Before I buy

Andy h

New Member
Local time
2:30 PM
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
14
As I stated in my orig post in the introduction thread I live in El Paso and will be buying a ht motor. I will get to tinker and teach a 10 year old alittle about engines (I hope).

I have been doing the research and concluded that no matter which ht motor you choose there will always be unique problems associated with YOuR motor that will be just as unique as everyone else's motor. The biggest issue is expecting something that does not require work / abit of fun to run.

If looking for a primary means of transportation I think I would go with a friction drive four stroke. What I want is something a ten year old can help take apart with just enough parts (with help) to understand how it runs.

That beings said I've stopped looking for the best, and now shifted my searching towards someone that may visually inspect a motor before shipping it to me. If that's to hard to find, someone that will at least replace a piece if it arrives busted.

What makes it so hard to buy a motor kit is how easy it is to find someone displeased and not enough good happy motor arrivial stories. Very few people take the time to post a happy story, but if they are mad you get to hear every detail why :)

Thanks to Alabama fisherman for the nice write up on what to do with a new motor. I know now the least of the fun we are going to have. Also that I need a lbs per inch torque wrench.

I don't know my laws yet but this is about the build not the ride. There are plenty of back desert roads that he can ride a throttled back motor bike on while supervised.

Maybe I get a few spins also :D

I'll let everyone know who I go with for the motor. I don't expect it to be eBay. info / flames is always appreciated.

Andy
 
Have bought a number of HT's (66cc). First and LAST was from luckyearlybird/BGF (they are related)..All the others I've bought from powerking on Ebay. Have not had any problems out of them...that's after I do the mods. powerking goes by something else as a vendor. If I can find them, they will also be the one I buy from again. Goes by powerkingshop, they don't list the HT's, and I'm wondering if they will again?
http://stores.ebay.com/powerkingshop
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. I ruled out BGF already. I wanted to stay away from eBay, but I guess I cannot say I properly researched unless I do.
 
Well made a lot of phone calls and no one actually looks into the engine box to make sure everything is there/not busted to pieces. Still looking.
 
um. look at it this way. youre the importer. you import 10000 a month. each one makes you a profit of 10 dollars. it takes 1.5 hours to properly inspect each box. then you have to re box them. suddenly, your profit margin is -10 dollars.

would you inspect them?

they are cheap POS! if youre so concerned, buy two!


(p.s. i would never ever touch a friction drive again...especially if i relied on it daily, as i do with my ht! its really fun(NOT!) pedalling a bike up a 5km hill in pouring rain with this engine screaming away thats doing nothing more than chewing your tyre up!)
 
oh, and if you have to replace one or two for warranty reasons out of that 10000 a month? its still a lot cheaper than inspecting the POS!
 
Yeah I don't know what I was thinking. It's just silly to take the time to make sure everything is there. It makes tons more sense to spend twice the time and money to just send replacements. You just inconvenience the buyer.

I would never make it in business.
 
Last edited:
why rule out e-bay vendors?
E-bay vendors sell the exact same engine as big name vendors at a fraction of the price.
The customer service may not be the best with e-bay vendors, but if you know what you're doing, you won't need their assistance anyway.
The only downside is if you buy an engine and it's a lemon, chances are it will be tough to get an e-bay vendor to replace it for free.
every vendor sells lemons once in awhile, but if you can buy an engine for $150.00 v.s. $250.00, and you get a good strong one, you just saved yourself $100.00.
I have bought 4 engine kits over a period of a year from bgf, and every one of them has been perfect, all 4 of them run like tops.
It's not the vendor that assembles the engines, the vendors are just the middle men. they import the engines in boxes, turn them around and re-sell them for a profit.
if you buy one that doesn't run or is damaged, they should replace it for free(if i was an e-bay vendor, that's what i would do because this kind of thing can mean a huge gain in business).
but a lot of big companies and even e-bay vendors don't care about their customers. all they think about is the money,so a lot of them will never replace a bad engine for free.
 
Last edited:
time is money. every minute wasted is another dollar down the drain.

sounds nice, this inspecting does, from the comfort of your chair.

get out there and start your own business importing them if you think its so easy :)

now, if they were guitars with pricetags of $3000+, id expect them to be polished, set up correctly and perfect from the second i lay down the cash.

they arent. they are smelly noisy dirty engines, that run fine if YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.


strange isnt it, that the attitude when i used to work at a hardware store was..." his cheap chinese compressor blew up? still in warranty? chuck it in the bin and give him a new one! at $99, its just not worth looking at, let alone sending anywhere to get repaired!"

the guy could have very easily repaired the leaky thread himself, but its easier to get it replaced, isnt it?

but the hardware store never went broke, despite not opening boxes and checking that what was inside worked properly, wasnt broken or badly assembled. (there was a veeeery large pile of returned items)

do you go to the supermarket and expect your breakfast cereal to be opened and inspected?

and what happens if you write to the company and tell em you found something in your cheerios? (that werent opened and inspected! eeeek!) they send you a freaking carton or two!

still so much easier to absorb the one or two failures than try and prevent all of them!

but, anyways. standard business practises obviously arent what you desire, so good luck searching :)

ps, ill sell you a genuine INSPECTED ht for $450. if it breaks on you though, its the installers fault! :)
 
why rule out e-bay vendors?
E-bay vendors sell the exact same engine as big name vendors at a fraction of the price.
The customer service may not be the best with e-bay vendors, but if you know what you're doing, you won't need their assistance anyway.
The only downside is if you buy an engine and it's a lemon, chances are it will be tough to get an e-bay vendor to replace it for free.
every vendor sells lemons ones in awhile, but if you can buy an engine for $150.00 v.s. $250.00, and you get a good strong one, you just saved yourself $100.00.
I have bought 4 engine kits over a period of a year from bgf, and every one of them has been perfect, all 4 of them run like tops.
It's not the vendor that assembles the engines, the vendors are just the middle men. they import the engines in boxes, turn them around and re-sell them for a profit.
if you buy one that doesn't run or is damaged, they should replace it for free(if i was an e-bay vendor, that's what i would do because this kind of thing can mean a huge gain in business).
but a lot of big companies and even e-bay vendors don't care about their customers. all they think about is the money,so a lot of them will never replace a bad engine for free.

I may not have ruled bgf out so easily with such a nice review. There were similar reviews but they were at least a year old most older. Newer reviews from another forum didn't paint a very nice picture and those posts were recent.

I ordered two motors from two different importers. One said they would make sure everything was there for me and talked about their warrenty. The other said if anything is damaged to let them know and they will gladly replace.

When they arrive I will post the review under the vendors section.
 
Back
Top