Craig Marshall

I have just bought a 2002 Peugeot Speedfight 2 air-cooled 50cc 2 stroke moped. It’s currently a non-runner and it was being sold for spares, so I got it for a very low price: £30. I plan to bring the bike back to a roadworthy standard and write about it as I go along. I will record all work that I do on it and all money that I spend on it. If it doesn’t go well for any reason, then perhaps it will dissuade others from trying this kind of thing.

The bike was easy to collect, because it was bought from a chap who only lives about 1 mile away from me, and because I’m looking after my dad’s trailer for now, which came in handy. I took ownership of the bike at about 8pm on Monday 23rd August 2010. It didn’t look too pretty, the transmission cover was off, most of the panels were off, the petrol tank was loose, the carb was hanging by it’s fuel and throttle lines, the steering creaked, the entire exhaust and mounting points for it were missing, etc. The rear brake cable had also been jammed between the transmission and the rear wheel, so it had to be carried onto the trailer. This bike has been off road for around 3 years, so there is a reasonable amount of rust on the single front fork and the underneath around the frame and centre stand. I think all of it is minor though, and it’s coming off quite readily just brushing it off by hand.

The bike had been owned by a young chap that presumably didn’t know a lot about looking after mechanical things, he’d tried taking this one to bits to fix something (who knows what?), presumably not been able to fix it and then left it disassembled. Although, I saw that he’d got himself a new moped that was almost the same, which is a good sign, apparently even if one goes wrong, it’s worth getting another one!

I managed to turn the engine over by hand, which shows that the engine wasn’t seized, and luckily there was reasonable compression for a 50cc bike. This is the main factor for me, I really don’t want to have to get barrels reworked, or buy new piston/bore kits if I don’t have to. The goal here is not for this to be a money sink, it’s to learn a bit more about the practical side of mechanics, and to get a broken bike recycled and made into a working bike as cheaply as possible. I paid £30 for this bike, and I have seen decent bikes of the same age sell for £500 or so.

I spent about 3/4 of a day on it yesterday (24th Aug 2010), and got the following done:

• Remove cable from between rear wheel and transmission, loosen back brake, find cable is seriously gummed or rusted up, but salvageable.
• Clean, re-grease and reassemble kickstart and electric start mechanisms
• Bang dust out of centrifugal clutch, while it was exposed
• Check battery electrolyte levels, clean terminals and charge (it had 1V of power to start with)
• Check operation of vacuum petrol tap, condition of vacuum hose (good)
• Quick clean of carburettor jets and reattach carb (pilot jet was blocked, float boal full of grit and grime)
• Drain fuel from tank and float bowl, and replace with fresh 95 RON unleaded (correct for this bike).
• Remove broken exhaust flange (noticed 1 stud missing, and a tiny part of the exhaust mounting surround is broken away, but it should still make a good seal with a new gasket and replacing the missing stud).
• Remove remaining rear end bodywork (cracked and scuffed and will need fibreglass repair)
• Pump up flat rear tyre (this will determine if there’s a puncture or not)
• Clean and set gap on spark plug
• Apply WD-40 to the lock mechanisms until they work
• Test operation of the starter motor circuit including starter button, ignition, starter relay (works)
• Test operation of the starter motor (doesn’t work -but it’s dismantleable, and there’s a kickstart for now, anyway).
• Tested operation of immobiliser aerial/unit
• Tested other electrical items all the following worked: starter switch and relay, ignition switch, immobiliser, immobiliser aerial, and warning LED, fuel level sender and gauge, horn + horn switch, turn signal relay, front turn signals, oil level LED
• Tested headlights (didn’t work, but they may only work when the engine is running).
• Check condition of reed valves (reeds didn’t lie flat, even when turned over, because the block facing isn’t flat, I’ve ordered a new one: £10.98 including delivery)

Luckily, I found a manual online showing the wiring diagram for the bike (I couldn’t get a spark to start with, which prompted the electrical testing), I’ve been cleaning connections and battery terminals as I look at them, and after doing this for a while, I managed to get a reliable, strong spark.

The importing testing went as follows:

• Tested compression (8.5 bar or 120 PSI roughly, no major problems there).
• Tested spark: Strong, reliable spark
• Tested starting: No luck. I couldn’t tell to begin with whether it was a mix of 2-stroke oil and fuel getting on the plug, but now I think it’s just oil. There are a few other reasons that the bike would be hard to start and run: No back pressure exists from exhaust, also not a great seal from the poor reed valve block. The main reason though is that there is probably no fuel coming through the carb.

Clearly next job is a proper clean of the carb. Also, I need to replace the exhaust and reed valve block. The exhaust is ordered now too: £33.99 including delivery, but it will be a week or more before I get it.

Here is a final list for this post, it shows current costs so far. I’m recording everything here apart from ordinary consumables (just fuel and oil so far). All prices include delivery.

• Bike £30
• Manual £7.49
• 2nd hand exhaust £33.99
• Reed valve block £10.98

Total spend: £82.46

Pics and more to follow in the next day or two.