Woot, 61

 
  So I think im kinda in panic mode before the baby comes.  Oh yeah, im having a baby girl, her name will be Kaelyn, she will have dirty fingernails when she comes of age.  But yeah, I wanted to make sure my remaining two bikes were up and running to their best.
  I did redo the sebring a couple months ago with a fresh ring, new points (which jessie of the cutters melted:), and a reduction to a 15:15 carb since I had considered selling her.  She did dreamy at the Seattle rally with awesome gas milage and superb reliability.  I did put a dent in the tank by hi-siding because I was not paying attention...Life goes on.
  The ol' Beretta has been sitting idle since I have not been able to get a proper head scenario.  In conjunction with the Wizard himself, (NAZ), he was able to cut me a head to use with one of my copper gaskets and achieve a nice 1mm squish and airtight seal.  Another thing that brought great success for me was the switch to the 4DH7 needle that gives a smoother throttle response through the positions and a much different top end.  Apparently the 5N13 needle is for bigger carbs (28-34) but was probably a brand/application specific needle since you cannot find it in the mikuni catalogue.  If you didn't know the minarelli Beretta 38 is rocking a V1 with a puch Gila kit, TM24, CDI, BK-100 pipe....Nom.

So, yeah, Im still here.

Yikes, craziness.  Ive moved out of matts, sold my garelli, have a baby due in a week or so, rally this weekend...  AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  Tinkered on the Baretta and she is fast.  I put the 4-something something needle in it which made here a whole new beast.  Unfortunately there is a leak in the base gasket...go figure.  Life.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Ugh, sorry, im back.

Yeah, been bad about posting again.  So, the baretta with the gilarelli runs!  MLM was nice enough to sell me a raw partially constructed pipe so I could set it up with this monstrosity.  Naz convinced me to machine up a sweet aluminum silencer, which I must say was a good choice since the bike is very short and the pipe is very long.  I also discovered that my headset that I set up years ago was just plain crap and was causing the bike to track terribly.  I replaced the headset with a uber nice 1" origin bike headset.  The only trick part was the steering tube on the tomos forks was too large, but Haulin Collin jumped in and threaded a piece of 1" cro-moly that i pressed nicely into place.  Of all things I have done to this bike, the headset has been the most appreciated.  I haven't jetted her out yet (currently at 200) but my jet set just came in as well as my temp gauge.  Hopefully she will be fast.

What else?  Hmm, blew up the garelli clutch.  It was an easy fix, only requiring a bolt extraction and replacement.  I also went down to the portland rally.  It was a blast for sure and the portland kids sure know their debauchery.  I did kill the sebring.  Jessie thought it would be good to take everyone up a mile long steep grade hill, and well, the sebring no likey.  Though it was jetted right for level ground and actually four stroking due to the 90 degree weather, the combination of steep hill loading up the engine, heat from the slipping clutch and my anger trying to force it up the hill made her soft sieze.  Started her right up and pushed it further with the choke on but then I lost spark.  Holy cow the case was so hot it sizzled, which im hoping just released a solder joint I had made the day before when I replaced the internal coil.  Sigh.  Mopeds mo problems :)  Fuck, and I almost forgot the pepper sauce/rally patch shit....

A magical day!

Well magic for me at least.  It was a perfect rainy day for going to the shop and busting out some work.   I was able to machine the gila head perfecto today with a little guidance from Naz-masterofall.  We first lathed it only to realize we did nothing but raise the compression!  Forgot that I needed to sink the head 1mm into the combustion chamber, lol, oh well was fun.  Then I spent an hour jigging the head up on the rotary table to mill it about .003 clearance to the cylinder wall.  Following this I milled a groove right close to the new shoulder for a viton o-ring.  Yesssssssssssss.  Yum.  Here is a crappy pic on the mill.




















And here is one of my .98mm squish band (I did not fully torque the head though so it should take it to .95 ish).  Way better than the 2mm prior to machining.

What the hell have I been up to.

Along with working my great new job at the museum of flight I have been knocking out stuff for you fine folks out there in moped land.  You probably have seen the disks back on treats and 77's site, thats cool, but I have also been slaving on some beautiful intakes.  A couple of weeks ago it looked like this:

And now they look like this:

Mmmmm, sexy.  I've been fortunate to be able to rent a portion of Naz's shop.  He really is a wizard and an amazing resource of information and skills....definitely going to make me step up my game a bit.  There is a yellow puch that im getting ready to turn out once I have retrieved my butt holster from Travis' back yard. Derp.  Hmm, what else.  There will be a small batch of garelli clutch spacers going out soon for you garelli bad dudes and i have been scheming on how to improve my BRN clutch.

Ive also been chilling with the Mosquito Flee a decent bit.  Its nice riding weather now and they certainly enjoy their long rides.  Good folks I must say, love em all.

Its also nice getting back to working on my projects.  After opening the case up on the Gilarelli project it took only a minimal adjustment to the piston to clear everything.  This gila kit + minarelli bottom end is going to be rad, nuff said.  Port timing looks great, squish looks acceptable, and im going to have Naz o-ring the head.  YAY!!!!  Ill add some detail pics in the future for you interested folks.

Gilarelli V1

So Ive been tinkering with the gila on a minarelli idea.  I had a spacer made a long time ago and just got a junk gila cylinder from Shannon Hill (thanks) and started fitting it together.  This is what I stated as a question on MA:

So Im working on a project where im putting a puch gila cylinder on a minarelli bottom end. With the spacer I have built im getting a piston that sits about .040 under the deck of the cylinder at TDC. At BDC the lip of the piston sits about .010 under the exhaust port. My real issue is that to even mock this up I had to remove about 6mm of piston skirt to clear the case at BDC. Now I do plan on removing some case material but I know this will not be enough. I do know that there have been other pistons used out there successfully with the gila kit with a shorter skirt but I am wondering the detrimental effects of shortening the skirt of a stock piston. With the test shortened piston at TDC The intake window is open except for the notch, which I assume I could notch the piston? I also plan on removing about .010 from the spacer to bring the piston up towards the exhaust port a wee bit. I will also probably sink the head in to get the proper squish. Thoughts? Ill get some pics up ASAP for reference. Thanks shannon hill for the junk cylinder:)


So here are some pics to illustrate things...look at that stubby piston!  Watcha think?