Vendor Recommendations

[Moon_Dog]

Hello to everyone. I just recently started building MBs in my office here in South Georgia. It's a good hobby and kills time while I'm waiting for customers. I plan on selling the bikes for a small profit.

The first build is a Mongoose Mack with a Flying Horse engine kit from BikeBerry and a jack shaft kit from Sick Bike Parts. That one went fairly well, the engine didn't have the right head (straight instead of slant plug) but after too long on hold BikeBerry sent me the right head.

The second build, which I just finished yesterday, is the Black Stallion kit from gasbike.net. I forgot to check the BBB rating before I ordered so little did I know that gasbike has a "F" rating and screwing customers seems to be all they know how to do. The kit is supposed to include a $118 Kent Bayside but they pulled a bait and switch on me and sent a $78 Roadmaster instead and now it looks like I'm stuck with it unless I pay more than the cost of the bike to send it to California. I've read complaints from people who did pay the cost of returning merchandise to gasbike and never received a refund. Gasbike kept their money and their order also. Real class!

So, I'm looking for an honest vendor to buy engine kits from. I just started an account on Alibaba and contacted a Zeda factory representative named Jessica Wang. She sent me a $1,030 quote for 10 JL Zeda engine kits delivered. That price includes a $370 shipping charge with a 14 day delivery time. How does $103 per kit for JL Zeda engines sound? Is there a better deal to be had? Thanks in advance.

I attached photos of my first 2 bikes.

 

[JerboaJohn]

Miss Wang is a good contact with them. be advised your shipment will sit in customs 7-10 days +the stated time. excellent quote for 10 units FOB. also above $800 there could be a VAT tax.
are you getting 40mm crank engines or 38mm? but other then that, just normal China girls?
best supplier of stock stuff I found other than mfgrs, is BicycleMotorWorks esp for single or small qty,,

 

[Moon_Dog]

Thanks for the reply. The document Miss Wang sent me states 47x40 bore & stroke which calculates to slightly over 69cc. She said it is the most popular. I can buy 30 units for $64 each and a total shipping charge of $75 (by boat) but I have to clear customs at the port of Savannah here in Georgia. She gave me contact info of a company in California that can give me an idea of what it costs to get them through customs.

I took a look at BicycleMotorWorks and that looks like a great place to buy a kit. I actually ordered a silver Zeda off eBay yesterday and I just took a look and what do you know, the vendor is Bicycle Motor Works, but I paid more than if I had ordered directly from their web site. I'll know next time.

I made some progress with my beef with gasbike.net. PayPal settled the complaint I filed against gasbike by crediting me the $40 gasbike scammed me out of so that is good. Gasbike no longer responds to my email or returns my calls. I think I have that bike sold for $300. I really like the way it runs, just a lot of vibration.

The Flying Horse engine I have on the Mongoose Mack with the shift kit has like zero vibration but it doesn't get the rpms I want. It pulls OK up until a certain rpm then flattens out with that 2-cycle stutter. It is supposed to be EPA approved so maybe the carb is too lean? I have 25*1 synthetic in the tank now. After break-in it calls for 100*1 but I'm afraid to go that lean on oil. Thanks again for the response.

 

[gary55]

Thanks for the reply. The document Miss Wang sent me states 47x40 bore & stroke which calculates to slightly over 69cc. She said it is the most popular. I can buy 30 units for $64 each and a total shipping charge of $75 (by boat) but I have to clear customs at the port of Savannah here in Georgia. She gave me contact info of a company in California that can give me an idea of what it costs to get them through customs.

I took a look at BicycleMotorWorks and that looks like a great place to buy a kit. I actually ordered a silver Zeda off eBay yesterday and I just took a look and what do you know, the vendor is Bicycle Motor Works, but I paid more than if I had ordered directly from their web site. I'll know next time.

I made some progress with my beef with gasbike.net. PayPal settled the complaint I filed against gasbike by crediting me the $40 gasbike scammed me out of so that is good. Gasbike no longer responds to my email or returns my calls. I think I have that bike sold for $300. I really like the way it runs, just a lot of vibration.

The Flying Horse engine I have on the Mongoose Mack with the shift kit has like zero vibration but it doesn't get the rpms I want. It pulls OK up until a certain rpm then flattens out with that 2-cycle stutter. It is supposed to be EPA approved so maybe the carb is too lean? I have 25*1 synthetic in the tank now. After break-in it calls for 100*1 but I'm afraid to go that lean on oil. Thanks again for the response.

The stutter is called 4 stroking. That means it's a tad rich. Jetting down to a #69 or must likely a #68 should clean it up. The cause of this is it is getting to much fuel to air ratio and requires a second stroke to have enough oxygen in the charge to ignite. Your right on the 100/1 being to little oil. Some go as little as 50/1 with high quality synthetics. I stick with 32/1 using Amsoil Dominator full syn. I don't know enough about the import buss to add any good advice other than the Zeda engines are good engines. Best of luck on the new venture.

 

[Moon_Dog]

Great advice, that's why I join forums. I would have went the other way and made it worse. The engine doesn't 4 stroke when I'm climbing hills, just under a light load. You must be familiar with the Flying Horse carb, looks like it is a Runtong. It's a lot different from the others I've seen. It has a rectangular slide instead or round and I had to bend the end of the throttle cable to attach it to the slide. The bike I have it on has a Sick Bike Parts shift kit making it a 7 speed but the other bike with the conventional drive and Black Stallion engine will probably out run it on top end. Thanks for the tip, I'll be looking for jets.

 

[Spare_Parts]

Thanks for posting prices. Now to decided if I want the money tied up for shipping time.

Have you got in touch with CDH? Curious what their pricing is.

 

[gary55]

Thanks. These engines when running rich generally clean up and run good under a load like hills or acceleration but once they are cruising with light load they 4 stroke. I'm familiar with the runtong carbs. They usually run richer than the stock NT. so I would suggest a #68 and a #66. I'm at 5400 ft. and sometimes have to go as low as a 64 to get them to act right. You can find better deals on Ebay for the jets, but I get mine from SickBikeParts because they sell real Dellorto jets so their's no guessing on the accuracy. Most of the Runtongs use 5mm jets, but I have seen some of the dellorto clones with a 6mm jet so you might want to check it out before ordering. If the thread size on the jet is the same diameter as the stock NT carbs. then it's 5mm. I also use the SBP shift kit ran to a NuVinci hub. SBP is a great company to deal with.
View media item 61555

 

[Moon_Dog]

Thanks for posting prices. Now to decided if I want the money tied up for shipping time.

Have you got in touch with CDH? Curious what their pricing is.

I'm trying to think what CDH stands for. Is that another Chinese motor company?

I signed up with Alibaba to get in touch with engine kit companies. Alibaba, the way I understand it, requires 3 people vouch for you to get to a good level. I suppose I would have to do business with 3 companies in order to get 3 vouchers. Jessica Wang is great to deal with, her English is better than mine.

I tried Aliexpress but they don't have the deals I want. I signed up with Aliexpress when I was working in South Korea, before I retired. My wife was in the Philippines and got a good deal on an Isuzu Big Horn with a 3.0 turbo diesel with a bad turbo. I bought a new turbo on Aliexpress and had it shipped to the Philippines for $300. That was such a good deal I thought the engine kits would be cheaper also but I couldn't find any deals so I signed up with Alibaba.

 

[Moon_Dog]

Thanks. These engines when running rich generally clean up and run good under a load like hills or acceleration but once they are cruising with light load they 4 stroke. I'm familiar with the runtong carbs. They usually run richer than the stock NT. so I would suggest a #68 and a #66. I'm at 5400 ft. and sometimes have to go as low as a 64 to get them to act right. You can find better deals on Ebay for the jets, but I get mine from SickBikeParts because they sell real Dellorto jets so their's no guessing on the accuracy. Most of the Runtongs use 5mm jets, but I have seen some of the dellorto clones with a 6mm jet so you might want to check it out before ordering. If the thread size on the jet is the same diameter as the stock NT carbs. then it's 5mm. I also use the SBP shift kit ran to a NuVinci hub. SBP is a great company to deal with.
View media item 61555

Nice bike! I looked around and decided SBP would be good for buying jets. They provided excellent support for the shift kit. I was unable to determine the jet size online. Might be a good idea for me to measure the jet as you suggested. One end of my office is now a bike shop and I have a lot of free time to tinker so it's no big deal to remove the jet. Thanks.

 

[gary55]

Just the sound of her name would be enough to sway my decision.