this moped ended up in our hands as a restoration project. it has floorboards and a proper fuel tank but those were taken off, the former to get to the engine and the latter cuz it had tons of crud in it. it’s a Hercules M4 (in the USA) or Sachs Balboa M-4, a single cylinder 2-stroke west german machine.

when we got it to run and move around this was how it was looking. it was definitely slow too, but that’s the way of these old mopeds hehe

again, this is a restoration project! so, we began taking off and labeling and bagging stuff.

this is the tiny fifty-or-so cubic centimetre motor

and this is the current state of the moped! it’s a very basic contraption and took maybe not even two hours to take apart to this extent.

this is why we find (smaller) motorcycles so great because like… all the parts are small and easy to pick up, it’s all super quick to unbolt, stuff is cheap, and it’s just simple. it’s so much better than a car.