My Bike Story *VERY LONG*

Zac

Active Member
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Joined
Dec 19, 2021
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I'm not sure how, but some random day in July (2021), I came across the motorized bike on the internet. I've always had an interest in vehicles, driving, and have even had quite a bit of time on ATVs at friend's and family's places. The fact that there was a budget option for me to get my hands on something with an engine was astonishing. The engine costed $200, and more for a bike with an open frame.

I didn't want to do it on my primary mtb, because I still would use it for pedaling/normal bikerides, and it has suspension so there wouldn't be room to fit a motor anyway. But by August, I had enough to get a bike and the motor. $250 to be exact.

I scrolled through Kijiji for used bicycles with the right frame size, and eventually came across a good deal. A near mint CCM bike, open frame, brand new tires too. The only downside is the paint. It is a dark metallic green with orange CCM stickers on it. It was a great deal being $50, So i picked it up.

Next, I bought the engine from Amazon. When I got the engine, I immediatley began assembling it onto the bike. Now assembling the engine onto the bike was a blast, but I did run into a few issues. It took a like 2 hours over the span of a couple days to get it together. Once it was ready, I took it outside for a first ride.

I pedalled, released the clutch, and after a few tries, it started up! But there was a major problem. The throttle wouldn't move, and the bike proprelled itself forward, wide open throttle. Thanks to the kill switch, all was well.

After doing a bit of research, I found out that I had assembled the throttle cable assembly incorrectly. I fixed it the next day, and it started up and ran great! But then there's problem #2, less major, but still a hinderance to my enjoyment. There was a fuel leak. It would drip all over ther place. So I had to drain out the tank, and fix the fuel line.

Luckily it was quite easy. After that, I was back on the road! Going around my block, though the neighborhoods, until... "POP!" My chain popped off as I was going around a corner, locking up my back wheel. The masterlink just came off mid-ride. I put it back together though. I was yet again back on the road, until another "POP!" The chain again. This time a random link just fell apart. I took the chain off, and saw that every single chain link was loose. It could come apart anywhere easily. So I hammered down every single link on both sides of the chain, and this took forever. But after, the chain was nice and strong, and I was off.

I drove the bike all over my town, and it was so much fun! But of course, I wanted it to be faster. Back to Amazon! I ended up buying an MZ65 clone pipe for $70. But while unbolting the old exhaust, one of the bolts snapped right off, leaving half the bolt inside the cylinder block. It took alot of work to get out because I didnt't have any left hand drill bits or extraction pieces. It came out though after some work. I bolted on the new exhaust, and I went to go start it up.

As soon as it started, I couldn't stop smiling. It was the best thing ever! It was stupidly loud, but so powerful. The acceleration had doubled and the throttle response was instant. I had alot of fun with this. I daily drove it to and from my school nearly every day with my ridiculously loud pipe, and the cops didn't even care! I drove right by the police station every day on my way to school. But soon it was winter and it was time to put it away.

I moved in December, and I realized what I had to do. The place we moved to had insane hills, and my bike couldn't do it with only an upgraded pipe. I did keep the 44T sprocket on because it was greared more for torque than the 36T. I also wanted to paint my bike, because the metalic green and orange was a weird color combo, and I came up with a better one. Dark grey and blue touches would look really clean. So after alot of research and posting questions on forums, I went on a shopping spree on Amazon. Here's what I oredered:

1. Racing Carburetor, one of those clone ones you can get anywhere

2. Jets, My move resaulted in a huge change in altitude, so it would be nice to fine tune my carb for it.

3. A slide-on muffler, the pipe is so loud, I don't want to make my new neighbors hate me

4. New throttles, the stock ones have the hard plastic grips that get very uncomfortable, so I got nice rubber grips with blue to go with the color scheme

5. High Compression Cylinder Head, compression means power, and power is needed for these hills.

6/7. So my fuel line was hardened right up fomr heating and cooling over time, and I needed more fuel line. And my fuel filter cracked while I was taking it off. So I found a thing for like $11, It came with a fuel line(In blue) , 2 fuel filters (Also in blue) and a free air flilter that was better than the one that came with my racing carb, it was a bit bigger. That's number 6.

Number 7 is an offset intake manifold. My frame just barely fit the NT carb, so I got the offset piece to fit my new carb. Hopefuly it works.

8. Chain tensioner pulley, just much more convinient, i dont have to adjust it like I did with the stock one, and its "safer"

9. Fenders, hopefuly will help keep my bike cleaner. While I was riding with no fenders from August to November, my whole bike frame and engine got coverd in mud, I had to clean my engine like crazy to get it to look good again.

11. Sylicone exhaust joiner piece, so I can join my muffler to my expansion chamber. Both my muffler and expansion chamber have 1" OD so I needed sometinhg to slide over top of them to connect them, while adding a bit of a bend to clear my frame

12. Picked up an NGK BR6HS spark plug pack, for better engine performance than the stock chinese one.

Since I had my engine off to clean it, and for painting my bike when it warms up, (I'm writing this as of December 8th, 2022) I decided i'd have a try at some basic port work. I pulled out the dremel and some bits, and expanded the exhaust and intake ports only by a couple MM, but hopefuly it will add a slight power increase.

I still need to expand the gaskets to match the ports, and I might do some opening up and smoothing the offset intake manifold. I'm waiting on a few more parts in the mail, but I guess I've got to test my patience as I have to wait for the snow to melt before I get my bike going again, and it's too cold to spray paint outside. Thats all for now until I get working on it in a few months.


Moderators Note:
Fixed "The Great Wall of China" solid wall of text to make it easier to read.
 
Great write-up. But please, go through and add some paragraphs, my eyes hurt. I am excited for you. Keep us posted.

I didn't see anything in that list to help you stop safer. Don't forget you need to stop faster than you can go.

also great idea, imo, to peen the chain pins.
 
What kind of fenders did you put on the bike? I've hear many horror stories of folks with fenders collapsing on them while they were riding which resulted in serious injury! Mainly it was those metal fenders that came with beach cruisers.... but be careful with fenders though, if you must have them make sure they are extra secure!
 
What kind of fenders did you put on the bike? I've hear many horror stories of folks with fenders collapsing on them while they were riding which resulted in serious injury! Mainly it was those metal fenders that came with beach cruisers.... but be careful with fenders though, if you must have them make sure they are extra secure!
Yeah I don't like those metal ones, I got some generic plastic ones.
 
Yeah I don't like those metal ones, I got some generic plastic ones.
Metal ones can be used, but you need to shore them up a bit. I use L brackets and plate steel, and sometimes extra thick plumbers strap. Plastic is nice because the tire eats the fender instead of you eating pavement.
 
@Karl Snarl For painting my bike frame, do I need paint stripper or should I just sand down the surface and wash and let it dry? I'm using a paint + primer 2 in 1. And can I do all the coats with one can or will I need a second one?
 
@Karl Snarl For painting my bike frame, do I need paint stripper or should I just sand down the surface and wash and let it dry? I'm using a paint + primer 2 in 1. And can I do all the coats with one can or will I need a second one?
Just sand really good with wet dry. No shiny parts left, all should be dull. Should really sand twice, once with a rougher, like 220, then get real nice with a good super fine wet dry, used wet. Then wash and rinse really well. Let dry a few days, or bake out the water at 150-180 for an hour or so. then start painting. I would use a good automotive topcoat/clear coat. These are gas machines. I'm currently experimenting with epoxy as top coat.
 
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