Moped History: 1978 Sachs Balboa

It was Sunday, June 14th and my girlfriend and I had decided to

purchase a canoe off of Craigslist. The night before I had emailed a

guy who had posted this 1978 Sachs Balboa in Bridgeport, CT. After

picking up the canoe, strapped to the roof of my Jeep, I got a call

from the guy who had the Balboa. I assumed the seller had already

sold it to someone else. It was mine if I wanted it he said, but he had

gotten over 50 emails; mine was the first. My girlfriend immediately

whipped out a $100 dollar bill and we were off to bridgeport, canoe

and all.

The Sachs was in pretty rough shape. It was apparent that it had been

left outside for some time. The paint had pretty bad sun damage. The

bike also had been dropped and the steering restrictor was bent. Both

tires were flat, the air box was missing, the pedals and pedal arms

missing, the bottom bearing missing, from the steering column. Worst

of all the engine would not turn over. Bonus, the bike came with an

original Vespa Ciao long seat in really great condition. We took the

bike figuring we could part it out if worst came to worst.

The worst of my fears were quelled after opening the 505-1A engine

case to discover that the engine was not seized. After replacing the

tires, tubes, bulbs, air filter, carb gaskets, condensor, engine gaskets

and seals I had a running Sachs.

The above photos were taken on the one day I had the Balboa running.

Immediately after idling the engine began to leak transmission fluid

from the decompression cable input. My guess is that I did a lousy job

sealing the halves of the engine case together, causing the seal to

break and the fluid to leak out. I probably also over-filled the

transmisson fluid. I also ran the Sachs without the muffler for a few

minutes to see if the exhaust was restricted, causing the moped to

have poor acceleration. This may have caused the engine to overheat

and compromise the integrity of the engine seals. As of today the

Sachs sits in my father's garage, awaiting a second engine rebuild.

The engine currently does not turn over. My girlfriend is not pleased

about this.