New winter hobby!

Check out @Bengry loading my 79 Yamaha Exciter 440 into his ever versatile element. Vintage sleds rule! 440cc twin, huge reeds, cdi, 36mm keihin, and variator the size of your head! Awesome, familar tech cheaper than a running puch and 10 times easier to find.

Swamp series #2.

Yuck! How can some people treat a moped this way?

Swamp series image #1

Wagon Attack!

debuts today. make sure to watch it! www.wagonattack.com

Guns hobbit workshop weekend

So @bengry came up to GR this weekend from Joliet to watch the world premier of wagon attack II, produced by my friends.
Hit up www.wagonattack.com to watch the epicness.

Aberle stopped by on saturday and the 3 of us really got some stuff done at the bemis shop (loosely nicknamed the “shire”). Chris Stewart and Alex G from Peddy Cash made a stopby too, it was mint. We split a ton of cases, made some custom hobbit tools, organized new engine builds for 2010, and ported a couple cylinders. It was awesome to get our hands dirty, drink a couple beers and inhale some cast iron porting dust. Aberle couldnt resist riding his moped in 10 inches of snow while we just shook our heads and laughed. I split the motor from my fast hobbit and removed all the shrapnel from the blown piston. Bengry got a sweet new source for hobbit bearings, $2 a piece. i snapped this dope pic of our work towards the end of the night.

A nice post about phbg subframe mods…

Mark Hand, AKA cheetahchrome on MA made this nice camoflaged post in the General forum today about a super clean frame mod for better PHBG access; for those of you who still love to rock the inframe carbs.  I really enjoyed his thread, the great photos, and detailed writeups.  Much appreciated, Mark!

http://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/discuss/1/781918/781918/

Custom pipes totally rule!

Guys, guys… the proma and the leo are preeeeeety nice pipes and we’re super lucky to have the Proma reborn for us all to love.  Shoot, i remember in 06 sending my CC number and info via international fax at kinkos to 50cc.nl and 4 nervous weeks later my brand new OG proma circuit was at my doorstep.  only to self destruct a year later (man those pipes were flimsy).  The clones rule!  Huge thanks to all who brought those pipes back from the grave.

However:  we’re equally or even more lucky to have rad dudes working their butts off to bring us next level shit for us to try out and get stoked about.  I’m talking about the indie dudes, building shit by hand and rocking the cones into pieces of art and love.

When you’re seriously ready to blast at level 10, hit up these dudes:

www.motomaticmopeds.com

www.motionleftmopeds.com

they will make all your pipe dreams come true. /endpun

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Heres a kit review.

I swear, every single parts manufacturer made a kit for Hobbit/Camino at one point. I’ve heard rumors about k-star, autisa, biturbo, etc…. out there somewhere! RIP blasters from the 80’s miss you. However, we should be THANKFUL for the massive selection of kits we have available at our fingertips from our friends in SF.

Here is my review on kits i am familiar with:

Metrakit: ehhh, should be avoided if possible. for the money, its weak. 4 port? snoozetown. better options out there IMO. 65cc rad if ya get one free or cheap, Kevin Fulton will blast you with his hooptie metrakit with half the skirt missing.

Malossi: Great kit, powerful.. not my favorite, not frequently available, traditional malossi high quality. used to be the cheapest hobbit kit if purchased through malossidirect, but i think thats dead now. 65cc

Polini: I have recently fallen in love with this kit, its very powerful and easy to get. replacement and oversize pistons sorta plentiful. great quality. 65cc The kit Sarah and i are going to use to build her hobbit this winter. And maybe Pat Perry’s too? hmmmmmmm. Although he is holding out for the Dr.

DR: By far my favorite hobbit kit ever. Benji and i had a discussion about the best moped kits (not just hobbit) ever created for any brand. I mentioned the Polini V1 kit, and his pick was the hobbit DR. still in production as far as i know, easy to get pistons and rings for, used to be readily available but gained popularity and now they disappear fast. 65cc Dr. Hobbit has the best formula.  Roger and I have put about 1 million miles a shared DR kit and it still looks brand new.  perfect crosshatching, not even a mark on the cylinder.

Athena: The biggest true hobbit kit and the most powerful. alu/nikasil for mad power, its a serious ripper but it is not bolt on. It requires the special Athena head (not in existence) or to modify your stock head for clearance (pics of that down below). There will be piston contact without this mod. I was able to get my hobbit Athena kit to 63+ mph. true 71cc ish My kit of choice for sitting at the grown-up table. Like you already know, but its my style to only use moped kits on mopeds.

Parmakit: A very powerful nikasil kit, loved by many, readily available. Nate Bandit’s #1 choice. 65cc

Charmo: Sold by treats now as the shocko kit. cheap, lower quality, good budget kit for your backup hobbit or for a disposable loaner hobbit. some things should be retouched before install for long life. not sure on the true cc’s

Mec Eur: Never seen these uninstalled IRL, hear good things about them.. available in alu and cast, i’d always pick alu over iron, but im not scared of blowing my shit up. 65c

Choose wisely or get blasted!!

Peter’s Formula: The Buddy Hobbit

This post is designed for people who want to build the ultimate daily moped… the most reliable, quick and cheap down and dirty joy to ride machine in the moped world. Stock cylinder with a pipe, so little CC’s yet so much to love. Whether or not you have a PA50-2 to start with, dont worry i got ya covered with some rad methods to convert your shit to quick-spec for little dough.

How to build the buddy hobbit if you have a PA50-2 to begin with:

(from 78-79 the yellow hobbits were PA50-2, from 80-83 they dropped the Hobbit name and were all called PA50, but are all PA50-2 spec… These things are different: Carb, intake, reedblock, variator ramp plate and weights, cylinder, crankshaft.)

Step 1: disassemble carb completely, remove the welch plug, emulsion tube, every screw… clean it like its a critical component for the space shuttle and billions of dollars, decades of research and human lives depend on it . seriously. R.I.P. Challenger. I drill a tiny hole through the welch plug and pull it out with a hook, when its time to reinstall i just slab on some hondabond (aka grey goo) over the plug and let it dry.

Step 2: throw away existing fuel line, filter, and disassemble petcock; if it sucks, replace. Use all new REAL tygon or such fuel line shit you dont worry about shrinking and cracking later.. and a ceramic filter. if your tank sucks, treat it. rinse it good. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR A HOBBIT THAT DOESNT IDLE. come on guuuuuys.

Step 3: install technigas proma circuit pipe that you purchased from TREATS. use a new crush washer!

Step 4: dissasemble variator and remove all broken black plastic roller guides and replace if you can. failure to do this step could result in incomplete variation or damage to the variator ramp which is aluminum and the weights are steel with plastic guides. when the guides break the steel just flops around in there, wrecking shit. thanks honda.

Step 5: rip all day, everyday. forever.

Pro Tip: if it rains on your hobbit, cover up the intake tube that faces UP, the 3 holes unit, thanks for that honda :-/

Pro Tip: people claim they need to upjet from a pipe install, i think no. If you build your shit right with no leaks (at least wipe off all the oil and funk from gasket mating surfaces duhhh) and you check everything to be cool, and run a high quality oil… you’ll be fine. its ok guys. hobbits are tough.

Pro Tip: it seems you can basically port the balls out of a hobbit cylinder with no ill effects, so bust out those stones and tear up that exhaust port! might wanna upjet 1-2 with a little portwork though.

Pro Tip: i’m like 99% sure that Keihin is one of those carb manufacturers that bases their jet sizes on MM, so the stock 78 jet in the PA50-2 probably means .78mm. RAD! this means to upjet you just need to find a drill bit that says .78-.80 on the micrometer (you do have a metric micrometer right?! If not, treat yourself to the metal one at harbor freight, watch for them to go on sale), one last thing about drilling a jet… drill bits that size have a kerf of about ≈.02mm, so your .80 on the mic probably really drills out to like a 81 or 82 jet get it?

Pro Tip: clean the points yo!

How to build the buddy hobbit if you’re starting with a PA50-1:

Step 1: there are some items you just cant avoid buying to do this shit right… The pistons between PA1 and PA2 are the same, but the cylinders are not. the exhaust port on the PA1 is sooooo tiny… i suppose if you’re patient you could make it the same size as a PA2 and you’d be all set.. otherwise pick up a used one from someone’s parts bin. You’ll need to modify it for it to work though, its easy, check it out.

Honda decided that the skirt on the PA1’s needed some lame notch machined into them that matches up to some notches in the cases, on the PA2 cylinders the notch is missing, and the case notch is machined off… heres a pic of a PA2 (left) and PA1 cylinder, notice the notch of the PA1 on the skirt.

Honda machined out the notch groove guy on this PA2 case half…

What does this mean? it means you either need to dremel off that silly notch in the stock PA1 cases (hard), or friggen take an angle grinder to the skirt and grind some notches just like honda did. dont worry about thinning out the skirt, once on Chris Stewarts hobbit we just completely grinded the skirt shorter, its got plenty to spare. go to town. make sure you have it ground away enough and double check, or else you’ll airleak into oblivion. Rinse it out in your sink and slap it together. Done.

Step 2: If you’re super lucky and rich, you’ll find a PA2 reedblock, intake and carb. If not, you can make your stock intake into PA52 size if you dremel the balls out of it. i’ve done it:

PA1 left, PA1 modified, PA2 stock right.

The stock 10mm Keihin isnt total trash, you WILL need a 78-80 jet, so make one… or buy one.. Then, be a pimp and remove the choke and throttle plates (DO NOT strip the screws), remove the emulsion tube.. figure out how the carb comes apart, make a diagram if you want to, and remove the choke and throttle pins. Then, clamp that shit up in your drill press or clamp it to the table or hold it in your hand (DONT) and run a 1/2″ drill right though it. Oh look, a 12.7mm carb. Honda was nice enough to taper the entry and exit bores of the carb so the bit self centers itself coming in from either direction. could not be easier guys! (thanks for the tip @bengry) works beautifully, unlike drilling a bing…

Now, you can pretty much jam any big flat reedblock you want in there, @bengry uses one from some honda aero50 or something, just sandwich it between the cases and the intake and make some nice gaskets and use grey goo if you feel like it. This is something i am going to try on Sarah’s bike this year. cant wait, should work awesome! basically im going to replicate the gaskets that come with a reedblock like this, except leave out the bolt holes.. then drill two little indents into the intake so that the bolts are flush. these are all over stock bikes (tomos, peugeot, trac, etc) and readily available at TREATS in lots of dreamy options.

ohhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiit guys… Same window size as stock PA2 reedblock. use slightly shorter hardware and sandwich that fucker in there. INTAKE CARB REEDS DONE $0 (or like $17 if you buy a sick reedblock)

*Something to consider.. this reedblock is thinner than the stock one, so the rubber connector on the carb wont fit into the subframe properly, this seal is important for jetting so you’ll need to get creative on how to line it up, when i have the answer i’ll post it up. i’m guessing i just use a thicker gasket material or something.

Intake tube: (not pictured) The brown intake dick is different between 1 and 2, how do i modify it? take your friggen hacksaw and cut off the top 1/4 inch. done. the PA1 brown intake dick has like, reducer caps on the top of it which makes the intake inlet holes smaller than the PA2 intake, saw it off, bitch. This step is critical. Leave the intake foam alone, if its SUPER dirty, rinse it off. you need this in there though, so put that tray back in and forget its there.

Step 3: The PA1 came with the worlds crappiest variator plate, but the PA1 weights are really nice.. for a kitted bike, but kinda light for a hobbit with a stock cylinder. they’ll be ok though. you WILL need to buy a PA2 ramp plate. no way around it. most important part in this whole ordeal. In Austin i asked Benji to have some produced and he thought it was a good idea, so keep pestering him about it. i think it’d be an easy enough stamp. When you do get your PA2 ramp plate, you’ll need to modify the center hole to accept the shaft of the PA1, you just need to dremel it out so it looks round instead of flat… this pic is an easy explaination: PA1 on top, check the center holes. Self explaining.

Step 4: Follow steps 1-5 of above formula.

Annnnnnnd, i think that covers it. In the end you’ll have a 38 mph bike that takes no prisoners. Runs everyday, and blasts up hills even if you’re a big dude. This will always be my favorite daily rider moped, and once you ride one setup like this, it will be yours too. Promise! Next formula: blaster hobbit level 1. Feel free to ask me some Q’s or whatev.

Coming soon: no… really.

I’ve been diligently working on a bunch of new posts which will outline my methods (i like to call them formulas) of how to make a serious hobbit ripper that lasts.  Several different forumlas depending on how hardcore you wanna be or how much money you have to spend.  Hopefully this weekend i can finish them up.  These posts will be very intuitive and full of sweet how-tos and pics and shit based on ACTUAL BUILDING AND RIDING EXPERIENCE OF MINE AND CLOSE FRIENDS’ BIKES. so stay tuned for it yaaaaaaah.  will be worth the wait.  hoping to make the ultimate guide.

also… wut…

Austin,Tx november 09