Posted by Jerry on August 6th, 2005 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling
This afternoon I managed to get my historic Motobecane moped running again after a hiatus of some months. The 1970 40V moped is the same make as that used in the movie Amelie – so I have christened my moped Amelie 🙂
The two challenges that remain to make the bike roadworthy again are to install some kind of flasher unit – the indicators work, but don’t flash and finding six volt flasher units is not easy these days; and I need to get a low power horn as the original item – which never gave more than a half-hearted ‘quack’ anyhow – has long since ceased to function. Nonetheless it felt good to hear it running again after I cleaned the points and greased the variator. And once it was warmed up, I found the bike started easily – so that’s a good sign. On the bitumen I was able to wind it up to about 45 kph, so the running gear still seems sound.
I’m told that if I join a vintage motorcycle club I can get historic vehicle registration and ride it twice a month 50kms each – and it would only need to meet 1970 registration standards.
In response to Nigel’s comment – front and rear tyres are 2″ x 17″. I am told it is possible to get two and a quarter inch by 17 inch tyres here in Australia, and it is very likely these would fit.
For anyone looking for manuals, I found Motobecane moped manuals on the Moped Riders Association site at:
http://www.mopedriders.org/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=18
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on October 3rd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling, Woodwork
Well, it looked fine this morning when Eve was trying to improve my circus skills – yes I can walk the tightwire, even walk on stilts – after a fashion – but the unicycle utterly defeats me for the present. Anyhow, we now have the loan of a pair of strap-on stilts from which I can take a pattern. I’ll let you know how our version turns out, both in the blog and on my site at http://www.lostbiro.com/ where I have the plans for my traditional stilts (as well as the tightrope).
After an exhausting morning doing circussy stuff we had a bite to eat and headed off to Bungendore for an excellent ride on my bike – I adjusted the chain yesterday, providing me with an excuse to do a little test run 😉 We followed the sunshine up to Bungendore and stopped at the wonderful woodwork gallery There were some great chairs and other works by Neil Scobie and there is a current exhibition of work by Terry Martin.
Eve and I had milkshakes in the cafe there and came out just in time to catch a heavy rain shower – luckily we had our wet weather gear and aside from some mild wind gusts, the trip home was quite pleasant – and we had the benefit of a truly fabulous rainbow as we came down the hill into Queanbeyan.
We made a nice curry and rather than watch Titanic yet again, I thought I might get out into the shed and finish off some trellis to complete the final side section of the carport – it looks great – even got the mitres on the corners right this time! I’ll throw up a photo here when Sharon returns with the digital camera.
And now I have the trellis stuff out of my shed at last, I have a bit more room to make the next round of bookcases – so that will be the next little project
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 14th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling
Much progress this weekend on my moped restoration project – I have now got the headlight, tail light and brake lights all working. The indicators light up, but they don’t flash. I suspect that either the globes are draining too much power, being 12 volt – and the moped uses a six volt system, or the flasher unit is broken – which could be a big problem since I don’t know of any six volt systems being run today! The only other thing not working is the horn – it still makes no sound. Not that it made much more than a dull ‘quack’ sound when it did work, but I’ll need to fix it somehow if I’m ever to get it registered.
The bike runs well and I got it up to 45kph on level bitumen today. There is a little weepage around the exhaust and around the head and base gaskets – so I may need to replace those when the time comes for a complete strip down to do the cosmetic side of the restoration.
I’m in two minds about the restoration – whether to try to get it up to showroom/museum condition or to allow the bike to show its age, while keeping it fully functional. You will have seen from my earlier photos that the bike already looks fairly good considering its length of time in storage. The key thing is to arrest any further rust, and to get the thing as mechanically sound as possible.
Motobecane 40V
If I aim for museum quality I will certainly need to replace the rear wheel – the rim was badly dented/torn by the previous owner – back in the early 1970s – and it had been hammered fairly straight (so there was never an issue of tyres being compromised) but the scars are there. At least any barriers will be over the little things – the bike is essentially complete 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 4th, 2004 — Posted in Motorcycling
Well, my historic vehicle has arrived from Perth where I’ve had it in storage – there will be more as the restoration progresses 😉
And last week I managed to get Amelie started – I’ve had this 1970 model French Motobecane moped since the mid 1970s and it’s been in storage for the last 15 years. The restoration might take a while but the main thing is knowing that the bike is basically sound 🙂 I have fitted the wheels, seat, pedals, handlebars, rack and mudguards. Bought a new spark plug, and new fuel line, poured in some two-stroke mix and squirted some ‘Aerostart”[tm] and after much grunting and furious pedalling, the engine started with a great cloud of smoke and a foul smell – but it goes! As it is older than 30 years it would now be classified as an historic vehicle.
The moped fresh out of the box – the “before” photo!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 14th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling, Travel
What an exhilirating ride! Just popping out for a pie – 130km to Batehaven on the coast with the friendly folk from Action Motorcycles – the first of what they hope to be a monthly ride. They’re a good mob, and they accepted the antique Bol d’Or with good grace. There’s nothing quite like the howl that comes out of that four into one exhaust when it comes on song 😉
And there were some good corners to be had heading down the Clide Mountain – they’ve cleaned up the road a lot in the last couple of years. Pity that the bear seems to have disappeared from Pooh corner.
You can just see the antique trying to blend in among the modern bikes 😉
Cheers
Jerry
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