Goodbye from Florida

[Marktur]

I will never buy a chinese engine kit. Seems like such a hassle, unless you enjoy being a mechanic as a 2nd job.

The japanese are so much cooler than the chinese. The Japanese are like cool action hero dudes that make awesome stuff and have a buncha swords. And the chinese are a buncha punks that need to get punched.

Now THAT's funny....I don't care who ya are!
(Larry the Cable Guy)

 

[Marktur]

Irish - NICE BIKE, MAN!

Where did you get the motor and kit? Did the long pipe come with it?
I am ready to upgrade to a better motor and bike...but I'm trying to figure out where there's good deals on American or Jap setups.

 

[Irish John]

Thanks Marktur, I got it from Bicycle-Engines.com in Bozeman, Montana. I ordered the long pipe as extra. It improves it to drill a 5/16" hole in the end. Gives it a bit faster response to the throttle. I find stainless steel hose clips secure the end of the silencer perfectly and look good too.
What's this Japanese kit mentioned above? What's it called?

 

[iron_monkey]

The 4 strokes are very expensive for what they are; other more sophisticated but non-bicycle related 4 stroke engines(that would take more resources to make) cost much less. E.g. Ebay Lifan engines, the 110cc 4 stroke trimmer at my hardware shop for less than $200, and of course the 4 stroke whippersnapper.

If they priced them reasonably they would be worth a look. But for now they are just taking advantage of the demand.

Since there were little reliability problems with my previous 2 stroke (got stolen) I got another 2 stroke kit in progress.

 

[PatNoPed]

update

hey everyone,
the bolts that screw into the motor were not long enough and that's how the crack started. there was still plenty of thread left so we used some longer bolts and lots of loctite. everything was tightened up and it's been running great ever since. you really do have to check everything before you ride, it's amazing how fast parts will rattle off of these bicycles! another problem i discovered on accident while riding at night. i look down and see a lightning show on top of my engine. the spark plug cap was shorting out to the top of the engine cooling fins. i couldn't see this happening in the daytime but i noticed it was miss firing quite a bit and running sorta jerky. i bought new plugs and some cheap chevy plug wires and cut em to fit. since then, it's been running very strong and smooth. i'm maxing out at 30mph and i'm almost to 200 miles. my first tank, putting around town I got 60 miles. second tank a lil more throttle, only 45 miles. third tank, moderate to heavy throttle 35 miles. on my 4th tank now.
see ya
Patrick

 

[Irish John]

And plenty here claim these kits are great

Patrick, glad you got it working. Did you use the wrong bolts originally or what? They are supposed to have studs, not bolts, and I've never seen them come too short to get to the end of the threaded hole. You need to screw them to refusal using loctite. The shonky lead and cap well that's just typical rubbish product. The recent ones are particularly bad and like to come out of the coil in the first month. I don't miss those sort of components but they supply quite a few of the same things with the 4-stroke kits.

 

[Happy Valley]

Oy vey, 3 to keep 1 running? Just when I was about to pull the trigger on a 2 stoke kit. I'm pretty mechanical but that's not what I had hoped for. Hmmmmm, back to cogitating.

 

[iron_monkey]

Oy vey, 3 to keep 1 running? Just when I was about to pull the trigger on a 2 stoke kit. I'm pretty mechanical but that's not what I had hoped for. Hmmmmm, back to cogitating.

luck of the draw really. My last one before it was stolen was quite reliable. Add a rebuild kit along with your order for peace of mind? Thats what I did.

Then again if you are financially well I wouldnt consider the 2 strokes, I would consider the 4 stroke, or even better buy an electric motor for legal reasons.

 

[Happy Valley]

luck of the draw really. My last one before it was stolen was quite reliable. Add a rebuild kit along with your order for peace of mind? Thats what I did.

Then again if you are financially well I wouldnt consider the 2 strokes, I would consider the 4 stroke, or even better buy an electric motor for legal reasons.

I hear ya i_m, for me it's got to be low cost, not much choice there.
The thing I wonder about though is if the low cost item out of the gate becomes the more expensive way to go in the longer run. Maybe just better to save up enough dough to go better quality to start and save in the end?

You think the chinese 4 stroke kits are way more reliable than the Chinese 2 stroke kits?

 

[Zev0]

Ok guys, this has gone waaaaaaaaaaay off topic. This is the introduction section.