after thinking about how i was going to do the trailing arm caliper mount for my disc brakes, and doing some research, i came across some cr80 forks on ebay for 88 bucks shipped. pretty cheap. they have a caliper mount already on it, and they are wayyyyy beefier. awesome.
anyway i snapped a pic with the wheels mocked up and the old forks while i waited for the new ones to show up in the mail:
a few days later my forks showed up. THEY WERE MASSIVE. i would have to have the fork tubes stick up about 7 inches above the triple trees to get the wheel close to where it was stock. so after ripping the forks apart and doing some research on shortening forks i actually found out that you have to insert a piece into the forks to shorten them. sounds weird i know, but heres details on how it actually works.
basically i can put a spacer between 7 and 13 which will raise the bottom of the fork by however long the spacer is. i bought some metal tubing from ace and cut it to 6 inches for each tube. this will however put more initial pressure on 3 (the main spring) so i had to cut this down so i could get the cap assembly (14) on the top of the tube. i preloaded the spring a bit, because the forks are pretty damned springy, and preloading the main spring will keep tension up and help the fork from bottoming out and the wheel from hitting the bottom of the triple tree during hard braking and extreme bumps. travel will be limited with this setup, but i think i’ll be alright, i’m not doing jumps like the dirtbike these forks were made for.
installing these was a total bitch. i mocked up the steering tube and the triple trees and realized that the head tube on the frame was too long.
so i had to cut down the headtube to make everything fit. the problem with this is that the cups for the bearings sit on a “shelf” inside of the tube
so if i cut the tube down the end of the cups would still only be able to go in as far as that shelf, so i had to cut the cups down by the same amount as i took off the head tube so they would seat all the way.
now with the head tube shortened i mocked everything up. problem number 2: the top race for the bearing sits on top of the ball bearings, which sit in the cup. so when properly tightened down, the forces on the top race (from the ball bearings) even out so the race will not move back and forth. if the race is tight around the steering tube this is what keeps your steering tube stabilized. however the race for tomos bikes is slightly (probably about 1mm) LARGER than the steering tube, so the steering tube can move back and forth inside the race, making the forks wobble. to solve this problem i welded the top race to the threaded nut that goes on the bottom set of threads on the steering tube. this will anchor the top race to the steering tube so there is no play between the race and the steering tube, and therefore no wobble in the forks.
so that nut/race combo gets tightened down, then the top triple tree goes on top of that, and the top nut secures all of this together.
I cleaned up, respoked, and converted the 16″ garelli spoked rear wheel to sealed bearings. also disassembled and reassembled the cr80 wheels just to clean everything up and make it shine. bling bling. The sealed conversion was a breeze on the garelli wheel. knock out the cups, put it some 32×12x10 sealed bearings (fits perfectly, no boring required), cut up some spacers from 3/8″ electrical conduit, and done. super duper easy.
so i finally got it all put together and mocked up with the wheels and new forks on after some crazy work to get everything to fit and work properly.
my old handlebars will not fit with the fork tubes sticking up, so i bought some clip ons.
also i recieved by brake/tail lights in the mail and installed them. i got 2 of these off ebay for 8 bucks shipped.
installed
the top set are the running lights, bottom set is brake lights. sweet.
i also got some battery mounts to secure the battery to the top tube.
and i cut a hole in the frame behind he battery so the wires run directly into the frame hidden behind the battery. much cleaner looking that that picture.
also an update on the clutch. i decided to lighten my shoes so the clutch engages at higher rpms. this may prove to destroy the clutch extremely quickly, but i’ve gotta try. new clutches are fairly cheap anyway.
oh i installed boyesen dual stage reeds on the reedblock too. i dont know if i mentioned that in an earlier post or not.
so heres what i still need to do:
-true my spoked wheels
-buy and install tires and tubes
-figure out steering stop situation for the forks
-fab a caliper mount for the brakes
-install and bend my pipe up a hair (when i welded the exhaust bracket on my bike, it was at a bit higher of an angle. plus that pipe is a bit low anyway, so i’m going to bend it up to look better/have better clearance)
its getting really close.
These forks look so fuckin good.
it’s a shame i’m going to have to sell them. I bought some cr80 forks off ebay for 90 bucks shipped (cheap!). they should be here this week and if they fit, i’ll be selling these nicely painted forks 
i also bought a master cylinder, caliper, and controls mount off ebay too. i’ll need to fab up a plate to space the mounts right, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.
i’d say i came out pretty good, spending only ~180 bucks on a complete disc setup when the complete setup from tomos costs 450 plus shipping.
did some mild porting to the cylinder. widened the exhast by 1-2mm on each side and raised it by 1-2. polished the exhaust port. done. we’ll see how it does.
the wiring is coming along nicely. i’m going to have a removable led tail/brake light, and a removable headlight, and the battery will sit under the crossbar near the seat (and of course will be removable FOR RACE!). all the wires run to a central “hub” above and slightly behind the engine. the wires will tuck away nicely when i have the lights removed so it’ll be sleek and pretty.
heres a picture of the hpi coil and 3-way switch (on – off – on with lights). the brake light will always function no matter what position the switch is in.
the cdi box is on the other side.
i just need to buy some more connectors tomorrow and run a few more wires, then the engine can be mounted.
Painting is completed. Mock assembly:
I’ve got some ideas (blatently stolen from here about disc brakes in the front. I bought a cr80 front wheel off ebay for 5 dollars (plus 19 for shipping). so i’ve got some work to do on getting that jigged up.
i need to convert an extra garelli spoked rear wheel to sealed bearings to use for the rear wheel.
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.
