Tag Archives: scooter

2016 Barber Vintage Festival & Museum

Posted on by motopsyco

<Barber Vintage Festival & Museum>

2016 was our second year attending the Barber Vintage Festival but believe or not it it was actually the first time we actually visited the museum. If this seems strange it’s because this event is so massive with so many different things going on it is impossible to see everything even if you show up early on opening day & stay until the Monday morning after. The Barber Vintage Festival is pure vintage motorcycle overload. The museum is two wheeled gear head heaven. Even if it were possible to show you everything in a blog post (it’s not) I’d be doing you a great disservice by even trying. Instead here a few pictures to whet your appetite.

<race-cars-whizzers>

Above is a shot looking down toward the lowest level where the machine shop is. Motorcycles are the main focus but they have plenty of classic and exotic race & street cars that includes a seriously fantastic Lotus collection.

<guzzis- Barber racetrack>“`

The next picture is a pair Moto Guzzi singles near the wall overlooking the racetrack. One of the great features of the museum is that the wall on the track side is all window so we could watch the AHRMA race bikes circulating on the track.

Ace Corner at the Barber Vintage Festival

Ace Corner at the Barber Vintage Festival

Speaking of AHRMA road racing, the best view of the action could be found at the Ace Corner, This was also the location of the Dime City Cycles custom bike show. In addition to the road racing there are also AHRMA sanctioned cross country, vintage motocross, and trials. If the racing doesn’t appeal to you there are several bike shows, a freestyle motocross show, the Wall of Death and a huge number of vendors hawking all kinds of motorcycle wares.

<Ferrari Dino at the Barber Motorsports Museum>

Mirror mirror on the wall, what’s the most beautiful Ferrari of them all? To me the answer will always be the Dino.

 

We all know that Vincent built some of the most innovative motorcycles in the world and the Barber museum has multiple examples including a Black Shadow & the fully enclosed Black Prince. But did you know they made a personal watercraft decades before Kawasaki? Granted the tiny air cooled single in the 1955 Vincent Amanda didn’t give the speed and power of the Jetski but it was first.

55-vincent-amanda

Long before the Jetski, there was the Vincent Amanda

<a Vincent lawnmower>

Another Vincent product was this lawn mower. Funny how today aficionados of some other brands pick on us Honda fans about the motorcycles and cars being souped up lawn mowers. Now when somebody starts that line of malarkey, we can all remember that Vincent made a lawn mower.

Military motorcycles at the Barber Museum

Military motorcycles at the Barber Museum

The museum also has a sizable display of military motorcycles including the 1999 Harley Davidson MT500. Too bad they never sold a civilian version of it.

<Harley MT500>

This original 1913 Yale is a fantastic sight to see with it’s matching sidecar.

1913-Yale at Barber Museum

Unrestored 1913-Yale

The massive Bohmerland sidecar outfit has to be seen in real life to be appreciated.

Bohmerland

Bohmerland

Scattered through the collection are a few cutaway engines such as the Matchless and Triumph mills pictured here.

Matchless-G50-cutaway

Matchless-G50

Triumph-cutaway

Triumph Tiger 110

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a special bike for Honda fans.

Dick-Mann-CR750

Dick-Mann-CR750

It’s the CR750 that Dick Mann rode in the 1970 Daytona motorcycle race.

Barber-Museum-new-addition

Barber-Museum-new-addition

The museum has many more motorcycles and cars hidden away in storage, but thanks to this newly completed addition a lot of them will be able to come out of hibernation for our enjoyment. It will be wonderful to see it when I return to the Barber Vintage Festival again.

Barber Vintage Festival swap meet

Vintage sidecar motocross?

One of my favorite things about Barber is the swap meet. There is such a huge variety of good junk, unique motorcycles, and rusty gold that if you can’t find what you want, you’re probably not looking hard enough. This Bultaco motocrosser with a sidecar was among the coolest items offered for sale.

<small-bikes-AMCA>

I always enjoy checking out the Antique Motorcycle Club of America display, this is part of the small motorcycle collection. Directly across the road was the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club show. This year my freshly restored C70 Passport was displayed there.

VJMC-at-Barber-Vintage-Festival

There’s so much more to show you and tell you so I strapped two cameras to my scooter and shot a video ride around of the event for you.

If you are crazy about old motorcycles the Barber Vintage Festival is an event that you really need to go and see.

Peace Y’all.

1982 Honda Passport C70 For Sale

Posted on by motopsyco

This motorcycle has been sold!

1982 Honda Passport C70 For Sale

1982 Honda Passport C70 For Sale

I have greatly enjoyed this little Passport over the last year and a half that I’ve owned but it is time to let it move on to someone who will love it and enjoy it for what it is. It has been completely refurbished. It’s not a true restoration, as the paint is Ford blue rather than the original Angel blue. All of the plastic parts except for the sidecovers are new aftermarket parts. It has new Michelin Gazelles, with all new tubes, rim strips, wheel bearings, and brake shoes. The muffler is a new replica. The carb has been cleaned and tuned. The fuel lines are new, and there are a pair of filters installed under the tank. It has a Shorai lithium battery, and an aftermarket headlight assembly with a replaceable bulb. Being a 1982 model it has a factory 12 volt charging system and CDI ignition.  It runs better than it looks, and it looks pretty good. The mileage is correct at 3352 miles but may go up as I will ride it occasionally to keep it running correctly.

1982 Honda Passport C70 For Sale

My price on it is $1400 firm but I may consider interesting trades for certain project bikes. I am located in Eastern South Carolina and would be willing to assist your shipper or meet you at a safe public location within 150 miles of my place.

1982 Honda Passport C70 For Sale

Contact me at motopsyco@motopsyco.com if you’re interested, but please be patient with me as I am still operating on batteries due to the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew so please allow up to 24 hours for a response.

1982 Honda Passport Restoration Part 3

Posted on by motopsyco

As mentioned before I had a request from a reader to share more of my pictures from my 1982 Honda Passport restoration So here are some of the repainting & reassembly process. Due to all the rust and pitting I sandblasted the entire exterior of the frame and them primed it with a green zinc primer. and refinished a few other small parts by various means. For the cadmium plated parts click here to see how I handled those. Although not shown here I had the front rack redone with chrome powder coat.

 

 

At the time I was taking these pictures the rear rack was simply sprayed with that horrible looking chrome paint so that I could get the bike back together and ride it, recently I removed it and had it powder coated chrome also. The wheels are still all original with just the best cleaning that I could give them at the time. Since then they have been thoroughly vapor blasted and clear coated, followed by a careful painting of the hubs & spokes.  Some of the pictures may seem kind of random but hopefully this will be of some use to someone out there trying to restore their own 1982 Honda Passport. Sorry but there are no engine rebuild pictures because there was no need for an engine rebuild, just the usual carburetor & crankcase screen cleaning, followed by a valve adjustment and a new spark plug. In the near future I’ll do a post on the trials & tribulations of dealing with aftermarket body parts for these things.

1982 Honda Passport Restoration Part 2

Posted on by motopsyco

Cody, this post about my 1982 Honda Passport Restoration is for you!

I finally have my 1982 Honda Passport Restoration 99.5% done, at this point all I’m waiting on is some custom made decals. Apparently the tank decals for the blue paint version were a one year only special and are completely unobtainable as N.O.S or reproduction parts. Yes I’ve checked every supplier in North America, Europe, and the Orient, so unless you actually have a set in your hand to sell don’t bother telling me to check with so and so because I already have.

A reader named Cody picked up one of these in boxes and is putting it back together and asked me to share the detailed pile of photos that I took as I disassembled & reassembled this bike so I’m going to put them into a gallery here for all to see. In addition to gleaning all of the free information available on the internet you really should get a service manual. I use the Clymer Repair Manual M310-13 because it covers every small Honda with the horizontal engines up to 1999. Keep in mind as you peruse this gallery of wiring harness connector images that this is a factory 12 volt model with electric start. 1981 and older models are all 6 volt and may be different .

This is all of the pictures that I took as I was tearing it down, I frequently referred to these and the service manual as I was re assembling this little Honda Passport Restoration project. I’ll post the pictures I took when putting it all back together next.

Peace Y’all

Cheap Fake Cad Plating & ABS Plastic Repair

Posted on by motopsyco

 

There are two things that are commonly found when working on old motorcycles, one is cadmium plated parts that are faded, rusted or discolored somehow, and the other is broken or cracked mounting tabs on plastic parts such as air boxes or side covers. Today we’ll learn how to do a reasonably good job of creating cheap fake cad plating with spray paint. Then we will tackle a minor repair of some ABS plastic parts. Most of the black plastic parts on motorcycles are ABS and on some such as early sport bikes such as EX250 or 500 Ninjas the bodywork is also.

Cheap Fake Cad Plating

Passport steering lock to get cheap fake cad plating

Let’s start with this steering lock that goes on my 1982 Honda C70. In the picture it doesn’t look too terrible, but this was after washing it in the parts washer with a Scotchbrite pad to get rid of some light rust.

Duplicolor adhesion promoter

Once it was dry I taped off the key slot and sprayed on a couple of coats of adhesion promoter.

chrome spray paint for cheap fake cad plating

After giving the adhesion promoter about 8-10 minutes to dry I gave the part a couple of coats of metallic “chrome” paint. This paint doesn’t really look like chrome but it really is a very bright silver.

Passport lock with chrome paint

After allowing the chrome paint to dry thoroughly, take a can of the metallic “gold” spray paint and from 18-20 inches away lightly fog the gold paint over the chrome. Just do one or two light coats. the idea is to lightly tint the part with gold but not to completely cover up the chrome.

gold metallic spray paint for cheap fake cad plating

It’s really best to do this in a well lit place so that you can see when there’s enough gold on the part and stop spraying it.

how to cheap fake cad plating

Here you can see my cheap fake cad plating next to one of the well sheltered original cadmium plated brackets from this same motorcycle. Naturally if you plan on having a 100 point national show winning motorcycle, real cad plating is the only way to go, but for your average rider or local bike night hero this is a nice inexpensive way to get a clean authentic look to parts that should look cad plated.

ABS Plastic Repair

A major source of aggravation are cracks in plastic parts and or mounting tabs broken off of them. But since since a lot of these plastic parts are made of the same ABS material as sewer & drain pipe there really is quite a simple solution. Glue them back together with common ABS cement that you can find at any local hardware store. The air box on this little C70 that I’m working on had been reinstalled at some point in the past without the metal spacers that are normally used to secure such parts to the metal frame without damaging it. The result was that one mounting tab was split & the other one was broken completely off.

fix motorcycle abs plastic parts

To repair the cracked side was simple enough, it jut needed cleaning up and having plenty of glue applied. For the other side that was completely broken out I put a standoff with a washer in the hole & gave it a good coat of cement, permanently attaching it to the air box. You can also buy ABS plastic sheet & use that to fabricate repair patches, replacement tabs & even custom parts that can be glued together using ABS pipe cement. Once you are done & the glue is dry it can be filed, sanded or even painted over just like any normal plastic.

Hopefully these two tips about cheap fake cad plating & abs plastic repair will help someone out, until next time.

Peace Y’all

 

 

Honda C70 Passport Restoration Part 1

Posted on by motopsyco

Honda C70 Passport Restoration The Beginning

It all started out innocently enough with me picking up this little diamond in the rough. It obviously hadn’t run in a while and was very weather beaten. Initially I had no plans to do a complete Honda C70 Passport Restoration but you know how these things tend to snowball.

Dilapidated Honda C70

With a little help from my beautiful assistant it was soon running like a top.

Pretty lady spinning wrenches Honda C70 Passport Restoration

Initially I had no plans to do a complete Honda C70 Passport Restoration but you know how these things tend to snowball. Let me go ahead and be perfectly clear from the start, this is not intended to be a 100 point purely stock restoration. The goal here is to produce a very nice looking scooter to use for transportation at larger events like the Barber Vintage Motorsports Festival or the Destination Eustis Motorcycle show & swap meet.

After cleaning the carbs, adjusting the valves, changing the oil etc. I took the little thing out for few a test runs and am very pleased with how it runs & drives despite the fact that it had dry rotted and mismatched tires on it. So I started ordering the pieces it was missing such as the chain cases. Where the original equipment stuff is available for a reasonable price I’ll use that, when not there are plenty of reproduction parts available on the internet from Thailand and other countries. The quality of the reproduction parts is all over the map, so be prepared to ship some things back or tweak them to get everything working and looking good.

C70 reproduction Chain case

Then one evening a few days ago I lit a fire in the heater and started pulling it apart.

In My Happy Place

One of my favorite things to do as I am pulling a bike apart is to take lots of pictures. Thanks to digital photography it is now easily affordable to document every nut & bolt that you remove if you want to. On older bikes like this that use a lot of bullet connectors it is a great idea record every single wiring connection. Sometimes there are different colored wires that attach to each other that you may not remember otherwise. There are also incorrect wiring diagrams in some service manuals for some machines so every bit of extra information helps. Plus when you put it all back together & it works right the first time, your friends will think you’re a genius!

Yes I really do use Shorai batteries for damn near everything, They’re especially great for motorcycle collectors who often let their bikes sit without running and there’s no acid to boil over and ruin your shiny new paint job. Last year I wrote an article for the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Magazine detailing the pros & cons of using lithium batteries in motorcycles, that article will probably show up here on the blog in the near future.

Motopsyco sandblasting a Honda Passport C70 Restoration

Since there was quite a but of surface rust & some light pitting the frame & forks were taken down to bare metal by sandblasting. Since I did not remove the fork from the frame I very carefully sealed off the bearing cup areas to keep the sand out.

zinc dichromate primer

After it was completely stripped, it received a few coats of zinc phosphate primer for maximum rust protection.

Ford blue engine paint

Since this is to be a parts runner and not a show bike instead of buying an expensive urethane paint in the original Honda Angel Blue I opted for 3 cans of Duplicolor ceramic engine paint in Ford blue. These paints are very durable & hold up quite well to gas and oil spillage.

Honda C70 Passport Restoration Starting the Assembly

Motopsyco Honda Passport C70 restoration

After getting all of the little bits painted it was time to move on to reassembly.

Wiring Honda Passport C70 restoration

All of those pictures I’ve taken are really coming in handy to reroute the wiring harness.

fake cad plate

Figured out how to create a reasonable looking fake cadmium plate using spray paint, will do a step by step post at a later date.

engine kill switch

The switch gear was scrubbed clean and the taped off so the kill switch and starter button could be painted red again. All of the black buttons & switches still looked good so those were left alone.

rebuilding my C70

I had stopped at this point to do some much needed body repairs to my truck and should be getting back to it next week, so be sure to subscribe below to receive regular updates.

Clean Inside of Sockets & Wrenches

Posted on by motopsyco

Clean Inside of Sockets & Wrenches

Here’s a quick random tech tip for you. Although this one is mainly aimed at restorers & customizers it will be of benefit to anyone who values a neat and clean appearance on their project vehicle. When it is time to reassemble your motorcycle make sure that you clean the grease out of your sockets and box end wrenches. When appearances count you really don’t want the old grease & dirt that is inside of your tools dirtying up your clean shiny fasteners. Sure on chrome plated or stainless nuts & bolts it’s more of an inconvenience having to go back and clean them but with zinc plated, cad plated or even painted hardware the dirty old crap stuck in the recesses of your tools can stain the surfaces beyond cleaning. Not to mention that grit from dirt or metal shavings can sometimes be suspended in the old grease and scratch even stainless fasteners when you tighten them down.

Clean Inside of Sockets & Wrenches

So even if all you do is just twist up a rag & stuff it through the wrench, it will make a big difference. I think in the future whenever I finish a big greasy dirty project on an engine or an off-road vehicle, I’ll try to remember to run all of the tools used through the parts washer & clean them inside & out.

How I got reminded of this…

<Honda C70 Passport Restoration>
My last big project was the resurrection of an old ATV for use as a hunting & farming vehicle. It was filthy nasty & greasy even after being washed thoroughly. When I was done all of the tools were wiped off and returned to the tool box without a second thought. Then I used them to disassemble my crusty little C70 Passport, but today when I started putting it all back together with everything cleaned & painted the grease & dirt marred a couple of the bolts so I began wiping the wrenches out after that.

Today I’d also like to apologize to my regular readers for my reduced post output over the last few months since my shoulder injury. Things are getting better now and there is a ton of material saved up, so look for a lot more good stuff to come, including some classic four wheeler tutorials, product reviews, and the return of the Website of the Month category to active status. Still with so much going on there’s no way that I can fit every cool random event into this blog so why don’t you join me on Facebook, follow along on Instagram or on Twitter. 

Don’t forget the Psyco Youtube channel!

Peace Y’all!

 

 

 

Scooter Mania & Other Afflictions

Posted on by motopsyco

First there was an old 70cc Passport.

It all started out innocently enough, a guy I know just happened to post a picture of a dilapidated 1982 Honda Passport for sale on Facebook, and I thought that would make a great pit bike to putt around on at giant events like the Barber Vintage Motorsports Festival. So we worked out a trade and I dragged it home one night and with the help of my beautiful assistant got it running. Little did I know that it was just the first step to developing Scooter Mania.

We got it going and got all the paperwork straight and made it safe for the road so it could be thoroughly checked out. With my 230 pound self in the saddle it topped out at 41 mph, just a little above moped territory. Once it was determined that it was in great condition for the long haul, this little Honda C70 became a full blown restoration project. Here’s a shot of how it looks right now as I type this.

82 Honda C70 Passport frame

Next step to Scooter Mania came as a Honda Helix 250…

A short time later, the second more serious stage of Scooter Mania snuck up on me without warning. It started out innocently enough, with me listing my Suzuki TS185 for sale on Craigslist. Almost immediately, I got a message from someone offering to trade me a 2001 Honda Helix 250 for it. My initial reply was let me think about it a few days. Another scooter was not what I had in mind, in fact cash was the objective, partially to finance the restoration of the Passport but mainly so that I could purchase this cool 1/8 scale Redcat Racing RC dune buggy and mount my video camera to it for a future project that I have in mind.

After 3 or 4 day of irritating low ball offers and what seemed like a thousand scammers posing as U.S. military personnel, I sent the Helix owner a message & told him that I’d trade & we agreed to meet at a public location between his place & mine. The plan was never to keep the Helix, but to try and flip it on Ebay, but I made two mistakes. Mistake number one was that I rode it. Mistake number two was taking Mrs. Psyco out for a nice long ride on it. When we got back home she said that it is far more comfortable than any of my motorcycles. So I replied, “I guess we should make this one a long term adoption,” to which she replied yes. Now it’s sitting in the shop on brand new tires, and I’m waiting for the Ram mounts for the camera & GPS to get here. In the past it had crossed my mine that a maxi-scooter would make a fine touring rig, but a 650 Burgman or a Silverwing was what I was thinking of, not a Helix. Scooter Mania strikes again!

Hond Helix with a C70 Passport Scooter Mania

I hope this is not the start of another collection.

Of course the only downside is that scooter riders get no respect around here even though the Helix is larger and longer than most motorcycles, the first words out of every idiots mouth is moped. They don’t have a clue that there’s a whole lot more to the world of scooters than 50cc Chinese whiskey cycles. What’s really fun is when you are passing someone on a four lane highway and see the look on their faces as they realize that you are on a scooter. The really great thing about being the age I am now is that I no longer give a shit what anyone else thinks of what I ride, but am still young enough to enjoy it.

Helix compared to a motorcycle

The Helix is bigger than a CB650

This doe not mean that Motopsyco’s Asylum will become a scooter blog, fine vintage motorcycles will always be my first love, late model stuff and ATVs will continue to be covered as well, just think of the scooters as one more cool thing we can have fun with! Just watch out, Scooter Mania can be very contagious.

 

 

A Motorcycle Blog Celebration!

Posted on by motopsyco

Hi there,
My name is Floyd Finch III and I am the owner of this little motorcycle blog. Motorcycling has been one of two passions that I have consistently kept in my life since my childhood.

<The Motopsyco>

I believe every biker should have a little bit of outlaw in them.

At sometime early this morning in the hours just after midnight on March 23rd 2015 this little blog of mine passed the 100,000 all-time page view mark. While this may not seem all that significant compared to some of the mega-bloggers out there it makes me very happy. Hearing from readers in the comment sections or by email is a joy as well and hopefully I have helped a couple of people out.


Since founding this blog in February of 2011, my goal has been to help as many of my fellow motorcycling do it yourselfer home mechanics as I can, and to share the experiences that I have with those not fortunate enough to get out & do even the few shows & events that I take in.


Of course let’s not forget the occasional product reviews as well, I really am honest in my opinions of the products reviewed here whether for good or bad. This will continue to be my policy in the years to come.

This little motorcycle blog is beginning to exceed anything I dreamed of when I first started it. Although it was started as a hobby a good informative blog does incur some serious expenses so you may notice a few ads around the site. You know you’re going to shop online sooner or later and if you click on an ad here to start it would be a great boost for the blog without costing you a dime that you weren’t going to spend already!

Every year since 2011 the readership of this blog has shown serious solid growth, starting in 2011 I had 1982 page views, 2012 brought in 12,173 views, a huge jump in 2013 pushed readership up to 31,706 for the year, in 2014 there were 43,227 page views on this blog. My goal for this year is to push that number up to over 50,000 for the year with more to come in the years afterward.
So this is my most sincere & hearty thanks to all of the readers, and to those of you who have made products available for review. At this time I would like to encourage everyone who would like to keep up with all that is happening around here and to always have notification of my latest tutorials, tips & reviews please scroll down and sign up for my email list at the very bottom of the page below.
If you have a question that you would like to ask me directly or a product that you would like to have reviewed or if you are interested in advertising on this site please shoot me a line to: motopsyco@motopsyco.com
Thank you,
Floyd Finch III aka Motopsyco

<the man the myth the legend motopsyco>

Scooters at the Rumble!

Posted on by motopsyco

<scooter class at the bull city rumble>

One of my favorite classes at the Bull City Rumble is the scooter class. No I’m not talking about the 50cc chicom whiskey cycles, but fine vintage steel and plastic from around the world. This years event was dominated by Italian scooters, Vespas mostly, Lambrettas, and one or two of the late model scooters from Asia. Even though I pretend to be a big hairy chested macho man, I’d be proud to have any of these in my garage, and yes it would get ridden at every opportunity. When I was a dealership mechanic whenever some one would bring in a 125cc or larger scooter my fellow mechanics and I would hurry up and try to grab the work order first just so we could ride them. This way when all of our “real biker” friends saw us we could tell them we had to ride the scooter because it was our job. 😉 Now I’m too old to give a shit what you think…

<pin up girl on scooter>

If you love scooters enjoy the pictures!

<genuine stella at the rumble>

<vespa scooter>

 

 

 

<vintage vespa rental sign>

<ride that vespa>

Mod or Rocker?

<cool late model scooter>

I really enjoyed checking out the scooters at the rumble. Thanks to Ton Up NC for putting on another great show.

<skull scooter kickstand>