John's Moped Page

This page was last modified September 8, 2003

Wecome to my moped page. This page has been rebuilt from a very old backup when the main webserver that hosts it crashed and lost its hard drives. Other than the links below I'm mostly going on memory of what I had here.

Disclaimer: I'm not a professional mechanic, nor do I sell parts or materials for mopeds. I didn't write the repair documents in the links section below. I've placed copies of them on my page (and referenced the authors whenever I could) simply to keep valuable info from dissapearing from the web. This means that if you have specific problems finding parts or service for your moped, odds are I probably can't help you. I'm happy to offer opinions when I can, but I can't promise they'll be helpful to you. Your best bet is to find a shop or mechanic in your area that services motorcycles or small engines.

Kinetic TFR

Having expended a goodly amount of blood, sweat, and tears over trying to restore an old Italie moped I got at a garage sale (and not finding parts), I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new one. I ordered a Kinetic TFR moped from JCWhitney. Whitney doesn't actually import or ship these 'peds, they just order them from Cosmopolitian Motors, who drop-ships them to the customers. Cosmo is the actual importer of the TFR from Kinetic Engineering, which is a company based in India (Kinetic calls the model the 'Luna').

The TFR arrived via Yellow Freight truck. I had to turn around one pedal, install the handlebars and the turn signals, and put gas in it and I was ready to go. Instead of the standard 40:1 2-stroke gas/oil mix specified in the manual, I broke the 'ped in on the same Amsoil 100:1 synthetic 2-cycle gas/oil mix I use in all my 2-stroke engines. I'm not recommending this to anyone, but I have always had very good luck with the 100:1 oil in good quality gas in my outboard motor, several mowers, chainsaw, and weed whackers. The 100:1 makes less smoke and doesn't foul the sparkplugs nearly as bad as regular 2-cycle oil. As they say in Detroit, 'your milage may vary', so do your homework and use what oil you feel comfortable with. Oh, and for those having trouble determining mix ratio, 100:1 means 100 parts gasoline to 1 part oil. 1 US Gallon equals 128 US fluid ounces.

My TFR had some cracked parts, but Cosmo was very helpful in sending me new ones as soon as I called. Even so, the little bike seemed to be having problems with the fuel mix being too lean. I kludged up a bit of wooden dowel and duct tape to hold the choke partially closed, and this seemed to solve it. Cosmo said to look for air leaks and loose brackets, but I never found any. Instead of beating at the problem further, I got on Cosmo's website and ordered a 'performance muffler' kit. This consists of a tuned pipe exhaust with a glass-pack muffler and a larger jet to put in the carberator. The new pipe fit like a glove, and the carb jet wasn't too difficult to install. I removed the dowel since I figured the new bigger jet would eliminate the mix problem. It did: the 'ped now runs much better and is quicker, although the glass-pack muffler is quite a bit louder than the stock exhaust.

In the time I've had the moped, it's been a blast to drive. Being a moped, it is no bullet bike. A 50cc engine with less than two horsepower won't accelerate my 200 pound frame very quickly, but that's not why I got it. I have found a few other issues with the little bike: the brakes tend to pulsate. I believe this is because the brake drums are not perfectly round. If this is a manufacturing defect or simply damage during the 'peds trip from India is not clear. Also, tire pressure is very important to ride quality and handling (although this is the same case for any motorcycle).

I've low-sided (crashed without flipping) the bike once so far, and other than some scuffed plastic on the pedals and a misaligned fork (which I straightened by holding the front wheel between my knees and twisting the handlebars), the 'ped came out fine (I wasn't as lucky with a scratched helmet and bloody elbow, but that's a sob story for another time).

In any case, the little bike's been a lot of fun, despite not being a rocket.

John's Moped Page

Kinetic TFR

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