Future Texas rider

[LeviTX]

I'm currently waiting on an "80 CC" kit from a discount online vendor. From what I've seen, it's going to be one of the "RAW" kits.

I've yet to decide on what bike to put it on--so I've been lurking for a bit to see what everyone else is riding. So far, I've eliminated Wal-gooses, Wal-Schwinns, and most of the other newer-model box bikes.

I'm leaning towards a vintage industrial Schwinn right now, if I can find one available for a good price.

My kit was due to arrive this morning, and unfortunately, in the box that came, instead of my kit, was 50 "simulated chrome" (plastic) throttle/grip with kill switch sets.

I'm trying to keep a positive outlook that I will have the kit in a few more days-after the vendor figures out what happened. If nothing else, I believe the 50 throttle handles are worth more than the kit I ordered in the first place (at least on flea-bay).

Here's hoping I'm riding a motored bike before too much longer!

 

[Mountainman]

welcome -- wow that was a mis-shipment !!!!

hope that they get THINGs straightened up soon

so you can ride that thing

 

[terrence]

Hi Levi Welcome to MB.c Glad your here. I hope our kit comes together soon. At least your in texas and your not racing the snow season. Good luck to ya.

 

[az cra-z]

Let us know if you decide to unload the throttles.

And, welcome, of course!

 

[waylow]

welcome Levi
what part of texas are you in? I am in San Marcos, right in between Austin and San Antonio. there are a few MB guys on the forum in the surrounding towns, and a hand full of guys around town with MB's. I am still working on mine. I started out looking at the 80cc kits, but wound up going all out, taking 10 times longer, but hoping it will be worth it. One thing I can tell you is, choose your bike well. I ordered this sweet looking cruiser from the internet, the Firmstrong Ca.520. it looked cool and I thought it would be perfect, till I rode it around town a bit. It is a piece of $hit, the hubs suck, the rims suck, the tires are made out of $hitty rubber, the welds on the frame are dodgy, the rear brakes hardly work because the frame flexes the head tube is too tall to put any shocks on, and it needs them. Not to mention, with its crank forward design, it is a lot of hard work to ride... something I didn't care about at first, because I was going to motorize.
Then I decided to motorize my old Diamondback Mountain Bike. I shopped around for parts. Then my neighbor just bought a bada$$ new Diamondback Response Sport for like 430 bux, and it is totally awesome. I soon realized, I could buy an awesome new Diamondback for less money than it will cost to fix my old Diamondback. I wish I would have known that I was going to go this way from the beginning, I would have saved 3 or 400 bux and would have gone about my entire drive side chain differently. I have the Staton hub and 40 spoke rear wheel with the lefthand freewheel because it was going on a bike with rim brakes, the new Diamondbacks have disc brakes, and if I had it to do again, I would buy andyinchville's tophat adapter, so i could keep the discs and still hook a rear sprocket up, then just do something with a lefthanded freewheel on the Staton outdrive.

Ok, so my welcome to the forum has turned into quite a tangent. I hope things work out well for you, and that you can learn from everyone here. it is a treasure trove of MB knowledge.

 

[LeviTX]

Things worked out and I received my kit last Friday and returned the throttles. I ended up going the budget route and picking up a cheap Schwinn Del Mar to test the kit on.

I like the frame overall, the only weak point I see so far is the rear wheel/hub combination, which I suspect will be the first component to fail on the bike (and gets replaced with a decent freehub/tophat/single speed setup when it does).

I've made a bit of progress on it, working as I've had time. I've replaced most of the fasteners with higher quality locally-sourced hardware, using allen head bolts as much as possible. I still need to place an order for some metric all-thread to do the head studs and the rear mounts. I've also picked up an E3 spark plug, some higher quality fuel lines, a "high-flow" Briggs & Stratton fuel filter, screw clamps for the new fuel lines, and a Tractor Supply #41 chain to replace the China special.

Still in the works are "real" caliper brakes front and rear (the coaster is dangerously lacking), some levers--probably the Dia Compe Tech 77 locking set, and a Problem Solvers 1:2 brake setup (so the left lever will operate the clutch and the right lever actuates both brakes.) I'm also going to look into a real (metal) throttle setup, likely of the motorcycle (or pocket bike) variety, simply because I don't think the plastic one my kit came with will hold up for the long term.

Here's what I've got so far. Since this picture was taken (today) I've got the chain guard mounted up, replaced the flimsy coaster brake strap with a heavy-duty stainless piece, and have begun painting the engine covers with plastidip spray-on rubberized coating.

 

[LeviTX]

welcome Levi
what part of texas are you in? I am in San Marcos, right in between Austin and San Antonio. there are a few MB guys on the forum in the surrounding towns, and a hand full of guys around town with MB's. I am still working on mine...

Ok, so my welcome to the forum has turned into quite a tangent. I hope things work out well for you, and that you can learn from everyone here. it is a treasure trove of MB knowledge.

I'm actually located near Houston. I went the low-cost route and picked up an inexpensive bike, primarily because the big $$$ are going to a full-suspension (but non-motorized) bike I'm building up as another project. I looked around at several local bike shops at high-end cruiser bikes, and just couldn't bring myself to drop the cash on something like a Felt some other big-name brand. I particularly liked some of Nirve's bikes, but again $$$.

The Del Mar has a decent frame (for a Wal-Mart bike) but as I mentioned, they really cheaped out on the wheelset (no surprise for a $114 bike). The geometry works pretty well for me, and as things break, they'll get replaced with nicer stuff (unless it gets to the point where it would be more cost effective to just buy a nice cruiser to transplant the engine onto).

Being new to this motorized biking stuff, I didn't want to drop big cash on a nice cruiser, and have the motor only last for a few miles, so I went cheap to see how things go. If it dies, I'm only out a couple hundred bucks for the engine kit+hardware and I still have my primary (in-progress) FS XC ride to take out on the trails and with the Del Mar as a decent grocery getter when prowling the streets

 

[waylow]

hey man, at least your bike is running. I feel like I have been working on this project forever! I am stoked though, the bike shop called me today to tell me that they got my bicycle in, and I am going to go help put it together I hope that my friend wants to buy my cruiser when I talk to her. she has had it for a few weeks, I want to get rid of it, and I would like to see it get some good use.

This whole thing has turned into a crazy money pit, but that is how I do things... over the top.

btw, your bike looks great! very clean. props.