Buzzard's Eye View: The Champ is here!

About a year ago, we found a trailer full of junk mopeds for 300 bucks. There was a little junk scooter in the mix and the guy told us to take all the "shit", and not to leave any of it behind. So it was thrown on top of the pile and lugged home with the rest of the haul. When they guys showed up it was the first thing that I could free from the mangled pile of pads. It looked pretty beat up, but I thought it would be fun to screw with it. See If I could get it to fire up just for shits and gigs. This thing has more vacuum lines than a 85 Honda Civic. The more I dug in to this little scoot the more I realized that this thing has been grossly over engineered. The petcock, for example, was an "Autocock". There is a vacuum line coming from the case that leads to the "Autocock" that provides vacuum to a small diaphragm. So as even if you leave the petcock in the on position, as long as you aren't kicking it over it, it's still off. I gutted that ASAP, plugged up all the vacuum lines with liquid electrical tape and random screws from the shop floor and put some gas in it.

First kick. FUUUCCCKKKKK YES!! Aired up the obviously damned tires in hopes that they would hold air long enough to take a spin around the yard, and to my surprise they were holding! Off to the races! It was sluggish, lean as hell, but it propelled me across the yard. For some reason this brought me indescribable joy. I liked it. But at the time I was just falling for Peugeot and it interested me more than some dumb scooter. So it went under a tarp out side, with the rest of the crap from the haul.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Jamie is cleaning up the yard and decides that we should relocate the pile of scrap peds that have been sitting in front of the shop for a year now. As we are dragging the tarps off I see the little scooter. Covered in dirt kicked up from rain. At this point, i have finished my Chopper build and I'm super broke so building my Grand Prix is on hold. "This bike runs, guys. Maybe I can fix it up as a loaner?"

Pull it back in the shop and decide to clean the stock 12mm Mikuni and see if I could patch up the vacuum lines a little better now that I have a little time to give a shit about this bike. Pull the jet to clean it, and... "Whoa... That looks like a Dellorto jet!" DING DING DING!! So I ditch the stock air box and up jet that hoe, and now I'm off for a spin around the block. "VuhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR, ruuhhhhhhRRRRRRRR"!! WHAT?? THIS THING IS A TWO SPEED? Shaft driven? I'm falling in love with this little bike. I go on to switch out the stock turn signal laden bars for some shorter vintage Schwinn bars, and remove the rear rack. Gut the stock wiring and the completely fucked battery. Relocate the tail light and remove any plastics that it may have had. Ditch the oil injection and clean out the integrated 710 fluid tank (oil), and repurpose it for extra fuel. I ditch the stock 12mm auto choke Mikuni for a good ol' 15:15 Dellorto SHA and take it for a spin.

I love it. If we weren't out of argon for the welder it would have gotten a hacked up Puch Proma Circuit right then and there! With all the changes the bike now tops out at 31mph on flats and gets there with some gusto. That doesn't sound to impressive on paper, but holy shit this bike is fun!! Handles the trails like a CHAMP. Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. I can't wait to get that pipe hacked on there. I may even spring for the 70cc Malossi kit that Treatland.tv carries for it! UGH...

I'm in love with a scooter.