Go ped 19 – isolating moments
THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH DAWNED with clear skies as I left the south coast, aiming to beat the inevitable traffic chaos that central London would undoubtably bring. Destination, Kensington to meet fellow biker and thoroughly good egg Howard; plus one semi-complete Honda PF50 Novio with several large boxes of ‘rusty gold’ from the 1970s. A frame from an Amigo moped, spare engine plus a plethora of parts that had all met with an angle grinder or mig welder in a distant past.
Anyway, I spent most of my time admiring Howard’s 1980s CB900 custom, especially the open-ended pipes that most of the nation’s capital appreciated when he fired her up for my pleasure.
The story behind all these items (that I would pay too much for) revolved around a unique hybrid. Long before Piaggio offered its MP3 or Honda produced the PCX, Howard’s son began to construct a duel-powered moped. The standard 50cc engine was upgraded to 12-volt, powering a large hub motor in the front wheel. In theory, a brilliant idea; certainly, a fair amount of trial and error plus extreme modifications resulted in boxes of broken bits. With the project shelved in 2010 the parts endured a decade in Howard’s lockup before I arrived full of enthusiasm and an empty truck; not looking to continue the project, just aiming to salvage an original machine from the carnage.
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Returning home, my haul was scattered around the shed. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that my initial plan to restore to original was unlikely, but luckily, I already possessed a running PC50 engine that could do a job.
Of the two engines collected, one turned over with minimal enthusiasm while the 12-volt modified unit appeared to offer little piston movement. Two frames, visually similar and both solid, the first a Novio with V5 and the other an Amigo-R without paperwork.
