I chose to begin this project for various reasons. I had always thought that owning a vintage moped would be awesome and had not seen anyone attempt to convert a stock moped to all-electric. I was also at a point in my life where I had a little bit of spare time (due to being in between jobs, and you know COVID), so I made the decision to take on this project- for better and sometimes worse!
I began my project by putting a list together of what would be my ideal candidate for a moped: 1. (Maybe most important!) Had to look cool. I was always obsessed with any vehicle from the 1970’s, as my first car was a 71’ Mustang and I knew right away that this would be my era to find a cool moped. 2. Needed to have at least a good frame and easy to find parts. 3. Cheap. (I like to work with a low budget!) 4. Had to have actual pedals!! You’d be surprised at the amount of so-called mopeds are out there that do not have pedals… I mean come on it’s in the name mo-PED.
So I began doing my research on any and all mopeds from the era, and started scouring the usual suspects for candidates(eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, junkyards, etc.). I quickly came to the realization that although quite a few mopeds were produced in the 70’s, however, very few were around today.
After searching, for what seemed like eternity, I found something that maybe could work! It fit all of my requirements and was only 30 minutes from my house. However, it was in pretty rough shape…
Ok so it’s a little rusty, and like half of the “stuff” is missing. But after I got the moped into my garage and took a good hard look at what I just bought, I felt like the bones were there and I could have something really unique by putting in the work and saving this classic moped. So I decided this 1979 Motobecane 50v would be the one!
The Electric Moped Project 