When clips are set free...

Two nights ago I helped my buddy Taylor put a HPI mini on his Derbi Laguna! It's such a sweet bike, he's had it for 5 years and during that time it has never really ran for very long.  Finally last year I convinced him to do some upgrades:

* Bottom end sent to Ed Exline for a super solid rebuild.  1977mopeds derbi crank was sent to Mr. Crankshaft for an inspection and it failed miserably (go figure).  Vince rebuilt it and sent it to Ed and then the assembly commenced.  New bearings, seals and roller bearings all around.
* 50cc Metrakit top end, lightly ported and modified piston.
* TJT variator
* Dynaflex belt
* Prototype stiffer contra spring
* 24t rear sprocket
* Weak-ends laguna pipe
* 19mm intake with 19mm PHBG carburetor

This bike absolutely rips now with the HPI.  The stock ignition had some fucked up drunk gremlin in it, because in order to start it you had to use a drill and turn the flywheel the wrong way.  After that it would pop and start and then the flywheel would REVERSE DIRECTION while it was running and start running the right way.  SO WEIRD.  Everything was intact, nothing was noticably messed up.  I think the coils went bad or something... I even asked for help from a few people who I really respect their knowledge base and they couldn't even figure it out... so that's why he now has a HPI mini.

That night I rode home with Taylor and we parted ways both feeling very jubilant.  Both of our bikes were running great and we had a great ride home... little did I know what my Lazer had in store for me the next morning.

The next morning:

I woke up and decided to try and tune my carb with a new needle for my TM24.  Well, I put it in and could instantly tell one of my bearings was trashed.  I decided to let it sit for the day and to ride it to the shop this morning to diagnose it.

This morning:

Rode it to the shop and it was making the gnarliest of gnar noises from the clutch cover.  Guess what happened? Somehow my clutch bell circlip popped off of the crank and found its way into the main gear shaft bearing (yeah, I know right?!) and got itself all caught up in the bearings.  Needless to say I decided to just split the case and rebuild it.  I noticed that the circlip groove on this aftermarket full circle crank is in a different location... and when used with the hammer clutch it kind of presses up against the circlip? I'm not sure but I didn't have this problem with my half circle crank.  I split an extra v1 I have laying around with a rebuilt half circle crank in it and slapped that in my gila bottom end.  Instantly I noticed more RPMS and better off the line power.  Rad.  Also, I don't think the circlip will be setting itself free any time soon.

What I did last night, and this morning... and tonight.

I had been waiting about two weeks for my custom motomatic destroyer and 24mm intake to arrive straight from the source and yesterday they finally arrived! I raced home from work, threw the pipe and intake in my backpack and jammed to the shop.

I already had the motor built (pics in previous post) so all I needed to do was take the current motor (80 mera/vm20/cali pipe) off and swap the gila/v1 on! Didn't take long but I did run into a few complications (of course).  The intake can only be mounted if you cut a chunk of the front motor mount off (it doesn't affect the actual mounting of the motor!) because it hits the reed area on the cylinder otherwise.  After that I had to mess with shimming my clutch bell, which took a little bit but I got it figured out.  Then I proceeded to install the pipe and couldn't figure out how the hell the bracket mounted! One way had this weird dongle extraneous bracket in the way of the pedal crank which just didn't seem right, but I left it that way over night because I couldn't access my gmail on my phone to see the photo from motomatic.  So yeah, I mounted it wrong and fixed it this morning.  The right pedal arm barely clears the carb but that was because I specifically asked motomatic to make it shoot directly out on the right side instead of at a 45deg angle.  I like straight lines, i'm weird.  Anyway, it buries the needle on my 50mph speedo and keeps revving.  It needs a little more tuning because at idle it is super shitty even with a 10 idle jet.  The needle for sure needs to be leaned out, or it needs another needle in general to get rid of the rich load at 1/4-1/2.  Temps are in the 360deg range at WOT, so i'm alright with that.  In my experience the destroyer pipes tend to make bikes that were properly tuned before the destroyer, run a little hotter even after rejetting.  Regardless, it's an awesome setup.

So far my tuning setup is as follows:

HPI timed @ 2mm BTDC
Hammer clutch with red springs
Needle bearing clutch bell (soon to be lightened)
Destroyer pipe
12x44 gearing
Exhaust widened and raised 1mm
Intake widened and brought back 1mm

I'm thinking i'll just snag a different needle if the problem doesn't go away when I lean the needle out.

Michael Thomas was right...

Well, apparently you can put a v1 back together MY WAY (using heat) or do it the Mike Thomas way (no heat).  Guess what method I prefer now? No heat.  All this time i've been using heat, and it's completely unnecessary.  God damnit.

love you mike thomas.

here's the most recent v1 I rebuilt, two days ago for Nikolas Sanow of The Puddle Cutters (Portland, OR).

love you too nik.

specs:

new FAG bearings
new seals
case matched (lightly) to the ported polini kit that I sold him
1977mopeds minarelli v1 "race" crank
hammer clutch
12t sprocket

I'd like to touch on the 1977mopeds v1 crank for a second.  The quality is pretty bad, sorry to say.  I've had two of these cranks in my hands and both had a pretty unnerving rough spot in the big end bearing.  I had one taken apart and it was 0.03mm out of round.  It should be no more than 0.01mm.  Consider stock cranks i've had rebuilt that were 30 years old and were <0.01mm.  So, yeah.  What exactly makes this a race crank besides the fact that it's new? If you ask me... i'd just find a stock roller bearing crank with good threads and have it rebuilt by Vince at http://www.mrcrankshaft.com.  I mean, the crank is for sure usable but I would not abuse the hell out of it on a kit with close to stock gearing.  The big end bearing is for sure low quality.  The upper needle bearing isn't even the right size as it's too wide to fit in the piston, so you'll have to get an actual, correct size upper needle bearing for it --- which I would do anyway, because the one it comes with looks like a childs toy.  You will need to re-shim your clutch bell as well with a thinner shim.  Don't get me wrong here, i'm very glad that they had this crank made but I feel like the quality could be much better.  I would use it on a stock bike in a heart beat.

v1 gila motor assembled!

My crank arrived today from Mr. Crankshaft and what did I do when I got home from work? Took it straight to the shop and assembled my case! I had some frustrating issues mainly my damn case would NOT close up beyond a certain point.  It took a ton of heat and fucking with the output shaft and pedal shaft for the gears to line up.  The transmission was binding up wayyyyyy more than it usually does when I go to assemble.  Pretty frustrating but I got it assembled and now I just have to wait on my destroyer pipe and intake!

Not too much has been going on.  I got a cold and that sucks.  I ended up sucking it up and buying a motomatic destroyer pipe custom made to fit my lazer with the gila and v1.  I also threw money at them for a 24mm intake as well.  When all is said and done it should be a beast! 

I'm still waiting on my crank to come back from Mr. Crankshaft.  I got the bearings in the case and cleaned up the case match a little bit more but that's it.  Nothing else to report.

I have this uncontrollable urge to buy stupid moped shit, and as such I had to satiate it with the whacky ass motomatic puch gila -> v1 conversion kit.

first off, thanks motomatic.  the spacer is right on and the quality is fantastic.  sits flush, slides right on the studs, transfers are perfect.  bravo dudes.

in order to put this on you have to dremel your case out so the piston can plunge into the case as it is a little longer than normal v1 pistons and because of that, will go further down in the case.  it's pretty annoying because the v1 cases are pretty thin but it is certainly possible...

exhibit A, dummy

you should also take the time and cut away the "sprocket case shield" or whatever it's called.  maybe I just coined the word to describe it, who knows.  anyway, take a dremel with a reinforced cut off wheel and go to fucking town.  annoying, but easier if you have pot and someone holding the case so you can use your dremel with two hands like luke fucking skywalker slicing through the deathstar cutting up fools!  zzzzzrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

exhibit b, I got really stoned and skipped grinding it all the way flush with the case.  not really necessary as it sits under the chain at this point, but I guess it does look kind of stupid... fuck it.

so now i'm trying to figure out if I should just make my cali pipe fit, or get a tomos estoril pipe and tweak it a bit to fit???? I also need to decide if i'm going to go the tm24 route or just stick with my vm20.

exhibit c, i'mstonedandgoingtobedgoodnight

How to rebuild a v1:

Tools you will need:

* Zip ties

* Allen wrench set (5mm for sure)

* 10mm socket and appropriate ratchet

* Spark plug wrench/socket

* Puch/Minarelli clutch puller

* Piston stop (OR ROPE)

* CEV (or Bosch) flywheel puller

* Flat head screw driver

* Needle nose pliers

* Rubber mallet

* Heat gun (or a torch)

* Oven

* A range of box wrenches

* Circlip pliers

* 7mm socket (optional)

* (Factory) Case splitting tool

* Old seat post

Bearings and seals needed:

* 2 6203 non-shielded bearings

* 2 6202 non-shielded bearings

* 2 17 X 35 X 8 seals (or 17 X 35 X 7)

* 3 15 X 24 X 5 seals

* New case, clutch cover, base and head gaskets

What I like to do before I start to split the case is to remove the bearings from the packaging and put them in my freezer so they'll shrink a little bit (and by a little bit, I mean a very small amount).  It will help the bearings go into the case much easier.

Step 1: Clutch removal

- Remove lower screw on face of clutch cover

- Drain oil from transmission into a pan

- Remove clutch cover with 5mm allen wrench

- Remove starter clutch retaining clip

- Remove starter clutch plate

- Remove spark plug from head

- Insert piston stop (or rope)

- Depending on your v1 your clutch nut is going to be right hand or left hand thread.  For the most part all of my v1's have been left hand thread, meaning you turn the wrench to the RIGHT to loosen the clutch nut.  Loosen the clutch nut and take it off.

- Remove the washer and set it aside with the clutch nut.

- Get your clutch puller out.  Do not use the allen bolts it came with, instead use 2 of the clutch cover screws as they are softer and will not strip the clutch hub!  Thread the center bolt all of the way out.  Position the clutch puller so the screws go into the clutch.  Do NOT tighten it so they bottom out on the clutch bell, if they do --- back them out a few turns.  Now thread in your center bolt so that it is perfectly straight on the crank.  Tighten everything down and your clutch should pop off.  Sometimes the clutch shells bend, if that happens you'll have to get a new clutch shell or take it apart and bend it back.  Every once in a while you will find a clutch that just won't come off.  I've had to weld my puller bolts to the clutch before in order to get it off.  That's a whole different story.  Now assuming your clutch is off, proceed to the next step.

- There is a circlip under the clutch.  Remove the circlip with the circlip pliers.

- Pull the clutch bell off.  Sometimes the bushing gets stuck on the crank.  If that happens hit it with your heat gun or torch for a minute or two and then it should slide off.

- There are shims underneath and above the clutch bell, keep them in their respective places along with the circlip.  At this point I zip tie everything together so I know the order of which things go!

Step 2: Remove the main gear

- With your circlip pliers remove the clip that is on top of the crown nut

- Remove shim underneath circlip

- Pull off crown nut

- Remove circlip

- Remove shim

- Remove main gear

- Zip tie everything together in the order it was removed

Step 3: Remove ignition (keep all screws/nuts together!)

- Remove outer fan shroud

- With a phillips screw driver CAREFULLY remove the 4 screws holding the fan on to the flywheel.  These can be very easy to strip if they have never been taken off.  Be careful.

- Remove the back fan shroud

- With a 15mm socket, loosen the flywheel nut and take it off.

- Thread your flywheel puller in to the flywheel.  Tighten it down and pull the flywheel off.

- Remove woodruff key and set it aside where it won't get lost

- Remove the screws holding the stator to the case

- Pull the stator off and set it aside

Step 4: Top end removal (make sure carburetor is not on prior to this step)

- With a 10mm socket remove the 4 nuts holding the top end down.  Place nuts where they will not get lost.

- Remove head

- Throw away head gasket (do not reuse)

- Carefully pull the cylinder off

- Remove the wrist pin clips

- Remove the wrist pin

- Set piston aside with the cylinder and head

- Optional step: Remove cylinder studs (tighten two of the stud nuts together and loosen the bottom one to remove each stud, repeat 4x)

Step 5: Sprocket removal

There are a few different ways to do this but I find that this is the easiest way to do it.

- Jam a 7mm socket in between the teeth of the sprocket and the case

- With a 17mm wrench remove the nut holding the sprocket on.  It may need a few taps with a mallet, sometimes they are on there pretty tight.

- Remove the sprocket.  If you have trouble removing it, stick a wrench underneath it and lightly pry on it until it pops off.

Step 6: Case splitting

- Remove the 11 allen bolts that hold the case together.  Make sure you remove them all, this is VERY important.

This is where things can go wrong.  I would highly suggest you put your case in the oven for about 15 min @ 300deg at this point.  It will make this step MUCH easier.

-  Grab your case splitting tool.  Loosen the middle bolt.  Thread the 3 bolts into their respective places on the case (the 3 holes on the outside of the casing on the ignition side of the case).  Tighten them down and start threading the center bolt in to the end of the crank.  Go very slowly and check the case to make sure it is separating evenly.  If it is not, do not keep tightening the case splitter center bolt.  Take a flat head (or a tire lever) and slowly pry on the side of the case that is not splitting.  Be extremely careful.  I like to give it a few solid whacks with a mallet to loosen it up.  You may have to repeat this process a few times before you are able to pull the case half off evenly.  I like to split the case with it horizontal so the shims have a much higher chance of staying in place.  

Once the case is mostly split I like to grab a flashlight and shine it inside the case.  Look for any shims that may be ready to fall off of their shafts.  Push them back into place and continue splitting the case.

 - At this point you should have the case split.  Take extreme care to not lose ANY of the shims. Sometimes they stick to the case so I ALWAYS check the cases for any shims that are stuck and then return them to their specific spots.  I always put them back in their spots after I remove the shafts so I know where they go!

- Remove the pedal crank (heat up the case and whack it with a mallet if it won't come out).

- Take a punch or a phillips screwdriver and tap the output shaft out of the bearing.  

- Take a piece of wood and place it against the crankshaft.  Tap on it until it pops out of the bearing.  There is a shim that goes on the ignition side of the crank.

- Remove the gear cluster (shim on both sides of it!)

- Set everything aside and make sure no shims are out of place.  TAKE YOUR TIME!

Step 7: Bearing removal

Sometimes when the case is being split one or two of the bearings will get stuck on the shafts.  You will need a bearing puller to pull them off of the shafts, do not try and use a 3 jaw puller or anything stupid like that.  Use the correct tools.

- Take a flat head and gently pry the seals out of the case

- The easiest way to remove the bearings is to take an old seatpost and with the small end facing the outside of the case, I just whack on bearing until it comes out.

- The output shaft bearing is a little trickier.  I generally take a flat head and hit it with a mallet to pop the bearing out.  Just be careful.

- Be mindful of the shim that is between the output shaft bearing and the case! It is necessary, do not lose it! Set it aside in a safe place.

- Put output shaft in freezer!

Step 8: Bearing installation

I highly suggest cleaning the hell out of your cases first, before you complete this step.  What's the point in rebuilding a motor if you have a bunch of nasty shit floating around in your case that will just gunk up your new bearings? If the bearings do not want to sit in the races then you must gently remove them and heat the cases up to a higher temperature.  They can be finicky! 

- Place both case halves in the oven @ 350 for 15min

- Remove the ignition side case half from the oven

- Take one 6203 bearing from the freezer and gently place it in the case

- Place output shaft shim in case

- Take one 6202 bearing (for output shaft) from the freezer and gently place it in the case

- The bearings should drop right into the case with no issues!

- Put the ignition side case half BACK in the oven

- Remove the transmission side case half and install the bearings as previously mentioned

- Remove the ignition side case half and taking great care not to have the bearings fall out, tap the output shaft (sprocket side) into the output shaft bearing.  Make sure it is seated flush, all the way.

- Take your heat gun or torch and heat up the ignition side crankshaft bearing for a minute or two.  Install the crankshaft into that bearing.

Step 9: Put it all back together

- Install gear cluster with shims in proper placement

- Install pedal shaft and make 100% sure that the "claw" is sitting on the post.  This is extremely important.

- Put transmission side case half back in the oven for 10min @ 350deg

- Take your case gasket and cover it in oil

- Lightly tap the 3 bushing pins almost all the way out of the case.  They should be barely coming out on the gasket side.

- Install case gasket , being mindful that it should be FLAT and not have any tears

- Take the transmission side case half out of the oven

- Quickly take that half and slide it on to the exposed shafts.  Be very very careful.  There will be a point where it most likely will not press together all of the way.

STOP

- Do not try and press the case together at this point if it binds up!  Take a flash light and look inside the case at the pedal shaft.  Is the claw sitting on the post? If it isn't you will need to finesse it back on with a small flat head and rotating the case around.  Once you get it back on MOVE THE PEDAL SHAFT backwards with a wrench so the claw slides down onto the post!  Proceed to next step ONLY after this has been completed successfully.

- Take a 10mm wrench and put it on the output shaft.  Slowly turn it while simultaneously tapping on the case VERY lightly with your rubber mallet.  Do not force it or you will break the case!  You should start seeing the case come together. 

- At this point start threading in your allen bolts, but if you feel the case binding, loosen them all up (or take them out) and repeat the above step

- Once the case has come together you can pat yourself on the back, but only after you have installed the case bolts, torqued them down and then tapped the bushings back in!

Step 10: Everything else is the reverse of removal!

- Install everything else

- Trim the case gasket that is sticking out of the combustion area, use a flat blade.  Do not mar the gasket sealing surface

Alright, so you're all done... mount it up... fill it with oil and blast to the moon my friend!

HPI mini on a V1

If you know me you know that I spend way too much money on moped parts and getting custom machining work done.  This is my most recent machining project that Naz (Mosquito Fleet) did for me a few months ago.  It's a HPI mini rotor ignition adapted to a v1! It does not simply just bolt on.  A new stator had to be fabricated.  A custom press fit taper adapter for the rotor had to be made.  I knew I wanted to keep the fan so Naz made a sweet fan adapter (mind you this was the second one he did, with Mike Thomas's being the first) so I could use my stock fan!  It's absolutely amazing.  V1's are known for their torque and with that AND the light weight rotor, makes for some very fun times!

Mocked up without the fan!

Motor mounted and ignition mocked up!

Since I live in central Missouri I get super bored a lot and rev my bike out on the stand for no reason.  Check out this video with the HPI on a Polini kit.

stupid HPI revving on stand


A few months ago I spent about 4 weeks in Lawrence, KS helping my bosses open up a new location.  I offered to go out there and train and hire employees and make sure everything was running well.  While I was out in Lawrence I stayed with my buddy Daryl who operates Lawrence Scooter Repair.  He actually came out to Missouri and picked me up... on the way back to Lawrence he was mentioning that a lady came in with a Lazer moped trying to sell it to him... I asked for a picture and he showed me a beautiful Lazer (v1!) and so I convinced him to buy it and sell it to me at cost.  I've wanted a General/Lazer for soooo long and now I have one!  It's still an italian bike so it's fucking small but it's a god damn Lazer.  Anyway, the gas cap was locked and we didn't have a key so we proceeded to drill the lock out (and then the next day I realized that you can buy the keys from 1977mopeds, oops!) and find the nastiest crustiest gas tank ever.  Let's just say it took 2 weeks to get it clean including time spent lining the tank and having the liner fail, pretty rad.  We rode it around for a while with my motron tank strapped to it like ballers, I seized the stock cylinder a few times and then finally swapped my kitted bottom end on to it.  It's got a title and I love it.  It'll probably be for sale soon though because i'm a god damn freak and can't keep a moped for longer than 2 months.

BALLER!!!!

Right now it has an 80mera, cali pipe, HPI mini, hammer clutch (i'll make a separate post about that later), rebuilt stock roller bearing crank, vm20, needle bearing clutch bell and a mopedfactory head.  it does 51mph at a million rpms with 12x44 gearing.  womp womp.  it's probably going to get one of those fancy puch gila v1 adapter kits that motomatic made...