Greetings from northwest PA...

pharside

New Member
Local time
9:49 AM
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Messages
9
Location
Meadville, PA, USA
I first saw a motorized bicycle a couple years ago and thought it was about the coolest idea I ever saw. I started looking into it a bit more last summer and decided to put a bike together over the winter. I like working with new parts a lot more than old grimy junk, so I splurged and bought myself something for a change (I'm married with 5 kids, it doesn't happen much...) I bought a 26" Schwinn Clairmont and a Grubee Skyhawk GT5 66cc kit from gasbike.net and started building. I've since modified or upgraded much of the bike and painted the engine black with a red cylinder head to match the black & red bike. Looks pretty good so far. I only had it out 3 times and I just about get mobbed every time...

Since getting it running late last fall, I've torn down the engine again to do some clean-up work and port & polish the top end. I followed some advice I read, and before installing the engine the first time, and I tore it down to check everything over and found some loose coil bolts, but everything else was OK. I put it back together, adjusted the carb, and lit 'er up. I put a center stand on the bike so I could kick-start it in place, it started on the second try and settled into a fairly smooth idle and seems to run pretty good. After being satisfied that it wasn't a dud, I set out to make it as good as it can be. So far, I've polished the combustion chamber, adjusted the clutch (by tightening the star nut), sanded the head gasket mating surfaces using the sand paper/glass trick, port matched the intake and exhaust with a Dremel tool, replaced the coil wire with an Accel Super Stock Spiral Core 7mm with matching boot, & scrapped the in-tank fuel filter in favor of a clear in-line filter. I'm doing the break-in with garden variety 2 cycle oil at 16:1, and I have a bottle of Amsoil Dominator 2-cycle oil for later. The only thing I have left is figuring out how to clean up the transfer ports in the cylinder... ..And wait for the snow to melt so I can take it out..
 
On a related note, I have recently found out the details of the screwed up laws that PA has, and if I get hassled about it, I'm going to have to install functioning brake lights.... Anyone have a clue how to do this?
 
The electric bikes have brake levers that kill the motor when braking. Maybe you could adapt electric bike levers to activate your brake light.
 
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Here's a pic of my bike so far.. I've since added a dual brake lever on the right side, and different hand grips that match the colors of the bike.

rsz_1rsz_1sany0494.jpg
 
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