Ditchdigger.org.....Now with the great taste of fish!

some more ciao

Trent Liles — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:40:00 GMT

A few things have been done since the last update. New condenser and points were installed before the flywheel went on. Motor is installed in the frame and the cables and harness are being routed. I had to bob, flare and trim the rear fender to clear the oversized tire.

The pedals are going away in favor of a pull start or something. All of the cables are now 12" too long and have to be shortened.

I scored a tail light at a thrift shop for fifty cents. Off a trailer or something but it has a license plate light on the bottom and is far more befitting the stripped down nature of this ciao than the enormous stock unit

The bolt pattern on the back of the light is even the same so if I choose to reuse the bracket I can. We will see how it plays out.

The next and hopefully last purchase will be the pipe and some form of front fender.

Motor is together!

Trent Liles — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:52:00 GMT

I completely forgot to take pics of the porting process. Wrong or right I studied these two builds and used them as a guidline as to what to do.

vespa-ciao.nl and Fast, cheap and out of control

I actually had to weld up the outside of the case to add material to make it safe to port. After boring, the case was just too thin.

I got the Haynes manual today. Interestingly it has no torque specs whatsoever. I kept trying to look up what to torque the case or head to and there was nothing. It just said "tight". Got to love that carefree italian engineering.

Malossi 46.5mm kit

Trent Liles — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:01:00 GMT

Kit is here!

The new piston is a good bit bigger.

The first step is to bore the case out to fit the new larger cylinder. From what I have been told most folks just grind it out. I guess most folks don't have access to a mill.

It took a few passes but it worked beautifully.

The cylinder snaps in like a lego

front main seal frustration

Trent Liles — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 01:38:00 GMT

See that little arrow on this oil seal. That arrow angers me. 6 seals from 4 different vendors and they are all for clockwise rotation motors. On a fiat 850 the grooves that are meant to keep the oil in work to pump oil out onto the back of the crank pulley and all over my engine bay. I got this yesterday from rockauto.com. Tomorrow I am going to mcguire bearing and have them find me right seal. This is ridiculous.

I picked up an old Lecarra steering wheel yesterday. Pretty neat and nicer than the grant that I have now.

Missing the horn button though. Strangely the stock fiat horn buttons 3 retaining prongs are the same size and spacing as the missing lecarra button.

I had to turn the ring down on the lathe so that the tabs were long enough to reach into the recess and engage.

After that it just snapped together.

Now to machine an adapter.

more moped

Trent Liles — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:02:00 GMT

The frame has been completely stripped, the tank acid etched and sealed with POR15. Paint was poorly applied and I started reassembly.
I love it when a plan comes together. This is exactly the look I was going for. When I pulled teh clubman bars out of the box from treatland I was worried they would be too small but they are perfect.

Other good news! The Malossi 73cc engine kit ships tomorrow. Once the motor is built then I just need to worry about which pipe to buy.

Too much tire?

Trent Liles — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 04:02:00 GMT

In retrospect I should have ordered 2.5X17 tires. How was I to know? I have never looked at a completed Ciao before. 2.75 is just on the edge. Thankfully I didn't order the three inchers. I had to roll out the inner flange on the rear fender and hammer and dolly it into a flare. It is going to need a bit more massaging to fit.

My order from treatland got here today as well. I took a gamble and ordered the longest front axle they had for a Puch. it is a 12mm diameter axle instead of the 11mm that was on the ciao. The puch bearing races are the perfect size. I just had to ream out the brake to take the larger shaft and cut the threads on the puch axle in deeper.

wee bit of a rant

Trent Liles — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:11:00 GMT

It is time for the stranglehold of IPA's to be over.

Sure IPA's are tasty but there are plenty of other delicious beers out there. This evening at the grocery store I counted 29 different varieties of IPA. Seriously 29! Compare that to 7 different pale ales, 3 porters, 5 stouts and maybe 6 amber ales. That is a ludicrous ratio of avaliablle IPA's to all other types.

A good IPA is a wonderful thing but too many of them are just lackluster pale ales that have had an absurd amount of hops added to them. Astringent and acidic are the first words that come to mind when I try and describe them.

A little history lesson might be in order here. The original india pale ales were british beers DESIGNED to last the long journey to india. The higher the alcohol content the better a beer ages so the standard pale ales' malt content was pumped up to bring the alcohol levels up enough, to balance that sweetness and alcohol they also added more hops.

There is a critical word there. BALANCE! Something that almost all of the near 30 IPA's on the shelf lack. They are just a sledgehammer of hops with no extra malt to balance them. I really blame terminal gravity brewing for this fad. TG's IPA was the first one on the scene and it inspired a bevy of copycats. Longhammer IPA, inversion IPA...ect.

We need a new word for these beers. They do not meet the definition of a traditional IPA. Perhaps "Northwest Pale Ale" or "retardedly Hoppy ale" Any other ideas?

Iso Rivolta Daytona

Trent Liles — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 02:20:00 GMT

This is probably the most beautiful thing to ever be hammered out of a sheet of alumium
The Iso Rivolta Daytona That is all

More Ciao

Trent Liles — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 22:42:00 GMT

Got a few little things done.

I did a 12.7 mod to my Dell'Orto 12/10 carburettor. I didn't have a 13mm reamer handy but 1/2" was so I took the carb apart, drilled it and finsih reamed it.

not a whole lot to these things

clean bore

All back together. I need to bore the case out as well but I am reluctant to start that until I have everything at hand needed to put it all back together

I also welded up some nifty aluminum headlight brackets

I am holding off welding the top tube in until after the frame is acid dipped.

It is taking shape though.

The ciao!

Trent Liles — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:01:00 GMT

I will be honest here. The moped project is a means to an end. It's primary purpose is to get SWMBO used to the idea of me having two wheeled transportation. After a while I can say "Gee honey, it sure is cheap to run but I need something a bit more practical that can keep up with traffic" by that time I have permission to bring home a vintage italian motorcycle. Clever huh? Let's hope it works.

Last month I spotted a guy on a small cafe racer and as it passed me (at around 45mph!) I realized it was a modified moped. That sent the wheels in my head spinning. I commuted for a few years in the early 90's on mopeds, A Suzuki FA50 and the eternally hated Honda spree (great little bike BTW) and knew the wife would be open to me having another. In 15 minutes google showed me what can be done with them and I hit craiglook.com (RIP) looking for a suitable start. I found a dissasembled 78 Vespa Ciao in Gresham and bought it.

This is what I ended up with

Frame with a random yamaha triple tree fork!

Most of the other bits including the motor

And the rest of it.

I have quite a few parts to acquire. Most importantly a Malossi 73cc kit since I am not the slender man I was when I rode mopeds every day.

A new blog

Trent Liles — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 01:53:00 GMT

Here we go with a newer ditchdigger.org. The plan is to actually update this one regularly.

My name is Trent and here I will document the continued build of my turbocharged 1971 FIAT 850 berlina project, The total build of my 78 Vespa Ciao and perhaps feature some random musings and share some images I happen to like enough to share.

Thanks for looking.