Swobbit

by Motogami
Added: • Updated:

BUILD DESCRIPTION

Now water cooled. Lowered the seat a bit. Drilled the frame for wiring and cables. Welded up the remaining braces for the engine mount. Made a front axle spacer and trimmed back the brake-hub stop on the YZ80 forks to work with the AT1 brake hub. Frame and tank are from a '78 JC Penney Swinger 2. Engine's off a '81 Honda Hobbit. Fresh rebuild with aluminum stuffed race crank, 70cc DR cylinder and piston, Malossi H2O head. Breathes through a TrickMETRIC adapter, aftermarket reeds and Dio intake. The carb is Tillotson HL324 (about 21mm venturi, I think). Ignition is an HPI Inner Rotor CDI. Exhaust is Proma with a Polini baffle. Added a TJT variator, Malossi clutch springs, a stiffer spring for the NOS rear variator. Lightened the clutch bell a little bit, too. A custom swingarm allows for the fat rear wheel. Front and back tires ride on shouldered 16" aluminum rims with stainless spokes. New engine-mount pivot tube with bronze bushings to take some of the slop out of the suspension--also replaced rubber mounts with bearings.

BUILD DETAILS

MOPED
1978 J.C. Penney Swinger 2
engine
exhaust
electrical
transmission
carburetion

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Motogami: Well, it's not fully tuned yet, but I got it to 46 mph on the last run. Needs some variator tuning and some carb tweaking. But it runs strong.


Evan Folwarski: looks pretty fast. Especially with that water cooled system. whats the top speed on the Swobbit?


Motogami: De-rusted the fuel tank, today, and added a light coil to the HPI ignition. Also working on routing all the wires and cables. Should be able to start it for the first time this week! Picking the last few nits before taking it all apart, again, for paint and polish.


Motogami: Thanks, Ryan. Finally got the shock mount welded up. Now that she's rolling I can finish fitting and tuning--then I'll tear it all down again for paint and powdercoat.


Ryan Lewis: yeah that swingarm is amazing


Motogami: Spoke threading tool came today! Things should start moving again....


Motogami: Started fitting the Swobbit together with some borrowed stock wheels. In the meantime, I ordered a spoke threading machine and some dies for different gage spokes. I'll size them myself in the future.


Dan Kastner: This build is coming along nicely.


Motogami: Fabbing a custom variator guard. Did some body work and paint prep on the headlight bucket and ears. Built a new wiring harness. Posting some pix.


Motogami: So, Buchanan's sent me the third set of spokes and they're still too long. Haven't called them yet. Not sure how to handle it. Cripes, man.


Motogami: Received notice that my new spokes have shipped. She'll be back on the lift this week!


Motogami: I had these rims in my shop because I got 'em so cheap--like $40 each--but since they were 16's I didn't know what I was gonna do with them. I typically build cafe racers, scramblers, etc. out of old Japanese motorcycles. Then I started sharing shop space with a moped guy; and then all these ped heads start hanging around the shop, and they're having more fun than I am, and the next thing I know I'm buying this Swinger2 with no engine, and this one girl's selling a Hobbit engine...


Motogami: Yeah, Thanksgiving's really close, but progress has stalled on the Swobbit while I'm waiting for some spokes from Buchanan's. On the first set they sent me, the bend at the head of the spokes was too long for the thin Hobbit hub flange. Now, about these wheels....


Matthew Schmitz: I like where this is going. SHOULDERED RIMS. HNNNNGGG...


DJ Lou: whats the current status, thanksgiving is coming up and i cant wait to see this...IG to follow?


Motogami: Believe it or not, Will, the new swingarm is actually lighter than the stock subframe. It's a good thing, too, 'cause I'm sure all that rubbers gonna add some weight.


Motogami: Thanks Dan! Right now, I'm waiting on custom spokes to arrive so I can get the wheels on--had to redrill and countersink the spoke holes on the Hobbit rear hub, too.


Dan Kitchen: Best mash up with Puch and Honda yet, can't wait to see this thing RRRRIIIIPPPPP!!!


WillD: holy heavy duty swingarms batman!