life through the lens...

Experiments in analog photography thanks to the Diana Mini...

Holy Hole...and Peter's Piper...

The other day I was helping my friend Michael do some case matching for his Grande and dremeling we discovered a cavern in the his cases.

It's just some sort of casting flaw...I guess It'll be OK and we'll just have to smooth the transition into the case. Unfortunately he also blew through the wall of the cases and will have to add some aluminum and continue matching. Bonerjamz!

Also, a local moped dude named Damon bought a rare pipe from Italy.



I'd heard that the gianelli pipes were pretty sweet. So far the reports I get from him are that he really likes the pipe...although I haven't seen it yet myself. He's trying to keep his ciao stock and I'd like to think that this pipe is meant for something so much more...

Vespino the international moped of mystery...

Sometimes when you get frustrated with mopeds you just have to put them in "time out" for a little while..I'm just starting to get back into tearing into the vespino. After losing compression while going over the bridge, i was hoping that i just blew a gasket. After checking the head and cylinder however, the gaskets are still complete and brand new. my next thought was that maybe i blew a seal...but when inspecting the seal on the stator side it too looked to be in good shape. hmmmm. right now...
Marshal suggested that maybe I have a decomp issue. My decomp is not hooked up, but i guess it could have worn out (so was an issue he had with a moby head)... While I'm not convinced this is the case...I'm really taking any and all suggestions. The plan right now is to get it all put back together and run a compression tester (which is honestly what i should have done before tearing it all apart again)...Then proceed from there. Any thoughts out there?

More posts unrelated to mopeds: The Volvo Army

So I decided to put some regular maintenance into my Volvo so that I can hopefully have it for another couple years. I wasn't raised to work on cars and that's sort of why I got into mopeds. Mopeds just seemed like an easy way to get my hands dirty and pick up a little bit of mechanical knowledge. Now I can translate what I know about mopeds into figuring out issues with my car. First, I changed the spark plugs, distributor cap and wires. I also changed the oil and filter (ashamedly the first time I'd done that at home instead of just taking it to a garage). But the big fix involved my rear brakes. Nate Bandit noticed that there was a lot of rust on my aluminum rims...which didn't really make sense. With a closer inspection we found a huge problem...This is was your rear rotors are supposed to look like:

And this is what mine looked like...

COMPLETELY SEPARATED!!! The inner part of the "ring" was sharp enough to cut your finger. We found this out after we tried throwing them around the yard like Xena Warrior Princess. Needless to say I replaced both the rear rotors and brake pads as well. It's amazing how different it feels to brake with four brakes instead of just the front two.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...what to work on when you can't work on a moped...

So with all this rain we've been having I've been unable or unwilling to work on mopeds...why work on a moped you can't subsequently take out for a test ride? I went to to the garage to hang out anyway to find the lawn had turned into a swamp.

Thankfully I was able to back in and still work on my garden. Since I'm at an apartment in Old Louisville now, I don't have a whole lot of yard space. I opted for doing everything in pots. The lady at Lowe's suggested I use paint buckets for my tomatoes and I'm so glad I did. I drilled about 5 holes in the bottom for drainage and planted away. I'm growing two different varieties of tomatoes, green peppers, spinach, basil, and a few varieties of lettuce. I also started jalepenos, cilantro, and more basil.

Mullberry...Bandits...I love you...

Thanks Gabe for putting this video together from the most recent Mullberry hangout. More footage of the vespino (when it was running)...

What a great time.

The Vespino Aquatic...

I finally got my decals for the Vespino and I have to say that they really set the bike off...


Here's a shout out!

I'm off for spring break this week (first time in 6 years) and have been enjoying my time over at the garage. Jshay and Sean came over for some afternoon grillin. We made some nice eats.

Here's the boys comparing...meat swords...

Here's Sean working on his batavus...why anyone would want a batavus is beyond me...

In other vespino news...I have been unable to get the bike to run consistently. I don't know what the problem is. It will start easily and rip up and down the street...then the next time I go to start it, it takes FOREVER! I don't get it. I finally had it running to where I was happy enough to try and ride it to moped Wednesday. Unfortunately, I never made it all the way across the 2nd street bridge.

My bike just cut out and whirred to a stop about half way across...When I tried starting it again, It was obvious that I lost some form of compression...Soft seize? Blow a seal? Gasket? Who knows. My theory is that the problem involves the cool air coming off the river and all the wind blowing into my forward facing carb...Back to the fucking drawing board. Woof!