New to this forum. Love it!
I have already posted posts regrarding building a motorized bike. In my enthusiam I did not properly introduce myself to this forum. so here goes!
I am 49 years old and live in Tucson, AZ. I have 3 little girls and I am a massage therapist at a very cool resort. My commute to work is only 1.5 miles, but is very hilly. I like to come home on my lunch hour to see my kids, so I drive back and forth. I thought that having a little scooter, moped or motorized bike would be a great idea to save some money and have fun buzzing to work. I recently saw an old "spooky tooth" at a yard sale, darned near bought it, but it needed repairs.. that led me to this site for more research.
In my early 20's, my brother and I were avid bike enthusiasts. We built MT bikes before there were MT bikes. We raced bikes, and growing up in Iowa, we rode RAGBRAI often. I built a crazy cool 3 wheel recoumbent from scratch, and also entered a bike I built for a HPV contest that was held at Indy 500 track.. If i find an old pic of that I will share it! I went 3 years with out owning a car.. it drove my parents nuts!
My brother went on to open his own bike shop in Tucson, "Ordinary Bikes" and I lived vicariously in the bike world through his experinces. funny thing is that he would always make fun of the "crazy people" with their motor bikes!
I currently have sweet A** Lightspeed road bike, a very cool circa late 80's Stumpjumper MT bike and a Taiwain made Schwinn cruiser.
I am considering converting my Schwinn to motor power. I got wise and did a lot of research on your forum, and found out many interesting ideas and facts.
1. some say that it is harder to start with a one speed coaster brake bike and that is easier to start with a MT bike. ( I hate to mess with my stumpjumper!) I read some posts that say it is even dangerous to use a one speed!
2. the chinese kits you buy are relativley similar, best to trust the dealer
3. The kits you buy will need to have many retrofits to make them work well.."Junster" posted an article about this. I am good with my hands, but I am a bit sktitish when it comes to overhauling motors!
4. Not to alienate my new forum buds, but the more I read the more interested I get, but also the more hesitant I get. I might consider an old moped or scooter to get the job done. I like the idea of building a motor bike, but I need to feel like it will be a fairly managable deal.
I love looking at all the pics and posts.
Clinton
