Introducing the first of a series of Albany garages dedicated to moped building, repair, and fabrication.  I joined fellow Mohawks Conor and Graig in cleaning the crap out of this space through Saturday afternoon.  Electrical power was restored that night, giving us light to work on a few new builds.

Got the Magnum XK, pictured above with bent works, resurrected and running after a new petcock, swapping exhausts, a little tuning.  Runs great now.  Check the video:

Got this Nostalgia all good and ready to go, though it took til Sunday.  Delivered out to Mohawk Bill in Schenectady.  e50 with fresh bearings and seals, with Hi-Comp head off my MaxiLuxe.

Saturday night was also of course the 2nd Mohawk Mammoths group ride.  Highlights included trip across the bridge to Rensellaer, swarming St. Joe's church at the end of the festival going on this weekend, and going to the super-secret location shown above that is becoming a regular group ride destination.  We were five deep this ride, up from three on our first ride.  Five is a great riding number.  Oh and we checked out this Newport that has been freshly saved off Craigslist.

Anyway its a new week and I'll be out of my apartment on Wednesday.  Moving out has been a ton of work...I took this picture below before taking it all to WIGWAM.

First I was eating some seitan around the corner from my house

Then i was at Mohawk Graigs place in Rennselaer checking out this freshly waxed beauty

This thing is hot but not without its humor;  Yes, the next picture shows a throttle cable tied in a knot at the end.  That's a first for me.

At about 8:30pm I got a call from a guy who was selling a clean looking Magnum XK on CL Hudson Valley for $100.  I'd emailed him that morning and assumed it to be gone.  After trying to sell me a Honda Express and a Yamaha Chappy with it, he offered to hold it for me til tomorrow.  But noo wayy Jose, we're coming to pick it up tonight.  So we drove to Newburgh and nabbed this honey of a deal.  Another XK -

No pedals, only one sidepanel, possibly bent forks, but you really can't mess with the $100 magnum deal.  Tank is near mint inside and out, no seat tears, engine has compression.  Happy to say I've got both my magnums for 100 bucks!  Hooray for Android Craigslist Notifications.  Unsure of what to do with it, maybe a birthday prez to my honey.

Yes, the moped gang that is known as the Mohawk Social Club, at least until we become the Mohawk Mammoths, had our first ride.  The above image is the only one that exists to chronicle this historic moment in space-time.  Pictured is Juliets, mine, and Andys mopeds chained outside of Suzie's.  

This elusive, blurry mobile phone image was taken after we drank Yuengling's with Mohawk paul before his rode up to Saratoga, after we checked out some Columbia Commuters and Garelli's in the backyard of these guys, and after we swarmed across the city from the Normanskill Farm to the Avenue they call Washington.

Oh and I crashed.  Bike was killed and coasting along in the dark and i tried to wheel up onto a sidewalk but there was a curb, hmm; my license plate bracket took all the force so everything is fine, i just have an achey elbow. 

We're gonna be riding every Saturday at 6pm - whenever, so come join our forces

And a big shoutout to mohawk graig for bringing johnnie walker, creating a puch banner for one of the gang garages, and oh yeah getting on the road to go pick up this minty thing pictured below.

Yeah, I cleaned up my wires

dont be like this:

I followed this mod, and used tons of JB weld, I basically coated my homemade knarp in it, and frayed the end of the cable.  Also let it dry extra long.  Holding up fine so far.

I rode my Maxi all weekend and kept the Gila Magnum in slumber.  Here it is next to Conor and Andy's matching Maxi's.  It was my first moped.  Despite an awkward seat and much too high compression, I realized that Maxi's are in a way, much more fun than top tank mopeds.  Theyre just maneuvarable, rickety, and light.  Riding on a top tank afterward is like riding a slug, though a fast one.

These are Andy's credit card reeds.  His metal reeds shattered so the whole weekend he ran cut up old credit cards.  They worked pretty great, though they had to be replaced roughly once each day.

the success:

oh and Conor got new bars.

Reposted from the thread I just made on the Off-Topic forum:

weird moped dreams

• Author: scottymycon (---.nycap.res.rr.com)
• Verified User: scottbirdsey
• Date Posted: 07-31-10 14:39

Last night I dreamt I was at a rally with my girlfriend. Then I couldn’t find her so I went on a group ride.

When I got back she was at the house next door where there was a blue scooter parked outside. Then I saw her making out with the dashboard confessional guy.
I’m sure it was his scooter.

I cursed her out Then I left on my moped for another group ride but my moped wouldn’t go over 15, so I thought it was the reeds. But then I realized I hadn’t plugged my serato box into my CDI before riding (???). If anyone here Dj’s or knows a DJ a serato box is what lets you play mp3s on vinyl.

damn early 2000’s emo toilet seat riders taking my girlfriend.

Here's my magnum after 3 awesome months of hard riding.  It's been on two rally's, daily drives up and down the big hill in albany to work, several rainstorms, locked up outside of bars, and plenty of late-night blasts through the city.  I estimate I'm at about 5-600 miles now for the summer.

It runs pretty close to perfect and is probably the fastest moped in New York state (cept maybe one of those Orphans or Missions 23ers) but its definitely getting ragged. 

Note the missing right-side pedal, stains of transmission oil on the ground from a leak that started in ithaca, scrapes on the Destroyer pipe, the epoxy on the five-star that the speedo sensor magnet fell off of, the jury-rigged trailor tail light, sticking front brake shoe (not that it matters i have no brakes), and my personal favorite, the pieces of tape left over on the fork brace and pipe from when Andy and I taped glowsticks to our mopeds one night. 

mopeds!

You may have read it on moped army but Red Bull is putting on a crazy Euro moped race happening that goes through the Alps.  Even more awesome is that Landsquid Stever is going to rep the USA in this.  Even even more awesome is the blog he made which you should go to, and you can see his epic USA puch pinto, as well as donate for his excellent cause, for which in return you will receive crap from Switzerland.  This is cool on many levels.

I'm reposting this from Responsible Jon's blog, who has the best blog on the internet.

This is the latest video from buttguy, and is probably my current favorite youtube video.

Andy and I got Dan's Sachs Prima revived from slumber this week.  All it took was a new spark wire and boot and a tube change and it runs great.  It's got the Sachs D engine, which means it pulls hard up to 30mph and chills there.  Dan also has an Express he used to deliver pizzas on that we're going to restore and sell to some girl.  Here's the shakedown ride:

As you can see, we turn into giggly 8-year-old boys when we get a moped up and running the first time.