Reliability of weed wacker engines

[Jack1]

I want to convert my old pedal bike into a motorized one, and am thinking of using a weed wacker engine (mainly because i'm an unemployed high school kid and those are the cheapest I can get). But before I start I want to know how reliable these engines are. Can they handle hills and stuff? Do they last long? I would really only be using it for joy riding and maybe a 1 mile flat commute to school. Basically, should I get the cheaper weed wacker engine or invest a lot of money in an actual engine made for bikes?

 

[Decidium]

I would say a weedwacker engine would be more reliable than a bike engine kit...

 

[LewieBike]

Cheap and reliable? How skilled are you?

Home made DIY powered bike projects with old weedeaters are a big gamble, unless you are a good fabricator with a lot of tools and mucho skill with metal working. I'd say that even with an HT engine kit you would have better luck with despite their crappy construction, It's not so much the engine, it's the skill and choice of materials in which it's built onto the bike with.

Lurk lots and read lots, some people do these weedeater homebuilts, but these builders generally are pretty skilled at making stuff. Not all direct drive, friction drive cheap weedeater engines last long in this use.