Commuting and reliability tips

Luke99

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Jan 3, 2016
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I've had my China Girl motor for around a year and a half now. In that time, I've put almost 1200 miles on the whole build, in both summer and winter. Until about a hundred miles ago, I was constantly battling breakdowns and other issues with the bike. From my experience with the bike, I'll give you guys what I find to be the best things you can do to make sure you can count on your bike to cruise around or get you where you need to go no matter what.

Drivetrain
For the motor, I have left mine stock. I haven't had any trouble with the motor itself, just the parts that come with the kit.
I replaced the stock spark plug with an NGK BPR7HS plug. Works great.
As for the clutch and gears, I have a fairly strict maintenance schedule. Every 100 miles, I grease up the clutch gear and the crank gear. Just a small-ish dab in between the gears will work and prevent any squeaking or premature wear. I also check the clutch and clutch cable at this time.
The chain I run is a #415 chain, and has held up great.
Although I never had any trouble with the stock rag joint sprocket mount, I still decided to replace mine with the Manic Mechanic hub adapter. It's been awesome so far.
I also replaced the motor mounts that had given me so much trouble with the Manic Mechanic motor mounts.

Wheels and Tires
I use Bell kevlar lined tires. I usually get around 500 miles or so on a set before they wear out.
For the wheels, I strongly recommend ditching your stock wheels if you have a cheaper department store bike. I discovered that they simply don't hold up to the speeds that you get on a motorbike. Especially the wheel bearings. I replaced mine with some Avenir WheelWerks aluminum wheels, and I have around 1000 miles on them without any troubles.

Fuel
For my fuel mixture, after break in I switched to a 24:1 mixture. Better to run a little bit rich than too lean and risk blowing the motor. I haven't fouled a plug out yet using this mixture and I have plenty of power.

Upkeep and
Maintenance
Every Ride: Visually inspect bike
Check fuel
Tighten all nuts, bolts, and screws
Every 50 Miles: Clean the bike
Lube the chain
Every 100 Miles: Grease gears in clutch cover
Grease clutch bearing (the large bearing in between the rod and clutch)

These are just my tips and suggestions on how to keep your bike reliable and running well. If you have anything to add, just let me know!
 
Searches on youtube can show how to keep the basic bike components nice, like the headset, cassette, and and hub bearings.

Opening up the top end allows you to pour a little bit of motor oil into the crank to help bearings. A Q-tip helps get the needle bearing in the connecting rod. If you run a lot of oil you'd never need to do this though, other than for the first run
 
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