Qt50 to Arctic Ocean Summer 2012 Just thought I'd give these guys a little love here at adv. Hope they don't mind. Should be an interesting one to watch. I put the link up in the ride reports. Was met with a collective yawn. Oh well. "Secure in your manhood" must sometimes be complimented with a thicker skin. http://www.mopedarmy.com/forums/read.php?1,3090008 If mods object to the duplication please eliminate the original in ride reports.
I literally laughed out loud when I read this reply: "I don't have to out run the bears, I just have to out run my friend keith's bike. Cheers, Steve"
this gets a little pedantic... but here goes.... Some people in the south refer to all soft drinks as Cokes. The strict connection to brand no longer exists in this context. So are they all wrong? And why does it matter? It's a form of "genericide" and it's done all the time. I'm sure you've done it yourself with lots of words and didn't realize it... http://www.dailywritingtips.com/are-you-guilty-of-genericide/ "Moped", referring to any street legal two wheeler under 50cc is similar. The 'ped' in moped no longer really means it has pedals. it's just a vestige of the original meaning. A QT50 (a 'noped' if you insist on subcategorizing it) and a Puch fall usefully into the category of "moped". Most (all?) Secretaries of State refer to anything 50cc and under as a "moped". And about 95 percent of those mopeds registered and on the road today have no pedals. I have used the pedals on my E50 and ZA50 1980 Puchs. But only when it's convenient to pretend it's a bicycle for about half a block or less to look kosher to the police if I'm shortcutting across a median or sidewalk, or other similar rare occasions. Anyone who claims to use his moped pedals, on any brand of ped, for transportation, is lying. Even if you break down or run out of gas it's a hell of a lot less effort to get off and push a moped than to pedal it. Motorized bicycles. Those cruiser bikes with "china girl" two stroke kits? I actually asked the question at motorbicycling.com about using the pedals. Nope. Once you slap on the kit the pedals are pretty much good for starting the motor and little else. The pedals spin the chain and reduction to the motor constantly even when the motor is off. That's a drag.. literally. Like pedaling with two flat tires. In fact, it really astonishes me that there are NO true gas powered "mopeds" available on the market as long as we're talking categories here...a motorized bike, light enough, and with an efficient enough transmission that it can actually be pedalled useful distances without the engine running. I've posted this in various parts of ADVrider over the years. I fiddled with the idea in my shop using a little ryobi 4 stroke on a mountain bike with suspension but the transmission ends up being a LOT trickier than you'd imagine. There are no commercial offerings, and only one (that I've ever discovered) true moped in existence... http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2010/07/23/motorized-mountain-bike-traveling-light/ He uses a worm gear xmission for the motor evidently for its compactness. But it's a really poor gearbox for such a small HP motor since worm gears are pretty inefficient. It ends up eating a really high percentage of that tiny HP. Ah well.
I will be watching this as well. Good luck. This is what it is all about, doesn't matter what you are on. I used to have a QT50 when i was a kid, i rode the hell out of that thing. Be interesting to see how it holds up on this trip. Keep us posted
Part of my issue is that this is from the Moped Army. I was a member of that forum for over 5 years, and they make a big deal about a moped having to have pedals. The word "moped" actually means MOtor+PEDals. I have owned many, and you couldn't pedal any of them. I still own a '71 VeloSolex, and it comes closer to the definition of a moped than just about any other factory built bike (other than the Whizzer) Yet you can't pedal it any distance, because the seat is too low and it will kill your knees. I have also owned a couple of homebuilt motorized bicycles, powered by a Staton friction drive and a Robin Subaru EH35. Those can actually be ridden like a bike if you disengage the friction drive, but the question becomes, other than when absolutely necessary, why would you want to. I never tried the China engine, because of that clamp on chain tensioner that tends to bend and jam the rear wheel.
Maybe another definition of moped could be MOtorised PEDant Sorry guys, only joking. Whatever you choose to call those little bikes it looks like an amazing trip for those fellas, Good Luck to them! Mal