wrapping up little things here and there, trying to get it ready to do some pre-race tuning!
i made a fork brace, but i’ve got 3 more to make for the other guys!
i also moved the rear 2.5 kenda to the front, and put a 2.75 heidenau on the rear. i’ve never had tires this big on a moped, but i was breaking traction with that 2.5 in the back, and those heidenaus are super rad tires, so i think it should work out until i get the tires i want.
the bike looks a lot better to me now.. the larger tires kinda filled it out some, plus the paint made a world of difference!
i still gotta wire brush the paint off the frame around my steering stop, i forgot to fix that before i panted it. that’s why i rattle caned it rather than powder coating! once i’m further into the season and i’m sure i’m happy with everything and not welding more shit on, i’ll take it all back apart and give it a nice powder job. till then, wire wheel and krylon flat black!
anyway, here’s some pictures of where it sits right now.
not sure if you can see it very well in the pictures, but i added a rad cev kill switch from some old moped. it’s big and bulky and i like it! haha.
also, the derbbit side of the transmission was kinda sticking. the variator it self wasn’t closing up all the way in it’s non-variated mode, taking some away from my low end. turns out the plastic bushings i had on the ramp plate were the culprits! i removed them for now, but i hate the idea of running with some plastic in there, so i’m going to modify some other ones to work well.
i gotta torque down everything, replace the throttle side bar end, fix the steering stop, and TUNE TUNE TUNE!
jimmy brought my variator! sweeeet.
because i’m using this variator with a hobbit counter pulley, and because the front cheek on the hobbit counter pulley is fixed and the rear cheek moves, i will be running it inside out. this also puts the mass of the variator inboard, which puts less strain on the crank.
it’ll look something like this:
i am aware that the standard hobbit variator’s outer cheek is the one that moves, but with a standard hobbit the belt is long enough that having your pulleys going opposite ways doesn’t really matter much. my set up is going to be a bit different and will use a shorter belt, so i want the pulleys moving the same way.
btw, you moby kids probably already know this, but flipping your variator also helps with that pesky belt alignment issue mobys tend to have!
i did a little write up on how to flip your variator, but it’s pretty much the most straight forward, easy thing to do ever, so you probably don’t care. i have it linked over on the left.
i also started porting the metrakit today. i’d say i’m about 90% done with the transfer porting, but i haven’t even touched the inside of the cylinder yet. i’m going to have to borrow tony’s 90deg angled tool for that.
you can see the stock transfer port on the left there, i’ve already started porting the right one.
that’s where i stopped for the day. still a bit to do in there, but not a whole lot.. most of the work left is in the top transfer. hopefully i’ll wrap it up tomorrow and have it ready to take to tony’s and get those windows bigger.
i also spent like an hour or two dremeling the hobbit cases to accept the bigger cylinder sleeve. usually i’ll go buy a flapper sanding wheel and stick it in a drill, but it was too late and i didn’t feel like leaving the shop. didn’t really get any pictures of that, but i’m sure you can imagine what that looks like.
oh, and tony stopped by and dropped off some reed material and a tire for me. such a rad guy!
tires are only half mounted at this point, gotta get some tubes.
for now i’m using what tires i can get my hands on. 2.25 sava that i’ve had forever on the front and tony’s 2.5 kenda on the back.
also, i didn’t make any progress on the brake caliper mounting arm really. did some more grinding, but nothing worth showing you at this point. still trying to figure out what i’m going to do to it to lighten it up.
sigh, more tomorrow!
black betty 