At the beginning of this year, I was busy in a cold and damp garage working on my latest project, a 1970 mobylette that I had rescued from a back garden in Eastbourne. It cost very little as a non-runner, but 'cost' me a lot of time (six months) to get it up and running and back on the road again.
I nick named it "Little Monster" and it certainly lived up to it's name at times!
Here's a link to the "resurrection" work for those that have a masochistic tendency!!
old clunker av89 resurrection I hope?!!
And this is the "Little Monster" now finished!
The reason why I got a Mobylette, was that it was my first two wheeled motorised experience, and it was a hired moby in Spain in 1980. Previous to that, I had never heard of Mobylettes.
In those days, no restrictions, no helmets, no insurance, no MOT test, and no sense required!!! I think it was either an AV50 or '92 I rode for a week - going for a 70 mile round trip one day, dressed just in a t shirt and shorts, with some sunglasses and sandals!
I was really impressed with the performance with these little mobys - a lot quicker than other more modern 50cc mopeds around, with almost a performance like a small motorbike. I also learnt to go flat out down hill at nearly 50 mph, to get enough momentum on the road to go up hill without slowing down too much! on the hilly Spanish roads, that were mainly empty in those days, apart from the odd old man/farmer with an over laden donkey, or a few other locals 'buzzing by' on other 2 strokes.
The moby I was on was also very good off road when I gave it a hard time on some of the local dirt tracks - all in all, I was very impressed with the moby.
So now with 'FleaBay' and the 'experience of age'?! I decided last December to buy a 1970 registered AV89 in what looked just about 'reasonable condition' for age, but needed what I thought at the time, a bit of restoration to get it back on the road.
I'm using it as a commuter hack still in reasonably original condition, to get me around locally, and through central London traffic to visit my girlfriend who lives in the other side of London. It's ideal for the task, when it's not raining and really miserable weather! and better than the now overpriced London public transport. It's very economical for a 50cc two stroke engine, with a fuel consumption around 100 to 110mpg, which is needed with a just 5 litre or 1 gallon fuel tank!
The Moby has a top speed of about 33 mph on level roads, and I have seen up to 37mph indicated on a slightly sloping down hill road. To get reasonably decent acceleration, the engine has to be kept in the two stroke power band, which is around 15mph.
This 43 year old moped still just about goes! with it's unrestricted performance two stroke engine, and is a design from 1960 which continued on until the late '70's, as it was very popular. Motobecane closed down production finally in the 1980's after producing around 8 million bikes, so I've read! It seems only the Honda Cub was built in greater numbers. Despite all that, I appear to be the only one regularly riding a moby in London!
For those interested in seeing the different starting methods for a Moby, here's a video I made.
You can also hear the noise the two stroke engine makes when running!
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