Hooray for Brown Santa! He he came to me too and brought me some nifty headlight buckets today

On the bike, Its my opinion that its much easier to buy a new bike and build on it than it is to find a clunker off craigslist or whatever, fix it, and then build the motor kit.

For starters, you get to choose exactly what you want. Second, the tires will be known to be good. And third, you won't have to replace brakes or the seat, deal with crud or rust, etc.

Wally world has some decent bikes for about $100

Edit: Do I win a prize for getting page two?? I guess my prize is to go and ride my silly bike around

[This message has been edited by Alibi (edited 01-22-2010).]

My little brother has one of these that he never rides anymore may be time to take some measurements.

Doo it Mike.

That would rock. Need to gear it out, with you and Britt on it you should be able to get up to 60 MPH.

Brad

[This message has been edited by twofatguys (edited 01-23-2010).]

quote Originally posted by Silentassassin185: My little brother has one of these that he never rides anymore may be time to take some measurements.

It can and has been done. Check out the videos I posted here:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum6/HTML/071063.html

Do it! I can help you if you run into problems. Then we can have fiero/motorbike meets

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: Building it piece by piece in my head: Boy Go Fast Motor kit $117 That's Dax Shift kit $139 Kenda K908 Pathfinder Dual Purpose Tires $20 for a pair Dual Pull Brake Lever (to put both brakes on the right side) $10 Ventura Bike Rack $14 And for Safety's sake: Kryptonics Kore Series Multi-Sport Helmet $13 Running Total: $313

Adding a few more parts:

I've been reading about performance upgrades, and this seems to be the holy grail for performance:

Sick Bike Parts Tunable expansion Chamber $65



And since I broke my crappy rear derailleur tonight:
Shimano RD-TX51 6/7 Speed Rear Derailleur $11

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-23-2010).]

I have to state my disagreement with painting it camo.
On a bike or motorcycle, you want it to scream HEY, LOOK AT ME... I'M OVER HERE. DON'T HIT ME."

quote Originally posted by buddycraigg: I have to state my disagreement with painting it camo. On a bike or motorcycle, you want it to scream HEY, LOOK AT ME... I'M OVER HERE. DON'T HIT ME."

I appreciate your concern but I'm not worried about getting missed simply because of my paint. Cammo is for blending into wilderness, not city streets. All the reflectors will remain on the bike, plus my 200+lbs won't be dressed in Cammo while I'm riding it. For night riding I will be adding lights and visibility strobes.

Not to mention the noise of a 2-stroke, which isn't exactly quiet...

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-23-2010).]

I was looking into putting a motor on an adult tricycle a while back. Something I noticed is that none of the motorized bikes use the derailleur system.

At least not for the motor. I was thinking of doing that with the 3 wheeler but money for toys is just not in the budget.

I will be watching this.

Steve

------------------
Technology is great when it works,
and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't.
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.

You can use the dérailleur to shift gears if you use a jackshift kit (sickbikeparts.com). Otherwise, yes, you are stuck with just one gear with the basic kit as it utilizes a large sprocket on the opposite side of the bike drive gear(s).

just bought 2 parts bikes off Craigslist for $5 each. One is basically the girls version of the bike I already had, which means I'll be able to parts swap easily. The other is a Diamondback Mountain bike. After getting them home and inspecting them, I realized the DB has Shimano 7 speed Cassette, Derailleur, and STI shifters. Score! (the Derailleur's toast, but the Cassette and shifters appear intact)

What part of Tulsa are you in? Next time I'm that way to visit family (Dad is at 31st and Garnett and my bro is at 121st and 21st) I wouldn't mind popping by, maybe I can bring my bike?

quote Originally posted by Alibi: What part of Tulsa are you in? Next time I'm that way to visit family (Dad is at 31st and Garnett and my bro is at 121st and 21st) I wouldn't mind popping by, maybe I can bring my bike?

PM sent

PM replied.

Well, for $10 you didn't get completely hosed or anything and if you've got room to hold them as spares then you still did ok. For that reason, its why I'd buy a new bike that didn't need any spare parts if/when I build another motor bike.

Oh, and to anyone else here with a motorbike, do you guys ever transport them w/ a Fiero? And if you do, how? Strap them to a luggage rack w/ the fuel drained or use a hitch-mounted rack?

Another great place to pick up bikes is your local police auction if there is one.
That is where I get mine. You can get really nice bikes for under $25. I get a lot of parts bikes for $1 each.

Here's some pics in the daylight:


A close up of the Cammo paint job:

Are you going to seal the paint with a clear or just let it be? Is there any kind of "theme" you're wanting to go with? On mine, I'm shooting for a turn of the century (last century) motorcycle. Fenders, chrome bullet shaped lights, wide bars, leather seat, etc. Granted I still need to get more parts and eventually disassemble the bike and paint the frame, but thats just an ultimate goal.

If you got a bike kit with a black-finished motor, I think it would look good with the camo and other black trim bits. Maybe a dirt-bike sort of thing?

quote Originally posted by Alibi: Are you going to seal the paint with a clear or just let it be? Is there any kind of "theme" you're wanting to go with? If you got a bike kit with a black-finished motor, I think it would look good with the camo and other black trim bits. Maybe a dirt-bike sort of thing?

No, just going to leave it as is, flat. The theme is "Survival Bike", something like a Motorized bike version of the motorcycles seen here:

http://www.ratbike.org/show/

I hear the black motor kits are just the plain motors painted black, so I'll probably save myself some money and just paint my silver kit black.

quote Originally posted by Alibi: On mine, I'm shooting for a turn of the century (last century) motorcycle. Fenders, chrome bullet shaped lights, wide bars, leather seat, etc. Granted I still need to get more parts and eventually disassemble the bike and paint the frame, but thats just an ultimate goal.

That aught to be pretty cool. Don't forget to post up some pics!

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-27-2010).]

Hey Buddy, here's a guy using a friction drive on his trike:

http://motorbicycling.com/f...4811.html#post147308

This morning I bought the shift kit from Thatsdax, bought my rack and helmet from Amazon, and I put a "Best Offer" on a Slant head Motor kit on ebay (I thought Best Offers were kinda like reserves, if you hit it it would agree, of not, it wouldn't. Had I known that they seller reviewed them, and had 48 hours to get back to you I would have just paid the BIN price. I want it to ship ASAP...)

I'm still debating the SBP expansion chamber, at $65 +shipping, it would add significant expense to the build. I think I may install without it, and see how satisfied I am with the power the stock exhaust gives first.

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-29-2010).]

quote Originally posted by Alibi: On the bike, Its my opinion that its much easier to buy a new bike and build on it than it is to find a clunker off craigslist or whatever, fix it, and then build the motor kit. For starters, you get to choose exactly what you want. Second, the tires will be known to be good. And third, you won't have to replace brakes or the seat, deal with crud or rust, etc.

Well, I agreed with you, in part. I broke down and bought a new bike. Buuuuut, I still wanted to personalize it, so I stripped all the new parts off of it and put them on my Cammo bike. Front fork, wheel and brake, rear wheel and brake. Sprocket and derailleur, shifter and brake levers.

The brake cables were a little too short to work properly with the BMX bars. I have new cables to use, but I'm waiting for my dual pull brake lever to arrive so I only have to do the work once.

You could put some disk brakes on it

Link

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: You could put some disk brakes on it Link

I've considered disc brakes, but they're not a bolt-on mod. Your wheel has to have the right hub, and ideally your forks should have a caliper mount. The caliper mount can be worked around, but its not the best solution.

I have never liked wheel brakes. They perform bad when they get wet. I would hate to test them at 40 mph.

Bought a new bike to toss the parts on the old one? I guess that works too :P

On the brakes, you can get extra long pads that help some, but the brakes just aren't that fantastic at stopping the bike anyway. The disadvantage to the dual pull brake is that you now have to double your effort on one hand to pull in the brakes than normal with one brake for each hand on each bar. BUT... you really need the other hand free to pull in the clutch when slowing down so that you don't kill the motor.

Moral of the story: Pay attention and slow way down before you need to stop

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: I have never liked wheel brakes. They perform bad when they get wet. I would hate to test them at 40 mph.

I hope to never have to.

Yes, I intend this to be my summer commuter but it will remain a fair-weather only vehicle.

That should be reliable enough then. Just be sure to make use of locktite as you're putting stuff back together, the vibration coming off some of the HT (Happy Time, slang for the cheap chinese motors if you haven't ran across the term yet) motors will loosen fasteners over time.

MY dual-pull brake lever arrived today so I went ahead and installed it along with new brake cables. Also installed my bike computer and got started on my lights as well.



I got these cheap-o flashlights, $3 for the pair at WalMart. They're 3 volt bulbs, but I plan on replacing the bulb with 6v LEDs. I just removed the head, direct wired the bulb, capped with a PVC cap, and used a electrical conduit hanger as handlebar mount. Total cost (not including LED bulbs, which I haven't bought yet) about $7. I plan on running these directly off the engine's white wire (6v, but you can't draw much or it kills the engine), I know the engine will support a single 6v lantern-style flashlight bulb, I'm hoping if I switch to LEDs that should allow me to run two.

The flashlights:


The completed project (Will take pics of the PVC cap, conduit hanger, and how I wired them later, may even make a write-up about it for the motorized bike forum)






You might also notice some extra conduit hangers on the handlebars. Those will be the location of my kill switch (I've heard the factory ones are junk, so I'll be wiring my own) and headlight switch.

According to FedEx, motor kit and shift kit are supposed to be here tomorrow! Woo!

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 02-03-2010).]

The light setup is very clever, but will regular flashlights put enough light out to see well enough and to be seen by others? Well, after the LED kit perhaps...

I've got an extra 12V battery from a motorcycle that I may try to rig up... I can use one of the wires off the magneto to charge it, I think. I'll have to fiddle with it and see what happens though. Or maybe I'll just skip it and use a battery powered setup and just use rechargeable batteries in it.

And on the kill switch, I have had no problems with mine, but it may differ from kit to kit. Mine is a plastic button built into the throttle and its worked every time to kill the motor. I grounded it to a screw on the frame that kept the bike chain guard in place.

[This message has been edited by Alibi (edited 02-03-2010).]

Okay gang, I've spent the past couple of hours unboxing and installing my motor kit.

Few notes: It was packed decently.

They sent me a chrome muffler instead of the black one I was supposed to get ( and want, since chrome doesn't really fit the theme of the bike all that well).

my pedals hit the muffler slightly, but the shift kit comes with a whole new crank set, so I'm hoping the shift kits pedals won't hit.

My downtube is huge, and I had to "clearance it" a bit (ie: hit with hammer) to get the forward mounting to work. Also, because of the large downtube the forward studs were not long enough. I removed them and used bolt instead.

I worked all day and I'm starting to get rummy, so I'm calling it a night so I don't make a stupid mistake. Here's a pic of my progress for tonight:

Looks like its coming along nicely! It looks like the weather is supposed to be in the 30s-40s for the next week or so, so you've got time to get everything mounted the way you want it to. On the front mount, if the tube is too thick you can use a pair of vice grips to slowly smush it down. Instead of bolts, you can use some allthread rod cut to fit and the use nuts to hold the bracket on. That way you would get full engagement of the threads in the motor and would be less likely to break something.

What is the recommended mix for break in and running of your kit? 20:1? 32:1? Some use different mixes for break in, but my Grubee kit uses 20:1 for break in and running. Pretty rich mix, but meh. For mixing gas I've got a 2 gallon can and use a plastic syringe called a "mix miser" to put in the correct amount of oil to mix w/ the gas to get the desired ratio. The mix-mizer has marks on it for different ratios so its handy, and cheap ($5ish), and easy to find (wal mart, automotive section).

Oh, and be sure to mark you gas can in large bold letters "2 STROKE ONLY' so that you don't accidently use it on a 4 stroke motor and mess something up...

Progress is coming slowly. Turns out for the shift kit you need a bike with a 3-piece crank, and my frame was made for a 1-piece. I now have a 1-piece to 3-piece adapter set on order from Sick Bike Parts.

Sooooo, whilst waiting for the pieces necessary to finish the shift kit, I swapped out my seat, added my rear rack and installed my tail light. I'm finished body-wise except for a front off-road style fender, which is on its way.

Here's the pics:

Papa's helper (you can see the motor is back on, with jack shaft but crank set is missing):


Close-up of the mostly-assembled jack shaft: (Note: Missing muffler - Rather then take the time to send back my chrome muffler and get a replacement, the seller and I worked out a $10 refund for me to buy some high-heat paint and paint it black myself. Its out in the garage drying its first coat tonight)



Rear rack, currently holding my helmet:


Bell tail light (Has solid-on or several different flashing patterns to choose from):

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 02-07-2010).]

Very cool, too bad that you have to wait on the crank set though. Ya know, that air filter kinda looks like a cartoonish skull and if you're bored, you could always paint it white and add some black accents :P

quote Originally posted by Alibi: Very cool, too bad that you have to wait on the crank set though. Ya know, that air filter kinda looks like a cartoonish skull and if you're bored, you could always paint it white and add some black accents :P

Haha! That is awesome! I'm SO doing that now!!!

I just got back in from riding mine

Its really stubborn to get it started when its cold though, but after 2-3 trys, I finally got it to sputter to life. It wasn't too horribly cold today (about 40, a little bit of wind) but I bundled up in a thick jacket, gloves, and a cap that I could pull down over my ears. I rode around town for maybe an hour, stopped by at Subway and got a sandwich, came home, and snapped a few pictures. I don't have a kick stand installed, so I leaned it up against my apartment building. One of these days I'll fix the kickstand and take some pictures with a bit better scenery but for now, meh.