Starting from square one...

sdratler

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Are there any books available for someone who has no experience with these engines that start from just explaining what each part of the engine does and goes step by step through the entire building process. All of the videos I have seen on youtube seem to skip lots of steps, and allot of the posts designated as instructions for beginners assume the builder already has some knowledge of how these engines work. I'm even willing to pay someone to make a complete video from unpacking the box to ridding and maintenance.
 
I think maybe I've seen such books and DVDs and such marketed on Amazon or eBay. But I doubt if they're really worth much. They'll have the same flaw, e.g.; they'll leave something out.

But you don't really need that anyway. Just start putting your kit together, following whatever instructions you do have. Most of it'll be pretty obvious. Some of it will take a bit of thought.

And if you do run into trouble, then just come right on back here. Start a new thread asking how to fix, or install, the issue. Be specific. Start by telling just what type of engine/drivetrain you have. I'm going to assume that you've got a 2 cycle engine with direct chain drive to the left side of the rear wheel, since that's the most common type. But go ahead and say so when you post your question. Ask, for instance, 'how do I get that drive sprocket on straight?' Or if, for instance, you've got it all together but you're having engine starting/running issues then make it clear whether or not you're getting any ignition at all. Things like that.

State the problem clearly and you'll find all sorts of helpful folks here who sincerely want to be helpful.

You'll do fine.

Best of luck.
 
I have a couple of the installation disks included with the Bikeberry kits. They are probably a bit better than some of those Youtube videos.
 
I built my first bike with no instruction whatsoever. It seems to me like there's so much that'll go wrong with some of the junk in these kits if you can't figure out how to build it without a whole lot of help you'll be hopeless when it comes to fixing it every 10 miles for the first 40. If there's anything you do need help with though, you got a big forum with probably 400 active members that have all been through the same thing you'll go through.

The best advice I can give is to start with the right bike. I started with a Magna Rip Curl beach cruiser with upgraded wheels and have had more motor parts fail than bike parts.
 
To be honest, the amount of detail you are asking for/expecting is 1), difficult to gather into one cohesive whole, and 2), somewhat unnecessary.

While it is good to learn the ins and outs of your bike and engine, it's a bit much to expect to know everything there is to know before even assembling your kit.

Most of what you NEED to know is related to a few categories: maintenance, repair, tuning and how to ride. When I say how to ride, I mean this. Two strokes have many tuning capabilities that can get the engine to perform in different ways. Depending on how it's tuned, riding it in a way that it's not tuned for can sometimes be bad for the engine.

As you go along, you will begin to learn things. You will start learning how to ride from day one, becoming more intuitive of your surroundings and riding accordingly. This is something no book can teach.

You will learn tuning as you read through the forums and decide what you want your bike to do. There are limits, but there are some modifications which range from the simple external mods to the extreme internal modifications that can increase these limits. But the farther you push, the riskier it can be if you don't know what you're doing. Don't go digging into the internals of the engine until you have a very good idea what you're doing and a high level of understanding regarding tuning.

Maintenance and repair. You will learn some of this right away, the rest as you go and we are here to help. With no prior mechanical experience, your first build is not likely to come out "pristine" without help. Fortunately, that's what we are here for. Some parts are likely to fail during assembly, some will need to be replaced and some can be creatively repaired. We can suggest some creative repairs, as some are safe and acceptable and others are not.
 
To be honest, the amount of detail you are asking for/expecting is 1), difficult to gather into one cohesive whole, and 2), somewhat unnecessary.

While it is good to learn the ins and outs of your bike and engine, it's a bit much to expect to know everything there is to know before even assembling your kit.

Most of what you NEED to know is related to a few categories: maintenance, repair, tuning and how to ride. When I say how to ride, I mean this. Two strokes have many tuning capabilities that can get the engine to perform in different ways. Depending on how it's tuned, riding it in a way that it's not tuned for can sometimes be bad for the engine.

As you go along, you will begin to learn things. You will start learning how to ride from day one, becoming more intuitive of your surroundings and riding accordingly. This is something no book can teach.

You will learn tuning as you read through the forums and decide what you want your bike to do. There are limits, but there are some modifications which range from the simple external mods to the extreme internal modifications that can increase these limits. But the farther you push, the riskier it can be if you don't know what you're doing. Don't go digging into the internals of the engine until you have a very good idea what you're doing and a high level of understanding regarding tuning.

Maintenance and repair. You will learn some of this right away, the rest as you go and we are here to help. With no prior mechanical experience, your first build is not likely to come out "pristine" without help. Fortunately, that's what we are here for. Some parts are likely to fail during assembly, some will need to be replaced and some can be creatively repaired. We can suggest some creative repairs, as some are safe and acceptable and others are not.

I agree to what you're saying but if a person doesn't know for example what each moving part on the carburetor does than he's not going to get to the stage of so to speak learning one step at a time like you described. What I'm suggesting be done is that someone who works with these engines full time make a concise instructional video covering everything one would would need to know. There is no reason that a video of the sort should be longer than an hour and a half, and it definitely wouldn't be be so difficult for a person knowledgeable enough in the construction of these engines to put it together. Also a video of the sorts could potentially boost the publicity of the company who would put it out.

If anyone reads this and is willing to do so please send me an Email and we'll talk business:cool:
 
Are there any books available for someone who has no experience with these engines that start from just explaining what each part of the engine does and goes step by step through the entire building process.

You will just have to stick around and use the seach function on the site to answer all of your questions.

Sometimes being spoon fed information from one source isn't the best method of building your knowledge base.


but


I'm even willing to pay someone to make a complete video from unpacking the box to ridding and maintenance.


if you are willing to pay, i'll make a prolixly long video to satisfy your requirements.


How much are you willing to pay?
 
For information about 2-strokes you'll want to read A.Graham Bell and Gordon Jennings books. They are geared to performance enhancement, but you will learn much about these motors.
http://iheartstella.com/resources/manuals/tuning/Graham-Bell-Two-Stroke-Performance-Tuning.pdf
http://www.vintagesleds.com/library/manuals/misc/Two-stroke Tuner's Handbook.pdf

With patience and this forum you should have little difficulty with MB kits. I knew nothing of 2-strokes and attempted some modifications and my motor still runs!
 
I agree to what you're saying but if a person doesn't know for example what each moving part on the carburetor does than he's not going to get to the stage of so to speak learning one step at a time like you described. What I'm suggesting be done is that someone who works with these engines full time make a concise instructional video covering everything one would would need to know. There is no reason that a video of the sort should be longer than an hour and a half, and it definitely wouldn't be be so difficult for a person knowledgeable enough in the construction of these engines to put it together. Also a video of the sorts could potentially boost the publicity of the company who would put it out.

If anyone reads this and is willing to do so please send me an Email and we'll talk business:cool:

Knowing everything ahead of time and learning as you go are two different things. You DONT need to know what every single microscopic part does in order to learn as you go. I built my first bike on my own with absolutely NO prior knowledge of mechanics. I had no one to help me or tell me how to put it together or how it worked. I didn't know about this forum. If I ran into a problem, a phone call to my dad or grandpa was about the closest I came to a "forum". My dad and grandpa are both mechanically knowledgeable, but neither of them could tell you exactly what all the moving parts in a carburetor do without looking at it. There are different types of carbs that work different ways. So I got my first bike built, but being a newbie, of course it wasn't perfect. I learned more as I went along. Eventually it became road worthy and stayed on the road until my friend destroyed the frame after I gave it to him. I even moved 50 miles on it in the middle of a nasty winter. With my second bike, I found different parts like suspension forks and a better seat, and eventually replaced every single pedal power component on the bike. Did this with no research or book or person to tell me how. When I got tired of two strokes, I moved on to a 98cc 4 stroke minibike engine. That's sitting on a 100% custom schwinn, which I had to rebuild from the bare frame up. I had some help, and I might have needed to look a few things up along the way, but I didn't read it out of a book or watch a video. I just did it. This bike is fully decked out with motorcycle forks, a moped headlight, a brake light, and a 12v battery with a generator and charging system. If I can do all this, anyone can. I picked up knowledge as I went and used that knowledge to build the best custom bike I was capable of. Are there better bikes out there than mine? Sure. But my bike came out looking how I wanted, it performs according to how I designed it, and it's reliable. If someone is willing to be paid to make a video, more power to them. But I feel a h*ll of a lot prouder knowing I learned how to build my bike hands on rather than reading out of a book or watching an instructional video.
 
But I feel a h*ll of a lot prouder knowing I learned how to build my bike hands on rather than reading out of a book or watching an instructional video.

The difference between me and you is that you do this for a hobby I need this bike to get to work. I don't have the time to spends hours tinkering with unnecessary aesthetic modifications, and I certainly don't care about feeling proud. However I do understand were your coming from. If this were my hobby I would feel the same way (and I do about building fishing rods).
 
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