Check out my new friction ride

Just put it together Sunday night, and have been breaking it in slowly.
It's a Gary Fisher Tassajara that I've had for 2 years. It's pretty quick so far with the Mitsubishi motor, and hopefully I'm breaking it in correctly.
But...
I don't feel like I'm getting the roller on the rear tire correctly though. Either that or my tires are really soft.
Any suggestions on the roller setup or the break-in?

Thanks.
 

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Well, let's see. When I had my friction drive, the roller was positioned precisely in the middle of the top of the rear tire. I see that yours is set to the rear a bit.
I don't know if that makes a difference or not.
 
Nice ride r5. It took me a while to get the combination of tire pressure and roller pressure right. I set it so the roller deflects the tire about 1/4", and I run the tires at the high end of their pressure range. As for "break-in", I wouldn't worry about it much. The Mitsu is designed and built well. I run mine wide open, often for 20 - 30 miles at a stretch. No problem.
 
Thank you. I like it thus far.

The mirror works "ok", nothing spectacular. I am glad to have bought the rounded type that shows more area than just the flat mirrors.

I'll keep playing with the tire settings. My tires are only 1.5 inches wide so I'm probably not getting a very wide surface area covered with the roller as it is. I'm trying to find some wider smooth treaded tires that don't cost a lot of money, just no luck this far.
 
Nice ride, I just bought the same kit to affix to my girls bike to see if she likes the whole MB experience, otherwise it's going on my schwinn as a lightweight bike that I can easily put on my rack and take anywhere. As far as the tires I ordered Continental Town & Country 26x2.10. They're smooth negative treaded and are supposed to be extremely long wear. They've had great reviews everywhere I've looked but they were backordered until 8/8 from performance bike so I'm still waiting for them. Due to the fact that I wanted to wait for the right tires to come in I haven't started on her bike yet but after setting up a Staton NuVinci kit with full street legal moped lighting and accessories for my state it should be a cinch to put this thing on.
I'm surprised you're running 26x1.5's with a MB to begin with. I ran my xr75 with 26x1.75 street tires for its first 450 miles and I didn't fancy them much. They didn't seem stable enough at speed for me and made the ride a little tough. I'd be willing to bet thats the only problem with your bike. As far as the mitsu I took it easy for the first gallon of gas at 30:1 mix. Basically just WOT to climb hills but other than that I kept it about half to 3/4 throttle and she hasn't missed a beat since. Now I run her mostly 3/4 throttle on the flats but I've been known to scream the engine for fun too. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the TLE43. Mine has around 500 miles on it now and I'm hoping with the way I ride it she'll last many thousands of miles.
By the looks of your bike once you get some beefy tires on there it'll handle like a dream with that suspension and disk brake.
Keep us posted we always like hearing about the great times members have on their MB's.
 
r5 - nice looking MB. I understand that your engine is 43cc - do you know what hp it is ? I am trying to stay at 2hp or under. My Subaru Robin 33cc is 1.6hp. Hey - in regards to that fine looking MB you got there -- Ride That Thing - Mountainman
 
The TLE43 is supposed to be 2.2hp. I'm sure if you really wanted to stay "legal" you could govern it somehow like limiting your throttle input so you couldn't bring it to WOT. I highly doubt the authorities have a list of greater than 2hp engines on hand if you got pulled over. If anything get a sticker made that says "Mitsubishi TLE33" As far as I've seen the engines look identical. Limiting the throttle input effectively will bring you down in to the California legal HP range while giving you the little extra push you may want for hill climbing and take offs. You're supposed to stay 20mph and under to operate without a license anyways right?
 
Well, strictly speaking, 2 HP (with no decimal point) means that the horsepower rating is closer to 2 hp than it is to 1 hp or 3 hp. (so, greater than 1.5 and less than 2.5)

If it states 2.0 HP, then it would mean closer to 2.0 HP than to 2.1 HP or 1.9 HP.

The position of the decimal point, and the number of digits to the right (the precision) make all the difference.
 
I've been having issues getting/keeping this motor running.

The 1 sheet of instructions that came with the kit say to run 40:1 fuel, but the internet site says 32:1.
I'm running 40:1.

Built it Sunday, rode it, no problems.
Started and ran it Monday, no problems.
Tuesday = can't get it started.
I finally got it to run last night (Tuesday), even rode it up and down the street a few times. Ran fine.
This morning (Wed), won't start again.

This afternoon I got it running.
Had to hold the throttle lever in while I pull started it. Blew out some white smoke for the first 5-10 seconds.
Then ran fine for about 20 minutes, and died again.

Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes, and started it again, no real problem.

Riding it home and it died every 30 seconds-2 minutes. Some of the time it wouldn't run (idle) unless the choke was on fully, but then it wouldn't "run" with any power to push me.

I don't know much of anything about motors, so if you can help, that would be great.
Thank you.


Anyway...
I finally got it to run last night, even rode it up and down the street a few times.
This morning, won't start again.

This afternoon I got it running.
Had to hold the throttle lever in while I pull started it. Blew out some white smoke for the first 5-10 seconds.
Then ran fine for about 20 minutes, and died again.

Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes, and started it again, no real problem.

Riding it home and it died every 30 seconds-2 minutes. Some of the time it would run (idle) unless the choke was on fully, but then it wouldn't "run" with any power to push me.

I don't know much of anything about motors, so if you can help, that would be great.
Thank you.
 
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