103 RCX, lets powder coat
After 2 years, time for a new look to get pretty and ready for the 2012 race season.
Motobecane rubber bushing mounts on Peugeot frame phase 2:
Special brass guides and bushing housing by Tomahawk, aluminum spacer by Overkill, welds by master welder and manufacturer of Apache helicopter parts.
Plus, motobecane old 19mm intake conversion to stock square shape for better gas flow with welded aluminum (no cheap JB weld for “Mr. High-Tech”).
Bumble bee, the fast and pretty
New game plan. I’m going to use a peugeot seat with maybe upholstery, an ebr frame brace, a round headlight, a peugeot 103 spx kick stand, I will paint the wheels black and probably keep the bumble bee spirit by adding some yellow accents. Now it’s starting to look like a cool ped. I’ll try to update the article later with new pics.
Peugeot 103 RXC 49.9cc moped, 14 hp 14,000 rpm.
I don’t want my 50cc race moped to rust in my shop until the next race April 7th 2012 at Grange’, so I decided to remove the fairings and register the bike to blast it once in a while on moped rides. Before that I’ll do a complete engine checkup and will change the transmission for street riding top speed. The negative side is that the more miles you put on a race engine the less it performs at its full potential on the track for race day.
I installed a long seat and a Tomos square headlight for now to make it look more like a street moped american style. I’ll probably paint the wheels black, re-weld a straight frame brace, get a round headlight and modify the seat cafe’ style later. The purist french racers and bloggers are going to tease me for removing those awesome vintage Bidalot fairings but we can’t please everybody and since nobody races in California I have to take that bike to the streets. Plus the bike will also blend much better next year on the track racing against other mopeds or 50cc to 200cc and electric motorized bicycles.
The only thing missing is the license plate and the pedals but there were no pedals on the stock peugeot 103 RCX 90′s version with pegs and kick start like many other mopeds, Honda, Vespa, Motobecane, Tomos, etc… It’s almost impossible to install pedals on that bike, there’s no thread for a rear bicycle freewheel, no front sprocket on the shaft or even room to weld one. I’m still keeping the moped spirit by using a 49.9cc limit engine and after market Peugeot moped parts only, except for the auto electric water pump. Even the vintage Fournales ole0-pneumatic shocks were made for the 103 RCX frame.
Bonus video : Another fast Tomahawk 50cc motobecane.
Melvin’s motobecane Av10 polini 50cc kit with stock cases is almost done. He built the bike and I taught him how to properly assemble the engine and slightly port the cylinder W exhaust port. He custom made a swing arm, clip-ons handle bars, dual launch lever, exhaust ball joint springs system, cut and re-welded the frame’s tail to adapt new shocks (gave up the mono shock project), installed a disc brake and custom fork brace, etc… He always find new ideas using cheap parts available at his auto body shop.
I stopped by Friday night for his birthday and first start of his new moby. I reassembled the 19 carb with all the right settings, timed the ignition, tuned the doppler variator + launch lever. I did a full session breaking in the engine on the stand before doing some test runs. WOW… the 50cc polini kit rips! Good torque and some serious power even with the small 52T rear sprocket. That bike might be faster than any of our other mobys and Melvin is light too. Once completely done the bike will get a new paint.
Somebody’s gonna have a big smile on his face blasting through the streets of LA at 70 mph.
As you probably already know, you can find all those performance parts at http://www.treatland.tv the best moped parts store in the universe and build your own fast motobecane engine or have all the parts shipped to Tomahawk for complete assembly, tuning, testing, shipped back to you and experience the real 50cc power.
Who said Motobecane av10 variated mopeds can’t go as fast as one speed puch mopeds and hold top speed for miles?
I think those Turkish Kamikazes use a stock av10 bottom end + 70cc kit + modify stock pipe + small rear sprocket. Ok, they ride downhill on a light frame and small tires with an aerodynamic position but still that’s not bad… I read 80 mph on the speedometer. Those bikes don’t have good acceleration in the city though and are built to break records on the freeway.
50cc variated french moped racing, the next level
Some updates about the 3 top french racing teams.
1- Team Remi Cusso:
http://karaokeman92.skyrock.com/
Remi the tuner and Mick the official pilot did some track testing with the new Bidalot Replica 50cc Gr3 race bike (28mm carb) outside Paris at “Carole” big motorcycle race track. The bike was faster than some of the Suzuki 125 RG, 250 RGV and vintage motorcycles. To give you an idea, that’s how fast a top level 50cc variated french bike is. The motorcycles were only able to catch up or pass in the long straight away because Remi’s bike is geared for moped tracks and not long motorcycle tracks.
After losing motivation in moped racing, reaching the chassis limits of his fast motobecane av10 frame 50cc Gr3 engine against the other high tech moped frames, Mick is now eager to get back in the competition with the better Bidalot Replica chassis version keeping the same old Gr3 engine. He can lean the bike so far in the turns that “he’s gonna have to get new knee sliders every 3 races”…Watch out!
Latest pics of St Genis 50cc moped race September 4th 2011.
Remi is also working on Chi King race bike the Bidalot RS 50cc Gr3 (currently 3rd in the championship), building a new stronger lower bracket for the parallelogram to prevent the belt from twisting and jumping because of the insane power of the Gr3 50cc engine. I saw it in action live on the french tracks and it sounds like an 80cc engine.
2- Team Mir 35:
Julien is finally releasing his new machined Gr2 cases for motobecane Bidalot h20 Gr2 50cc kits + 20mm crank + 21mm carb size limit. It looks like you could remove the Gr2 “standard” 2 petal reed block adapter and use a huge Gr2 “open” 4 petal reed block for no carb size limit. Nice!
3- Team Clycomania:
http://cyclomaniateam.skyrock.com/
Video of St Genis 50cc variated moped race May 15 – 2011 and Hugo’s 1rst place.
BONUS ARTICLE:
Check out the no gear racing blog that talks about David a french pastry chef who moved to California and started speed racing in 2002 at Bonneville, Utah with a motobecane av10 imported from France. The latest 50cc engine evolution seems to be using a Derbi 6 speed engine converted to a variated transmission with 77 mph top speed in August 2011. David is still trying to beat the current 50cc speed record at 85 mph established by Cathy on a ultra prepared Aprilia RS 50.
I found out about that cool story through http://www.treatland.tv who sent me that first link.
http://southsiders-mc.blogspot.com/2011/08/team-no-gear.html
http://www.nogearracing.com/the-machine/
Bonus speed & monster bike videos for fun and inspiration:
France, a motobecane av10 drag moped with kitted minarelli horizontal scooter engine, first start.
France, a MBK Nitro scooter minarelli horizontal engine (like the Yamaha Zuma 50cc) with a malossi 77cc h20 kit, Keihin 28mm carb and a 6 speed gear box adapted from an AM6 /Derbi engine.
France, BRD drag scooter dyno testing. The only moped part on that bike is the front motobecane grimeca 17″ mag wheel 
I’m too busy but I have a similar scooter engine at my shop with a Honda motorcycle frame and I have been wanting for a while to build a similar but slightly higher bike with a cafe’ racer top tank. At least I know that it can be done and the lines would work fine even with a scooter engine and smaller rear wheel. I think it could be the future for small size street custom bikes, combining the look of a bad ass top tank cafe’ motorcycle with retro lines, the power of modern Euro 2 stroke scooter 70cc/80cc technology or even 150cc 4 stroke engines from Asia (more available and popular in the US scooter world), the practicality of a dual variated automatic transmission with no gears just like a moped “twist and go” but with more speed and reliability than kitted moped engines that were never really designed to hold extreme power.
My first sketching with a GY6 150cc 4 stroke engine and my current 23 hp Minarelli 77cc 2 stroke engine project on hold.
RCX, finally assembled
I’m getting really close. I still need to cut the clip-ons, custom build an aluminum plate to mount the tachometer, temperature gauge and voltmeter, fill up the radiator. I also need to inject a little bit of oil through the transfer ports to lubricate the crank bearings because the engine has been assembled a while ago.
I just received the tiny Koso voltmeter (1.5 inch wide) and need to connect it with a switch that I can turn on when I need to check the battery’s power.
I may have to get one of those racing flexible hoses from France for the air box, unless I can find something here. If I crash and I want something softer to avoid any pressure on the carburetor and potential damage on the rubber intake. I’m probably going to race without it for now. I’ll know more after the first engine test.
I tested the water pump again, protected the electrical circuit with a fuse, checked all the electrical connectors, tightened all the water hoses. I’m probably going to clear a little better the water hose close to the variator.
I replaced the throttle cable 90 degree bendy guide with a straight one. The throttle cable is now running straight underneath the fairing along the frame brace with zip ties. I also installed a fuel filter that I didn’t have last season.
Ca va peter! (it’s gonna rip!)
Chassis:
Peugeot 103 Rcx
Bidalot fairings
Ebr hydraulic fork
Tarozzi race clip-ons
Grimeca 17″ wheels
Bridgestone Battlax tires
Grimeca disc brake
Fournales oleo-pneumatic shocks
Engine:
Bidalot 50cc h20 replica (ported by Remi)
Malossi cases
Bidalot crankshaft 16mm
Fag C3 bearings
Pvl analog ignition
Dell’orto 21mm carb (maybe 25mm later after testing)
Bidalot racing exhaust replica
Ipra radiator
Bosch electric water pump
Transmission:
Bidalot variator
Giraudo clutch pulley
Malossi belt
Giraudo engine spring
Equipe France rear sprocket
Face off
- Old Bidalot 50cc air cooled VS new Bidalot 50cc liquid cooled
Here’s the new engine set up for my Peugeot RCX race bike , ( ported and assembled in France by my friend Remi expert in 50cc variated race bike at http://www.karaokeman92.skyrock.com ) :
Bidalot 50cc H20
Bosch electric pump + large volume radiator
Bidalot vintage exhaust ball joint with ring ( Remi’s treasure chest )
Malossi cases + 360 degree rubber intake
Bidalot crankshaft
Celeron Bearings
PVL cdi
Dell ‘orto 21 or 25 carburetor
Bidalot G2 replica exhaust modified length
Bidalot variator 100mm
Bidalot engine spring rubber mounted
Giraudo clutch plulley
Gearing 11 x 68…..74
On paper it should be way faster than my very old engine that i could never get in the high rpm zone anyway. I can’t wait to test that new engine on the track !
Grange’ motor circuit would be fun. I wish we could start our own race here in Southern California next year.
