Saturday, February 28, 2009

Moped Shops of the 1970s

OCThen reader, "Bryan of Myrons", asks if anyone has memories of moped shops in Orange County, back in the 1970s when mopeds hit their high in popularity...

Does anyone remember or have material related to any moped shops from the mid-late-70s moped boom? I remember vaguely one in Anaheim called Mike's Moped Shed. There had to be a couple others in Anaheim alone. I understand Myron's was around at that time. That one is still going at 1879 W. Commonwealth #L in Fullerton (scaled back from 2 locations at one time). A lot of vintage bikes come in for service bearing the decal "The Mo-Peddler" in Newport. Most are pulled out of dormancy and are back on the road! Yet I have yet to see any others (a few places in LA county)
I remember in 1978-1980, Greg, my best friend at that time, had a couple of mopeds. We'd ride them around everywhere. There was moped shop in Santa Ana, on Bristol St, I want to say near the corner with Warner. I don't remember the name of it.

One particular memory I had was falling off of the damn thing. He was riding it, and I was sitting on the back. He had pulled up to that very moped shop, and just before it came to a stop, I had tried to push myself off the back, expecting to land on my feet. Except my legs caught on something, and I instead fell off backwards, and hit the back of my head on the asphalt. I remember how bad it hurt too.

6 comments:

  1. right now there's a bit of a moped revival going on

    see mopedarmy.com or search "moped rally" on google to check it out

    they're cheap, easy to work on, get great gas milage, and are fun to ride

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  2. I got my moped on Brookhurst at Mcfadden in Fountain Valley at the strip mall behind Jack in the Box. Oh, it was a beautiful '78 or '79 Puch Maxi. I took out a loan from the shop to buy it; $16.00 a month - haha. I would race the guys in my neighborhood and win, they didn't like being beat by a girl.

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  3. mopeds rock put a smaller sprocket on it and jam like my brilliant mechanic husband

    LMcG

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  4. Mopeds, minitrucks, and Pinto station wagons. These were the cool way to get around in the late seventies. Not many of us could afford a custom van, Porsche or Trans-Am. Just saw a moped yesterday in Costa Mesa. I'd like to pick up a Puch or Motobecane in decent shape.

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  5. Back in the late 1960's I worked at small grocery store on the corner of 4th & Ross in Santa Ana as a box boy. On of my coworkers said he got a Moped. I went outside to look at it and he asked me if I wanted to ride it and I said sure. So down Ross Street I go, I was gone about 20 minutes then came back to the store, he asked me how the ride was and I said great. That's when he told me that the Moped was not his and started laughing. Luckly I put the Moped in the same location and the owner did not know it had been taken. Boy was this a close call.

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  6. I too made a montly payment for a Foxy moped in 1978. Mine was purchased in San Juan Capistrano. I had graduated from Dana Hill HS and used my moped to go everywhere. I still remember driving home in the middle of the night from my job at Carl's Jr. in San Juan. I was attending Cal. State Fullerton and working the weekend graveyard shift until 3 am. My boyfriend also had a moped, a Puch. We would travel to the beach, El Toro, Newport. The climb up Selva Road required pedaling. Such freedom!

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