The year was 2008, somewhere in China, my black beauty was rolling off the factory line only to roll into my heart seven years later.

It all started about seven months ago when my friend Sean told me his friend was selling his moped for $25. Who could pass up a deal like that? So that afternoon, I drove over to the man’s house and bought my new toy. After getting home, I soon found out why the pricetag was so low.

There were a list of problems,

1) The moped did not have a key

2) It did not run.

And 3) Only one of the two brakes worked.

Over the past couple of years my dad has taught me how engines work and during that time I had restored three cars, so getting a Moped to run was super simple.

1. No Key: This was all too simple to me. All I had to do was unplug the ignition switch which bypassed the need for a key. The only way you could start the moped was to use the kick- start, which isn’t too bad until you try it while barefoot.
2. The Engine Didn’t Run: All it take for a gas engine to run are four simple things: fuel, air, spark and combustion. I started my filling the tank with 91 Octane fuel from the local Shell to add some extra horsepower. Next I found out that the fuel line on the engine was toast. After replacing it, the engine purred like a kitten.
3. Only One Brake Works: This still isn’t an issue to me because I have yet to fix it. The one brake works fine with me.

My Moped is 50cc of pure enjoyment, and depending on the season and color of spray paint laying around my house, it is a multitude of colors as well. Soon after I took the moped on its first test ride, I realized that it was too sluggish.

As soon as I got home, I started to make some performance mods including cutting the muffler off, taking all the plastic covers off for weight reduction, and adding a performance chip so the engine could rev higher. These mods have kept this old girl running and she has gone many places. She is an off-roader and can handle any type of terrain, she can climb rugged trails, and most importantly, she can reach a whopping top speed of 27.3 miles per hour.

This moped has become a joke to my family and friends and they always seem to ask questions like how fast is it? 27.3MPH.

Is this even street legal? Probably not.

And my favorite, Why did you spend $25 on this? And the answer to that question is another story for another day.