There's an old Simpsons gag wherein Homer has his shirt deep fried at the state fair (Saddlesore Galactica, S11e13). Homer brags to Marge that they could, in fact, deep fry a shirt just like he told her, to which Marge replies,
"I didn't say they couldn't, I said you shouldn't."
That sentiment—just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should—has been a guiding principle of mine for years. Apparently, as evidenced by this video, our man from the Ukraine bureau Samodel hasn't heard that old saying. For some reason—mostly, I assume, because he could—he fitted the carb from a Stihl chainsaw to a Honda Dio scooter. The results are, if I'm honest, pretty awesome.
If you're not familiar with it, the Dio was introduced in 1988 with a 50cc, two-stroke engine fitted with a Keihin carb. It retained that smoky powerplant up until 2001, when the oil burner was replaced with Honda's 110cc four-stroke. In this video, Samodel is tinkering with a pre-2001 two-stroke, but thanks to the, uh, fit and finish of the obviously cobbled-together scooter that's all I can tell you about it.
The video starts innocently enough, with a close-up of the trusty old Keihin and a little running demo. Wait, what? It runs just fine and we're still doing this? You know what, never mind. To be fair, the Dio is basically a chainsaw with wheels, so slapping that chainsaw carb on it wasn't that big a stretch.
The rest of the video introduces us to the Zama-made carburetor off a Stihl chainsaw of unknown provenance and shows off Samodel's wrenching and fabricating skills. He casts and mills his own spacers out of scrap aluminum, makes gaskets with homemade punches, and generally works a bunch of mechanical wizardry on the poor old Dio to make the new carb work.
I won't spoil the ending for you, but let's just say that there are some great noises at the end of this video.
