CB160's in a few weeks. Enough talk, back to the garage!

TIE Fighters & Cephalopods

2011-02-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

So, progress on my projects has been slow. My lack of a steady income is certainly a factor. I have completed the designs of the Jawa & Batavus cylinders I hope to someday produce, and I have nearly finished rebuilding a new vacu-forming rig for the flywheel covers. But its been a long while since a post and I have other interests outside bikes.

So... Everybody knows what a TIE Fighter is right? The Galactic Empire's ubiquitous cannon fodder spaceships from Star Wars. Well, if you're a apex-level Nerd like me, you'll remember that "TIE" stands for Twin Ion Engine. In the Star Wars universe, the 'wings' on the TIE Fighter are actually solar panels, collecting energy to be used continuously. Well as it turns out, the next manned spacecraft effort may use this very concept. Not some watered down, lame, real world equivalent but pretty much exactly as pictured in the movies.

          The idea was old even before George Lucas got his mitts on it. Sometimes Nazi, other times American, All-the-Time Rocket Genius Werner Von Braun first posited the idea back during the V-2 program in WWII. NASA built working a working example in 1959, and the Soviets used them as maneuvering thrusters since 1972. Critical issues with output prevented them being any more significant than that. Ion Propulsion works great in space, because of the ultra-high particle velocities responding to the Lorentz Force, rather than thermal conductivity in a conventional chemical rocket. After several expensive probe failures in the 90's NASA decided that rather than building complex, multi-purpose "Big Mission" projects; a slate of quick to launch, cheap to build, limited scope projects might bring better returns. Such was the case with Deep Space 1, a high-risk advanced technology project that intercepted an asteroid (with photography, not laser cannons). Because of its solar-powered Ion Rocket engine, and its autonomously functioning software, Deep Space 1 was able to chase down the comet Borrelly in 2001, years after it's mission with the asteroid was complete in 1998. (Deep Space 1 is still flying, btw)

           Those of you who have read the blog awhile may remember my rant/obituary about manned spaceflight coming to a close : "To boldly go... way off topic" - may remember my conclusion that the biggest obstacle to our objectives in space is the crux politics down here on earth. Those plucky NASA eggheads may have done it: a politics-proof space craft? Walking away from the rubble of Constellation, the mothball smell of the soon-retired Shuttle fleet and now tasked with Obama's hope to land on an asteroid, or maybe Mars or whatever. Mark Holderman and Edward Henderson have developed a new concept, with the core innovation of dealing with the World as it is right now.

                The concept is called Nautilus-X . It's a modular deep space exploration craft that can be configured for either a trip to the moon, to Mars, or a 2 year voyage to chase down an asteroid. (provided the on-board android doesn't try to murder you all) Because Nautilus-X uses almost all off-the-shelf componentry, like solar panels from a Hughes satellite, the same manipulator arm & docking module from the International Space Station, vast savings in both costs and time can be had. Nautilus-X uses some new technologies to manage the problems of long-term space flight (like cancer-causing cosmic particles, long term muscular atrophy). A major component of this plan is that it doesn't require a large amount of fuel, like a conventional rocket, just a small tank of Xenon gas to serve as the catalyst/substrate in the otherwise Solar-powered Ion engine. Like the Battlestar Galactica and the USS Enterprise of old, Nautilus-X will be assembled in space, tugged up in parcels by unmanned commercial rockets. Here are some images of the ship in two versions. Note the centrifugal ring, Nice!

Light:

Heavy:

So let's review. Nautilus-X is:
1.Cheap.
2.Versatile for Multiple missions.
3.Realistic.
4.Available right now.

Everybody loves Port Maps!

2010-12-22T11:47:00.000-08:00

Lots of people know what a Port Map is. The number of people who know how to interpret these primitive etchings continues to grow. I've been collecting port maps for the last decade or so, at the various shops that I've worked at. Now I'll share a few, the highlight reel anyway. Sorry about my chickenscratch handwriting and lunatic scribblings, also.

Jawa 207

Laura M48 / Batavus

Honda NSR50

Crazy 80's Eurocilindro 125 LC for Vespa Smallframe

Honda RS125

Malossi 172 Italjet Dragster

Polini 43mm for Vespa Ciao

Polini 177 for Vespa largeframe

Gilardoni 75cc for Puch

DR102cc for Vespa 50 smallframe

Malossi 136cc for Vespa Smallframe 125

Offerings

2010-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

I heard that Toyota spends over a million dollars a day on research and development. If you're a enormous company like Toyota, having an robust R&D department allows your company to compete in an increasingly technologically sophisticated market. But, 'research and development' is a nice way of saying repetitive failure. I will remind myself that I am engaged in 'research and development' and remember how far I've progressed in making things. Over a month ago I was busy cracking the combination of heat and time necessary to produce the plastic flywheel covers. A modification to the rig had eliminated the wrinkles that were plaguing the process.

The picture at right is a bunch of the 'almost good enough's' that were fully formed but flawed in one way or another. Since the whole point of this is to make your bike look cooler, having a part with a distracting flaw simply won't do. The biggest problem, is getting the plastic to remove cleanly off the rig. Right now the mechanism that is supposed to eject parts, mostly just breaks them. Also, the hotter the plastic, the more detail it picks up, but this causes bubble to form -so that's the other problem. I haven't worked on this in awhile because I got a gig with OMSI, a gig that has recently concluded.

         While at OMSI, after a brief conversation, one of the exhibit guys I worked with gave me his bottles of Smooth-On 300 casting resin. 'Since I don't need them.' This fired up my interest in my old cylinder casting schemes. If you've been on the Moped Army Buy/Sell forum, you may have noticed my attempts to collect suitable specimens for this project.

            Mopeds have no shortage of diversity, there are a billion types out there. But only a select group take center stage: Puch/Tomos, Peugeot, Honda Hobbit, Derbi, and to a lesser extent Vespa, Mobylette and Minarelli. If you choose a rare bike, after all the effort of restoration, rebuilding and maintenance, you still only have a bike that goes 25mph, and will likely be at the pack of the pack in a ride, or struggle to climb hills. So, if I'm going to dinker around with cylinder production, I'd like to do so in a way that encourages diversity in the "scene." Some people (Aaron, Joeped, Nate) are f**kin radical enough to offer up their old cylinders to be apart of this mutant rebellion, others I had to buy. But within a relatively brief time, I've collected -or have en route a stable of barrels ready for cloning.

          Last night I went with Liz to pick up the Garelli NOI cylinder from Nate. As we we're talking I realized that my explanation of the 'cloning' process doesn't make any conversational sense. So, for anyone interested, I drew up a sketch to illustrate this phase of the process. *also- anyone who has experience with this (Jan Thiel, I'm looking at you) let me know what I'm doing wrong.

           First off, know that the objective is to create an accurate wax copy of the cylinder, with the important exception of the port layout, transfers and exhaust. -we eject the stock stuff. But again- a wax cylinder is what we want.

1. If you were to fill all the space inside a cylinder with say, silicone; it would create a copy of the ports, transfers, the bore itself, etc.. If you pulled that silicone out of the cylinder, you would have a 'negative' of that cylinder. - A 20hp Malossi MHR scooter jug in this case. Thats what #1 is here in the drawing.

2. Take the negative (#1) and then coat it with wax, and keep building up the wax around it, filling in all the nooks and crannies, giving it some thickness. Then remove #1 and what you've got left is a wax copy of the internals of the original cylinder. Not a negative but a copy. This part (#2) is the insert.

3. This is actually a two-part step here. The blocks pictured are a mold of one of the cylinders we're cloning, a Jawa 207, for example. Presuming we've already made that mold, we take the empty mold and plug the insert (#2) into the mold (#3) Close the mold together and fill it with wax. Obviously, we'll make sure the wax doesn't fill the cylinder, just around it.

When you pull the mold apart, you should have a clone of a Jawa 207 cylinder with Malossi MHR internals. This explanation is an over-simplification, but shows the process. There are lots of adjustments that have to be made to account for stroke, crown height, rod length, etc.. differences. You might have noticed that the Vespa and Derbi cylinders above both have a "registration" (highlighted) cut in the bore. After a mold is made from these cylinders, this insures the wax insert stays centered in the mold during the wax filling portion.

As mentioned before, I'm sure there will be plenty of trial and error on the way. (like Smooth-On 300, not so good actually) Because of these difficulties, and because my money is limited, -who are we kidding - my attention span is too, I hope you'll vote in the poll on the sidebar, to prioritize my efforts.

OK, some things are 87% done.

2010-10-02T14:48:00.001-07:00

The other day I had my first measure of success vacu-forming a clear flywheel cover for a Puch engine. The mod I mentioned in the previous blog post definitely helped and the plastic did exactly as it was supposed to, and fitted the shape perfectly. At this point I hadn't considered how difficult removal of the plastic would be, especially since the buck has a zero draft angle. As a result, getting the plastic piece off the vacu-form rig was pretty dodgy and I cracked and chipped my piece in a few places. Some good things came of it though. I now have a built in mechanism for removing the part off of the rig & I'll now use a slightly thicker plastic for better durability.

everything is always 85% done

2010-09-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

Knowing that I'd lose access to a really awesome workshop when I left EMP|SFM, I tried to make stuff that I knew I was going to use at some point but probably not right now. Plan B is certainly going to get a inner-rotor ignition at some point, ala ciaociao. A standard Puch flywheel weighs about a pound, a standard Vespa flywheel weighs just under three pounds. -And for a 'race' bike, thats like riding with the brakes on. Which I do enough of, already.

If you want a ciaociao flywheel fan, you'll need a plastic kinetic TFR fan. The guys at Cosmopolitan Motors were very helpful locating one for me. You'll also need an inner rotor ignition, probably off of a smaller CC dirtbike. PVL makes some really good stuff. Just make sure its a 2 stroke not a 4 stroke. I got started by eliminating 1.5mm thick disc from the underside, inner portion of the plastic fan. I did this using lather-beams. Using that as reference, I drilled a .5" hole in a piece of aluminum, and fitted a hex bolt & nut through the hole- which is the same diameter as the crankshaft- to then set up in the lathe. I lathered the aluminum to the same diameter as the underside of the plastic fan, then took that down to 1.5mm thick. I stepped it out to then match the inner diameter and thickness of the plastic fan's hole, and also stepped another 1mm as a spacer. There is something really satisfying about the look and feel of freshly cut metal. -and I'll just let that last statement be creepy, whatevs. This project still has aways to go, but I think this is the only part that I could not do at home. We'll see.

I also made a rear wheel alignment/ adjuster do-hickey, because Plan B could use it.

I've been screwing around with a vacu-forming rig in hopes of maybe making some transparent flywheel covers. So far I've been close but no cigar. I believe I need better suction to pull out the wrinkles. I have one more modification to try on the buck before I rent a Shop-Vac and try that. Work harder, Dirt Devil!!

Finally, I have just moved to Portland. Thanks to basically 100% of people that I have talked to about or during the move, I am yes aware that Portland has an inordinate number of excellent coffeehouses, strippers and microbreweries. The move was bittersweet, mostly because I liked Seattle a lot, and because my career seemed like it was getting a toe-hold as an exhibit designer/fabricator. Portland is known as a design-savvy town, but unless I work for MotoCzysz or Nike I don't know who would hire me? plaid pantry?

The Mexicana 400

2010-09-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Le Mans. Isle of Man. Baja. Laguna Seca. Dakar. Mugello. Bonneville. The Nürburgring. Daytona. Some race events throw such a wide net on our imaginations that the location itself overwhelms the record books, the teams, the engineering and transforms a location on a map into a symbol for humankind's unending quest to redefine the physical limits that shape our lives. Missing from that short list is a flat, grassy field in New Somerset, Ohio where Man and machine struggle against one another -and themselves- for Glory and Victory only known to a special few. The event is, of course, The Mexicana 400.

When I reach back through the sundered veil of time, and recount my misspent 20's; many of the most grotesque moments of pitched debauchery and frivolity were had at the annual Band Camp rally, hosted by The Pittsburgh Vintage Scooter Club (PVSC). Every year, they rent an isolated marching band practice field, and create a vast, drunken slumber party for anyone with a penchant for underpowered italian machinery. One highlight is the Saturday afternoon games. The most epic of which being the Mexicana.

For the un-initiated, let me explain the event. The Mexicana combines a flat-track circuit race, an eating contest, and a drinking contest. Before the race, the scooters are lined up on the track, engines off, with racers gathered off to the side (LeMans -style start). Racers must wear the ceremonial garb to compete: 1. Sombrero -large, caricaturesque & 2. A Curly Moustache - Optional for those already with Mustache. At the word "Go!" racers must start by eating a foul, uncooked burrito. Once they have finished -with an empty open mouth, a judge approves them to go. They run to the scooter, start it up and complete one lap around the track. On returning, they now must drink one Corona -no foaming or overflow allowed, the beer must be drank in entirety. A judge again validates the drank beer and the racer heads out for a second lap. On completion of the lap, the racer drinks a Margarita, and after the judge, leaves for the third lap. Upon finishing the third lap, the racer takes a shot of tequila and heads out for the fourth and final lap. The first racer to cross the line wins, unless they puked -in which case, they have to restart the entire event. Its tons of fun to watch and race in, but it is serious seriuzz business if you're trying to win.

Let's Review:

PRO TIP: Bring a Napkin, Burritos are slimy, the napkin helps you keep hold of the damn thing, and keeps the slime off of your throttle.

PRO TIP: Relax/Sustain your swallow reflex, and exhale out of your nose -it will allow you to pour the whole beer down your throat.

PRO TIP: Even seemingly dry grass is very slippery, use the rear brake only and sparingly.

PRO TIP: Cheating is not permitted, but highly recommended, check your fuel tap Noob!

The only reason I won the Mexicana the year I did was a combination of good luck and tenacious effort. I had been trying & failing for several years in a row. Losing because certain racers would start the first lap without finishing the burrito, simply shoe-horning it into their mouths and taking off. Then around corner 3 on the other side of the track they'd spit it out. Creativity has its rewards. The year I won it, was the first year the PVSC judges were very strict about finishing the burrito in front of them. I know I wasn't the fastest on the track, and not the fastest eating the burrito, but I was the fastest of both. I also benefited from Nak'd Dav "stalling" in front of my nearest competition, Greg McCormick who still nearly caught up to me. Whew!

The burrito and the corona are what really decide the race. Some people think I was working at Zoot Scoots because I needed a 'job' or was good at 'mechanics'. In reality, I was studying at the foot of a hyperbolic drinker, A Shaolin Monk with a sixer of Becks. He guided my path towards enlightenment and got my Corona-Chug-Time (C.C.T.) under 8 seconds, which was still pathetic compared to his own C.C.T. of approx. 4.3 seconds.

Here's a clip of me getting p'wned back in '06. I got way far back by my borrowed machine refusing to start, then stalling around turn two of the first lap. Note my obvious annoyance with the "burrito wedgers". Also, near the end of the clip everybody "OOhhhhs" at Joe Casola (on the green bike), nearly passing Greg, but then wiping out on the last corner, unfortunately off-camera.

Here are some other random pictures of PVSC Band Camp silliness, of which I am very nostalgic for:

Come get a taste, Mantooth!

2010-08-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

So, I am so far back on updating this thing I forget where to start. Probably the funnest thing to talk about would be the awesome work Michael Mike and Phil did on my Simonini race exhaust. Getting ready for the race at the end of July, I was scrambling around to get everything sorted out. With the new subframe in place, the exhaust was not mounting up correctly, running short on time with my "job" & all, Phil offered to sort it out only if I brought the whole bike down to then set it up. With only a few days left, and the welding taking a day or two longer than expected, I grew somewhat concerned. Pictured at left is the exhaust such as it was in the original configuration. My concerns were solidly laid to rest when I drove to Georgetown to collect Plan B. Pictured here is the exhaust in its utterly transformed state.

Truly the pictures do not do justice to the Naz's tight welding and metal work, nor do they highlight Phil's crazy powder coating. Nice Work Fellas! It is very good to have such talented and generous friends. So with the pipe and sub-frame completed, here's a look at Plan B after her 2010 makeover:

Dang! Some advice for future sub-frame builders:

1. USE A JIG. warping will occur.
2. Save the old sub-frame.
3. Lots of parts had to be customized or ordered special.

The belt is a weird extraaa-long AX51. I wasn't sure of the dimensions i needed, so i just ordered several and tried them all until I had a winner. Also, the brake cable is custom too, again extra long. Speaking about the pipe again, there are absolutely zero ground clearance issues. When i lay the bike over on its side, the first contact point is the pedals in the vertical position. Also, the twin silencers are begging for flamethrowers to be added. That may be a special Team Nerdspeed edition ....

So in spite of all the work done, Plan B was still not happy come race day (carb/fuel issues) and I ended up borrowing Naz's Lomos for the race. Practice and qualifying went well, Naz JJ and Travis all pushed towards the front of the pack. Phil suffered a breakdown in practice and Travis was having considerable trouble with the new disc brake front end on the hobbit. In the qualifying run I thought I had a legitimate shot at a podium finish with so much competition on the sideline, but NASCAR pit crew team efforts in the paddock got Travis' machine back in action, and I decided sharing is always the right thing to do, so Phil took the Lomos for the second qualifying run and the race. The plucky and reliable Lomos kept its head on a swivel, which is what you do in a vicious cock fight. This is me keeping the hyenas at bay:

For awhile now, Liz & I have been trying to sell her Vespa P200e. It wasn't going very well for along while, so after a new paint job didn't work, and dropping the price tag several times, we had some fun & made a commercial:

Less than 36hrs. later we sold it to a very excited girl and her friend who was from ironically, Columbus.

My blog post brings ALLAH boys to the yard

2010-08-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have way too much to update, and no time right now, but I want to share this. When I was working on "To boldly go waaay off topic" I wanted to make sure I wasn't spreading misinformation, so I did a bunch of fact checking to be certain. If you recall that post was about NASA, and the importance of manned spaceflight. I remember reading/hearing that the first operational integrated circuit computer was aboard the Apollo missions, so I was googling things like "Missile Navigation" and "Rocket Guidance Computer" over and over and over again. The Very Next Day I received an email unlike anything I've ever seen before, and not in my spam folder either:

From: Bintu Mahmud
Subject: ALLAH CALLS ON YOU

I am Mrs. Bintu Mahmud. Please contact my lawyer

Ramli Sariman (barr_ramli.sariman@gala.net) for a
very important thing ALLAH wants you to do for
Him. May ALLAH be with you always.

Something tells me big brother noticed a pattern in my web queries and wants to know whose team I'm on. Kinda funny/scary depending on your take.

Let's talk about my fat ass

2010-06-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

Can we talk about my out of control obesity? Certainly, the years have ravaged my once boyish figure; but it was still to my surprise that I all but bottomed out my suspension when I first sat on Plan B with the new subframe. I built the subframe around a shock I've had laying around for a while, a spiffy Malossi RS24 shock (by Paioli) originally designed as the front swingarm shock for an Italjet Dragster. I suspect the difference in geometry is to blame, and my addiction to transfats and sweet, empty carbs.

Regardless, I needed to find a beefier shock with similar dimensions to the one I had, but that was a bit tough, and most quality shocks of this sort go for around $400, even a good spring for a motorcross application retails around $120, and the dimensions would still be a rough fit. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of random industrial springs with appropriate specs for not very much money. The thinner one is rated at 470lbs. and the thicker at 790lbs. Both springs match the outer diameter of the original and are 8in. long.
HELLO LIZ!

But that's where it gets complicated, as the shock will accept a spring of a maximum 5 3/8" long and has a travel of about 2". I'm having a tough time staying in front of the math on this one, as I'll have to cut off some length to allow the shock to fit, but also compress the shock enough to keep the sag within a usable range. So, I'm willing to accept a fair bit of trial and error through this process.

I headed down to Naz & Phil's shop to use the press to get the spring on, but it was a smidge more involved. After trimming an inch off each spring, I cooked the coil top with a torch to flatten it out. Ultimately, I need to fab up a tool to help rebuild the shock. This process had a few false starts and took nearly all day. After the tool was done, the spring installed easily. Knocking an inch out of it's length reduces the spring's max load to 347lbs, but that will hopefully prevent my massive girth from dragging the motor across the asphalt.

I luv my Obnoxious Subframe

2010-06-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

A few shots of the newly powder coated subframe. Thanks Responsible Jon!

To Boldly Go ... Waaay Off Topic.

2010-05-08T01:04:00.000-07:00

Enjoy 'em while you can: Friday, May 14th, The space shuttle Atlantis STS-132, will blast off for the second to last ever Space Shuttle launch. The final launch of Endeavour in November 2010, STS-134, will be the final launch of the space shuttle program, effectively ending the manned spaceflight program in the United States. ...Indefinitely. Given the rate at which aerospace programs develop, it could seriously be 30 years before another U.S. spacecraft breaks the surly bonds and sends men & women into outer space.

Is this news to you? Allow me to recap. The first ever Space Shuttle (Columbia) was originally delivered to the Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979, coincidentally the same day I was born. The first launch of the space shuttle was in April, 1981. Given the stresses involved in leaving and returning to Earth's atmosphere, the service life of the typical shuttle was estimated at 30 years. (A timeline sealed by the 2003 destruction of Columbia) NASA & US Air Force chose to develop a new craft rather than request funding to build a larger Shuttle fleet. This new craft was proposed to place a low-cost orbiter within the reach of private corporations, while simultaneously developing frontier technologies and drastically reduce overall mission costs for NASA. The new experimental ship was called the X-33, with a larger production version follow-up called the Venture Star. X-33/Venture Star was planned to be active by the time the original space shuttle fleet was retiring. -but that was before Narloy-Z.

The reason the X-33 could be so cheap and still get the job done is because it doesn't require a large external fuel tank or solid rocket boosters; not to mention eliminating SRBs makes space travel much, much safer. The reason the X-33 didn't need the external periphery is because it was to use a RS-2200 Linear Aerospike engine. The conventional rocket engine uses a bell-shaped thrust nozzle. The design of the thrust nozzle greatly determines the amount of power it's capable of producing. Just as a two-stroke expansion chamber exhaust performs optimally at a specific RPM, rocket nozzles perform optimally at a specific altitude and air pressure. Thing is; rockets aren't supposed to stay at specific altitude, they're supposed to shoot through them. As a result, traditional rocket engines spend most of their lives outside the powerband.

Now, a linear aerospike engine doesn't have that problem. The RS-2200 uses a pair of variable geometry ramps to maintain optimum explosive pressure regardless of altitude. The new engine is 30% more fuel efficient than the older engine, and as a result, all fuel tanks could be internalized. As you can imagine, even with liquid hydrogen cooling from within, the stress on the ramps directing a river of exploding rocket fuel is quite tremendous, and the original material was insufficient for the task. X-33 engineers reluctantly selected Narloy-Z to build the ramps, which was tougher albeit significantly heavier. In doing so, this altered the flight characteristics and the weight difference had to be accounted for elsewhere. The engineers spent a lot of time and money developing a composite tank for the liquid hydrogen fuel, but met with repeated failure. The traditional Aluminum-Lithium tank worked flawlessly, but required a revision of the entire frame to meet the needed power-to-weight ratio. At this point, despite numerous NASA & USAF challenges, the off schedule and over budget X-33 was canceled, but mostly to make way for Constellation.

Rather than support a high-technology, low unit-cost vehicle that could open up private spacecraft enterprise, the Bush Administration favored a robust, far reaching, long-term approach to space exploration. The plan was to return men to the moon, but rather than just planting the stars & stripes and collecting rock samples, Constellation would also deliver modular units to be assembled as a semi-permanent base on the moon. With the larger orbit of the moon and its low gravity, the moon in many ways makes for a superior 'jumping off' point for missions to Mars and the other planets in the solar system. But... with the War on Terror, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the publics' general lack of confidence in all things Pres. Bush, the idea of a "Moon Base" seemed ridiculous. Regardless, NASA engineers progressed with plans to return to the Moon in a similar fashion to the Apollo missions. The last few years have seen the current crop of NASA Scientists and engineers scouring for resources to essentially create a high-tech Apollo sequel with early missions in the late 2010's and moon landings in the early 2020's.

With 9 Billion invested, President Obama terminated Constellation across the weekend of April 15, 2010. Obama's new plan relies on the rise of (as of yet non-existent) commercial spaceflight providers to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, with the Russian space program filling the interim gap of... an unknown duration. The other initiatives set aside funding for research on a mission to land on an asteroid, earth based astronomy and emphasis on earth-centered exploration, with particular focus on climate change. In escence we will go from the clear global leader in manned spaceflight, to relative nobodys with zero experience overnight. The private leader in which Obama has placed his trust is Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and owner of SpaceX, a company which to date has launched 1 of their primary rockets. -Compared to the thousands of launches and the hundreds of manned spaceflights NASA has successfully and safely conducted. Killing Constellation to force NASA to sit on its laurels, waiting for amateur hour to play catch-up will cost about 6,000 jobs at Cape Canaveral. Most of those jobs are highly technical and specific to spaceflight; it will also cost another est. 14,000 jobs in the greater community. This in a time where job creation is allegedly a priority, where we hand out vast fortunes to down-on-their-luck bankers, auto-giants and nearly any yacht owner with a frowny face.

The biggest bummer for me is that at one time as a kid I fantasized about being an astronaut; and now as a grown man I get to learn that even if i ate my Wheaties, and did my push-ups, and studied real hard to be an astronaut, it wouldn't have mattered. A lot of people ask, What's the point? Why spend all that money? There's a lot of poetic, soul-searching responses that you either already get and don't need to be told, or that you will simply never understand. So I'll provide a practical answer: Look at the computer in front of you, or your cellphone, or thisisphotobomb.com. NASA is the benevolent arm of an innovation machine. We live in an 'information age' whose economy all hums along on microprocessors. Think about how much we use computers in our daily lives, if you're old enough, think about life before the internet or before you owned a computer. Microprocessors are the direct descendants of the Integrated Circuit, which was developed purely because vacuum tubes couldn't withstand the violent shaking and G-forces of a rocket launch -one of the first ever integrated circuit computers was the Apollo Guidance Computer. Obama wants to create a 'Green Ecomony'- he has a industry legend at his fingertips; Silicon Photovoltaics (Solar Cells) were invented by NASA. NASA has been using Fuel Cells in satellites and spacecraft for decades. If anything, that is NASA's value: huge life-altering innovations.

Some food for thought. The Over-Budget & Off-Schedule X-33's entire program budget was 1.3 Billion dollars. That equates to 5 days of occupation in Iraq at the height of the occupation, or 2/10ths of 1 percent (0.002) of the bank bailout. It's still a chunk of change, but we've spent far more money in far less effective ways.

The way I see it, the biggest threat to manned spaceflight is the meddlings of the President of the United States. If not for Bush's far-off vision, and Obama's complete lack of vision, we would not be in this situation right now. The X-33/ Venture Star was supposed to be the torch that NASA handed off to the private sector, to initiate private spaceflight. If it hadn't been canceled, the technical issues could have been sorted out - for a fraction of the cost of Constellation- without damaging the livelihoods of the average NASA engineer, and without US Astronauts having to cross their fingers on a rocket ride with Captain PayPal. In November or whenever the last launch ends up being scheduled, I will make the trip (pilgrimage?) to see the final Shuttle launch. I will raise my Mai Tai or Corona to the heavens and offer a salute to the life and death of a beautiful and truly inspired era known as "The Space Age".

Quick Preview...?

2010-04-30T00:17:00.000-07:00

So my subframe is almost done, minus some adjustments and of course some powdercoat. I fitted it up to see what it actually looked like together for the first time. I also got to sit on Plan B for the first time in a while. The new subframe adds about 4-5 inches, which kinda looks ridiculous at the moment, as if I'm going down to the Quaker Steak to drag race some dudes on their hayabusas. I think when the bike is finished, it will look less goofy.

Welcome to the Ditch.

2010-04-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Its been a really long time since I posted last, but lots of stuff has been happening. The biggest thing to happen would definitely be an email received by T.N. from someone Extra Awesome who took notice of my last blog post. Quite the Honor & Wow! is all I will say on that.

Several weeks ago, I am ashamed to say that I was grifted out of a dollar by a juggalo in front of my corner grocery. Yes. Please friends, take a moment and spend some quiet contemplation on that one. The 'how' this occurred isn't that important or interesting really. I like to think of myself as a nice person. I usually 'Chip-In' when someone gets runned over, I'm kind to animals or I would help a friend move to a new digs. If say, you, dear reader, were bleeding in a ditch somewhere, I would act as expected: call the paramedics, get you out of the ditch, apply first aid, etc... But as a man of principle as well, there are people that I would allow to remain in the ditch, people who simply don't need to exist -who have through technology or the manipulation of civilizations' principles have dodged the darwinian thinning of the herd. Take notice, fans of Insane Clown Posse, you are now in the ditch.

I have prepared another graph to illustrate this concept:

So yeah, I don't like juggalos. Moving on...

I've been working primarily on two projects of late, my smallframe's engine and Plan B's custom subframe. If you recall from the Polini Cup season finale, I built my bike unwittingly with a warped subframe, and even if I was comfortable riding/racing a bike with an off-camber rear wheel, it created clearance issues with the rear clutch pulley that had to be addressed for the bike to fully function. I'm also a big believer in good ergonomics as a performance gain, since the bike can only go as fast as you can ride it. Everything I've read on ergo stuff says that the average mopeds' center of gravity is way too far back, especially since I weigh almost twice as much as Plan B. Lastly, my carb location makes having pedals difficult and I liked the idea of getting pedals back on the bike. All these reasons resulted in the new subframe being longer than stock by several inches. The subframe isn't done yet, but pretty close. Hopefully in time for the next race??

Back in 2004, I realized that Horsepower is great for racing, but only in a RPM range that you can access. At the time, the 'King of the Hill' of smallframe cylinder systems was the Zirri MR2000, rocking a reliable 25+ hp at 12K. Not bad for a sand-cast, air cooled, cast iron jug. But racing the small tracks that we did, the bike rarely rose above 6K rpms. I then schemed up a conversion that would get around 25+ hp but at 7K. Afterwards, life/school/girlfriends stepped in and the idea was shelved for years. I have now finally started to work on that idea. In my last post I had reamed out my Con-Rod to fit the new gudgeon pin for the new jug, I have also now welded on the 13mm decking plates necessary to span the difference in cylinder sizes. I then machined off the excess so the cases will fit together. I need to bore the cases to the proper spigot dimension: 70mm, and fab the reed intake for the new, much larger reed block. Overall, the engine will gain about 30% more capacity, from 136cc's to 168cc.

I've been spending a lot of time down at Naz's workshop, big thanks to him for all his help and letting me use his tools.

Naz and the hellfire glue-gun.

Wind beneath my wings

2010-02-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

Everyone has an inspiration, a goal, something they want really badly, or want to be with every iota of their being. When I get coffee, I see dudes that are definitely attempting to become Johnny Depp, or Demetri Martin or that really, really want to fall into an Ocean Pacific T-shirt design from when I was 12. When I was 12, I wanted to be Chuck Yeager. I wanted to shoot down Messerschmidts with my Mustang and test-fly rocket planes. Now that I've done all those things, I think I want to be Jan Thiel. Why? Because Mr. Thiel designed probably the blindingest most amazing race engine to date. Now, its possible that he has some competition by way of Yamaha's direct injection boat engines, but I can't find anything with wheels that holds a candle to the RSA. Even the Boffins at HRC & KTM are struggling to match this beast.

Some years back the arms race in MotoGP 125 was a dead heat, with bikes from a handful of marques pretty evenly matched. Piaggio / Aprilia was getting feedback from the riders that they wanted an engine with more torque in the upper midrange. Tuning possibilities exhausted with the current RSW engine, they sought to develop a different style of engine, and recruited legendary 70's 80's GP engine tuner/designer Jan Thiel, who happened to be alive and interested in the project. With his genius and Piaggio's resources, the results were unconventional and powerful. The RSA is a 125cc Transverse Rotary valve engine that makes a blistering 56.5hp, with more torque and 3.5 hp more than its reed valve predecessor. Without a new material (carbon this, silicon that) having been invented, a 3.5hp gain is pretty significant in a race class where the blood has been squeezed from the stone for decades.

Like many, when I first got into bikes I presumed that the stock rotary systems on my Vespas were garbage and that aftermarket reed valves were the only way forward. The truth as I'm learning is that reeds are the easiest way to access 97% of available horsepower, but that at the tip top, rotary is still the Hp King. Why? Because when a rotary valve opens there is no obstruction (like a reed cage) between the crankcase and the carb, optimizing intake charge velocity. And that miniscule difference in intake velocity is what gives rotary the narrow edge. A transverse rotary is even better as it dumps the incoming charge between the crank webs, just behind the cylinder transfers. Combine all that with the knowledge that a rotary valve can be independent of piston position, and therefore successfully manage backflow and low-end issues, and you have a very spicy meatball. Alas, the ship has sailed on all of my current bikes, they will all be reed valves. But now I'm thinking that for future efforts, I'll try to build a rotary bike.

I can find very little info on this motor, lots of pictures on complete bikes racing, but very little on the engine itself, or its 250cc brother. I made a graph to illustrate what an efficient powerplant the RSA is. Basically, the total power of the motor, divided by the capacity. As an example, the Yamaha R1 is rated at 172hp. If it were as efficient as the RSA, it would have 280 MORE hp. I realize the logic is kinda flimsy and my numbers are not all official, this graph is more a visual aide than anything. Not pictured: as it didn't fit on the graph is the pokey Harley Sportster 883 with a rating of 19.2.

In other news, I made another batch of Tomos/Polini/Daelim type intakes and tree'd them up. As I'm writing this, the wax is being cooked out of the mold in my oven. Probably this week I'll cast the mold and see if things are improving. I altered my mold design based on some suggestions from fellow engine nerd / metal caster Graham. Elsewhere, I used a bore bar to enlarge the small end on my Vespa PK crankshaft to fit the new piston for my smallframe racer. I originally bought a 20mm reamer to do this, but after setting everything up, the Adamantium or whatever the con-rod is made of actually dulled the blades on the reamer. The new piston is about 8mm wider than the old one, and should produce a big improvement in capacity.

Quick Update: 2/19/10

2010-02-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

Lots going on, no time right now, GO:

PK Crank + Bore Bar = win!

Original Piaggio Si shock, meet Paoli hotness:

Engine I'm obsessed with and can find almost no info on:

That's called progress

2010-02-02T10:47:00.000-08:00

-but not quite there yet. I cast another mold yesterday, this time applying my library gained knowledge of last month. The results were definitely better than the last time, but not quite there yet. Specifically, I used a smaller, narrower crucible filled with all the same alloy of aluminum (6061) and cast it at a lower temperature, with minimal stirring. All of these things were done to reduce the amount of gas being absorbed by the metal. Looking at the results, it appears as if it was cast at too low a temperature (1250F). It also appears that some residual wax in the mold created gas pockets that couldn't escape. So I still need to improve the mold design for flow, and pour it just a smidge hotter.

In scene drama news, I got some poetically simple bumpers stickers in the mail from Dave of the Elm City Scooter Club. Thanks Dave. As many of you already know, there are too many scooters out there, and the vast, vast bulk of them are dumb plastic ones. This is a piece of common ground between mopeders and vintage scooterists, and an especially big bummer for the vintage scooter scene; who are constantly assailed by pithy pleas for acceptance and validation by humorless modern plastic riders. Elm City slices to the core of these matters, usually in less than four words. Here's to you Elm City, for calling a spade a spade in these lackluster, apologetic times.

Also, expect some development in the next few days on the Racer/ Long Term project front.

....... ......... .....WHAAAT??!!

2010-01-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of original content, but as a MotoGP fan and scooterist, this is earth-shaking news:

Lambretta returns to MotoGP

Lambretta!! I don't know if they'll stand a snowballs chance against the big guns of Honda and Aprilia, but I know who I 'll be cheering for in 125cc.

Holy Shit. Seriously.

Deluxe Field Trip

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

In this week's episode, I took a trip to Responsible Jon's Deluxe Powder Coating operation in Georgetown to see the magic first hand. Owner, Proprietor, Powdersmith Phil walked me around the shop. Having painted some bikes in the past with automotive paint, spray gun, clear coat etc.. I was very impressed with the quality of finish the powder coating could render, and the relative speed of the process itself. Phil was shooting some small compost bins, to make them machine washable. He also had earlier coated a bicycle frame a lovely satin black. After observing the coating operation on the compost bin from bare metal to a textured copper vein, and general BSing, we went and grabbed some lunch across the street at Matt's Famous Chili Dogs. I had a Chicago style brat -which was exquisite! Exquisite enough where I took a bite before remembering to take a picture first. Whoops. Josh hungry.

If you didn't get so see Tony's Rigid Puch frame, I can say that RJ's Deluxe Powder Coating does some fantastic work. The spray booth is huge and the oven is huge enough to accommodate any moped frame or part, any bicycle frame, fixie or whatevs, probably a Lambretta frame, probably many motorcycle frames as well, definitely capable of any gas tank, rim, fender, etc.. etc... You get the idea.

As always I ended up taking pictures with the crappy phone camera, because my vintage 1995 digi-cam was out of batteries -I mean diesel fuel. My apologies, obviously.

You gotta Fight, for your Right-

2010-01-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

    -for Paaaaarrrrrrrrrking! Josh Jones has wisely, boldly posted on the 'Ideas for Seattle' board of Mayor McGinn's webnet thingy to help legalize parking mopeds on the sidewalk. The board is a popularity contest for any issue anyone wants to put before the mayor, with topics ranging from "sustainability"? to bringing in another NBA team. As it stands, mopeders and scooterists are the frequent target of parking enforcement officers and police, who are often very under-informed about the law regarding our beloved vehicles. Because of this, a regular amount of harassment on the part of Johnny Law is expected from Mopeders and Scooterists. Having gone through this process before in Columbus, I personally believe the law should include all bikes under a certain capacity or size/weight restriction; if for no other reason than to gain the support of the much larger groups of scooters riders in Seattle.

    Some believe that the community is better of not calling attention to itself, living within the blissful ignorance of the cops and meter maids out there. I certainly understand that position, but I feel that as the number of riders in the city increases, we must either get involved in the political process, or we will find ourselves legislated against, by some disaffected bureaucrat.

    Please take thirty seconds to vote for this, you can use your gmail, facebook or twitter logins to sign in:
http://www.ideasforseattle.org/forums/27772-general/suggestions/440752-to-make-it-legal-for-pedal-mopeds-to-park-in-the-s?ref=title

If this idea can be the status quo in Columbus & Sacramento, hopefully it will become law in Seattle and spark a nation-wide trend: Just like Grunge Rock!

OMG Bonerjamz!

2010-01-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

At some point last night, the Team Nerdspeed blog here hit 10,000 views. Woo!

Yesterday was my first day working with the Exhibit Design Team at EMP/SFM. Our first project is the renovation of Sound Lab, a permanent exhibit that offers musical instruction. Even though it's been maintained since the opening of the museum, many of the systems are banged up or have reached the end of their service life. The computers in there are running Windows 98, for example. This project will require a lot of original fabrication and design, so I've been assigned to assist in the fabrication and design of the new components. EMP/SFM has two separate and well-equipped workshops, a wood shop and a metal shop -which is where I'll be spending my time mostly during this project.

A thousand apologies for these crappy pictures. Bonerfail!

Hit the Books

2010-01-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. Notably, there has been some progress with the casting stuff, but I have yet to cast anything since that time. Early last month, I took some time to cook up some aluminum and pour a few molds. Phil came over to watch the process and help out a bit. The results were pretty discouraging, even though I had done things as best as I knew how. The pictures show some copied wax positives and the resultant castings, as well as an original mold and its almost "ok" result. Watching clips on youtube, it seems every yokel with a sandbox and a blowtorch can cast aluminum accurately. So that made me really question what was going on.

Thusly, I took a trip to the Seattle Central Library to spend some quality time getting to better know what the ding-dang is going on with my aluminum. This is the part of the movie where there is a montage of me pouring over books, writing equations on a chalk-board, maybe pouring fluid in a beaker and taking notes? It concludes with the camera fading away as I am asleep on top a pile of papers at a table. Yep. Most of the information was the typical facts and figures and numbers that I already know, but one book actually had a troubleshooting section. That proved really helpful as it identified my problems exactly and also offered new information I had not yet encountered. So hopefully, the quality of my results will improve hereafter.

We're going to get off topic a minute here -

I also took a trip back to Ohio for Christmas. After some flights getting bounced around, Thanks to my cheapo standby status, I finally wound up in Huron. We hung out with Liz's nice family for a bit, then down to Columbus to hang out with my folks for a few days. I got to run into a few old friends and even go to see my elusive sister for thirty seconds.
In other news, I've been trolling around the Moped Army forums looking for cylinder bodies that I can use to copy in preparation for a mass-produced cylinder project. With the cylinder port-arrangement insert that I have, case-inducted cylinders are the natural candidates (Batavus, Vespa, Peugeot, Derbi). Thus far, I have no specimens suitable for replication other than the flat reed and pyramid reed Derbi jugs that I got from Vic of the Puddle Cutters. My original intent was to avoid the marques of machine that already have a good selection of performance parts available. Seeing the cylinders first-hand, its now easy to see the tremendous potential a derbi motor can have, and how much more work would be required to match it with another brand of machine. As an example, the spigot diameter is quite large (54mm) which means a determined tuner could build a 90cc Derbi without having to touch the cases, aisde from porting. The cylinder studs are spaced so that with some machining to the case mouth, a 100cc motor is plausible. If last year's Polini Cup is any indication, I'd say it's only a matter of time before these things are reality. (maybe already are?) I'm not a Derbi guy, so i don't really know.

Look for updates in the near future regarding casting progress and a well-equipped metal shop I might get to play around in. Weee!

Dark Crystals

2009-11-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

So as of my last post, things seemed to be ramping up quickly towards producing some side-draught daelim / tomos / polini intakes, and then suddenly nothing. I remade some wax positives and invested them properly in plaster, which is what failed the first time. Everything was ready to pour and then ...nothing. This was caused by a cross section of me being broke, bad weather, and some otherwise good developments. I've managed to pick up a freelance design gig with a local company. They currently import, sell & distribute electric bicycle and scooter components and are currently developing a hybrid human-electric vehicle for use in local delivery routes for small parcels. Liz calls them space cars. I've been developing vehicle concept sketches in conjunction with the larger engineering efforts. Its a pretty awesome project, and I'm pleased to be a part of it. Here are a few of the rejected ideas from the first round of sketching:

(I'm not sure what my disclosure agreement will allow me to show, so this image may disappear.)

The success with the blue goo capturing useful geometry off the intake and Naz's MHR cylinder has made me 'git rill' about producing cylinders. The biggest obstacle is keeping costs down. Pistons are really difficult to produce because of the tight geometric, mechanical, and metallurgical tolerances they must adhere to. As such, making my own pistons -even though Burt Munro did it- is beyond my capability for now. So I'll have to buy any piston that goes into a kit I make, the kit will also need some light machining, and then be nikisil plated.

Just between the nikisil plating and piston cost, we're talking about $235 per unit before I even account for machining/honing fees or my own materials, nevermind my own time and trouble. If I were to order enough jugs plated and enough pistons, that number might drop to $110 per unit, but that requires me to have enough cash in fist to make such investments. These numbers bummed me out pretty hard for a minute & made me research the process of nikisil / nicom plating in general; which I've always viewed as an esoteric black magic, wrought with bloody ceremonies and bejeweled cloaks.

Turns out, you can leave the chickens at home, as it's basically the same as nickel plating (electroplating) with some secret sauce. The secret sauce is in part composed of silicon-carbide, which is not terribly expensive if you can find it in the right purity and grit. So if I set up my own electro-plating rig, presumably in the kitchen next to the crock-pot and toaster, I can get the costs down tremendously. This does create another problem, though, as the only way to be sure that the nikisil formula is correct is to produce an experimental series of cylinders, build some motors and test them 'til failure. Unless someone can think of a DIY way of analyzing the chemical composition of existing cylinder liners? hrrmm.... I do have a furnace...

If your weekend isn't set yet, Liz and I will be at Urban Craft Uprising this Saturday and Sunday. Liz will be selling her wares (Blue Diamond Stamps) and I will be eating cookies and drinking beer. My otherwise great cat, Jack, barfed on my clean laundry last night so I should probably go deal with that now. Bad Kitty!!

Mass Production / Massive Potential

2009-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

So my recent dickering around with the blue goo has produced flexible master molds I can use to make copies of the shapes modeled. The Peugeot / Tomos / Polini reed side draft intake mold isn't quite perfect yet, but I decided to have a go anyway using candlewax -which is part of the problem. The potpourri fragrances, however, are an aromatherapy solution. Sooner or later, I'll man up to some microcyrstalline wax for some super serious molding. I'll also switch up to a Urethane-based master mold, which is tougher for repeat usage, and has better rigidity qualities for accuracy.

I also copied Naz's MHR scooter cylinder, though reproducing this will be slightly more involved. The master here, is of just the internal port structure and port layout. It would need to be adjusted for the specific stroke and crown heights to go into another motor, I would also have to construct a mold of the exterior... so yes, we're still aways off yet. But! We are getting closer to a nightmarish post-apocalyptic world where 20hp Jawa 207's and Batavus HS-50's rule the streets with an iron fist and the Gilardoni Peugeots, Hobbits, Derbis rock back and forth in the corner crying. Keep the dream alive, buddy! Don't stop believin'.

Science Updates

2009-11-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

So the last time I worked with this stuff was about 3-4 years ago, and it's fun to use but the demold time is 6 hours. Every time I want to do or change something it takes awhile. I'm not quite finished here, but you can see whats going on:

oohhh... Smell that Science

2009-10-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Fancy Chemicals?
20+HP Malossi MHR LC Scooter Cylinder?
Play-Doh!!

Keepin' it Nerdy, that's how we like it. Makin' stuff with extra science!

Polini Cup Finale: The Agony & The Ecstasy

2009-10-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mosquito Fleet has no shortage of awesome people. A lot of people pitched in to help me out at the last minute, literally! The last several weeks, prior to the Polini Cup, were a near constant buzz of activity to try and finish the bike and otherwise get ready to roll. Parts need customizing, refitting, assembled and disassembled and reassembled in order to chase down all the little details. Getting a bike together is really just a laundry list of all kinds of tiny projects which are hard to predict just what's going to happen. This increases with every customized part you have, as they all need tweaking here, etc.. I realize I'm preaching to the choir, but there are some folks, with say a brand new stock Tomos, or an otherwise easily tuned bike who don't understand why I couldn't just build this bike in a day or two.

In the final day or so, I realized that if the bike was going to be finished, it would get built on the bus, or at the track. So I focused on gathering parts and doing the things I couldn't on the road. The bike was mostly in one piece at this point, but the goofy lawnmower belt I had on the bike, seemed to be getting zero traction on the variator, and thus the engine wasn't cranking over. Additionally, other than the condensor (hot) lead cracking against the engine, when throwing the flywheel by hand, I had no verification of spark. So it was a very fresh bike that went on that bus.

Meanwhile, since I was the only fleeter going to race, Jihee crafted some BAD ASS Nerd Speed T-shirts to rep, which is still blowing my mind!! Thanks to Phil for grabbing a shirt for me during my ultra-busy moments. I was working on the bike up until a 1/2 hour before boarding the bus. We drove through the night on friday, collecting a few puddle cutters en route (Nice to meet BFA, Jesse & Joe of Uphill Battle) and at first light, I started to wrench on Plan B. To my knowledge it needed to be completely cabled, to have the not-turning-over issue resolved and set up for ignition. Since I had a healthier clutch with me, I started work on that. Joel 'Gunshow' Kvernmo jumped right in and helped me build up the bike, basically from that point through the rest of the day - and some of the night.

Together we disassembled the old clutch and rebuilt it around the slightly better one, using tools in the Bus's toolbox, some of mine and stuff we bought at a truck stop. After that was rebuilt and reinstalled, a new problem surfaced. Early in the build, I noticed that the rather meager stock Si subframe had been tweaked out of straight. I attempted to lever it back into true, but without the proper tools, my leveraging seem to only stress the subframe further. So instead of running the wheel on crooked, I shimmed the mount bolts to straighten it out. But this created a new problem, as the distance shimmed now meant the clutch couldn't be fully secured, because of the threaded distance, or the fully secured clutch was locking up the clutch pulley against the subframe. Joel and I tried a number of different shimming combinations and couldn't make it happen. It was very frustrating to have to choose between a crooked wheel or a loose clutch. At this point, considering all the other existing problems, I truly doubted that the bike would ever see the track. Phil finished his driving shift and jumped into fray, he convinced me that we should just keep finishing the bike and until we had exhausted our options. So together we all cabled the bike and got the clutch/wheel situation to a compromise. Some time thereafter we arrived at Atwater and Phil, Joel and I kept working on the bike. Using another bike to 'wheel start' Plan B, we tested for spark, which was dead until we borrowed the HT Coil off of Phil's Astro-Daimler. Once we had confirmation of spark, we begged some fuel off a creature and tried bump-starting the bike. At near sprinting speeds, the bike would crank over and bark. With the sun already set on Saturday, running down the access road next to the track, Plan B finally started for the first time. Phil, Joel and I then spent the next few hours trying to adjust the rather persnickety Tillotson carb. Joel did this for the most part, based on his experience with his own Tillotson. At some point we realized that tuning the carb in the cold night wouldn't help us the next with the sun up, so we quit for the night.

It had been quite the day. Joel & Phil really made the difference in getting the bike to run, I consider them to be life members of Team Nerdspeed, if they have any interest in that.

The next day, I used Lee's welder to zap the clutch nut, as to prevent it flying off during the race. Then I started tuning the carb again. The tillotson uses a fixed idle jet, and two screws, a low range and a high range, the two screws ranges overlap to form the mid-range. During our tuning efforts, Phil noticed that my variator wasn't operating until the very top of the rpm range, it seems that the bike was overall geared too tall. Instead of the standard 16" wheels most Vespas have, Plan B has 17" wheels, as well as the Malossi overdrive gear set. Combined with the cheesy lawnmower belt, and the not quite right carb settings, Plan B's low-end power was abysmal. The bike stalled when qualifying was sent out, and I scrambled to restart the bike. With a fresh plug, the bike restarted, and I got out right as the white flag dropped, just barely qualifying for the day.

I knew the bike wasn't competitive, but I was thrilled to be able to finally run the machine. If I had finished the bike about a week earlier, I could've sorted out some of the performance issues, but considering the marathon build session I was pretty happy about so much going right. In spite of a Lot of welding on the cases, the engine had no air leaks, the exhaust -also a lot of welding- and no air leaks. The carb has this awkward vacuum aperture that I was able to plumb correctly around the reed valve. The cylinder, despite being old and seized and me porting the shit out of it, had good compression and didn't hurt the rings. To not have to be disappointed all winter for not getting out on the track, was definitely worth being a road block to the other guys on the track. Sorry dudes! -but not really(?) The racing this year was fantastic, bikes have come a long way from the racing back in Ohio and Pennsylvania, when the Gilardoni was hawt shit, and a 21mm was 'probably too big'. The racers out there are really talented and super fun to watch. I look forward to next season, and hope more people come out to challenge the guys leading the way. Oh! It was great to see Travis on the track, who looked good and looked like he was having a good time, too.

Despite the running issues, I'm pretty impressed with the overall feel of the Si chassis, the frame feels rigid, the rear monoshock is great, and the front forks, while spongy by motorcycle standards, are pretty solid for a moped. I will probably end up fabbing a custom subframe for the bike, maybe a water-jet cut aluminum one, per Matt Smith's suggestion? I also need to rework the foot pegs, and the overall ergonomics.

The bus ride home started as an annoying chore, and eventually became a surrealist nightmare. Despite a very successful record to date, the rally season's wear and tear decided to emerge on the Bus at about 5:30AM monday morning, when the coolant filter bracket broke off and the filter was pierced falling against the motor. Scoob's, Phil and I were able to bypass the filter out of the loop and begin our merry way again. Next to fail was a section of hydraulic fluid line. The line burst, and the bus lost both the cooling fan and the power steering. After some limping down the road, Phil was able to locate a nearby NAPA store, who then directed us to a hydraulic systems specialist, where a new line was made up and installed, along with 5 gallons of hydraulic fluid. Back on the road, about 15 minutes along, the radiator overheated and we realized that the cooling fan was not operating, in spite of the new hydraulic line and fluid. We stopped in the next town and searched for options, wheeling into three different garages. The problem was believed to be located around the cooling fan solenoid. A lot of friendly advice was given, and some passing the buck, eventually some attempts were made at bypassing the solenoid, or locating a replacement, but alas it was not to be. So after securing the engine cover into an 'open' position, and opening the side covers, we were able to drive the bus at about 35-40mph indefinitely, usually stopping every 20-30 minutes when the engine would overheat.

My genuine thanks go out to Matt Smith, Phil and Scooby, who were definitely dozers in a bus full of fraggles. We made Portland by midnight, and pulled into the bowling alley around 7am. Total return time, around 35 hrs. I also want to thank everybody in general for being so supportive of my efforts to finish the dang bike, and busting my Awful Hen cherry. More thanks go out to Liz, who helped me out a lot on the last day before leaving, who fixed up the seat I used, and did some fantastic hand-lettering on Plan B.

One last thing: Liz & I will be in Columbus, OH. next weekend for Craftin Outlaws, the biggest alternative craft fair in Ohio, and the second oldest in the midwest, which Liz started and ran until we moved to Seattle. If you're in the area, you should check it out.

Down to the wire

2009-09-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hearts on Fire. Because things are moving quickly here, my first idea was to post a montage, specifically the training montage from Rocky 4. Then I watched Observe and Report the other night, which used a handful of f**king epic songs by Queen from the Flash Gordon Soundtrack, so instead I give you the last stand of War Rocket Ajax:

Ultra points to Seth, who's hooked me up with some last minute parts to help get this machine moving. I built the motor Monday, hung it yesterday and have been chasing down small problems all over the place. Last look before it goes in, the intake is large enough to flow a 28mm carb. (should that ever become necessary...) Enough bloggeritering, back to putting this thing together!

Let us "B-gin!"

2009-09-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

So the last major hoop to jump through was repairing/replacing the exhaust flange on the Polini cylinder, and fabricating a new header to fit the enlarged exhaust flange. The old & standard exhaust flange dimensions are 22mm outer and 17.3mm inner diameter. The new flange is 23mm ID & 25mm OD. I used pieces of a random exhaust for the new flange and a stock Sachs exhaust to fab up the new header. To accurately recreate the standard Vespa geometry and location, I built a cardboard jig, and used that to accurately sculpt the new flange to fit the old cut marks. Immediately after this was complete, I thought of a faster and more efficient way of doing this. I required a no-bake cookie to console myself.

I then chopped up the Sachs pipe to fit the new flange, which was kinda complicated. When I suspected I was finished, I took my cobbled bits over to Phil's place, where he proceeded to 'turn hellfire into horsepower'©. The flange welding was a piece of cake, but the header geometry I developed was flawed. I took it apart for another go, then back to Phil's where I welded it myself and am ashamed to say, did some Gawd-awful welding. -And to think of the many hours I welded away in CCAD's nearly vacant metal shop. whatevs. So then I rented an enormous angle grinder and fixed all my sloppy blacksmithing on the roof of my building where I undoubtedly made all the babies in the neighborhood wake-up and cry. In your face, infants!

That night I bothered to actually read the section in Graham Bell's book on exhaust headers and through no planning on my own part, the header looks pretty good on paper. It seems like there is tons of power hiding in the nuances of header design. In warfare, military commanders use the expression: "Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics" I think the application here would be: "Amateurs study porting, professionals study headers".

Thrice returning to RJ's weld-o-rama, Phil expertly welded the improved header to the Simonini pipe. Thanks Phil! I'm still waiting on various parts to arrive, and it looks like my flywheel will be fat and heavy for the race. But the bike should be together lickitty split and none too soon. I take back any fence-sitting or half-heartedness towards the paint job, it is f**king magnificent and indeed, Louder than God.

In totally unrelated news, Liz & I have been going to Quiz Night at a bar and kicking so much ASS! we've won the MF'er two weeks in a row now, usurping the reigning champs after several weeks of less than glorious performance. BOOM!

Stealth Pics: (cardboard seat is a mock-up, I assure you)
Bonus Round: I'm looking at this blog, while taking pictures to be used on the blog.

Updates 9/9/09

2009-09-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

So, both bikes are still unfit for racing, despite some last minute scrambling. I missed the last round of racing at Atwater, but I am determined to make the season finale in October. Here are some nuggets of the progress. Tite bladez = wheel stripes add around 2-3 mph on the top end. Also a image of the Plan B engine's fuel system. There's a few hoops to jump through, but the last major obstacle I'm facing is the lack of an exhaust flange on the cylinder. Once that's complete and the exhaust has been similarly adapted. I can start building the bike. The paint job overall is somewheres in the sundered veil between amazing and asinine.

Last night I learned about Short Gamma Ray bursts and Magnetar Stars. I realize this is way off topic.

Highway to the Dangerzone

2009-08-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here at Team Nerdspeed, we spare no expense with R&D. Thankfully the US Air Force lent us an F-15C Eagle to help figure out which exhaust to use on Plan B. The kids over at Vespa-Ciao.NL chimed in too. The Calibrata & Fabrizi are the hawt shit pipes to have, but after some 9G-force inverted maneuvers the Simonini Especiale emerged as the best of the best, Goose. A real Maverick...anyways, so after it landed and cooled off, Jack and I gave it a thorough inspection.

Also on board is the Tillotson HL360. I got this on the way, then ordered the velocity stack. It's pretty much beyond awesome. Plan B is getting steadily more ferocious and I'm nearly ready to assemble. Giggity!

Takes a big trough t'feed them ponies, man.

2009-08-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

So Plan B's case inducted manifold just got finished by the quality aluminum wizards over at Kvichak Marine, where skeeter Matt Smith works. It's totally awesome and off the chain or something. I'm really excited. I also have a Tillotson HL360 on the way. So hopefully after I repair the exhaust flange on the cylinder, I can actually put this motor together. Woot!

Glamour Shots:

Sexiness & Unsexiness

2009-08-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, stuff has actually been happening during the broadcast black-out of late. I managed to get the lights to sort of work on the super cub, I modified a 28t sprocket to fit on the super cub's rear wheel, replacing the original 40t. It gained like 10mph and is alot more nice to ride. I also removed the decked tomos cylinder, dellorto 16mm and modified biturbo off of the Newport, returning to the slower set-up of a stock hi-torque cylinder, stock exhaust and 14mm bing. I blued up my clutch earlier, well, and clutch pad came off of the the rest of it. Luckily Phil happened to have a Clutch and bing jet around to help me wake the machine up. It rides 'OK' now, I did some silly porting to it and it's not quite jetted right, but it runs! The combination of both the super cub's lights and the newport's running meant that Liz and i got to go on one of those ride things they do on monday. It was Liz's first ride in a group, and her first ride at night (ever x2).

On other frontiers, there's more steam building behind the Plan B bike than ever. Updates to follow on that. werd.

At last it can be told...

2009-07-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-07-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T00:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Aluminate my life

2009-06-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I still haven't worked out my aluminum casting process enough to trust trying to pour my cylinder yet. I made these test shapes to try out different temperatures and chemical combos to get it all sorted. These definitely came out better than my manifold, but my gate design had problems and the styrofoam created problems. The aluminum was definitely higher quality. I scooped out the dross twice and used the full chemical arsenal. I also poured it at a higher temperature, around 1,500, which may have contributed to the gate problems. Anyhoo, I'll pour another test and if it goes well, then the cylinder(!)

The other night, Naz and I worked on the Plan B engine cases. Naz ended up welding alot of beef onto the vespa motor.

Finally, Liz has purchased a 4-spd 110cc motor for her Super Cub. 12V lighting, electronic ignition, and TORQUE! without SLUDGE! (inside joke)

Oceans of Rage

2009-06-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Josh (team nerdspeed) is not a happy boy right now. Oh the grand ruse that is "art school" or design vocations in general. If I had simply followed my 16 yr. old career path of Lifeguarding and Blockbuster Video, I might actually be slightly more employable right now. Extrapolate that a few years, and there'd be a chance that I'd be racing against Jeff, Jimmy, Tommy, Dean & Quintos this weekend instead of heckling them from my computer (or at the shop). So, here's an opportunity to evaluate this year's racing campaign and my life in general: I need more money. Everytime I meet someone who does computer bullshit, they seem to have a job. Maybe a house and a car too. So I need to go back to school to learn computer bullshit so I can afford to race. And pay rent. The good news is thus:

-I have an entry-level job at a tourist attraction
-I have all of my limbs and digits
-I have excellent vision
-Liz's '62 Super Cub seems to be running better now
-I am free of Cholera and Spanish Influenza
-I am not Super Morbidly Obese, just slightly pudgy

Plan B updates

2009-06-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've been scratching at Plan B here and there, but with the Polini Cup Round 3 several days away, I've kicked it up a notch. I still need to do some fab work with the Naz. The paint job is a ridiculous Malossi Racer style one. 'Louder than God' is what I'm going for. Does anyone have sticker making technology? I would love a 'Mosquito Fleet' or 'HRY Racing' sticker done in a the malossi font style. The chunks of the case induction manifold are ready to be "welded" with "aluminum" as opposed to glued together like most of the 12yr. olds on the performance tuning section like to show off. I also need to fab a bushing for the handlebar stem and figure out the exhaust pipe situation. and make a seat! wow. this bike has aways to go. Tally-ho!

Maximum Overdrive

2009-05-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

So the truth is that my Puch Newport II has lost a step or two. The pipe mods I did are part of that, going from a 19mm PHBG to a 16mm also had a hand, and of course regearing the bike to deal with the Seattle hills knocks down the top speed a bit. In Columbus, the streets are pretty flat and allows you to get away with a much peakier set-up. Last year, I was really interested in the 'race to end all races' in K-zoo. Which is one reason I tried to step up development of the case-inducted ZA50, etc... Trying to compete with lots of 70 & 80cc kitted machines put my 50cc at a marked disadvantage. -And the nature of the race meant my 50cc motor would have to howl over 12,000rpm for many miles, obviously pretty risky. I had to gear tall. Really Tall. Unfortunately, there are physical limitations to sprocket configurations, which is why I schemed up this ZA50 primary drive gear. (obviously missing it's countershaft opposite) There are Up-gear kits available for lots of machines, but I've yet to see one for a puch. The idea was that I'd have a batch made, destroy the competition, then sell off the rest after the race. But that, alas, was not to be. I shopped around some local machine shops and tried a few online sources, but the start-up cost was more than I could afford at the time, and the production minimums dwarfed the realistic market. Anyways it didn't happen, and alls I gots is a blueprint and a dream, friends...

If you're curious, because this gear is for the 2nd speed only, it still allows for clutch stalling to get the bike into a rev-range where the 2nd speed can engage without killing the motor. Preferably on a long flat surface, such as Summit Av. or Kenny Rd. ... Because the primary drive & countershaft are in front of the reduction gear and sprockets, it has a exponential effect on the other gear trains.

Example: Puch ZA50 with a kit, capable of 11,000rpm
with standard 18:45 sprocket gearing =42.8mph

same set-up but with the T.Nspd. Upgear =60.23mph

or regear for more torque 18:64 and still go =42.8mph

Super Cub: ROAR!

2009-05-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yep. Liz got a 1962 Honda SuperCub 50. This is the most highly manufactured vehicle EVER. 60 million units in like 50 years. It's also acknowledged as the best motorcycle ever by some magazine or something. I'll say this, it's pretty durn cute. They were sold in the US for a very brief period, and then much later the Passport 70 came along, just in time to give overweight retirees a lift from one end of the campsite to the store in town. I think Liz is probably the most attractive thing to ever grace one of these machines, ever. Somehow small hondas = gross fat old dude magnet. Worse than Maxi-scooters. It's a bit of a mutant, it's 50cc, 17" wheels and pretty lightweight like a moped, but has a legshield like a scooter and 3 spd. semi-automatic foot shifting like a motorcycle. The Honda Super Cub Website is Awesome. seriously check it out. We're having compression issues, so Liz has an 2nd over piston on the way. I'm still looking for a machine shop to do the bore job on the little jug. This means that the 1979 Vespa P200 is going to be for sale soon, FYI...

Updates 5/14

2009-05-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

So a bunch of things have been happening lately, obviously the most important being my acceptance into an elitist sect of Yale graduates, with far-reaching tentacles of power, known as the Mosquito Fleet!

I've also been working on the Polini Cup 'Plan B' Racer. Most of the principal parts are there & I've done the bulk of the frame and part modifications. There's a considerable amount of work remaining before it will be ready for Polini Cup round #3. Brony of the MF has bet me $150 that when his Gilardoni Puch-Rigid is built and Plan B is complete, he will beat me in a road race. It may be premature, but I'd like to Thank Brony for his generous pledge of sponsorship to Team HRY!

The bike so far is a 1980 Vespa Si with:
-Stock rear monoshock
-Polini 63cc top end w' secret sauce
-Custom Induction (ala Simonini 100cc)
-20mm carb
-Polini variator system
-17" rims w' Michelin M29S
-4-petal reed off a minarelli scooter engine
-Random expansion chamber we found laying around
-?? CDI w' internal rotor ?? still working on that

Anyhoo, should be fun. and fast. I need to get this guy into paint so I can start building it up.

I've also got the furnace finally built. I lugged its ass to to the roof of my building and stole some of the propane for the grill to test it out. Thankfully it works. It's much quieter than my previous set-up, and much cleaner. I was able to sort out all the kinks in it's operation and melt a small amount of aluminum. I wasn't able to stop myself from pouring it into my manifold mold I made. It didn't pour very well, I didn't use my fancy chemicals or clean out the dross very well. I'm going to do a much more calculated pour on some test shapes before I pour my cylinder.

All Sizzle no Fizzle...

2009-04-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Hot off the grill, check out West Seattle's trick-ass vintage spatula. It's normal when you need to flip a random burger, but when you need like five burgers flipped, or an omelet or pancake...blzzzat! .... two extra bladez pop out:

(did you know that my camera phone sucks balls? It's a fact!)

Plan B is moving right along, but not in time for Polini Cup 2: The Quickening. Most of the principle parts are accounted for, just needs a bunch o' work to get it together. In addition to some technical crap-type decisions, we've decided to go with an (as of now) unauthorized Cat Fancy Magazine paint scheme. As much as we want to represent them -or Kittens USA- they continue to spurn our advances. It's pretty cool that so many shops are taking the Polini Cup seriously, putting their money where their mouth is and making racing awesome, 1977SF in particular. The whole HRY Team is going this weekend, but dollahs are exxtra tight right now. ..and taking off to go race seems extra irresponsible. But then, racing is a difficult mistress to sate. oh, decisions!

Since I don't have much to share right now, I'll leave you with this, enjoy!

"Plan B" Racer

2009-04-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

At Team HRY, we are building some of the fastest mopeds ever conceived. SRSLY. But since they match both the performance vectors and cost of an F-22 Raptor, progress is slow in these challenging economic times. (Industrial Designer for hire, btw.) After the Polini Cup last weekend, Dean & I had 13hrs. to think about how to proceed next. We decided that with scraps of this and that laying around the shop, from Dean's pile and a small amount of scrilla, the Team could cobble together another race machine: the "Plan B" racer. It has the following criteria:

W.CHEAP!
X. Good all-around power
Y. High power to weight ratio
Z. Simplicity and durability

Unlike our plan 'A' rocket sleds, veiled in a shadowy cloak of deception and secrecy, this bike will be built with total transparency, as we're going to raffle it off sooner or later, and use the proceeds to further the plan 'A' bikes. The presence of a lot of Vespa gear at the shop and Dean's 3rd place showing on his Ciao encouraged us to go that route. Locating a seized Polini cylinder, piston and head sealed the deal. The 65cc Polini though, isn't much of a powerplant rated at 5.5hp, especially competing against 10+ hp 75cc Gilardonis, Metrakits and "W" port peugeot's etc.. But there is potential, so I had a go at optimizing the port timing and area.

Polini Cylinder Numbers-

Before:
Exhaust - 159.14°
Mains - 114.69°
Boost - 85.70°

After:
Exhaust - 186.30°
Mains - 128.6°
Boost - 131.4°

Look for more updates on the quick, we're hoping to get this done ASAP.
Also, we're looking for suggestions on a paint scheme??

Polini Cup Review (Tiny Geo of Destiny)

2009-04-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Before I say anything:
Hats off to Michael Mike, who pretty much made ALL of this happen. He lent us the use of his wonderful Geo Metro, and lent me the use of his 50cc Peugeot lightning rod. Despite our best laid plans, there were considerable obstacles to overcome with only a few days out til the races. Mike's huge generosity laid waste to these problems, and I appreciate it enormously. I'm going to bake you a cake, Michael.

The trip out there took us a bit longer than we anticipated but we had good weather, great gas mileage and got to have lunch with Josiah and Mike down in Eugene. We got lost several times during this trip, a side effect of not bringing a map. Duh. When we finally got to SF, we met up with the Creatures at a sweaty little dance club bustin' out Human League. It was the Danes' last night in town and Joel's birthday or something. Josh & Renee put us up at their place that night. (Rad!)

The next day we met up at 1977Mopeds and hung out while they wrangled all their race stuff together. I'd never been to 77SF before, probably the best organized, slickest independent bike shop I've been to. Dean and I headed out to Atwater, and got fucking lost. D'oh! like way lost. When we finally got to the track we had missed two practice sessions. Dean got out for the last two sessions, but I only made one, due to some problems getting my bike together. Getting lost and not getting to practice much put me in kind of a shitty mood. Having only a shoestring budget for the trip, I really didn't want to spend money on booze, and between that and not really knowing anybody other than Dean & Dan, I spent the remainder of the day and night like a wallflower at the dance, picking my nose and kicking rocks around. (facts) One super-cool thing about Atwater / Polini Cup is that they pretty much let us have total run of the place and lots of Four loco* fueled silliness followed. This is in stark contrast to the anal way most tracks operate. People camped out on the track infield and Harold projected movies of wheelies & babies barfing on the wall of a building that night. Forgetting about the camping aspect of the weekend, I didn't bring a tent, and tried sleeping in the Geo. (mistake) But I did get to hear Newport fumbling around his car and somebody puke their guts out all over some tires.

The next morning I "woke up" early and had breakfast at a local 24hr. diner. Dan & I went and got some gas in the Geo. By the time we got back, more people were on their feet. Qualifying went waaay better than practice, but I still wasn't super comfortable on the bike. <--this was in part due to my skin-ass tight leathers which apparently are a bit tighter on me nowadays. .. *ahem- mcgriddles- ahem* But whatevs I was in a much better mood and it was hard not to get pumped when theres a bunch of rowdy moped people and 17 bikes to race with. Plus it was a beautiful day.

If you saw the MopedTV broadcast stuff, then I don't have to explain how the racing went. Basically, Jeff from Choke and Jimmy are from another planet. Dean (3rd place) was the fastest of all the normal people, and the average was pretty good. -definitely faster than the average of 2004. My lap time was about 5 seconds slower than the leaders, and on a track this small racing 12 laps, that is slow enough to get you lapped. Most tracks for this kind of stuff are a bit under or over a mile long, Atwater is about a half-mile. Mike's LC peugeot stood up against basically eveything there and I got passed on the straights only once. I ended up in 10th place, which sort of sucks, because I know I can race better than that; but I managed to not wreck or break Naz's bike and stay in front of a few people. I'll be back after I do some sit-ups, and probably build a bike I can wreck with impunity.

If you've ever had the racing itch T H I S is the time & place to do it. Having raced a few times in the past with different leagues, racing your bike will never be cheaper or easier or as fun as this. Seriously. do it. Lots of people were worried about having leathers and a specifically race-prepped bike, and it was not at all the case. In the starting grid I saw people pull out their cell-phones and put them back in their pockets. On the first lap, a bunch of receipts or something fell out of a guys pocket. Most racers had a jacket and jeans. Dean wore a hoodie with skate pads. Also, total race cost was $80, including a season license, transponder and Saturday afternoon BBQ. Next time it'll be $50. That's crazy cheap! And if you're worried about having a fast enough bike, don't sweat it. There were one speed puchs and daily rider bikes out there kickin' ass. It really is about riding ability, not super high-tech set-ups. I really hope some chicks come out too. Some little girl on a pocket bike posted the same lap time as Jimmy, and I know there are some killer girl riders out there. Crash the sausage party ladies!

After the races we hung out with the 77 dudez. It was cool to meet a bunch of people: Pat, Flynn, Craig, Zach/Lee, Round, Elliott. The next day Dean & I spend an extra day in SF working late at '77. Dean was doing computer shit and I was turning wrenches with Lee to make some extra 'scrilla'. Super cool shop. That night I ended up drinking a bunch of beer at Josh & Renee's and having their roommates Guinea Pig pee on me. Adorable! Then I passed out on the inflatable posturpedic while Throw Momma from the Train was playing. I kinda regret missing the movie but it was a long day of fixin' things.

The next day we headed back to Seattle, but made a pit-stop at Motomatic to check out the shop. They have some awesome stuff there, and the grande-derbi-hobbit they built up is an engineering marvel. I took some stealth photos, but there's way better ones on Flickr from the track. The trek back was long and stupid and I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Emphasis on almost. I'm glad to be home, but this was an epic quest. And I hope to do it again soon, maybe with more folks..?

Congratulations to Dean for his awesome Team HRY showing! and thanks for all his help with everything this last weekend.

*Four loco= caffeinated and extra alcoholic stuff designed for moped rally faggotry which I had no idea about until Dean & ...some creature I don't remember(?) showed it to me.

pics, some borrowed, (I hope that's cool?)

Vulcan, God of Fire & Metal

2009-03-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

First off:

That---> just happened.
It's a Baretta trike, and it will rule someday.

A lot of stuff has been happening recently. Notably, Dean has let me borrow his 16mm PHBG to replace the 21mm overkill I've been running. -And the Puch is running, indeed. I swapped out the stator for another one, between that and the new harness, the bike seems to be a lot stronger. and with a 16mm carb hooked up, it should be easier to manage the jetting issues. My thanks to Naz, who chopped up a helpless biturbo to make that happen. Finally I'm able to get my machine roadworthy for more than fifty feet at a time.

My folks came out here to visit, and we got to do some touristy stuff, like check out the Museum of Flight down at Boeing Field. Liz briefly trades her Vespa P200 for a SR-71. Mach 3+...not too shabby.

I've also been working on the furnace to make my custom-cast cylinder efforts actually happen.

After a few simple measurements, I modeled a piece of styrofoam to represent the hollow shape in the furnace.

After some shaping of the form, I lay out all the essential parts involved: Crucible, Torch, Bucket, and negative.

From that, I'm able to measure the location of the torch aperature

With that reference I use a hole-saw to cut out the insert for the torch

I then check the hole with the torch head. It's a snug fit.

After popping out the hole for the torch, I fit the styrofoam negative into its position.

I then anchor the negative in place with several large screws. This is necessary to support the refractory mix later and to keep the negative in position, as styrofoam is really really buoyant and will float through the soft refractory mix. I also added 'ears' to the negative; these will be cut-outs for the crucible stays to drop into.

I also add a few footers to raise the furnace off the ground. These are simple hardware store brackets.

With everything in place, I set up out in the garage and mix the mizzou refractory. It has to be mixed up by itself to ensure proper homogenity of elements, then it must be mixed precisely with water by weight, not volume. Because it's somewhat expensive, I use a cheap home-brew refractory in 'filler' areas and only use the mizzou around the critical areas. (the homemade filler refractory is 2 parts portland cement, 1 part perlite, 1 part water, btw)

I've been at this a few days, using different refractory types requires that I wait for them to dry up enough to be firm enough to hold their shape, before pouring in the next layer. It's all poured now, but will be a few days before the refractory will be cured enough to chase out the styrofoam. And then I'll make the lid and brackets for the torch. and then I'll cast some aluminum just in time for my 50th birthday ...weeee!
Puch Gilardoni 75cc

The most important video you may ever watch, really

2009-03-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry for two non-posts in a row, but my consciousness is utterly leveled by the power and majesty wrought by this Master-Opus. Thanks for passing it along, Matthew... also, work continues on the furnace, I'll have a for real post when its done. But for now, I beseech thee, watch!

themostimportantvideoyoumayeverwatchreally from prettydamnnotbad on Vimeo.

Falcon Crest

2009-03-16T15:38:00.001-07:00

On like Chakka Khan

2009-03-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Ah! Thank you sweet money bags Uncle Sam. I got my tax return and decided to invest in awesomeness. At long, LONG last I am moving forward with the rebuilding of my furnace and will hopefully get to do some aluminum casting in the near future. The last time I cast anything was last summer. I built my custom cylinder mold back in August, and it's been waiting since then. My old set-up was fueled by charcoal, powered by a shop-vac, and housed in a pair of christmas cookie tins. But whatevs, it totally worked. With my extra nickel I've now got mizzou 3,000 degree castable refractory, a 1,610 degree infrared thermometer, and today a propane torch. I'm so stoked. giggity!

Also, last weekend, I decided to rebuild the wiring harness in my Puch. I bought it off of an old race announcer, it had seen plenty of track days and his kid beat it up pretty good. The loom next to the triple tree was wrapped up in duct tape, but the lighting was usually very reliable. But that was the past. Taking the duct tape off, the harness was pretty chewed. Looking at the Stock layout, I knew I could simplify a few things, so i rebuilt the harness for a aftermarket three-button switch. The harness is in the bike and I should have everything buttoned up soon.

Let's make a poster! (for reelz.)

2009-03-05T13:34:00.001-08:00

Smokin' hot off the presses, I've got the first tiny batch of Moped Racing Posters! I think they came out pretty good. As you may or may not know, the whole idea is to sell these guys to:

A. Hype our shit, as nobody is going to do it for us.
B. Raise some dollars, to fuel my HRY team racer.

All proceeds will go directly into getting fast bikes on the track, and making moped racing awesome. -And that is a guarantee, friends. The posters are currently 11x17 (13x19 happening maybe someday) high-quality digital print on ivory medium cardstock for extra vintage flavors. Each one is numbered and initialed by "the artist". Things might be glitchy at first, as I'm still working the bugs out of Etsy / auto-shipping and I don't know how many to order(?)...so yeah, Want Some?

Get Some!

Smoke & Mirrors

2009-02-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

So pretty much the accepted truth is that scooters and mopeds are cool, great on gas, but terrible for the environment.

'yeah, but your moped pollutes as much as like 40 SUV's'

If you own a moped or scooter, you've heard that one before. And, quite frankly, it always annoyed the shit out of me. It felt wrong to me but I couldn't say why. -Also because (car) people would rationalize their own pollution by believing that nowhere could there be a vehicle qualitatively better for the planet than any other. Sort of a 'we're all screwed', "pretty girls can't be smart" horsetrading ideology. Having said that, my digging around was motivated by spite for these people and also by the frustration of not being able to outfox those people with numbers. Awhile back, I got into a debate with my old roommate Dave Force who maintained this "40 SUV's" belief. It turns out he was right ...and wrong too. The truth is that environmental considerations get pretty murky when you examine classifications of vehicles, testing methods and ideologies.

Basically, there's 4 things coming out of the tailpipe of any internal combustion motor:
-Carbon Dioxide
-Hydrocarbons
-Water Vapor
-Unaltered Atmospheric Air

Obviously we don't care about Water Vapor and Unaltered Atmospheric Air, as they aren't bad for people or the planet in any appreciable way. Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide are pollution, bad for the planet and people. Any emissions test will show you that 2-strokes are much 'dirtier' than 4-strokes, and with good reason. A 4-stroke engine (as the name indicates) divides the internal combustion process into four discreet phases, inside a closed cylinder wall with valves carefully metering incoming fuel and outgoing exhaust. Its easy to see how well contained the process is with a 4-stroke. 2-strokes however use ports (holes) in the cylinder wall for intake and exhaust, and the intake port is open at the same time as the exhaust, invariably allowing some unburnt fuel to escape. 2-strokes also burn a oil lubricant in the fuel mix, unlike 4-strokes which have closed oil channels and burn straight gas alone. So 2-strokes are dirtier:

-Because of the escaping unburnt fuel mixture
-Because of the oil in the fuel mix

It's useful now to point out that a well designed, well-maintained engine (2-stroke or 4-stroke) will approach the stoichiometric ratio (14.65 parts air per 1 part fuel) at which all fuel and all air are perfectly mixed and combusted together. The closeness to this figure indicates an engine's TRUE emissions quality, fuel efficiency, etc.. more than any other. In other words, gas combusts in a 2-stroke approximately the same as it does in a 4-stroke. If this were the only factor, emissions would closely mirror engine size on a pretty flat curve.

It's fair then to point out that by measuring the rate, and not the total amount of emissions gives larger vehicles a huge handicap. Measuring the amount of emissions a vehicle produces is probably the most common sense method. But creates problems because it announces the obvious: a bigger engine burns more fuel, and creates more emissions. This is a problem because many large polluters are popular vehicles and other vehicles that are necessary. To make things "fair" for these vehicles, emissions are measured by the rate, not the total amount.

So what happens when we measure emissions based on amounts and not rate?

First, my numbers are based on this article: Polluter Scooters, by Willamette Week in Portland, Orgeon.

The Vehicles:

2006 Subaru Tribeca 3.0L (3,000cc) 6-cylinder DOHC w' catalytic converter
1968 Vespa GTR 150cc (0.15L) single cylinder rotary valve 2% mix
2004 Genuine Stella 150cc (0.15L) single cylinder reed valve 2% mix w' catalytic converter

Polluter Scooters Test results:

Tribeca: 1% CO2, 10 particles per million (ppm) of hydrocarbons
Vespa: 8.6% CO2, 4,900 ppm of hydrocarbons
Stella: 7.1% CO2, 1,100 ppm of hydrocarbons

3.0L = 3,000cc's
150cc = 0.15L
1 Subaru Tribeca engine = 20 Vespa / Stella engines (3,000/150 = 20)
[1 Subaru engine = 60 moped engines]

So, if an 3,000cc engine runs for a minute at 1,000 rpm's and we capture all the exhaust out of the tail pipe, we should have 3,000, 000 cc's of exhaust total to measure from:

So where does that leave us? Using pretty remedial math, we can show that by measuring the amount and not the rate of emissions inverts the accepted idea that scooters produce more green house gas than cars, when by these numbers a '68 Vespa makes only 43% of what a modern car does, and the Stella does even better at around 35%. I'd be very interested to see the emissions figures on cars from 1968. -Even accounting for the multi-cylinder effect of the Tribeca creates a dead-heat, barely edging the Stella. So depending on how you slice it, these scooters are as good as, or significantly better than the Subaru on CO2/ Greenhouse gas.

As for the hydrocarbons, for every one particle the Subaru emitted, the '68 Vespa emitted 24.5 and the Stella emitted 5.5 (catalytic converters do make a big difference). The scooters' poor performance is due to the nature of 2-strokes:

-Because of the escaping unburnt fuel mixture
-Because of the oil in the fuel mix
(as mentioned above)

So, scooters are pretty good on CO2, and pretty bad on hydrocarbons. Whats the difference between hydrocarbons and CO2? Hydrocarbons mix with nitrogen at low atmosphere in sunlight to form the pollution that you can see and smell, and that will kill you if you’re in a closed garage with a motor running (smog). They are a urban health problem in dense asian cities, where mopeds and scooters fill the narrow streets. Hydrocarbons don't impact much more than their immediate local environment though, and thanks to advances in engine design, oil composition and ignition systems, continue to be reduced in 2-strokes. In the United States, 2-stroke motorbikes represent a tiny, almost negligible percentage of the total vehicles on the road. (within a rounding error) I personally have a hard time believing that mopeds & scooters are making a measurable impact on the air quality in our cities (outside of standing on the sidewalk at the start of a big rally ride!).

Let's review:
-Current Testing methodology gives large engines a significant handicap.
-Scooters (and mopeds, presumably) are actually significantly better than cars in CO2 emissions. or at worst, as good as modern cars.
-Scooters produce significantly more hydrocarbons than cars; but exist in vastly fewer numbers.

When you combine this knowledge with the known reduced fuel consumption of mopeds and scooters, the reduced carbon footprint in using a vintage machine vs. purchasing a brand new manufactured good, and the low impact on roadways and accident/safety concerns, I hope you’ll agree that while breathing Moped pollution isn’t good for people, owning a vintage scooter or moped is definitely better for the earth than many other machines.

WOOT! Yeeeeayah!

2009-02-24T21:43:00.000-08:00

Team HRY has picked up its first big-timey pseudo-Sponsor!! It's not official yet, so I can't specify who it is exactly... but, gosh, that reminds me of a trip I'll be taking soon.. to a town in ole Mexico....
Theres a few other developments abrewin', but this is completely, totally rad.

The Quick and the Dead

2009-02-21T17:09:00.000-08:00

First Up: HRY Racing Website is LIVE LIVE LIVE, boyyeeee! The hard work of Terry Dean is now available for your viewing & reference. I'm sure some changes will be made, but its a big step forward for the racing effort, helping us spread the good word. So far we've received nods from some decent sized and some huge ass sponsors, & I'm hoping we can lock one in -There are other big steps being made, but they won't go public until it's too late for the competition. Ha!

Question: How gay is Josh?
Answer: Pretty gay, last week I set up an Etsy store to better organize any future sales of my poster design and anything else i come up with. like Clothing for dogs, Record Album cover notebooks, screen-printed deer/squirrel/squid designs, custom hand-made cylinders etc.. anyhoo..

My Newport is giving me fits again. I got it running for but a brief beautiful moment yesterday before it reverted to its natural non-running state. With non-sexy results. This is getting pretty old, especially in view of the way I'm able to fix bikes like crazy that aren't my own. But as they say "the coblers' kids go barefoot". The scooter runs pretty good though... and I will say no more there. Finally, Liz's Mac has a warp feature:

Let's make a poster! (Sorta.)

2009-02-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

So I'm all about the scooter/moped racing stuff, if you hadn't noticed. (See name of blog, numerous posts, etc..) There's a racing series coming up this summer. I decided to do a poster to promote the race series in Atwater. -I should say it's actually just an "image" right now. I'm considering making it into some posters, selling them to make scratch for the race effort. Think anybody wants a moped racing poster? Nerds. Scratch is tight at the moment, but improving! I've picked up some work at Seattle Mopeds and I did a T-shirt logo for some firemen last week, which is great because firemen are heroes and my work is now apart of women's sexual fantasies. Check & mate, friends. Here's a version of the image I'm calling the 'Frank Miller':

Let's make a manifold! (Sorta.)

2009-01-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago I decided to make a mold to cast a manifold for my case-inducted ZA50 motor. Someday when I rebuild the furnace, I'll cast the manifold and the cylinder. ..someday. Anyways, I took a bunch of pictures while working on the buck. The 'buck' is the foam & wax positive that represents the shape I'm trying to make. I'm kinda different in that I use both wax and styrofoam in making the buck, it complicates the removal process but allows for better precision in what I'm attempting to make. Anyways, here it is, from drawings to investment:

Ok.. so that's really not everything. The mold isn't finished. The buck still has to be expunged, and of course pouring the aluminum. So, to be continued...

P.S. Liz = Rad.

Codename: Crash Masterson

2009-01-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ah... Glistening Pacific Northwest Sunshine, alight across the splenor of charming Lake Union, downtown Seattle, Washington: USA. Thusly was the scene of my morning on this last Sunday. My Moped (see any prior blog posts) was giving me some trouble the last time I attempted to roll out for a Moped Monday. By trouble specifically I mean having me push it up the road some distance back to my apartment. Anyhoo, our tiff wasn't quite over, and Philip, aka Responsible John was christian enough to Not only invite me along for a Sunday ride, but even to offer his snazzy yellow Puch for me to ride(!) solid machine. quick. sexy. handles like a scalpel. There is no substitute. Not unmoved by his generosity, I quickly repaid him by ramming his gallant steed across the stern of Isaac's Maxi in full gallop. Yes, feeling like quite the ass.... Wasn't 'precisely' my fault, -but I was the rammer and not the rammed. -and certainly not the rammee. Barely clipping the rear of Isaac's machine, he made out rather well - being tumbled to the ground, scrape on the knuckle and busted epilette on his jacket. The clipping of our bikes was enough to send me aloft for a small moment, as well as the yellow Puch which certainly took the worst of it. Busted throttle assembly, tweaked forks, wrecked half-fairing, scratched fender. Arrgh. In all of my crashing it was probably one of my worst. I don't think I've ever nailed another moving vehicle like that. The only other worst one I can think of was high-siding my racing scooter, mid-race at CRP. I landed flat on my back, sans back-protector and couldn't move for about 30 seconds. It was scary.

Behold Elbow/Ego:
Phil was very congenial afterwards, and he and Matt made quick work of the damage done. In short order we were on our way again. The riding was actually pretty good, its nice to ride in a new city, especially one with hills. 70's San Francisco Cop-Movie-Car-Chase hills. rad. I'll be back soon enough. It will be epic.

In other news, Liz is kinda sorta actually riding now. Its around the neighborhood, and still getting the kinks out. But its happening! I think she might be more comfortable riding a smallframe than a P200, but I suspect she's too attached to her bike to trade it. (...excellent...) She tried riding my Newport also, but the moped was giving her a little too much sassafras. Looking at that picture now, we need to get her a horncast, otherwise her bike is too tuff to mess with.

Also, the job search is going on and on. Its been nearly two months(!) I'm basically out of money. It's fucking lame. I had an interview/lunch last friday with some people from a local design firm. It was a good lunch and it was really cool to talk to some designy people. I already knew there was no work with them, I was kind hoping for a dialogue or some direction. They told me that my portfolio needs quite abit of work, which is true. (...) So I definitely need to get something else going on. Anybody got suggestions?? Would you like to supersize that?

In other top secret news, when the racing shit starts happening -to quote, umm.... hairdressers... its gonna be fierce as hell. The whole program; riders, machines, mascots... Betta Wreckognize! HRY Racing: Dig it.

Winter's Wolves

2008-12-23T11:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. There are still things going on though... secret things... sort of. Anyways I'm involved in a local Team effort to build up some formula Racing Mopeds and field them in 2009 for an event called The Polini Cup, taking place outside San Francisco in a town called Atwater. Hopefully it'll all come together. Another reason I haven't been posting is because Liz's bike and my moped are both runners, and there's a bunch of snow on the ground. I guess this is the most snow they've had here in over 10 years or something...? The people of Seattle get an A+ in preparedness, they've been sporting their high-tech clothing for awhile; all they had to do was attach their skiis to get around. Yes, people skiing in the streets. I also saw a lady with snow shoes on at the grocery store. It would be tragic if she accidentally fell into a huge chasm covered by only a few inches of snow - in Fremont. The City of Seattle gets a F- in preparedness. They were calling snows days with a bare dusting on the ground. I haven't seen any snowplows, just cop cars and busses with chains on the wheels. -One bus was disabled on the side of the road, maybe it's chains broke?

Anyways... (sorry for being snarky) ..I've been mostly trying to get another job, which isn't going really well, probably because of the time of year, more than anything else. For those of you who don't know, I went to art school, which explains my lack of talent, and wild liberal politics. I graduated from CCAD in Industrial Design, the most macho-sounding art major. Basically, it means I figure out what stuff should look like, and why. There's all this gobbledy-gook about 'sustainability' 'design code' 'user interfaces' and 'manufacturability' that I just ignore. I just put flames and a spoiler on everything.

Examples:

What'd I tell ya, Flames. Yep. There's more of my stuff Here, if you're interested.
Also, Merry Christmas everybody, I hope everyone travels safe and enjoys plenty of fruitcakes and egg-nog.

we have Contact?

2008-12-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I didn't make out last week due to a noise in my gearbox. After digging around in there, I sorted out the issue and My bike does now indeed run.... (?) But! Its now making a different noise, which bothers me, though its not as threatening as the previous noise. -Also it used to not be able to roll backwards, which it now does (1st speed clutch was in reverse). In just riding it, it did seem somewhat ballsier and the transmission mods did seem to work. So hopefully it'll run fur rillz, and I'll try to figure out what ever is that persistant noise... fret. fret. fret. -In addition to all the other issues: Lighting, jetting, legality, lack of centerstand, non-functional tachometer, etc...

Close-up Shots & Counter-tops

2008-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so Liz has been able to get out on the P200 to practice since my last post, but isn't completely ready for the road yet. It doesn't really help that shes been really busy with school. We went to 'moped monday' last week and her and some classmates shot some footage of the the members and the meet-up for a school project. We were supposed to follow the Fleet on scoot, with Camera, but when it was time to leave the throttle cable promptly disconnected. Curses! Anyway, so interested parties should expect some video in the near future.

So, because my unemployment has freezed up my work on new projects, I decided to put my Newport's engine back together as it was a long while back. A few changes have been made since last time, largely in the effort of building up the motor my custom cylinder was planned for. They include:

-Upgraded connecting rod with caged bearing instead of the brass journal of the original (Thanks to Motion Mopeds on that)
-New 2nd speed shift pucks, again MLM
-Lightening of the 2nd speed clutch and secondary gear of about 120 grams
-Tensioning of the 2nd speed clutch
-Tomos 12V lighting coil
-Optimized header & (hopefully) improved tuned length
-Del'lorto 21mm PHBG

I'm planning on installing the motor today. I'm still not sure if the 21mm carb will jive with the Tomos cylinder, as the 19mm I used to run seemed big enough. I'm also not sure what if any changes need to be made to the wiring to accommodate the Tomos coil. The goal here is to show up at a Mosquito Fleet meeting with an actual running moped. How Novel!

Its quite a difference going from a semi-functional 'shop' to working on a kitchen counter. oh well...

Bollocks.

2008-11-20T15:25:00.000-08:00

Upon moving here to Seattle, it took me about three weeks to get a job going. (late September) Today, along with several dozen other people, I have been laid off from that job. Obviously that's going to slow down my progress on projects as I look for a job and pinch my pennies. Boo! I suppose this has more to do with the company being brand new with a loose business plan than with the current U.S. macro-economic plight. The place I used to work at: Eagleview Technologies

Game ON!

2008-11-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Radical. After exhausting some other possibilities, I decided to re-check the ignition timing on Liz's P200. Sure enough, the ignition timing mark on the stator plate and engine case didn't mean anything. After retiming the ignition, the bike ran Much better. That was a few days ago. The jetting is still off, maybe from elevation or the temperature or something, but the bike runs well enough. After some tinkering Liz and I took the bike down to Husky Stadium and I gave Liz her first riding lesson. Woot! I'm happy this project has reached some significant level of completion. Theres plenty of work remaining, but the scooter is actually 'useful' for Liz.

Step by Step

2008-11-10T16:54:00.001-08:00

Finishing Liz's P200 is my first priority, and work continues to show progress. I believe I have remedied the fuel starvation issue, I also adjusted the ignition timing and used valve-grinding compound to correct a blow-by concern on the cylinder head. The bore and piston are in rough, but I believe usable, condition. If compression persists as a concern, we'll probably chip in the buck-oh-five for another cylinder and piston. The bike runs briefly then when throttle reduces to idle, stalls out. At this point, I believe the sparkplug is fouled from the excessive 2-stroke oil I used when refitting the cylinder after lapping the cylinder head. I'm hoping a good long ride will tidy things up, and produce Liz a runner. I still have doubts about fuel flow, though.

Even though I haven't been working on the furnace and custom cylinder, I'm thinking about it quite a bit. The furnace I plan on building will be a good bit better than my previous rigs, which were good for about 2-3 burns and then needed to be disposed and replaced. The set-up I used was a lot like This one, but I was using larger cans and a shop-vac for the blower. Here's an image of one of test test molds I did earlier this year in Ohio at a Cutters Shop Night. It's rough, but I'm fairly pleased how well it turned out, considering the casual way I made the model and the casual "eye-ball'd" method I used it melting and pouring the aluminum. It probably would have cast better, if I had used a larger crucible and coated the model with wax before investing it into plaster. You can tell from the picture the inconsistent surface texture, and shape isn't 'full'. Because I'm going to build up a more durable furnace for the custom cylinder pour, and because of everything I've learned up to this point, I'm considering attempting a short run of cylinders for machine that have none available. Or maybe manifolds?? Just a thought.

I thought I'd also share a sprocket I bodged together. I bought a 15T Puch sprocket, and a 22T Tomos sprocket. I chopped off the teeth of the puch sprocket and had Dave Force weld it up. Obviously this is a retardedly tall gear ratio. I worked on this earlier this year when I was hot to trot for the Decepticons' 'Race to End All Races' -essentially a 35 mile highway run from Kalamazoo to the Lake Superior coast. I figured I would want the longest legs I could possibly get, racing against a bunch of 80cc & variated bikes. I don't think I'll ever use it out here, as Seattle has these things called: 'Hills'. I never ran the race, due to not having a operable machine and not really being that pumped to go because of my lack of operable machine. Its a pretty common afflicition for me.

Brick by brick

2008-11-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

So work on Liz's P200 has nearly produced a running machine. I still struggle to route the fuel line properly, and the Vespa fuel starves quickly. Hopefully by this time tomorrow, Liz's wait for her running scooter will be over. It still needs work, but the essentials are all there. I'm still surprised at the luck her bike has had, and feel somewhat ashamed that I couldn't produce similar results with Ellen's P200. Replacing the missing and damaged body parts given Liz's P200 a 'quilted' look.

In other news, in the near future I hope acquire the remaining elements to put together a new furnace for my custom cylinder project. In the meantime I've done some peripheral work with the Puch newport. Here's the shift pucks, courtesy of Devin at Motion Left.
Also, awhile back I acquired a used 2-stroke tachometer, then made by Daytona. It's still being made under the different marque of Koso. I was going to use it on my Vespa ET3 Racer, until I noticed how well it dropped into the stock speedometer housing of the Newport, with only a little modification necessary.

Finally, here's a video of me (losing) in a moped race a few years back in Dayton. Apparently I missed turn. Forsooth!

The Prestige

2008-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, and as many already know, I'm in the midst of crafting a custom cylinder. Theres almost constant debate swirling around the realm of 2-stroke cylinder design and tuning. I'm posting this for any interested parties. The numbers on this barrel are pretty severe, the most peaked figures I've used to date. But I'm determined to squeeze as much blood from this 50cc stone as I can, so yeah...

Also: Illustrations are for reference, and Not to scale.

Shannons Stolen PK

2008-10-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, awhile back I put a 'shit-ton' of labor in my friend Shannon's Vespa PK50S. It was a really rare bike, and I helped make it go tres fast. Anyways, shortly after its return to Shannon (after much back n' forth) It was promptly stolen off of her street. A few years pass, and I spot a posting on the ScooterBBS looking for PK50 parts in Kentucky. I follow the links around, and sure enough, some fella has recovered Shannons PK50 for himself. I was pretty excited. The bike was pretty beat up, and will need lots of love. Shannon has moved on to larger machines since, so shes not interested in its return. Anyways, its nice to see the bike being rebuilt.

A Brief History of Nerd

2008-10-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on Liz's Vespa P200, and to my surprise things are actually going rather well. This is a bit of a surprise because Ellen's bike ,which was in definitely better shape, was very difficult to finish -particularly the electrical system. Liz's P2, though more banged up, seems to have dodged that electrical bullet somehow. We're currently waiting on some parts to make the machine abit more reliable.

I'm also turning my interest onto my own machines, particularly my Puch Newport II Moped. I bought it off of Scottie, an older fellow who was a race announcer at Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio, and a regular at Supersonic Scooters when I worked there. It was well-ridden and came with a biturbo pipe and had a ZA50 motor. This was about July 2004. It took me awhile to get to it, as I was still working with my first Puch, a Maxi-luxe I had built up for racing.

My set-up on that bike:
-Gilardoni 75cc Cylinder & Head
-Homoet 8p
-Dellorto PHBG 21mm
-Customized Athena Intake manifold
-Homemade Electonic Ignition set up (bodged Tomos, Puch, Hero gear)
-13x45 sprockets for the track, 18x38 for top speed
-Michelin M29s Tires

Back when I built this racer, nobody was using any of this stuff outside of Rigid and the Dutch tuners who developed it all. I had to use online dutch translator to email 18 year olds about their jetting set-ups. Most American moped tuners were skittish about using carbs over 17mm. My point is that my bike is not nearly as radical today as it was a few years ago. When I finished the bike back in 2004, I went to the Decepticons' Moped BarBQue, which was my first moped rally (not scooter rally, though). I wanted to participate in their annual illegal road race, the "no-rules" race. The problem was my bike was 75cc not 50cc, a requirement to run. Still, on a borrowed 50cc machine it was a great run, with carnage, cops and intensity. I promised to return with my own 50cc machine.

It took me awhile, but when I turned my attention to the Puch Newport, I wanted to turn it into a easy-riding street bike that could still be competitive in the No-Rules race. I also didn't want to dump a ton of money into it, as I had done with the Gilardoni racer. After fiddling around with Will Laing's Tomos Racer, it occurred to me how similar Tomos and Puch equipment was. The Tomos A35 was superior to nearly every Puch cylinder, with a reed valve and four ports being standard. After a few measurements it dawned on me that a Tomos A35 cylinder would drop right onto a Puch motor with No modifications necessary. -At the time this was not common knowledge, though other moped riders had also discovered this , i.e. Bret Walker. So I built up my Newport motor, heavily porting the case transfers on the block and cylinder, enlarging the reed intake and intake ports. I sent the barrel off to be machined, raising the deck by 3mm to push the port timing for more potential. I adapted a manifold to fit the Tomos reed, fitted a dellorto PHBG 19mm and had Dave Force re-weld the biturbo to fit the tomos angled exhaust flange. I affixed a tall rear sprocket (38) and headed for Kalamazoo in 2006. That year the racing was less crowded, and my Newport performed well, clearing the pack handily by the second checkpoint. Unfortunately I was too excited to read the handout at the third checkpoint, and lost the race thereafter. Still, the bike did what it was supposed to and there was no 50cc machine at the race as fast.

Here's me at a scooter rally
(Roll in the Hay Hay) doing a burnout:

The Newport with that set-up had a Top speed of 48-53mph, depending on how that speed was measured. It was also reliable, and my sole source of transportation for several months. Still, I recognized the flaws and limitations of the set-up and looked to iron out those kinks. The first was the biturbo pipe. The header had a diameter that limited its torque, and the tuned length of the pipe limited the powerband. The second was the exhaust port of the tomos cylinder. The piston ring end-stops faced the exhaust side of the barrel. This limited the maximum width of the exhaust port to nearly stock. While raising the deck increased the overall port timing, power was limited by the exhaust port's small area.

My first consideration was to side-step this obstacle by installing a Puch piston with the tomos-style intake windows cut into it. Puch pistons havd ring end-stops facing away from the exhaust. But I would need a 2nd over piston (38.5mm) which are difficult to find. During this time of indecision, more and more Tomos cylinders were being installed onto Puch engines and it seemed to me that my next effort should considerably improve the bikes power. Gradually, the prospect of fabricating a unique cylinder for the moped grew on me. Working at Zoots Scoots, I was frequently in contact with Kymco Super 9's which are 50cc's and aggressively ported. From a few measurements, I determined I could build a unique and powerful cylinder using the Kymco Super 9 as a basis.

Getting Started

2008-10-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to make some record of the things I'm working on, as over time lots of stuff gets discarded and forgotten about. My situation at present is that I've moved to Seattle about a month ago, and that I just a few days ago found a job. I've tried to stay busy with the job search over the last couple weeks, most working on my resume and portfolio. I also decided to do a topical self-portrait, imitating Barack Obama's 'Hope' image by Shepard Fairey. I've also been working on Liz's P200, which is in semi-rough shape and needs quite a bit of attention. I've also worked on my aluminum casting project, when money is less strained, I'll rebuild the furnace and try another melt & pour into the final model. More on all that later.