Thursday, December 17, 2009

Photoshop mock up

Here's a very poor photoshop mock up of the direction I'm going for.


Subtract Rust, Add clip-ons.

Team Zissou!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

It's cold as balls and time for new a winter project...

Christmas came early as at my door two large bike boxes arrived. Brad investigates...


I got the bike sent from the land of the cuperteens and in hopes that this rare bike wasn't in as rough shape as I feared...

I soon came to realize two things:
1. This is a really bizarre moped
2. It needs A LOT of work!

History Lesson: Vespa opened a factory in Spain that birthed the Vespino. It was widely popular throughout Spain but few were exported outside the country. This one came to California in a shipping container.





The case...huge transfers, case inducted that comes up from the bottom of the engine. I'll take better photos of of this engine mounts soon you can get a better idea.





Reed Cage...Rusty old, two petal...honestly it seems like a lot of material that restricts what could be a HUGE intake.









Frame: Sort of ugly, hollow tube frame that hides cables and wires, forks use sealed bearings and have a weird scooter type fairing (which is being ditched)








Wheels...Awesome! Sealed bearing 5 stars.











Rear Clutch...Big and thin. Here it is compared to the stock vespa size. Looking forward to what sort of power I can get out of that.


Other things...The bike came with performance variator and metrakit. More on those later. I was looking for a winter project and I got it.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Raiders of the lost Ark...Handy Bikes

There's a lot of updates coming shortly, but for now I'd like to tell you a story about the giant ass moped warehouse that everyone knows about but doesn't REALLY know about because if they did, they'd crap themselves. That's right, I'm talking about Handy Bikes. It looks like this:


Look familiar? That's because it's the warehouse from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Seriously! I swear it looks JUST LIKE it...Except instead of state secrets and ancient religious artifacts, it's full of new old stock moped parts. Every nut, bolt, and rare part you've ever lost while working on your moped at night or in a low lit area can be re-discovered in this warehouse of mystery and intrigue. Shelves and shelves of forks, fairings, fenders, clutch parts, CEV electrical components, throttle assemblies, tanks, carburetors, engines, decals, pedals, and other parts, parts, parts!

While the the ark of the covenant could not be found here, the wheel room that's bigger than my apartment blew my face off.