 Hi from Knoxville.
I had a very small bike shop in the early 70's and have always kept a few bikes around since then (largely unused). I also have an extensive background in vintage motocross machines, so I'm familiar with small two strokes. I'd been thinking of a motorized bike and finally did some searching on the internet and - voila _ I'm a new owner of a 66 cc HT. The only suitable bike I have is a mountain bike (didn't want to put it on the Colnago or Litespeed road bikes). The motor is an unhappy fit, but it's only temporary; I plan to buy a cheap cruiser soon. Had trouble with the motor mount and chain tensioner - finally had to go find a half-link. Then I couldn't get it started - had good spark, fuel in the bowl, etc. Tried starter fluid (I know that's a no-no) and fuel directly in the sparkplug hole. Finally started and was easy to start after that. Motored around the block a few times and then tightened everything up in preparation for a test run. After about 5 miles as I was headed home the exhaust tone abruptly became much louder and the engine lost power and died. I thought it was a blown head gasket, exhaust manifold, or muffler problem, but I couldn't see anything amiss, so I had to pedal home. Took off the head, expecting the worst, but the piston and cylinder looked perfect. Took the muffler apart and it looked undamaged to me. So I restarted the bike an hour later and it started, but with the loud exhaust note and seemed to be 4-stroking. Sorry to keep running on, but I need help from experienced MB'ers. I is there something in the muffler that can be blown out? There was no packing of any kind - was there supposed to be? Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the whole experience and will attempt to solve this setback today.
Cheers,
Bob  | 
