A free moped is still a moped

So I'm drivin' to my sister-in-law's house for a birthday party and to pick up the Potato man and I spot this little silver "motorcycle" by the side of the road. As I pass, I tell the wife "Hey that's a Puch" She says "turn around and check it out." I turn around and pull in the driveway and check it out as the wife goes to the door of this cool old bungalow and inquires about the silver Puch. "Just take it" he says. "It's Italian and it's got some sort of cable problem, It ran about five years ago". "I'll get the truck" I tell him. I am now the (proud?) owner of a Puch Magnum MKII moped. This is the first moped I've ever owned and I'm not sure why I own this one other than I can probably get it running for nothing and it's pretty cool looking as mopeds go. I did a cursory internet search and it turns out there is a pretty comprehensive online moped community. I guess computer nerds deserve to ride mopeds, eh? I found the owners manual, service manual, and parts book scans online. I can get a big-bore kit, and an expansion chamber. Keep in mind this is still a moped and the speedo reads from 0-30mph so I dont' think I'll be putting the speed parts on it but it's good to know some nut job is bolting a pipe on a moped. Shit, if I had a disposable income I'd be that nut job. Aparently, the Puch Magnum is arguably the best moped to have if you had a choice. This one has a two speed trans. By the way, it's not Italian it's Austrian and it's pronounced pook. Like puke without the yuh. I had a Puch dirtbike and they were pretty well built machines. I'm going to build my motorcycle work stand tomorrow and I'll use the moped as the test mule on the stand so if the thing collapses at least the mess to clean up is smaller. The interesting irony about the moped is it's still bigger than the Ducati.

Garagemobile Update and Other News

The weather here in Northwest Indiana has finally become decidedly spring-like. We've had some nice riding weather even though the only riding I've done was on the mini bike. I was in full Dad mode last Saturday. Me and the boy went over to my buddie's house where the little XR is stored. Yes, this is my bike. If you've been living in a cave or don't know any high-schoolers who are into bikes the mini craze is in full swing. My particular bike is an 03' XR 70 but the thing to have is a hopped up 50. There is plenty of info for the whole fiddy'craze to do an entire post so expect that in an upcoming installment. Back to last Saturday, I fired up the 70,propped up the toddler on the seat, gingerly eased the clutchless 3-speed into 2nd gear and putted around the back yard. He was really interested in the check valve on the gas cap. That's it. The whole story. The Potato Man was mildly amused by the whole incident but at least he didn't cry. In hindsight, he probably looked bored because we were going slow. Had I slapped it into first, pinned the throttle and started slamming gears he would have been more enthused. Yeah, that's the story I'm going with. Dad was just being a sissy. On Sunday morning Little Spud decided to get up at 5:00 A.M. so I was out in the garagemobile by 7:00 and by 10:00 I had a nice, new steel door with a window, all hung where the old leaky wood door used to be. I'm well on my way to getting an actual electrical system out there rather than the Rube Goldberg deal I'm currently running. Having an additional window makes a big difference in the amount of natural light. The garagemobile is an absolute mess but there is plenty of activity out there now that there is no snow on the ground.
The Honda (the 550) is still in a half painted state. I got right on the threshold of abandonment when I might have found a friend who I forgot used to paint for a living. I may wind up with a shiny paint job for that thing after all. Of course these kinds of deals are rarely done quickly so I'm sort of at his mercy but I can get the motor tuning done in the meantime. You can tell I don't have too many road stories to blog right now.
I've pretty much decided I'll be buying an SV650 Suzuki sometime in the future. The deal now is where to find one and most importantly, how to raise the dough. I was going to sell the XR70 but everyone I know has talked me into keeping that as an heirloom. Fine by me, I've had more fun on that bike than all the other bikes I've ever owned.
There may be some minor blog changes around here also. Don't worry they should help things be more a little on track as far as bikes go. I've become a member of Motorcycle Bloggers International as well as a co-op of bike bloggers that's still in the discussion stages and is currently top-secret. National security is not quite at stake but I can't give out any details as of yet.
There you have it folks, still a day late and $5,700 bucks short but I took my son on his first motorcycle ride so all is good. Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend and remember all the folks who fought and died to keep us Yanks safe and free. Rock on.

Not a propeller

I went from thinking Sportster to thinking /5 to /6 to /7 to oilhead. Keep in mind these are just thoughts and I'm in no way ready to purchase a bike. My Dad had a nice toaster tank R50/5 BMW for a while and that was my first exposure to them. While I was looking at /5's my wife reminded me that I was looking for a "new" bike. Oh yeah. I'm not looking for a new bike but a modern bike. This rules out the /5's. They are plenty nice but does not suit the criteria for my next motorcycle. That's what my wife tells me anyway. We all know that people that ride BMW's are specific. I'm not sure what that entails exactly but there is a certain "group independence" about the guys and gals that put hundreds of thousands of miles on thier bikes and wear those funny helmets. They are the kind of riders that ride. There is no "I wish it wasn't raining, I want to ride my bike" with these cats. There's no "I'm going to take the bike out for a ride when I get home from work" in this group. These are the "Hey, I'm going to run to Alaska for some ice cream...back in a few days" type of folks. I've never been that kind of guy but perhaps knowing there is a shaft driven German engineered motorrad whirring under me will transform me into that guy. No of course not, but having a reliable bike that I can ride whenever I want and not having to worry about might. I'm entertaining thoughts on modern R bikes but I have to stick to around the three thousand dollar mark. I don't know much about BMW's but then again I don't know much about the Scott Flying Squirrel either. Like most bikes I've owned I enjoyed finding out all the history and what to look out for. The owners clubs etc... I ran across a neat link from the AMA about BMW being the featured marque at the 2004 Vintage Days. Check out the 10 things you didn't know about BMW. While I've been entertaining thoughts of this bike and that bike I still keep coming back to the Suziki SV650. Mostly for the economic reasons but maybe I'm just not ready for all that reliability.

Harley Davidson and racing, not for girls anymore

While trying to wrestle the dress onto the pig that is my Honda, I've been thinking of future projects. I've heard iron head Sportsters are cheap right now and while I'm about 99.85% sure I'll never own a V-twin H-D it's not because they aren't cool. You see, the way my little pea brain works is I look at a motorcycle and I picture it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc...... So in my head I was thinking of what could be done to make an iron head Sporty into a cool bike that will be light, stop, turn, and if not accelerate at least make cool noises. I could build some sort of Lucifers Hammer type deal. Like I said, probably never happen. The Motor Company has had a long history in racing with some glory days and some pretty orange and black Ford sponsored superbikes that just didn't work out. I remember going to the Indy Twin Mile and seeing guys like Springer and Carr race against the Hondas of Shobert and well, Bubba pretty much eclipsed all the other non-Harley guys. Before you could pop down to the Buell dealer and plunk down a pile of cash on an XB and be able to have bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper etc..... there was a racing series for Sportys. It was called Harley Davidson Twinsports. You could buy an 883 Sportster, a pile of Screamin' Eagle accesories, some tires and go out to Road America or Mid-Ohio and get your doors blown off by Scott Zampach. It was cool, I saw it. Harley's with rear-sets and clip-ons is a beautiful thing. I'm biting my tounge here and I'm not even going to get in to my rant about forward controls and chaps. I will however, state that anyone who says Sportsters are girls bikes should be slapped. By a girl. When was the last time you saw something from any of those idot TV builders that could turn a friggin corner? Sorry folks the road from here to well.....anywhere, has corners in it. Harley Davidson just intoduced the VRXSE Screamin Eagle V-Rod Destroyer, a straight up dragbike claiming to run in the tens. That's cool. Of course it's 31 thousand dollars, not street legal, and still doesn't turn corners. Just for comparison a ZX-10 will do all that for $11,199 including the quarter mile times. I'm not slagging the V-Rod dragbike here, I'm just sayin is all. Now that you can go out and buy a Buell the Sportster class has been relegated to the history books. Who am I kidding? No one remembers that class of racing save for the guys who were racing, me, and Scott Zampach's mom. There were Harley's at Daytona this year. Well, Buells anyway. I know it's the same thing but we all know it's not the same thing. Remember the last time H-D was at Daytona? They paid Mr.Daytona Scott Russell a bazillion dollars to ride the V-twin Ford and he got into a fistfight the night before the race and could not get his helmet on his fool-ass head. Probably the only guy who could have made that thing win goes and makes the Factory and Pascal Picotte look like dumbasses. Thanks Scott. Once again, I digress. Buell, despite a ton of controversy and a handfull of DNF's had a real racebike and a rider without a swollen head. I think it's great that they are making a real attempt at racing again and I think they will go far. Erik Buell is an amazing man who believes in the American spirit of motorcycling and racing. He too, looked at an iron head Sportster and pictured it with bigger brakes, low bars, a steering damper, etc.....

Bye Grandma

My Grandma Thelma died. I'm sort of at a loss for words but the Uncle seemed to say some nice things over at his dealy. Love you Grandma, rest in peace.