Motivation behind your MB

Huntington

Member
Local time
11:19 PM
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
175
Location
So Cali Beach
Motivation. What keeps us building MB's? I know my own selfish reason for building a MB. Like some I was stupid and lost my DL, needed a way to get to work and a MB was the answer. I know not all have such selfish reasons for building a MB, I wounder what the inspiration behind your first build is.

Further... After that first build.. the frustration of fitting a motor to your bike, aligning your ill fitting sprocket, stripping the dam* china screws!!!!

What is it that keeps us coming back for more? Why do we put our self's through such torture?

I wounder so I ask you to explain...
 
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I noticed a motored bike parked at the library and stopped to examine it. The owner came out and I asked a lot of questions. I was hooked. Inexpensive to own and operate fun practical urban transportation, what more could one ask? There may also have been some return to childhood when I built several motorized things resembling scooters/soapbox cars/bikes. I have been a tinkerer all my life and these things looked like an adult version of tinker toys or erector sets. I had given up riding motorcycles after several somewhat serious accidents and MBs seemed like a way to recapture the freedom and fun of that experience with less risk from 100mph spills to my old bones.

I did some research on the Internet and opted for an inexpensive but high quality friction drive kit from Staton and the Robin 35 engine. The installation was a snap and I have had few of the problems you describe. The engine has given zero reliability issues and the only problems have been with rear tire wear and rear wheel spoke breakage. That set up worked well, but wasn't particularly elegant from an engineering standpoint, so my next kit was a chain drive from Staton, again using the Robin, this time with a front suspension and front disc brake. More expensive, slightly more difficult to install, but rock solid quality and reliable as a stick. Now I've built a GEBE/Robin drive bike with full suspension and twin disc brakes. I'm still enjoying myself and having a ball.

After I've worked out the last of the few bugs on the latest bike, a cargo trailer is on the wish list. Somewhere down the road, I'd like to build an electric bike with a gen-set in the trailer to charge the batteries, thus extending the range for longer trips.
 
I am building them with my Son, using this as an opportunity to pass down a life skill. Plus we get to ride when we are done.
 
dont know cant explain it... some irresistible driving force that I have felt since I was a kid, to understand and manipulate the internal combustion engine.

I can tell you about my first mod... I had a 3.5 hp briggs and straton go kart in 5th grade. My dads buddy liked me, so he made me a straight pipe and we bolted it on on. Its been downhill from there...

I guess my mb obsession started a few years ago when my wife bought me the red barron as a gift. She wanted to ride cruisers on the bike path so we went to pick them out together. I saw the RB and thought it would be cool with an engine. It sat for about 2 years with a broken rear hub sprocket until I saw a guy riding a motorized Schwinn... looked up the engine on ebay, bought it, found this site... and now I have like 5 mb's and a mini bike.

I literally dont know what happened.
 
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Long time cyclist upon entering geezerhood needed a little assist. :D

Actually, a few years back my then teenage son acquired a HT out of that Florida guy and I helped him set it up. I inherited it after he moved on in life, sold it soon after discovering Robin and Mits engines and kept experimenting.
Car free by choice, MBing for me is definately alt. trans.
 
I'm a long time cyclist as well.....arthritis in both knees is why I decided to try out a motor. So far.....I absolutely love it.
 
For me, they're cheap transport. I'm on a pension, (emphysema), and wanted to save money by not paying rego, car maintenance costs etc.
Walked for a couple of years, but that's getting too hard now.
My bikes were the perfect answer.
(And they satisfy my 'big kid' instinct as well.)
 
I'm regressing backwards. Age 16-30 streetrods. Age 30-40 Motorcycles. Age 40-45 mini choppers. Age 45-50 motoredbikes. Last 1 1/2 years... custom bicycles. I guess I just like things with wheels that move. :cool:
 
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Probably because of the ohh and ahh factor, as there is not too many people driving them around here. I have seen two people with them in 2 years. but they are just fun to drive.
 
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