New Member

Steve M.

New Member
Local time
3:01 PM
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Messages
14
Hi. My name is Steve and I'm an ....whoops! Wrong group!

I'm new to motorized bikes, but have been riding one of those cheapo electric EZip Mountain Trails bikes w/ the Currie Pro Drive for nearly 2 years. For hooking a kiddie trailer to the back and fetching groceries 2 or 3 times a week it's been great, but now I want to go up to the base of the Organ Mountains here and do some large format photography, so I'm migrating to a gas engine setup. The trip is about 8 miles and upgrade the whole way, but all downhill coming back. I bought the Staton friction drive kit w/ the Mitsubishi TLE43 2.2HP 2 stroke engine. It's too loud for my needs so I'm selling the engine and have a Honda GX35 4 stroke on the way.

I talked to a guy at the local small engine shop who was nice enough to give me the scoop on this. He said that by their very nature the 2 strokes are louder because you can't over muffle them. They need a good flow to get the exhaust out. A 4 stroke has valves to tell the engine when to get the exhaust out, so over muffling will trim down the power a bit but it's a better engine for this effect. I've always liked the smooth, quiet way a Vespa sounds, so if the Honda is too loud I'll put one of the Vespa mufflers on it, or do a homemade clone. It's hard to do a google and find out about getting an ultra quiet bike together, but I found some info finally and it's pretty basic.

My idea is to have a stealth ride that looks as little like a motorized bike as possible. I'll paint the red Honda engine flat black and mount a milk crate over it to make it look like I simply have a basket on the back, then re route the exhaust to the opposite side and point it downwards. Will post some photos once it's finished. I'll also be mounting the setup onto our tandem for the occasional ride w/ the wife. Looks like swapping from one bike to the other will be a minimal hassle. If it works out I'll eventually buy a second setup just for the tandem.

I already received some help on the forum and want to thank everyone for that. It's great having a place to network w/ others that are motorizing their bikes.
 
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