Mobylette 'project'

One of my neighbours, knowing I like bikes has just handed me a Mobylette
Motoconfort AU88 moped that they don't want.

It's a crappy-looking 1959 moped with a mere 4130kms on the clock and it's
not been near a road (except when it was wheeled to my basement) since 1987.

But It should keep me occupied for a while, just taking it apart and seeing
if I can get the thing to run.

Can anyone help me with my first task - finding some technical details of
the model - have done a Google search, but I can't seem to find anything
relating to stuff like:

Is it meant to have a battery? If so, where would it go?

When running, how do you start these things? There's no kick start and no
on/off switch but there is what appears to be a decompression lever/cable
thingy to a link next to the plug - do you pedal the thing for a while with
it decompressed then just close the lever and hope that it starts?

In fact, instead of listing all the initial questions - does anyone have
*anything* they could e-mail me or any decent links to sites featuring crap
old French mopeds so I can have a go at getting this working?

If I can't get it going, how am I going to bring it on the North Africa run?

TIA

Dave

 

Wotcha.

Argh - I had that happen back in the 60s

Indeed - and I still seem to be tatting with motorcycles to this day.

Nope - direct lighting.

The twistgrip turns two way. Twist the throttle away from you ( opposite to
revving up ) and this will operate the decompressor. You then pedal like
buggery until the engine is spinning and open the throttle in the normal
way, and all being well, away you go.

http://www.buzzing.org/

Try there for a start. The Mobylette used the same Motobecane engine as the
Raleigh Runabout so that may help.

 

Pip pip!

I don't mind, but they could've at least had a Black Shadow or unwanted
NR750 kciking around, instead of a 0.3bhp moped....

Well it's keeping me away from throwing bits around the garage and swearing
at the 'spare' NS400 I have as I *still* can't get the fugging middle
exhaust on...

As I suspected - I also suspect that it'll be 6v - correct?

Again as I suspected - I thought the throttle was meant to activate the
decoprssor.. Must be a stuck cable somewhere.

Do you pedal it on the stand or up and down the road to get it started...
Not that this is relevant yt - I think that question will be more usefullly
answered in a few months time when it is (hopefully) ready for a test
ride....

Thanks for that...

Dave

 

Wotcha

Sod's Law ain't it ? They never have anything worth having, and if anything
had have been worth having, then that would have been the 'something' they
gave away to the scrap man last month.

Yep - 6v glow worm power.

Up and down the road is the correct way - most folks start 'em on the stand,
but if it takes a lot of work to start the thing, then the stand pivots will
wear out in no time. They do start almost instantly when set up right. I
used to start mine just by giving the exposed flywheel / magneto a swift
'push' with the sole of my boot.

 

basically, AIUI, you pedal it. either on the stand or rolling along.

In the case of a strange polish mobylette-copy we were arsing arounbd with
up at Handsworth university village once (it was abandoned in the shed the
bike club used) we pedaled it, faffed around with it, found that it had a
spark then one bloke sat on it and pedalled and 2 others pushed it down the
path - eventually, it staggered into life and proved to be capable of almost
15 mph.

one nutter claimed to have got his knee down while cornering it. Eventually,
the security warden bastard type noticed that we were riding around the
place up and down the foothpaths and came and gave us grief.

 

There's usually a little trigger thing on the handlebars too - should be
on the left - this is the choke [1] so it might help to pull it in while
you're trying to start the beast.


[1] Well, not a real choke, it lets fuel into into another chamber in
the carb.