Custom Ciao - Santa Cruz

At the open day on 22.04.23, the moped scene showed just how strong it is. We welcomed whole groups of fans and among them we saw unique pieces, but one in particular caught our eye. When we spoke to its owner Marcus Bullok, we asked him to tell us more about this beautiful custom Ciao Santa Cruz, and he did:

"I still have some old license plates from UTHA here. Take them with you!Otherwise they'll go in the trash" or something similar was said at a company liquidation at buddy Marc's house. At the same time, I remembered my first Ciao in my youth, where these kinds of parts were a must in the early 90s. In principle, I came up with the idea of building a Ciao like I would have wanted back then. The color concept was fixed, as the license plates were not to be painted. A contrasting color was still needed, as was the norm in the 90's.

So yellow or white? Never mind, both!

So the search for contemporary accessories began. Saddle cover and handlebars from France, white lamps (dyed through) from Switzerland, lamp mask from Italy, red grips / levers from Poland, etc. Some of the parts collected in this country still bore pink price tags, some of you may know which store they came from.

Saddle cover from France

White lamps from Switzerland, lamp mask from Italy

Red grips from Poland

"In the past, you could get all this for a handful of DM?"

Those days seem to be over.

In terms of engines, it had to be a side intake - that was clear. I got a Simonini diaphragm intake by chance. I used a replica housing paired with a Pinasco full cheek shaft. The water-cooled Polini cylinder with 41mm found its way to me by chance. A good friend liked the idea of the 90cc CIAO so much that he let me have it for a good price. The scooter scooter found the piston and gasket for the water-cooled cylinder somewhere. All the other parts needed, such as tires, bearings, brakes, wiring harness, etc., also came from Bergheim Glessen. The reservoir where the speedometer normally sits was added as a 3D printed part.

The Ciao rides on 16-inch Ten-Spoke rims and the power is transmitted via a standard (reinforced) clutch and pulley via an 8.5 mm Bravo gearbox. The engine is breathed via a 16-barrel Dellorto carburetor (with 7-barrel slide - important!) and the burnt fuel is expelled via a FalkR resonance exhaust. This requires quite high timing, so the Dremel ran for a considerable time and ate into the material of the cylinder and the crankcase.

The frame is a Ciao (C6V moped), which was given a strut. On the one hand, a lot of material disappeared to get the side intake through the frame, on the other hand, the frame is already prepared for the Malossi Big Deps with 21 carburetor. A lot of sheet metal also disappeared here, hence the idea of reinforcing it. The Ciao was painted by a good friend, the choice of color was based on the existing plastic parts.

The combination of colors led to a number of suggestions for themes in my garage. After the wolf lawnmower and, of course, the McDonald mobile, I decided on the Santa Cruz version. Moped - skateboard - 90s... that's right!