Amelie – the moped
I have begun a slow restoration of my Motobecane 40V moped. The ped was built in 1970 and I have owned it since near new. I rode it for several years, before putting it into storage for almost 20 years. It’s all eBay’s fault! I finally found some 6V light globes to fit the indicators, so now there is a real chance of getting them to work again.
The moped has been reluctant to start, requiring a squirt of ‘Aerostart’ straight into the spark plug hole before it even thinks about it. So today I took the points out and filed them and reset the gap, and then dismantled the carburettor and cleaned the jets – and now it starts easily and runs well.
The points are located behind the magneto rotor on the right side.
Here is a short video of that starting procedure – just turn on the fuel, roll the throttle forward to decompress the engine, start pedalling and bring the throttle to idle and the engine starts easily.
If you look carefully you should be able to see the clever expanding pulley “variator” in action on the left side of the moped. This provides an infinitely variable gear enabling the engine to maintain power even on hills (for steep hills some light pedal assistance is required)
Once I have the indicators working, I’ll start work on restoring the engine – notice the seepage from the head gasket – I’ll strip it down and rebuild it as the historic vehicle it is 🙂 Watch this space!
Cheers
Jerry
Comment by Santiago Picard
hello Jerry !
My name is Santiago, I live in France in Brittany, I am just 16 years old.
I am writting you as I own the same MOPED ( the same color,the same model…) as you have, unfortunatly I have few problems with “carburator” and for starting. Can we chat about it?
thanks very much and waitting for an answer.
my email is : santiagopicard@hotmail.com
Posted on March 3, 2008 at 2:34 am
Comment by Melanie
Hi Jerry!
I too have the same moped as you : )
Do you happen to know anyone that sells replacement parts for these? I live in Canada, so someone in North America would be great. I need a new turn signal cover, rubber gripping for the handles and a gas cap. If not, that’s fine, just thought I’d ask.
I’m going to use your advise this weekend and see if I can get my moped going. She is having the same problems as your’s did.
Any additional assistance you can provide is appreciated!
Cheers!
~Melanie~
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 12:53 am
Comment by jerry
Hi Melanie
Try
http://mopedshop.com:80/NOS-Motobecane-Moped-Parts-s/149.htm&Redirected=Y
They seem to have a fairly comprehensive list of parts – generally new old stock – so they are brand new components that have been in storage.
Cheers
Jerry
Posted on June 7, 2009 at 12:23 am