One to think on
I have had a terrible week this week. Both my staff off sick then an earthquake in the middle of the night to wake us all up. Good job i have just re pointed my chimney's last month. My son turns up for his driving -*test*-('") and he is told they are on strike. Work has been hectick with Mot's for the new month and sales enquireies. One problem we did have amongst all of this was a real baffler. It was a moped, about 4 years old with one lady owner. The problem was that when the ignition was on but engine not running the indicators flashed at a constant rate, with the engine running the indicators flashed faster and the faster the engine the faster the indictors until they were nearly on all the time. The obvious was checked, bad earths and charging system to check for over voltage. Then the flasher relay was looked for which we were told was part of the regulator unit. This checked out ok. After some head scratching and knowledge of cars and that mechanics now have to think outside the box, the solution was found. What do you think it was? The answer i will put on later.

Answer
The answer to the fast flashing indicator problem was to fit a resistor spark plug. Who would have thought that a plug would affect the flashers, can anyone tell me why? If this is modern technology then i think the human race is going backwards in its approach to design and engineering. We dont need all of this technology on a moped. Motorcycles have always been economical and easy to repair, that was one of the attractions of having your own two wheels. It must cost more to produce and design all these electronics and also to dispose of when they are finished with. Keep things simple to build and lookafter and then the price will stay down, this will encourage more users and so help traffic problems and less usage of cars means less fuel pollution. The manufacturers say they ask the public what they want, is the public selected because they will say what the manufacturers want to hear. I have never been asked, has anybody else out there been asked? What do you all think?

Hi Jim, just caught up with the forum after a few days away. On the subject of the earthquake, the earth moved in my bedroom in HLC too, but the only smell I noticed was associated with fear, I thought the refineries at Immingham or the tank farm at Tetney had gone up! The probs with the hitech moped are a reflection of the age we live in, Joe public wants all the gadgets available even on the most basic equipment ( hence power steerihg on cars you could turn round by lifting up the front with one hand and computer controlled toasters) and is not concerned with maintainance, it shouldnt break and if it does you buy another cos they are so cheap. When you and I started with motorised transport we couldnt afford much so we built/repaired/botched whatever we could lay our hands on (in my case it had to be less than a fiver!) The industry has always tried to research what the fickle public wants but it cant be easy as Raleigh found out in 1958 when they introduced the RM1 moped. Market research told them that Mr average wanted a moped that was simple and as easy to ride as a pushbike, so they produced a machine based on a heavywieght open pushbike frame with a direct drive engine slung on the front downtube. You pedalled off on the decompresser then opened the throttle and off you puttered - easy - until you got to a slow bit when it stalled, or you pedalled again. What Mr average really wanted was a twist and go with an auto clutch like the Mobylette, so that is what he bought after getting fed up with his nice shiny Raleigh. They tried putting a clutch on the RM1 but that only made it more complicated, and if you wanted a manual clutch you saved up and bought the excellent NSU Quickly and got 2 gears as well. Raleigh took the hint in 1961 and produced rebadged Mobylettes under licence. The British bike industry was producing prewar designs cos thats what they thought we wanted (or what they could get away with!) but then along came the Honda 50- auto gears, indicators, electric start option-WOW!!!! We all know the rest, and that was the end of the traditional motorbike....... except for the reason we are reading this forum, the Bullet! Ive also still got an RM1 and a couple of two speed Excelsior 98s but i always was a bit odd! Happy and safe riding, FPT