I recently entered "Yamaha Chappy" into Ebay and two examples showed up - both within 200 miles of my house.
My vehicular trajectory followed a familiar path to many boys who grew up in the suburbs in the middle of the country. I had a few regretful bikes until at some point I graduated to a "BMX" bike. My memories of this bike are probably greatly flawed, but it was purchased very used, and my older sister and I brush painted the entire bike black. We thought it looked really cool, but I suspect it looked like it was painted by a couple young kids. I think we were supposed to share the bike; I don't recall how well that actually worked.
Overall, I do recall the neighborhoods we lived in as being quite safe. But there was a mix of childhood malfeasance and some minor crime. At some point in my young childhood, our house was broken into through a basement door after the door window was broken. This must have been traumatic as it is still an entry point I worry about now, as well as in all my previous houses. I don't recall the theft being very financially devastating, but potentially our parents just hid that from us. I seem to recall that was the event that pushed our parents into getting a checking account and checkbook.
Back to the brush-painted, black dirt bike, it was stolen when our family went to eat at a fast food restaurant. We knew it was left outside, and there was some gnashing of teeth about whose fault it may have been. But the bike was gone. I do not recall another bike while living at that house, but I suspect there must have been more bikes while living there - I'm not counting my horrible bright orange bike with a basket on the front that I used to deliver newspapers.
The other theft I recall was the stealing of one penny. We had a small flower garden next to the garage filled in with concrete and the siblings in the family thought it would be neat to cement a penny in it when it was poured. We chose a shiny one from the current year. At some point, rocks were used to chip the penny out. I strongly suspect this was done by older neighborhood boys, Jerry or Paul - probably both. I hope it was worth it for them.
Years later, and now in a different house in a different city, I bought a Schwinn 10-speed bike from Kevin, a boy at school. His family was considerably wealthier and he got a new bike every few years. He was shorter than me, and we were both growing, so the Schwinn was too small for me, but it worked for what an early teen needed a bicycle for. Besides, it was Schwinn and had 10 speeds.
Everything changed when I turned 15.
At the age of 15, Michigan allows a moped license. At my age now, this seems crazy to allow 15-year-olds on public roads, sharing the space hulking vehicles. But in the 1980's it meant nearly total freedom. This moped allowance with minimal licensing requirements made more sense when mopeds were little more than slightly-motorized bicycles such as my brother's Puch that he used to deliver newspapers. These were actually started by pedaling them and pulling a small starting lever.
The mid-1980's was the era of the Honda Spree. These things were seemingly everywhere. They can still be found, but since Sprees were beat to death by 15-year-olds for only the few years they were made, good examples are rare. They were also nearly disposable in construction.
As cheap transportation goes, the Honda Spree was a luxury vehicle that there was no way I could afford. I could afford the Yamaha Chappy being sold by an older acquaintance who had recently gotten his real driver's license and a car (I seem to recall his car was a Pugeot of all things). I think I bought the Chappy for $50 with the stipulation that I would not ask for help from the seller in fixing it as a requisite part of the sale.
My Yamaha Chappy was a yellow LB80. As a 72cc bike, it was not strictly legal as a moped, but since there was also a 50cc Yamaha Chappy made, I was able to get a moped registration sticker for it with just a bill of sale.
I do not have any pictures of my Chappy, but it looked something like the following picture. I definitely remember the white plastic fenders.
Yamaha Chappys were made in a few configurations, but mine had a 2-speed automatic transmission with both a high and low range. One of the current (as of this writing) Chappys for sale on Ebay is the same configuration in red.
My Chappy had lots of problems. The seat was basically non-existent; the sun had baked it to strands of Naugahyde with pale yellow foam blistering through. My sister made me a seat cover from some kind of fuzzy fabric. I can recall riding after (or in) the rain and the sponge effect of the seat cushion was squishily wet.
The 2 speed, high/low, shifter mechanism was broken as the former owner used to slam shift it. He would start out in low for great acceleration, then slam it in high for higher speed. This was almost certainly toxically damaging to the gear mechanism, which suggests these things were somewhat overbuilt.
At some point in the ongoing repairs that my Chappy needed, I got into the brakes. Both front and rear brake linings were completely gone. Stopping was metal shoes on metal drums. Somehow, it seemed to stop OK and I didn't know any better at that time.
Worse yet, the brake lights didn't work, so I rigged up a button on the handle bars I had to push to let cars behind me know I was stopping. Jeepers this was dangerous...
I did wear a helmet which was given to me with the bike. It was a bright blue snowmobile helmet that was probably at least two sizes to big. I think the helmet was wearing my head for protection.
The most memorable issue with my Yamaha Chappy was the kick starter was stripped. In order to start the bike, it had to be pushed to the top of a hill in neutral, then engage the transmission and stutter-start it downhill; there was no clutch, so no way to bump start it. Predictably, there was little tread left on the rear tire by the time I got it. This must not be a totally unique failure since one of the first results on searching Ebay was a kick starter shaft, linkage and spring.
I spent considerable time trying various repairs for the kick starter. Stronger bolts did little. Drilling dogs between the starting lever and the shaft, using nails to gain bite between them made it worse. Eventually I saved enough money to buy a new shaft and kick lever. The internal spring was never reinstalled correctly, so the kick starter didn't reliably stay up - but the kick starter finally worked!
I have no idea how many miles I put on that Yamaha Chappy, but I'm sure it was a lot. I used it to get to school, to work, to everywhere. Some of the Spree-crowd were envious as my Chappy had an illegally sized engine. It was technically a motorcycle. The Chappy's speedometer went to a very optimistic 80mph vs. the Spree's paltry 40mph. A race with my friend Larry showed that it was actually a little slower than a Honda Spree, at least to the end of the street. The Chappy probably weighed twice as much and even in high gear was geared more toward trail use, but I was devastated to lose to the 50cc Honda.
Fifteen is a transitional age, and I only kept the Chappy for that one year. Mopeds lose their coolness quite quickly sometime around taking driver's education. As I got close to 16, I bought my first car (a 1969 MG Midget).
I ended up giving or selling the Chappy to a friend whose parent's were holding out his driver's license. We had gotten into some trouble and both had to pay restitution - a topic for another time. His parent made him pay my portion, and feeling bad, I gave him the Yamaha. He didn't ride it much and I think we jointly ended up destroying it by spending an afternoon taking it over jumps in a playground.
It was barely running when we parked it in the back of his parent's garage. I'm slightly saddened that this was almost certainly the final time my Chappy ran.
I'm far enough away from 15 now that I can look at Yamaha Chappys on Ebay and only look. More stuff tends to clutter life, not improve it and I have no idea what I would do with an 80cc motorcycle even if someone gave one to me. Despite the attempts, youth can not be repurchased on Ebay. At best, a facsimile can be purchased, only briefly.
I am somewhat relieved that the Chappys on Ebay are far enough away to remain virtual. I can't predict what would happen if I were to be able to actually see one, sit on one, and feel the grips. I do hope the kick starter would work.
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