Unreal Pinto

Working on my cousin's kick start E50 for his Sprinter Pinto.

My first time working on a kick start version of a E50:

The tear down

Pulled the clutch

Just Another Polini E50:

Installing the run of the mill Polini Kit on this build. Therefore, pressed in some aluminum "stud spacers" for better case matching.

Done!

Let the porting process begin:

Familiar gasket mark-ups

Let the metal fly!!

Case split

Basic match porting. Nothing too crazy.  Not aiming for top end since its mainly gonna be used as a sprinter.  Kept the transfers fairly shallow.

Just enough to match

Don't forget the boost ports

Finish product

Ready for the crank

Just another Dio Polini:

My cousin had a chance to ride my first E50 Dio Polini build and was impressed. Naturally he wanted to go the same route. I again used a Motomatic adaptor. I match ported the adaptor to the manifold and the cylinder like I did before. The only difference this time I decided not to fill the void with JB weld. I wanna see if it makes a difference.

Honda Power

Motomatic adaptor

Match and cut

Fuel path

Did the typical work to the cylinder (chamfering, cleaning, polishing, etc). Ported out the intake a bit. Nothing too drastic.

More fuel

I went with the low compression 50cc head for this one:

Down the barrel

All port work done and ready for reassembly:

It's a go

Mock up

A personal commentary:
From my experiences with Polini kits on both E50s and ZA50s, I feel that there is little that you can do to screw up or impove this kit. Whether you port and polish it or not, case match it or not, run large carbs or not, aftermarket pipe or not, this kit just out of the box will automatically kick a$$. The only think you have to manage is not blowing it up. I think a lot of people take a little too much credit on what they said they did to this kit that made their polinis "fast" where majority of the credit should be on the polini kit itself. I remember a guy on his blog claiming to have the fastest Puch cause he had all these so called secrets he did to his E50 and Polini kit. He clocked in at 55 mph I think. YOU COULD HIT 55 WITH A POLINI OUT OF THE BOX!!  RIDICULOUS!! Unless you drastically change the port timing, compression, etc, and breaking 60 mph to 70 mph, then you deserve credit. Other than that, we should all thank Polini for putting out a kick ass kit for our Puchs to enjoy.

Happy Tuning!!

Honda Elite to DJ-1RR Headlight Conversion

Took on the challenge to finally convert my 1987 Honda Elite headlight to the DJ-1RR set I picked up in Japan.

Boring stock headlight

Boring...zzzzzZZZzzz

The set I originally picked up was a DJ-1R version headlight set. I really wasn't into the look.

Looked kind of fat headish

For Sale...

So I bought the much cooler DJ-1RR double headlights instead!! This sucker was a pretty rare find.

Double headlights. Clear blinkers

Sweet!!

Comparison

The butchering process. It was kind of a pain to get this on. I changed out the 87 handlebar for the ZX handlebar that my disc brake and fork came with. I modified the handlebar to make the headset fit. I hacked the headset a bit to make it fit. Wasn't pleasant but all worth it at the end.

What a mess

Initial mock-up

I wanted to keep the 87 speedo dash instead of the DJ-1R dash. I felt it was easier to convert it that way. No I got a DJ-1R dash for sale..

For Sale

I'll sale this too!!

Final results:

Finally done!!

Almost done

I had this conversion in mind ever since I bought this bike almost 20 years ago. I can't believe I finally completed this conversion. This bike is almost done. Just a ZX back rim and wing to install and I can finally close the book on this project!!

Stay tuned...

Hawaii Five-O Superstar!!

Hawaii Five-O Season 5 Episode 22 featured my Puch Blue Maxi!!  Enjoy:

Green Machine Photo Shoot 2

Finishing touches to the Green Machine revival.  A pictoral update below:

Get your Moped Luau stickers

Puch Rat Rod Maxi

Its been a long time since I had time to take one of my Puchs out for a spin. Took my Puch Rat Rod Maxi for a short ride around the block. Kept it at 1/4 to 3/4 throttle most of the time. Just don't have the B@LL$ to hold it at WOT anymore. Maybe this bike should belong to a person who can test its upper limits because it has a ton of top end just waiting to be had.  For Sale?...Maybe...Enjoy...

Cafe Racer Turn Signals

Are you lookin' at me?

I installed some cafe racer style turn signals on my BLK BLK Magnum.  Naturally they were black.

Come Get Some Stickers

1st Edition

Come get some 1st Edition Moped Luau logo stickers!!

Special *Kama'aina Rate for the localz from the 808 State.
(*Only Hawaii zip codes are eligible for this special offer.)


All stickers are high quality; die-cut vinyl; gloss finish; sealed for long lasting outdoor use.

3" diameter (76.2mm diameter)

5 set

Collect them all

Die-cut vinyl

Protected for outdoor use

Stick'em anywhere

Represent

Cover that hole

Tag that A$$

Brain bucket stylin

HAPPY TUNING

Mean Green Machine

One of the last Puch Maxi I built with the rest of my spare parts before I left for Japan in 2009.  It was for my cousin.  This bike pulled away from my Gila once with a guy 100 pounds heavier than me.  I say it held up pretty well from all these years...

Alumiweld

I finally did some aluminum build up work on my ZA50 case used with my Gila kit. I've been running this motor without any kind of build up for a long time without any issues. All I did was some grinding to make the piston and cylinder fit and very minimal transfer match porting.  Slapped it together and been blasting ever since (Check out my Puch Pr0n section for some of my adventures in Japan with this set up). It was always in the back of my mind to do some kind of TIG weld build up for the transfers as I did on my Metrakit motor.  Unfortunately I currently don't have access to a TIG or access to someone who can do it for me. What I got instead is some Alumiweld from Harbor Freight. I've read on Moped Army numerous success stories with this stuff for transfer cases build ups. So I decided to try it for myself. The BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):...

V8 Hookup

Switched out my Arrow pipe for a V8 pipe on my Elite.  The V8 supposed to be quieter than my obnoxious Arrow one.  But I'm keeping my Arrow pipe for the times I wanna be obnoxious.

$40 bucks used

Unassuming and...

Respectable...

Juice Moto Parts

Juice Moto Parts is a site about motorized bicycles.  Although they specialize in motorized bicycles, they are into two-stroke builds and mods too.  I stumbled on to them while searching YouTube for 'two-stroke transfer porting'.  I found that they really explained the concept well and learned a new thing or two about porting.  Their YouTube channel has a lot of other tutorials and their website has a technical section with articles on two-stroke tuning.  I also liked how they say they tested their mods and found what does and what doesn't work.  Overall, good basic info for two-stroke tuning.

Check them out at:

• Juice Moto Parts (Website)
• Juice Moto Parts (YouTube Channel)

Blue Maxi Goes Hollywood

My Blue Maxi goes Hollywood!!  The Picture Car Captian for CBS TV series Hawaii Five O who is responsible for providing all the vehicles used on the show was looking for a moped to be used in a couple scenes in an upcoming episode.  Someone involved with the show knew of Minnow Motoworks having some mopeds.  Minnow contacted me and gave me the Captian's contact info.  I texted the Captian a couple of pics of my bikes.  He contacted me back and was interested in using my Blue Maxi.  He said it will be used in three scenes for 3 days at $200/day.  He needed it running and in good working order and able to haul a 300lbs plus rider!!!  I wasn't worried that the motor might not handle hauling that weight because I have the legendary 70cc Autisa on it.  What I was worried about was my tires blowing out.  2.25 IRC 21s are rated only for a maximum of 290lbs!!