Thoughts on my first build... DAX 70cc kit/Schwin Wally Bike

danhill

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Well here it goes for my first forum post (after introduction of course :D)

I got my engine kit in the mail Friday. I ordered from www.thatsdax.com . Other than his site being a bit of a mess I have had a great experience dealing with him so far. My kit is the 70cc Chinese 2-stroke.

Soon as I opened the box I got all giddy with my new toys and ran to the garage to start building. The first bike I was going to use was a pretty ancient beach cruiser I aquired when I was working for a farmer about 8 years ago. It was just hanging out in his barn and it moved from there to my garage where it also sat. The tires were rotten and there was quite a bit of rust.

I mounted the motor on old beach cruiser and there were all sorts of clearence issues. It had a guard around the sprocket that was rubbing against the motor so I cut it off. After I cut it off I realized the pedel cranks were hitting the motor so I took a grinder to them and got them to clear.

I was about 6 hours into the build now. I mounted the sprocket on the rear wheel and when I was putting it on the bike I realized the bearing for the crank was sticking out and covered in rust and totally dry. At this point I gave up, went to walmart and bought a Mongoose 700c something or another.

I got that bike home and it turns out the motor wouldnt fit between the frame haha. I went to bed.
 
Today when I woke up, I went and traded in that Mongoose bike and got a Schwin beach cruiser. I am actually happier with it anyway, the body style and tire/rim size seems a lot less likely to fail under my fat rear.

I mounted up the engine on the new bike. I had to use Dax's mount for the oversized Schwin frame tubes. I don't really like how it looks, a bit precarious but I will give it a chance. I am thinking I may need to fabricate something a bit sturdier than one 10mm bolt.

This time everything seemed to clear a lot better, I didn't have to do any grinding on parts at least :D It was a pretty serious pain unbolting the sprocket mounting rubber doohicker off the old wheel and putting it on the new one. The idea for that sprocket mount is genius, but I still kinda hate whoever came up with it haha.

I have not managed to get the sprocket to be totally strait, seems to have about 2mm of warp. I may work on it more but I am thinking it may be normal.

Somewhere along the way while I was Fiddling with getting the sprocket strait I managed to render my cruiser brake too tight and the wheel doesnt really want to turn without considerable force. I have no idea how to adjust them so I will be looking around the internet to see if I can learn how that works.

Regardless of the coaster brake problem I went ahead and put the chain on. It went on pretty easily but when I was putting the master link back on I broke the little clippy thing and I gotta find another one tomarrow. This is my last major obstical I belive. At least until I get her started haha.

Well that is where I am now, I will update tomarrow. I hope that I get things running and have good news :D

Two more thoughts... I removed the back fender, It was in the way of the chain. I am debating weather I should modify it and put it back on or just leave it off, I have read the horror stories of fenders around these forums, these do seem to be pretty secure with 4 points of connection to the frame. I will worrie about that later though. Also Dax forgot to stick my chain tensioner in the box so he is sending it down to me, is no big deal.

Woops one last thing. I ordered the 56T sprocket, but the chain was not long enough for me to use it so i went back with the 44T. I will see how that works out and might end up picking up a longer chain.
 
Woo got the bike running today, at least for a little while...

First problem I ran into was the little arm on the cruiser brake broke its mount. Was a really flimsy bracket. I kinda thought I might die but dragging my feet on the pavement for about a block was an acceptable alternative.

I am definatly going to get a set of caliper brakes, coasters just don't feel safe or comfortable. I have it fixed for now but I am not going to take her out where there are other people till i have the new brakes.

Second problem is after about a block of riding the carb started leaking gas horribly. It baffled me. I tried getting it started again but I just wore myself out pedaling.

Came home from the shop a couple hours ago and searched the forum and found my fix.. at least I hope. Tomarrow I will try taking apart the carb and cheaking the floater. I hope this fixes it.

Oh yes, I broke the retaining clip that came with my 415 chain, went to the farm supply and they had no 41's but i got a package of ones for 40's and they worked like a charm.

The clutch hand lever thing also busted when i was trying to mount it, right on the bottom where it clamps to the handlebar. It has to be the lowest grade pot metal I have ever seen haha.

So that is where I am now. I hope tomarrow to get it running and adjusted to sound pretty. For the few minutes I had it running it was the most fun I have had in a long time.
 
Woo day 4...

Fiddled witht he carb all day long. I flipped over the engine to make sure the crank was not full of fuel like one thread suggested. The problem all came back to the floater fork.

At first the fork was letting fuel flow out the air filter, so I bent it down. Still couldn't get the engine to start. The symptoms were almost exactly the same except there was not fuel leaking out. I was baffled. I tried everything and finally came back to the floater. It seems I bent a little tooo far down so I went up just a little bit and bam, started up and ran perfect.

So now I have a running motor bike! Well at least I did for about 3 blocks when the chain jumped off the sprocket. Seems I have some alignment problems that I will have to work out, plus I think my tire is too wide and the chain is percariously close to rubbing.

My plan is to build the spacer hoo****er for the coaster brake arm, then look into getting a dished sprocket or use my 56T sprocket since It is already dished. I not really not looking forward to taking off the rubber spoke mount thinger again! But I am getting so very very close to having my bike on the road, it will be worth it.
 
well this is just a trip down memory lane for me!

I had identical clearance issues and motor troubles from the beginning (albeit a different "brand") and the chain jump later. Be sure to change out the bolts on the chain idler as those will strip in a heartbeat (that's what caused my chain to jump)

Props to you for gettin 'er done!
 
Woo day 4...

Fiddled witht he carb all day long. I flipped over the engine to make sure the crank was not full of fuel like one thread suggested. The problem all came back to the floater fork.

At first the fork was letting fuel flow out the air filter, so I bent it down. Still couldn't get the engine to start. The symptoms were almost exactly the same except there was not fuel leaking out. I was baffled. I tried everything and finally came back to the floater. It seems I bent a little tooo far down so I went up just a little bit and bam, started up and ran perfect.

So now I have a running motor bike! Well at least I did for about 3 blocks when the chain jumped off the sprocket. Seems I have some alignment problems that I will have to work out, plus I think my tire is too wide and the chain is percariously close to rubbing.

My plan is to build the spacer hoo****er for the coaster brake arm, then look into getting a dished sprocket or use my 56T sprocket since It is already dished. I not really not looking forward to taking off the rubber spoke mount thinger again! But I am getting so very very close to having my bike on the road, it will be worth it.

Can't wait for day 5 and on of this unwinding saga.



Thanks to posts like this and many horror stories about HT plentiful on this forum I rejected an idea ever buying HT set up.

I am not interested in ongoing project I want to ride that THING not to play with it.

So my first built will be Harbor Freight engine coupled to friction kit.
 
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I think its just the kit you get,i havent had any problems with mine at all but i locktited every nut and bolt and did all that you should do to avoid problems. I scoured the forums and found a great deal of useful tips for a successful build for new builders and put them all in a folder on my computer for future reference. I am very happy with my build so far. A buddy of mine has one and we always have to do something to that one when we take it out lol,but i like tinkering with em.
 
I am pretty happy with my kit, I don't think any of my problems are related to the kit so much as my inexperience with 2-strokes and bikes. I think when I build another one I will be able to take it on in a day now that I have a better idea of what it takes.

I am off to the garage now to see about getting that sprocket aligned. Taking the camera out with me today to shoot some pictures. I will update when I get back in and maybe have some decent pictures to go with it :D
 
Woot got to do some actual riding today!

The chain jumping off the sprocket was all me forgetting to bevel the teeth. After I did that it stayed on like a champ. Still need to cut and install another spacer to completely clear the tire though, was getting a bit of rub on it

but not enough to stop me going for a spin :D

The warnings were very true about fenders. About 1/4 of a mile into my ride that sucker vibrated off its mounts, kinda spun around, acted like a ski for a few seconds and then flew off into a twisted little chunk of metal in the ditch. I am pretty surpised I didn't crash.

I haven't gone any faster than half throttle, it feels about as fast as i really want to go. I think it was around 20-25 mph but no speedometer so I am just guessing.

I spent a few minutes trying to track down a wierd sound. It ends up that the solid rack thing that came on the bike is shaped just right to make this tuning fork sound.

I knoticed that every bump in the road makes me feel like my bike is violating me.

Coaster brakes are definatly not enough. I have to plan where I need to slow down about a full block in advance.

I rode for about 4 miles, going to take the brake in stage nice and slow so I can work out any more bugs before they become catastrophic. Riding was the most fun I have ever had on two wheels though. There is something kinda awesome about just riding along with such a minimalist machine instead of a gigantic complex monster.

I am still not sure if I am supposed to use the road like a bicycle or if I should use it like a motorcycle. I kinda took off across parking lots and through alleys, not sure what is kosher yet.
 
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