Been a while since an update but the ACR rally got me working on the bikes again. I've been riding the Trac daily and sold my car and van, but that bike wont die and I haven't felt like modding it.
I was excited to have a second bike for the rally so I brought my hobbit out of the shed. This bike has been hours of work since I got it working on consistent spark, repairing case threads, re-wiring everything, setting the timing, replacing tires, screwing with the carb...finally I bring it out after months and for the first time the motor pops and starts running.This little bike felt the rally magic.
The rally was awesome. I didn't get to take many photos but here's the ones I have.
This bike was very cool, but lost a lot of speed when the pipe broke.
Broke pipe is every mans embarrassing nightmare
Lester gettin' it
And now the hobbit. It's a 1978 PA50ii.
I knew I wanted a hobbit as I always see parts and performance info about them. I immediately understood the carb access complaints once I got this bike and begun trying to make it run.
I was tired of having wiring trouble and not being able to get to the harness, so I put this little puch tank on it which I was saving for my second Trac project. The seat was all blowed out so I zip tied a shirt around it.
I put a proma pipe on it and loved what it did to the bike. Kinda loud but not a bad thing here in Austin id guess, as people drive like assholes and constantly text so the road presence is appreciated by me.
Took some dremel work to make the exhaust flange work, and a crushed gasket to get the studs to be able to poke enough threads through. Overall the easiest part of this little pain in the ass bike.
I got a Vespa grande frame and front end from a friend and while messing around discovered the front end looked like it would fit this bike. I ordered some new bearings (1/8") and tried it out. Works like a charm so far. I also found an old long seat sitting in my stuff I forgot about (compulsive moped army forum buy) and decided this needed to be on the hobbit.
^^long seat^^
The Vespa front end was a slight challenge, but a found a brake knarp thing that fit the Vespa brake cable and the honda brake control.
Dremeled to fit through the control slot
Handy knarpy bit
I needed to make a cable clamp at the brake hub for the grande wheel, so I took a bolt and dremeled a hole through it. 
This one was a cheap carriage bolt and broke, but the end part was similar.
My wiring work got messed up while trying to stuff the connections into the cev bucket for the grande, but shouldn't be too tough to fix. Here is the general look of these parts put together.
It's gonna need some paint soon, but in the mean time this is all I've got the time for. I'll be extending the center stand soon to make up for the taller front end. A way more solid feel and better riding position this way for me.
