mopeds anyone?

They were the rage in the late 70s in the U.S. during the gas crunch.

Here's my 1977 Batavus HS50 that I refurbished. I'm into that kind of hobby.

 

never had one but love the concept. all electric ones would be better though.
there are even websites about making them and i think there's at least a handful
of small companies manufacturing electric two wheelers, with and without the pedals.
mostly over in gt brtn if i'm not mistaked.

i think i may have known someone who let me ride their's a couple of times.
i don't remember for sure though as to just where or when that was.

i do remember having a honda 50. not a moped but otherwise pretty close to the size and shape of the object pictured.

it had a .8 gallon gas tank and i got close to 200miles between refills!
of course they wouldn't let me take it on the freeway. i wouldn't have wanted to try riding it at more then about 40 or 50 mph as light as it was, but it was really great for getting arround on all the back roads where i was, which was out in the boonies where you really didn't need to get on the freeway or compete with four wheeled traffic anyway.

oh yah, and that thing is georgous. i'd rather have that then a car any day.

=^^=
.../\...

 

That Batavas looked pretty bad when I got it. It has an epoxy powder coating that is soft and thick. That coating polishes up like a mirror if you do it right, much easier than shining up a regular paint. It had no luster when I got it. The fenders are stainless. I polished those too. I added turn signals and got a new seat for it. It's a nice bike now.

I love nostalgia.

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Most of the new electric cycles have the motor built into the wheel hub. That eliminates the friction of belts or chains. Electric still has limitations compared with gas in terms of range.

There was one company that had a tiny gas engine built into the wheel hub that could be put on a regular bike.



I have another small engine called the MX5 that fits on a regular bike and has a friction roller that drives the rear wheel. It's a neat little gadget. The friction roller can be disengaged so that it can be run like a normal bike.

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here in Madison tons of college students have them, they work good to get around in a city like this.

 

I used to have a 49 cc two-stroke french mobylette mo-ped. It was ok - top speed around 40mph. I did a couple of quite long runs on it at one time. The safety aspect used to freak me out a bit, but it was a good cheap way to get about.

Wish in a way I still had it...

 

I'd like to have one of those trail bikes from the 60s. They have gears and are more like a motorcycle.

Honda CT90:



Benelli:



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Here's a 1965 Suzuku 50cc. Those 60s bikes were so classy.



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that ct90 is almost exactly the same bike i had, except of course for the engine being a 50 and from about 2 years before the 90 came out. the muffler was down low instead of up like that and the seat was a full lenght banana that hinged all the way at the back of where the rack seat is on that one. dam i loved that thing and wish i had one.

my other bike that i got myself in the late 70s was a suzuki 125. looked like your 50 only this time of course the engine was bigger. my suzi had was a metalic grey, the honda had a black fraime with white fiberplastic flairings that i usualy took and left off.

i keep looking at the adds and where i live i don't ever see any small bikes like that anymore. all i ever see any more are is these super powered "harley" clones that cost as much as a damd car. even the so called trail bikes they have these days.

the range on electrics is of course undertandable. the day will come when that's all we have though. or electric riding lawn mowers. when the oil runs out.

most people don't realize how much fun they'll have when it does though. all they can think of is how they think they'll cry without their big cars.

yah the 60s and 70s, that's when a lot of good things and possibilities were happining.

i think people will have immagination again some day. maybe the're starting to. i don't know. but man those little bikes were fun. getting you places you just plane couldn't get with a car or anything bigger because it wouldn't fit between the buildings and the rocks and the trees.

i just like what i call "people sized" and those things fit. them and little houses the size of pickup campers to actualy live in. now were talkin my kind of world.

=^^=
.../\...

 

we had a mo-ped when i was like 12, i thought i was soo cool whenever i drove it,,,i would even peddle it when it was running by the motor,,lol

 

I bought a Puch, moped when I moved to Kauai, Hawaii. Was going to ship my Harley over there. When I found out how much the insurance was on the hog, I opted to leave it in storage.
I bought it from a moped rental shop, they would sell them off when they got so many miles on them. $300. and they threw in a new tire and new chain.
It would do 42mph, funny thing was after I built a pull behind cart, for my S.C.U.B.A. gear or groceries, it would still do 42mph.
Rode it alot in the 6 months I lived there I put alot of miles on it and sold it for $350. befor I left. Pretty good deal.
...................................................Alaska........
PS......This was in 1983.......

 

Puchs were pretty good quality. Lots of spare parts still available for them. Lots of pipes and speed kits for them too. The Puch Magnum is a sought after ped today.

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A 1980 Puch Magnum.



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The one I had wasn't a Magnum, it had a step through like a girls bike.
I remember it was 49 cc's. I think thats all you can run and still be classed
as a moped.
In 6 months all I ever did was change the spark-plug once and would hose it off with fresh water a couple of times a week, to get the salt water spray off it.
And of course keep the chain clean and lubed.
The best of all was in Hawaii you didn't have to license them or get insurance.
Often thought about upping the gear ratio a bit, but never got around to it.
..........................................Alaskan.........

 

Here's a Puch Maxi-Lux. Step-through were popular because a boy or girl could ride them. The motorcycle type became more popular in the 80s.



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A few moped such as Motobecane had a device called a variator what would increase the gear ratio with speed. It uses a belt and a spring loaded pully whose effective diameter increases with speed. There are variators as add-ons for go-kart engines also known as torq-verters. A neat idea. There was some talk about using a variator in the engine of a small car so that it would have a continuously variable transmission for better fuel economy.

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Shaggie:

MaxiLux is the one I had. Didn't have the baskets as shown, just a rack.
Thats where I made the hitch to pull my cart behind. I called it my "rickshaw".
Would love to get another one, live about 4 1/2 miles from town and the speed limit between here and there is tops at 35 mph.
When I lived on Kauai they use to roll the sidewalks up about 8 pm, so if I was out late I kept a few bleach bottles with gas mix stashed around the Island so I could always make it home.
Later......Dennis aka Alaskan.........

 

Here in the UK the 70's were the moped years - that's because in about '73 the govt changed the law so that you can't ride a motorcycle until you are 17 - the age for mopeds remained at 16, so all the kids wanted them. Manufacturers made them look more like motorbikes proper to attract the teenagers.

 

One of the smallest mopeds I've ever seen:



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Ultra cool Shaggie:

Wish the pic had a person standing next to it so you could get a good idea of how big or small it is.
That would be a great little unit to take along when your traveling or camping.
I have a fold up Fuji mountain bike I used to carry on the boat with me, when I was going to sea. It was nice to always have my wheels with me. Used to deliver freight to villages and small towns in western Alaska. Most of the villages didn't have and cars let alone taxi's. But I was set.
Whats the brand name of that moped? I'd like to check it out.
.....................................Dennis...............Alaskan................