Rust and 'Renches

So as the title suggests, I did some actual work on Cub tonight, finally. I've gotten my little area in the garage into some kind of condition that I can live with for the time being, in as much as I've got the space to put both bikes next to each other, I have a bit of table space to do work on, and there's enough open floor area for me to get down and actually work on things.

The title also suggests that Spare's entire exhaust system was rusted, which it was. Keep in mind, of course, that when I say "rusted," I really mean to say "my thumb punched through the muffler and about a pound and a half of rust flakes came raining out of the hole." I was shocked, needless to say.

Anyway, the first work I elected to do was to take a few things off of Spare, to start the process of identifying what parts are still usable and what parts are bound for the junkyard. The ignition switch is the key thing, so to speak, that I've been looking at for weeks now. I figure my first priority is to get the engine running, so having an ignition key would be nice. I've also started compiling a little wishlist of air filter system parts, which theoretically will be easy to get. Hooking up the fuel lines and what have you shouldn't be too difficult, but we'll find that out as we go I suppose. Plans are in motion, etc etc.

With the ignition switch off of Spare, I moved to the front leg shield on Cub, since it would get in the way of my work. Then the rear brake pedal return spring on Spare. Then the engine on Spare... Perhaps a bit ahead of myself, but at some point I think I might need to swap engine parts, so I thought I'd get a head start on it. Also, having the engine off the bike frees a lot of space to examine smaller components. It's surprisingly heavy for a 50cc engine, though I suppose that's in part because the transmission and starter system are integral. In any event, I think that I'll spend some time over the course of this project attempting to get Spare's engine cleaned up a bit. Running would be fantastic, but I know better than to hope for too much.

I think a small celebration is in order, since this constitutes the start of the interesting part of the project. Also:


That's Audrey, my girlfriend, sitting on Cub. Expect better quality and more detailed pictures as the project continues...

-The Proprietor