BLACK PIPES MOPED GANG MOPED BLOG

i really like tearing down a bike.

it’s got some funnie mods. this bracket appears to be structural so i’ll have some welding to do.

everyone knows the best part of riding sachs is the coaster brake for sick skidz. this one came with a hand brake but lucky for me, hoke bought out a old sachs dealer earlier this year and he has all the parts to convert it to a coaster brake.

i thought it would be dope to have a disk brake up front to complement skids with stoppies, but i’m trying to keep this cheap, so maybe another time. somehow the front wheel spins mostly true, but it looks like the bike sat in six inches of water and the rim might be too far gone with rust. i’ve never laced or trued a spoke wheel so figured this would be a good time to learn.

i managed to save 35 of 36 spokes from the rusty general wheel and tossed them in evaporust to clean up the threads. we’ve got piles of wheels at the shop so i found a not-as-rusty-or-bent 36 hole front from a hobbit(?) and cut out all the spokes with a bolt cutter that i found in the middle of the road. the front hub bearings spin well and feel tight so i’ll probably leave those be. the brake is all gooey and nasty so that’ll need to be cleaned up. one crisis at a time.

also i emptied out the sludgy varnish from the tank along with 14.5 pounds of scaly rust. it’s bad, but i think i can save it.

new year, might as well fire up the ol’ blog.

general mopeds were manufactured in taiwan by the her chee company in the late 70s to mid 80s. they were available with sorta-desirable minarelli engines or the maligned sachs 505 engine, which only fools want. so i had to buy this one.

this one in particular had just over 3,000 miles on the clock when someone yeeted it into a net external force. it also smells like cat piss. the seller pulled it out from under a pile of trash, where it probably should have stayed, but i’ve always wanted one of these for whatever reason. so i paid the man $200 and loaded it up to take to the shop.

upon initial inspection, it seemed to be all there. aside from the obvious front end modification, the seat had no tears and minor rust on the pan, the tank had no dents and all of the plastic side covers were solid (even though the plastic thumb screws disintegrated as i loosened them).

then the reality of buying junk set in. i was excited to see what i thought was the original key in the ignition. the keys for these bikes, specifically the fuel tank, are kind of annoying to source. then i realized - after trying to remove the key with pliers, wd40 and a propane torch - that someone jammed a screen door key in the ignition and said “good enough.” that’s fine, whatever, i’ve owned two general tanks before and remember the caps are held on by dowel pins that you can tap out while you figure out the whole key situation.

after tapping out the front pin (making sure to scratch the hell out of the top of the gas tank), i popped it open, realized the tank was half full of the most foul smelling varnish-y rusty sludge i’ve ever smelled, denied what i saw, buttoned it back up and started tearing down the rest of the bike.

peep the 505d! i don’t have much experience with sachs. i had a two speed balboa last summer that i traded will d a poop colored cimatti grand prix for, a junk 504(?) powered orange thing about 10 years ago that never ran and a blue hercules that was passed around black pipes and was really good at skidding. wonder where that is now.

anyway, here’s the plan for this “build.” i really like trying to get the most out of stock crappy moped parts so it’s going to stay mostly stock. i have a beat up derbi zen 50 that i’m going to hack onto the 26mm(!) sachs header and a 14mm bing that should pair nicely with the stock 14mm intake. i might try and raise the exhaust a bit - do sachs like to rev? i don’t know. i’ve got new engine bearings and seals on the way now so i’ll be digging into that in the coming weeks. hopefully i’ll be inspired to keep writing. i miss seeing active moped blogs...be the change you wish to see, or something? whatever, who cares, mopeds suck but sometimes they are okay.

A rusty gas tank ain’t no good.  lil crusty rustiest in your carb can jam you up and harsh your vibes!  

All you need is some washing soda and a battery charger, let’s get it! 

Start by adding one TBSP of washing soda per gallon of water. NOT baking soda or RC cola soda.  Washing soda is at your grocery store and it’s cheap as S.  

So quick side note here, I’ve done this many times before but I decided to try something different this time.  Don’t put your whole tank in the vat unless you don’t care about your paint.  More on this later.  

So here’s the fun part, add the water to the inside of your gas tank.  I recommend removing the petcock and plugging it up with a cork or something or maybe you have a spare junk petcock laying around, use that.  Next, hook the negative electrode of your battery charger to the gas tank and the positive electrode to a “sacrificial anode” which is a really rad name for what is essentially a scrap piece of steel.  The sacrificial anode needs to be under water but not touching the gas tank.  When you power on your battery charger the sacrificial anode will begin to get chewed up by the process while the rust inside your tank gets scrubbed away.  

You’ll know if you did it right because you will see bubbles coming off of the piece you’re trying to clean.  

Let that sit for a while.  I usually let it run over night.  Make sure it’s outside because this process produces hydrogen which is the most common element in the universe and you don’t want common elements in your house.  It can also explode I guess, so.  

When it’s all done you’ll have a nicey clean tank, or clean enough any way.  I rinse it out with water to try to get all the remaining detritus out.  Plan on using a big paper fuel filter for all the bits that you didn’t get out with the water.  

Derek and I had a super chill, low-pressure sesh on one of the last warm, sunny days in Ohio. Hopefully, we’ll get one more.

Oh yeah welcome Shawn 'Archie' Ellis another old grumpy bitch to hang with me and be ree$h with, pictured here with Nic:

out with the new in with the old