My "new" Peugeot

Some years ago my next door neighbour bought his Son a Peugeot Ludix 50 to get to work on. This was enough to get him the biking bug and he progressed to a CBR125 and now a CBR600RR.. The little Ludix meanwhile was covered up underneath their back window and never moved. When my lad was 16 I enquired about buying it, but they wanted silly money. It had been stood some time then. My lad is now 21!

On Wednesday my neighbour offered me the Ludix for nowt as he has no interest in getting it running himself. If we can get it up, runing and MOT'd reasonably it will become the "house scooter" as we are all licensed to ride it without "L" plates (well my daughter will be when she eventually takes her CBT) although the Missus has eyes on it particularly!

So, here are the first photos of it.

It doesn't look in too bad condition, especially since it has been stood for a fair few years.

It's still underneath my neighbour's window because the steering lock is on and the neighbours have lost the keys (as in completely lost them not just misplaced them). They have also removed the reg plate so I can't even tell you what age it is till they get back from holiday. (EDIT it's an '05 Ludix Trend)

I've joined GP's Pug club and will hopefully get some good advice from there but if anyone on here knows owt about the Ludix, I'd be grateful for any snippets of useful info.

Tonight I drilled out the break-bolt that holds the ignition barrel on and also drilled out the seat lock barrel.

A new lock set from andyspares on ebay is on its way.

When that arrives I'll nip down to Wemoto for a new plug and a new battery. Until then I'll content myself with a bit of a clean up.

The bike was last taxed in 2006. The motor turns over and the bike has done less than 2000 km (about 1200 miles).

After removing the steering lock, pumping up the tyres and a quick pressure wash to get the snails, spiders and slugs off I took some more pics:





I looked at this and thought, "Arse! looks like at least one fork seal has gone!" However on further inspection the neighbours had greased up the exposed fork tubes at some stage and that was what was making the greasy rings. Awipe with a WD40 soaked rag sorted it.



Caliper shows no sign of seizing and disc is in reasonable condition. Paint on the wheels is a little scabby in the hub area.



Transmission cover is scabby so will come off at some stage for a clean up and respray. I'm considering changing the belt even though the scooter has only done 1200 miles simply because it has been stood so long.

Ged, what can i say but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting for the road test report, looks an interesting small scoot that would fit inside a little van easy.

It would Dave it is certainly light enough.

It now has a new battery, a new spark plug, a new ignition switch and the panels reinstalled.

I need to make some time to take the carb off and clean out several years' worth of old fuel residue out of it before it has a hope of starting.

After that it's new belt time (I have the belt and a variator holding tool) and an M.O.T

It's a bit budget-built but not too bad.

Ed's dad's last scooter was one of those.
As he was in his 80s and feeling a bit 'past it' he had it restricted to 15 MPH top speed!

He's given up riding now.

Jeepers Mike, 15mph!

That said, apparently the main restriction is a plate that stops the variator opening right out so presumably expanding that plate and testricting the movement of the variator even more would allow the scooter to accelerate and pull properly up to that speed.

I have been so busy I actually worked today so I still haven't had the gummed up carb off yet.

Last weekend I was very pushed for time so the little Pug just got a new plug, a new battery and a replacement petrol pipe, all from the very efficient WEMoto, just down the road from me. I also filled up the tank with fresh petrol and made sure the oil pump was working.

During the week I fitted the new lock set, which was a complete breeze.

Today I finally got some free time and with the help of the workshop manual from a link on Ginger Phil's Pug Forum, I took the carb off.

Back a few years ago when I was putting a GPZ500 on the road for my Son I picked up a spray can of carb cleaner from the South East Classic Bike Show. I'm pretty sure it's now illegal as it smells distinctly like Methyl Ethyl Keytone but it does make short work of cleaning gunked up jets out.

Well as you can see it now has the number plate fitted and what you can't see but I can smell is the wonderful stench of a 2 stroke running!

Yes, first kick and it spluttered into life, all the lights work (I think, the little lens under the main one on the front doesn't light up but I'm not sure if it is supposed to - any views?). It starts on the electric foot first spin, too.

So, a few more bits and I'll be booking it in for its M.O.T. It is the Ace Day Run down to Brighton next Sunday and if I can change the belt and get it M.O.T'd before then I'm tempted to take it down there rather than doing a ride out on the W800.

That looks very tune able

A great addition to the fleet, it will cost sod all to keep on the road and it's something different. I'm sure there will be days when you just go out for the fun of it.
There is much more skill involved in riding a small bike well. Constant mirror checks, avoiding poor road surfaces and other road users bullying you and taking your right to that piece of road in front, on top of that light weight, poor brakes and candle lights. They should let learners ride anythiing straight away, same as car drivers.

Too right, Dave. Momentum and presence are the key words!

My thoughts exactly. To be safe to ride a learner bike you need a full licence and at least 5 years' experience!

Well Freda-Louise the Ludix passed her M.O.T with no advisories and I rode her straight home (well via a round route that included the South Downs) ready to tax her tomorrow.







Yes she is wearing fork gaiters. All our bikes get fork gaiters fitted.