Your kit reliability experience needed!!! chinese or name brand motors

I called a couple of folks that supplied the chinese 48 and 70 cc motors. I heard claims that the motors would last any where from 1000-5000 miles. I drive alot and I was hoping for something that would get at least 10 if not 20 thousand miles before needing to be completly replaced. My thought is that i need to go honda, tanaka, robin, subaru...some well known name to get a good, long lasting motor?

I have been searching through the forums for the past few hours and I can't find much info as to what you guys are driving and what kinda motors/kits you are using. Specifically, what kind of reliability is out there. I mean, how long will the chinese 2 strokes last in real world scenarios? Am I better off purchasing a new motor every time it blows or should i spend 600 bucks for a tanaka or robin kit from Golden eagle? Its a bit rich for my blood, but if it lasts, then great!
Please comment only if you have 1st or second hand experience! Hopefully this will help more folks than just me!

Commercial engines are pretty much bombproof but they are expensive in comparison... but then so was a Rolls Royce 20/25 in comparison to a Model T Ford

If you can afford it and want fit and forget reliability go for the commercial engine kits such as stantons/gebe/dax titan/XC50 frame mounts. For power and tunability - the 2 strokes every time - GEBE 2-strokes with modifications have been known to run over 50mph. For workhorse and no fuel mixing go for a four banger but be aware for the same power you need more ccs and therefore more weight..

hope that helped

Jemma xx

I see the 2 stroke vs 4 stroke fight on the horizon... I'm packing my bag and leaving town on this one.

__________________
visit my blog for Riding in the hood,... The home brew bike journal....http://frictiondrivebicycles.blogspot.com/ The deacon's fiction

After a little research, sounds like Staton may be the way to go...with a Robin or Honda motor. Still not sure whether to go 2 stroke or 4...lol considering deacons above comment, not sure i want to go there : )

But for kicks and giggles, which one would be better for long hauls 3-4 times a week? By long haul I mean at least 24, maybe 60 miles round trip. Does anyone else log 200-300 miles a week on there bike? I may be a guinea pig on this one...

If I was going to do that kind of mileage I would go with a suspension system on the bike for sure. A plain bike would make you about an inch shorter at the end of the month i think.

__________________
visit my blog for Riding in the hood,... The home brew bike journal....http://frictiondrivebicycles.blogspot.com/ The deacon's fiction

I log about 100 ++ miles a week of fooling aroung on the nastiest twisty.harebrained muletrails ever to be called a city street.
Imagine multiple loops and five way stops instread of a straight line between two points. Pick your path.
Whatta blast !!
Watch out fot taxis pulling U turns because they are lost. LOL


The Chinese kits are NOT reliable.
You will need to become an excellent mechanic.
The parts are made of inferior metal.
Then there is the bicycle.


I love mine.

COST
The kit plus shipping $250.00
The bicycle Wall- e-world $39.00
Tires plus no more flats $110.00
Useable seat Tractor style $20.00

First the kit parts will fail chain, tensioner, carb ,etc.
Then the bicycle parts will fail.

Finally you will have a device that will carry you to your destination.
Covering your legs with burned 2 stroke oil. gas fumes, road film,
bugs, water, and everything else on the roadway.

I get about 160 +++mpg.

I recomend a Staton kit with a honda 50 on a full suspension steel frame mountain bike with a nu vinci hub.
Cost $1500.00 for the kit alone.
Then add the tires, tubes, seat, lights, and any thing else you will need.
Good luck!

I think that the rear engine units, like the Eagle, are probably the most reliable. My thing with those is that they are ugly. The Chineese motors are cool looking like little motorcycle engines and after they are broken in, they haul. If I needed a bike to ride to work everyday, I would get an eagle. If I wanted to (and I do) have a cool looking bike with a cool gas tank and exhaust pipe etc., I would (and I do) get the China motor. The China motors are just fun stuff, they require a bit of mechanical tinkering, but that's part of the fun for a guy/girl that likes touching and playing with mechanical stuff. The fact that they run and speed off is just the extra fun part.

I've got a Chinese "80cc" 67.5cc 2stroke on my mountain bike, with the plan to do 40 mile trips every day, for our 6 month dry season to save on gas....that was a couple weeks ago that the install was "finished".
I've had to teardown and grind away at the clutch handle internals (which turned out to be a trigger shifter for front deralleurs) just to make it work. The chain needs much work to get the links to "relax" without binding when flexed. Countless issues and adjustments and roadtesting and readjustment trying to resolve fuel mixture delivery. Chainguard broke off mid ride. Rear hub modifications to get sprocket clearance, Fuel hose pop off/tank drain miles from home. Grinding bits off bike for engine clearance, still trying to get it to run right at light load full throttle, and the day before my maiden voyage during normal work commute, the rear engine mount fell off, sheering off studs, loosening front mount...much drilling and tapping engine for new studs...american thread 1/4x20 this time since metric threaded rod is apparently unavailable in the united states . Lets see, what else...oh yeah, you can't just get a kit and read the instuctions and bolt it up. You literally throw away the "owners manual and installation guide" as they have absolutely nothing to offer. (Imagine a Mexican who barely has a first grade knowledge of English trying to translate U.S. tax laws from English into English for an adult English person.) Empty the different bags of parts and pieces onto the floor and determine what looks best mounted...there...and you've done better than the instructions already.

Anyhoo...I hoping tomorrow for the first real voyage, and if goes well enough, it's 200 miles a week for me for 6 months... I'll keep a running journal.

I log in 2-3 hundred miles per week on a gebe robin subaru35cc motor pulls good, but my belts and gears suffer. Im going with a dax titon 50cc chain drive because the bebe isnt rugged enough for my 250lb. weight, a lot of stop and go around boston.
the tanaka 40cc works nice but I tear up belts. I hope achain drive will hold up better,

i am also going with the dax titan bicycle motor. should be here in the next few weeks and i will be using it to comute to work and riding around the island. we have lots of steep mountains and will give a full report on everything. the people that i know say the vibration with it is next to nil with the motor which i think alot of the problems we have with the 2 strokes is from all the vibration. i will be putting it on a full suspension schwinn home grown carbon fiber moutain bike with top of the line gearing, shocks and everything else. the bicycle was made for down hill racing so i am sure it will hold up under the presure. i have the sprocket mounted on the disk brake mount. just have to see how this old man holds up

__________________
also visit our stock market forum if you like to trade
http://stockmarketcats.com/