Welcome to the forum. There are quite a few old bike enthusiasts on here and even a dedicated motorcycle thread somewhere, so you will be in good company.

Welcome Chris; ah the good old NSU quickly, one of the bikes a budding 16 year old would like to have had. My first 'moped' was an Italian make 'Capitano', any one had one of those ?

George.

Hi Christopher

Trust you are a member of 'The Buzzing Club'!

Jim

Hi Christopher,

You have likely come across the Mercette moped? I had one which I thrashed around the fields in the early 1960s. Unfortunately someone skipped it, around the turn of the century. They thought it was scrap. How wrong was that!!

38mph flat out downhill over a measured track. Rather less on the flat. Biggest fault was it kept bending its pushrods. We just straightened them and kept going.

I started riding a thing called a Berini M22, apparently they were sold by Curry’s, this was back in the early seventies. It had two gears and a back pedalling brake. My father slung it in a skip along with a BSA winged wheel and a couple of cyclemasters.

For a trip down memory lane click on:

http://thebuzzingclub.net/

Oops! Forgot about:

http://www.icenicam.org.uk/

Edited By JimmieS on 31/07/2018 13:01:57

Get yer self an Ariel three, saviour of the British motorcycle industry………….

But seriously, i was never into mopeds, though i did have a lend of a honda 70 for a while and found it fantastic in terms of reliability, fuel consumption etc, Little gems those honda step-throughs.

Yes being a Buzzing member for many years but certainly not as long as you! My first and only machine needing LPA was a 10 year old Zundapp which I got in the mid 60s. Still, after all that time, I have a continuing interest in these wonderful little machines. What a sad life I live!

Jim

Hard to beat the Honda four stroke step thru's C70 etc. I've seen lots of them here with 80 and 90,000 miles and still running like a sewing machine. Same for two stroke NS50 and NS70 Honda Express. Basic machines but really well made.

One moped make that was popular here in Ontario Canada in the 1970's was Batavus. They were a well made machine I think made in Holland. The clutch got sticky on them as the plate edges wore grooves into the aluminum basket. A few minutes work with a file and they'd go another 10,000 miles. I fixed a bunch at the time, a lot of people used them as runabout three-season machines in small towns (winters here are a bit tough on bikes – braking on ice and plowing through 3" of snow is a whole lot easier in a car)

Someone was importing tons of Cady brand mopeds (may have been made in France) at the same time but they were not even close to Batavus in terms of quality or robustness.

Don't knock the Ariel Three (too much). Dad bought Mum a new one to replace her Raleigh Wisp. Excellent motorised shopping trolly and kit carrier for her home help duties. 6 or so years worth of 1, 2 or 3 mile trips buzzing round town at least 4 times a day added up to considerable miles and decent moneys worth. Far as I remember only non routine servicing was a new drive belt and free off front suspension bushes. Dry bearing bushes are fine in outside applications until the plating wears off the spindle. Designer Oopsie.

Was a while before I forgave Dad for making me ride the wee critter home from Tonbridge Wells to Crowborough tho'. 11 miles on Mumsie moped with plastic panels so not the right image for 17 year old having recently got first proper job and first proper bike (AJS 16 MS). Faux leather jacket, pudding basin hat and Mk 8 goggles, not really needed being the screen, an all. Over a million miles ago. Worst thing was starting. Didn't help that the engines were bought in, some reed valve induction Dutch made two stroke I think, and all supplied with the ignition timing wrong. Good job Dad insisted that a workshop manual be thrown in with it. Supplying dealer, Philpotts, refused to believe me about timing and said I was lucky to get it to go right and start on half a turn of the pedal. Fixed 4. Probably the only ones they sold. Does that sound like lucky!

I always said they should have been made electric.

But like the Leader and the LE Velo another one of those theoretically excellent ideas to service a market that just ought to be there which didn't actually work out. Usually because the price performance ratio doesn't add up at new machine costs. Had a couple of Leaders, first and third bikes with a Tiger Cub in between. OK (ish) although the panniers were too small for ride to work 'n shopping duties. Hanging the silencers off the back mudguard assembly might have been a good idea. But forgetting to tighten up the bolts after lifting the rear end to pull the back wheel out for a new tyre is not. Really, really hurts when all that tinware comes crashing down on your back.

Clive.

Dave, quite a few people are building their own 3, or 4 cylinder ariel 2 strokes. Its a nice home workshopn project i would imagine. I do not know how easy of difficult it would be to do, as i am unfamiliar with the ariel engine. But you are correct, ariel made some really nice big singles, that they wisely did not tune up for maximum performance, and like the bsa b31/33, anyone i talk to who has one, really likes them.

Nephew has a couple of Red Hunters, don't no if they get much use.

Ian S C