I’ve been working diligently on this bike. The step-thru conversion is complete. It took me forever to get it finished. I must have spent about 5 hours welding and griding that damned tapped petcock thingy onto the frame. The shitty gasless mig we have down at the shop, combined with two different thickness metals, made it damned near impossible to get an airtight weld. so after getting it very close to not leaking, i lathered some jb weld over the area where i welded and sealed it up. I also put the gas cap area on the top and did my best at making it air tight. we’ll see how it holds up. i might have to throw some jb weld on that area also to make it not leak too badly, but we’ll see in time.
after the jb weld dried, i took the bike apart and started on painting the bike. black and yellow, who would’ve guessed. anyway, heres some pictures.
frame: black
swingarm: yellow
fork tubes: yellow
gas cap: yellow
disassembled engine
more peices to the puzzle
I’ll repair my clutch this week, and probably do some VERY mild porting on the cylinder (it’s my first time).
Last night i welded a cross brace top tub top bar whatever you want to call it onto the tomos. I also hacked off part of the body that held on the rear fender. And Fixed up some welds for the seat mount. Also I took out the fork lock.
I also started some prep work for turning the frame into a gas tank. More updates soon.
With the Mid American Moped League Moped Cup Races coming up in the spring, I need to get to work on my Tomos: Race Edition.
So here’s my list of things to do:
-fix my clutch pads
-new seat
-remove all excess weight
-install crossbar
-spoked wheels
-new reeds
-step through conversion
-new pedals
-powerwash the fuck out of it
here’s where i am so far:
after letting the jb weld dry i put the intake on the bike and attached the carb. the new carb is gigantic so its kind of a bitch to get installed, but i think this is going to be worth it.
Turn the key… Choke… Kick… Kick… VROOOOOM… started right up. Checked for air leaks: None. Awesome. I can tell i’m lean at idle because it dies if i take it off choke. As far as the main jet… on the 18 i was running a 115 main jet and i think i was just about right. the 24 has a 95 in it stock so i’m probably lean, but man when this thing opens up all 24 millimeters it sounds MEAN. I’m totally stoked.
next steps:
-figure out an air filter situation. space is limited because this carb is so huge. i dont think a regular air filter will fit so I’ll probably just use some pantyhose.
-the carb is leaking gas a bit so i need to figure out where that’s coming from and plug it up.
-i’ve got an oil leak from the transmission but i think i just need to make a new gasket for the transmission cover
-tune this bitch.
-RIDE THIS BITCH.
some pictures:
After seizing the AR80 a few times after putting the kit on it, and spending money on a bunch of jets for my VM18, the jetting was still lean in the needle. The shitty part about VM18s is that their needle isn’t adjustable. You have to buy an entire needle set if you want to adjust it. So AJ gave me his Mikuni VM24. It has an adjustable needle and takes the same jets at the VM18 (also the VM series will take dellorto jets). Not only is it easier to tune, but it’s HUGE too. EXTRA BLASTO SPEED TIME!
Tonight I went to the shop and fabbed up an intake for it. The old intake was for a clamp mount VM18 and had a rubber coating on the metal plate that clamped onto the carb. I torched the rubber off and was left with a clean plate. The inner diameter was around 28mm, so i had plenty of room to work with.
Since the VM24 is a flange mount i needed to weld on a plate for the carb to mount onto and then weld a tube (AJ also gave me a Boss header ID:24mm so i chopped that up for the tube) from the old manifold plate to the flange plate. Shay had an intake riser for a gila kit with a hole already in it that was 24mm. Perfect. I drilled some holes into the riser plate to match the flange on the carb and welded it all together.
Disclaimer: I am terrible at welding. There were a billion holes in the welds so I lathered some JB weld onto the welds and sealed it up. The manifold is currently drying and i’ll be able to put it back onto the bike tomorrow and see if everything works out like i planned.
I tore apart the tomos clutch last night to check on how the pads were holding up. I opened up the transmission to find this:
The material compressed a bit and flattened out from my original dremeling, which is good. Everything looks to be in very good condition except for the edges of 2 of the pads which seem to be peeling back from the clutch arm. This however is my own fault. When adhering the pads to the arms i didn’t apply the epoxy all the way to the edge of the arm. i only applied epoxy to where i wanted the pads to go. In hindsight i should have just applied it all the way to the edge to avoid the peeling of the pads. I’ll have to pick up some more material, enough to do both 1st and 2nd gear clutches and redo it. For now, i think the clutch will hold up fine for a while.
I installed the new clutch material on the tomos clutch yesterday. First off i removed the old clutch material from the arms and roughened up the area where the new material goes.
I bought some epoxy (Devcon 5-minute) to adhere the material to the arms and a hose clamp to keep pressure on it while the epoxy dried.
So i mixed the epoxy and spread a generous amount on the arms and attached the new clutch material. I hose clamped it in place and waited for an hour.
Once it dried i cut the pads to the correct length. They were still too thick and would barely fit in the clutch bell so i had to shave them down with the dremel and a grinding bit. Even with this i was still experiencing the clutch grabbing slightly at idle so i cut the clutch spring down a few coils. This helped, but didn’t cure the problem. I decided against taking even more coils off because of the weakened state of the spring because of this mod, and the extra pressure on the spring also because of this mod.
I took the bike out for a good hour ride last night and the new clutch performed beautifully. Smooth transition into first gear (maybe engaging a bit too early, but thats ok), and smooth transition into second (I’ll need to do this mod eventually to the second gear clutch). I’m going to open it up tonight and see if the material held up to the stress.
I soft seized the AR80.
I was at the shop yesterday morning working on the tomos clutch and while some epoxy was drying, i decided to take out the AR for a short ride. The weather was nice. It was warm. why not? I made about a mile and ZINK!!! Soft seize. I’m pretty sure my main jet is just lean. I rode it back on choke and it was only too rich in the needle. So i’m hoping its just the main jet being lean. I did get to take a nice picture at least.
I’ll be ordering some more jets soon.
I got my pilot jets in the mail yesterday and last night i rejetted the carb. I went from a 25 pilot to a 40 pilot, and from a 62.5 main to a 92.5 main.
the throttle is crisp and responsive now. no lean spots. its perfect. i did an idle plug chop and it looked a bit rich, which is fine for break in. I didn’t get a chance to do any wide open plug chops because it was really cold and it was late last night when i got done. I’ll get some done next week.
I did take it out for a minute or two and it definitely felt more powerful, especially when i hit the powerband.
i need to take it out longer to see if regearing is necessary. i cant wait to see what kinds of speeds i’m gonna get outta this thing.
I stopped by the local brake & clutch shop today to see about getting some friction material for the tomos clutch. The guy went in the back and found something that i think will work.
it’s a tad bit wide for the clutch, and a little thick, but with some dremeling and sanding i think i’ll be able to make it work.
when i asked the guy how much i owed him for it he said, “dont worry about it. its not worth writing up an invoice”. rad dudes for sure. If you’re ever in cincinnati and need some friction material, hit up Industrial Brake and Supply on the W.P. Dooley bypass.