New to Motorized Bicycles

Is it bad to go ahead and use the stock sprocket and chain tensioner?

I would love to get the bike built and just deal with the rest later, if not it may never get done for all I know...
 
Every cut corner is bad; It reduces the life of your build, and in this case increases the risk of injury. Most chinagirl kits are the bare minimum when it comes to quality, just like the <$100 walmart bikes. It's up to the builder to decide how good of a build they want. You can rush and be cursing chinagirls a month down the road (assuming you don't die), or you can spend a bit of extra time and money and build something reliable that you can still be proud of thousands of miles in the future. The mindset you have right now is working against the quality of your build.
 
I have a 100 dollar walmart bike. I also ordered the bare minimun to help get me started until I begin upgrades.. Just enough to get me everything I need to get started.

Sadly I assume I will die everytime I get on my scooter.. So I will keep that in mind.

But oddly I took the wheel off and placed the sprocket on it without the dust cover and it actually fits like magic! It's precentered with the dust cap off, So I need to make some adjustments. I will be taking pictures tomorrow :)

I do not intend to make this a daily ride until I replace certain parts, So far I think I will stick with the stock parts and order some main upgrades soon.

I know my mindset is against the quality of the build, but I personally just want to get it put together and operatable for now. I w
 
Stock sprocket itself isn't an issue, it is how it is mounted. You can get a hub adapter for ~$35 and reuse the stock sprocket and not have ANY additional stress on your (cheap flexible Chinese) spokes. I can understand being on a budget and just wanting to get started, but keep in mind these are safety issues being discussed.

We are taking dirt cheap mass produced $100 department store bikes made for 15mph cruises on the sidewalk then strapping in an additional ~30lbs of weight and ~3hp motors and going ~25-30mph minimum. More than 50% increase in weight and double the rated speed is a lot to ask from a mass produced cheap walmart frame...the spokes are already under way more stress than designed due to the additional weight and speed, so do you really want to add all the motor torque to them as well?

Things like hub adapters, hardware replacements, and upgraded brakes shouldn't really be considered accessories or mods - they should be the very first things done to your bike before riding. Maybe as a motorcyclist I am a bit more safety oriented than most, but 30mph with crappy coaster brakes on a sketchy spoke mount just seems insane to me. My buddy needed a skin graft on his arm and permanently lost mobility of his ring finger from a 30mph drop on a motorcycle. Helmet had a nasty chunk scraped out of it too. Now imagine a spoke coming loose at 30mph on a walmart bike?!?

We aren't talking hundreds of dollars here. A ~$30-35 hub adapter, some loctite, and a front brake addition will go a long way towards making a $100 bike safer.
 
Well I really do not need the data plate as the vin number is underneath of the pedal region, I plan to use that vin number, I just want to ensure they don't try flipping the bike upside down possible when getting pulled over..

Cops can be rather silly, since my first scooter had something to say about "Motorcycle Company", They told me that it's a Motorcycle... I told them if Harley Davidson made the bike but left there info on the plate. Of course it would say that, well something similar as they manufacturer motorcycles. Something about the word motorcycle being on the bike really bothered them..

Also the fast that the speedo went past 30 - 35, I told them it was a universal speedo that could be used for this bike and in higher displacement, that it's a more universal part to find.. They still did not want to believe it. Anything they see they believe plus extra..

I plan to hopefully find a data plate that mentions the displacement, also need to find something that will last that I can put on the motor that reads "49cc".
Every police officer and probably yourself has a phone with a selfy mode, it is very easy to take a photo of a plate with a flashlight for lighting.

Open the speedo and get access to the face, paint over the numbers and lines of 30 and beyond.

Yeah ditch plates or stickers mentioning motorcycle, I'd say Harley emblems are fine, it's such a popular decor even lamps have it, nothing unusual about somebody decorating a bike with Harley decals. Damn near half the Ford trucks I see have a Harley bumper sticker, so it doesn't mean anything factually.

If you get that linked plate have them scribe '49cc' in the number slot, it's a useless slot so that would be easy way to imply a 49cc sized motor.

Police will likely resist listening to reason, as a career based on evidence they will always try to find a flaw unless you can present hard facts that can distract them. License plates and Vin plates are a really good distraction. So is a good attitude.
 
Well the original intension was to get mainly a frame that could be cut up and have modified. I intended to get my hands on a motorcycle frame and have that modified but they were only selling for 200 - 300 at a junkyard so I figured I would save that for later down the road.

As for the spokes, I have intentions of adding a swing arm and or using a pit bike frame so I could use pit bike rims like so:
X006-Y009.jpg


There was a massive amount of things I wanted to do.

I was going to go with a Zeda frame until I realized how poor they are built when the supplier came up with only this:
1531841856034.png


But once I realized how low end the cost is on production, I had no intentions of going with that method, yet people sell these frames in America for 500++. So that's a huge red X.

I'm honestly looking into a lot of upgrades as you said "Safety". But for now I think putt around 20 km/h is what I am going to do for now until I start doing special upgrades.

Even though I'm not short on the cash, it's just wise not to find something I keep dumping money into right away, So i'm just going to leave it be for right now.

I do intend to consider on buying either the pit bike frame or motorcycle frame and convert it over to a bicycle, then I will have something to always work off of that will be strong and interesting with a massive amount of modification space.


Yes! The speedo I obtained stops at 35 mph. So anything past it the speedo might break or just get close to the rim, and I don't want to go that fast on the bike right away and or plan to go that fast way anytime soon.

Trying my hardest to do that! I had considered using that plate and blacking out the "NO" and doing the 49cc as you said.
That's what I am trying to do, if all goes well I should have myself a pee wee herman bike that police will just laugh at..
 

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Stock sprocket itself isn't an issue, it is how it is mounted. You can get a hub adapter for ~$35 and reuse the stock sprocket and not have ANY additional stress on your (cheap flexible Chinese) spokes. I can understand being on a budget and just wanting to get started, but keep in mind these are safety issues being discussed.

We are taking dirt cheap mass produced $100 department store bikes made for 15mph cruises on the sidewalk then strapping in an additional ~30lbs of weight and ~3hp motors and going ~25-30mph minimum. More than 50% increase in weight and double the rated speed is a lot to ask from a mass produced cheap walmart frame...the spokes are already under way more stress than designed due to the additional weight and speed, so do you really want to add all the motor torque to them as well?

Things like hub adapters, hardware replacements, and upgraded brakes shouldn't really be considered accessories or mods - they should be the very first things done to your bike before riding. Maybe as a motorcyclist I am a bit more safety oriented than most, but 30mph with crappy coaster brakes on a sketchy spoke mount just seems insane to me. My buddy needed a skin graft on his arm and permanently lost mobility of his ring finger from a 30mph drop on a motorcycle. Helmet had a nasty chunk scraped out of it too. Now imagine a spoke coming loose at 30mph on a walmart bike?!?

We aren't talking hundreds of dollars here. A ~$30-35 hub adapter, some loctite, and a front brake addition will go a long way towards making a $100 bike safer.
I'll interject for a moment, I wouldn't play off the spokes as cheap flexible junk, I've seen those cheap junk resist breaking, instead ripping the nipples out of the cheap rim. Spokes are intentionally flexible objects, and usually quite strong even when cheap, materials have some play in this. I don't think any spoke other than what might be used on a motorcycle would hold up to a rag joint continuously.

You make a good point about those mods, some of them are better suited to be considered what should be stock. If you just think about some of our cousins (whizzer kits) you'll notice that they never came stock with something incredibly jank.

These aren't motorcycles so it's surprising how many people try to treat them like one.
 
I ordered a sprocket adapter.

Everything seems to be checking out great so far. There is just only one thing that might not.. Clearance from the rear sprocket to the motor, Looks like the tire could get rubbed. I could be absolutely wrong
 
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