jefuchs
Member
As I posted earlier this week, I finally got my bike running, after much more work than I would have anticipated. Since then, we've had tropical storm conditions, so I have only run the motor that one time.
But I thought I'd share some of the work that went into getting it going.
First, due to my physical limitations, I needed a smaller chainwheel to make the bike easier to pedal. You'll never get the motor running if you're struggling just to pedal the bike. After a lot of searching, all I could find was a chainwheel that fit my bike, but not my chain, and a chainring that fit my chain, but not my bike. So I bolted the two together, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm considering this a prototype, as the two should probably be welded together if I decide to keep it.
Next, I added a decompression valve to the motor. This really works great. I had never heard of decompression valves until I saw a post about them on this forum. My chainsaw is electric, so I never had a need to know about them.
Third (and I hope this is temporary), I took a tube from a WD-40 can, and bent it 90 degrees with a little heat, and glued it into my air filter cover so I can spray starter fluid without removing the cover. I'm hoping I will only rarely need this.
My brand new bike looks really beat up in the pics, and yes, I scraped it up a bit in the process, but the flash on my camera makes it look a lot worse than it is. With a little touch up, it'll look good again.
But I thought I'd share some of the work that went into getting it going.
First, due to my physical limitations, I needed a smaller chainwheel to make the bike easier to pedal. You'll never get the motor running if you're struggling just to pedal the bike. After a lot of searching, all I could find was a chainwheel that fit my bike, but not my chain, and a chainring that fit my chain, but not my bike. So I bolted the two together, and it seems to work pretty well. I'm considering this a prototype, as the two should probably be welded together if I decide to keep it.
Next, I added a decompression valve to the motor. This really works great. I had never heard of decompression valves until I saw a post about them on this forum. My chainsaw is electric, so I never had a need to know about them.
Third (and I hope this is temporary), I took a tube from a WD-40 can, and bent it 90 degrees with a little heat, and glued it into my air filter cover so I can spray starter fluid without removing the cover. I'm hoping I will only rarely need this.
My brand new bike looks really beat up in the pics, and yes, I scraped it up a bit in the process, but the flash on my camera makes it look a lot worse than it is. With a little touch up, it'll look good again.