Guess I'm the first one to post here...

Koinu-kun Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:36 pm

So I picked this baby up a few weeks back off of CraigsList locally here in Ohio. It's a 2001 50cc 2-stroke Qingqi. It origionaly was a nasty yellow and black color which made it look like BumbleBee from Transformers. It had around 400 origional miles on it, an oil leak, a badly tuned carb, and a broken cooling fan. Spent two weeks ripping it down to the bare frame and motor. Wrote my own wiring and parts diagram up for it, made some cosmetic repairs to the body panels. Found out the motor itself is an actual Yamaha Mirinelli used in the MUCH more expensive Yamaha Vino...which made for finding parts for the motor pretty simple.
So I slapped it all back together and decided to do something a little different then most scoots I seen around. I modeled it after the old school rat-rods and custom bikes of 'yore. I messed around with the plastic panels and gave them a texture that resembles hard pressed black leather. Added some chrome trim and a few little chrome trinkets, blacked out the exhaust and a few motor parts. Had some custom white scroll trim work put on...and then finished it off with a howling wolf head on the front panel. Got a matching old school matte finish German WWI pith styled half helm to go with it. Future upgrades are removing the stock intake, upping the carb jets, and putting on a better flow exhaust.
I've had quite a few stares, glances, gaps, and compliments while cruising around the city...I love making people take double-takes...and heck...since when have most average joes taken a look at a scooter and said 'Thats hard' Wink