2-stroke electric starter??

Venice Motor Bikes

Venice Motor Bikes

Custom Builder / Dealer/Los Angeles
I have a customer who has bad knees & is having trouble starting his bike with a china 2-stroke & wants a electric starter put on it.

Does anyone know where to find something like that?? (?)
 
I have been meditating on an electric start for awhile. A cheap SLA 6v could power the whole thing charged off the white wire. I am thinking a modded pull start would be the place to start, or a small electric motor that drives the chain/bike until the engine kicks in.
 
I have a magic pie (well wilderness electric hub actually) on my grubbee starfire 66cc..just lean forward an inch..hit the electric throttle...roll to 4 or 5mph...dump the clutch and away I go...electric start. no pedaling. call me if you like.
I admire you work.

It's art.
 
Why not a type of starter hooked up to the alternator and a battery? Then hook the starter to the CDI to force a spark and turn it over? There should be a way to make that work.
 
I just invite the young latino or filipino kids to push me when I need a start or when I stall out, they love America so much and I hate pedaling!
 
What about just a pull start, Norm? The three speed Elgin I'm working on will have a pull start on it. I don't think anything has been worked out yet with electric. The pancake motor front wheel would work, but adds a lot of weight, expense and more build time... also where to put the batteries, etc. which would all change the look of the bike a lot. I imagine one reason your customer wants you to do the build is for the looks of your builds. He wants to ride in style.
I can't buy the shift kit for awhile, so I don't know yet if there is a clearance issue between the pedal arm and the pull start, but I imagine that can be resolved if there is. Let us know what you come up with.
SB
 
Venice Motor Bikes said:
Ya, there's gonna be clearance issues with the pedal & the pull start. :(
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How bad? Is there any way to extend the pedal arm out with a spacer or something? Could a different arm be fitted? Is there any way to put a bend in that arm to get around it? SBP would do well to figure something out so that a pull start could be used. Somebody might make a custom arm for that side. Starting the engine looks like it could be awkward for anyone and really hard for anybody with a disability like your customer with bad knees. This is my first experience with the shift kit and I'm only familiar with one piece cranks, so I need to figure something out, too.
SB
 
I'm in the same boat as his customer. My knees don't bend for enough to pedal a bicycle. What I have been doing is start it with the pull starter then slip the clutch. That isn't very good for the clutch! I just added a centrifugal clutch to make things easier.

What about a 12v or 6v started from a lawn mower? You need something that will "kick out" once the motor is started. A regular starter motor does that.

In my case a 12v would work because I have a small 12v motorcycle battery mounted on the bike.

Terry
 
brnotI have a SBP shift kit on my 3 speed internal shift hub cruiser. I did not like how hard it was to start, so I put a pull starter on my motor! Love it, it start,s with two pulls, but I had to get the wider bottom bracket from SBP to make it work.
 
tim turbo said:
brnotI have a SBP shift kit on my 3 speed internal shift hub cruiser. I did not like how hard it was to start, so I put a pull starter on my motor! Love it, it start,s with two pulls, but I had to get the wider bottom bracket from SBP to make it work.
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What about stalls and accidental kills- I'd much rather pedal it back on then sit in an intersection pulling on a cord - I'd lose awareness of my surroundings (in traffic)-- don't think that's good (for me).
 
Diver said:
What about stalls and accidental kills- I'd much rather pedal it back on then sit in an intersection pulling on a cord - I'd lose awareness of my surroundings (in traffic)-- don't think that's good (for me).
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You could still pedal backwards to start it. Having the pull start would give you two options. One doesn't negate the other. If pedaling backwards is easy for you then there's no need for the pull start, but for people with bad knees and such a pull start might make the difference between being able to use the shift kit or not having it at all.
Good to hear about the wider bottom bracket.
SB
 
ELECTRIC START KIT: KTM makes a special electric start kit for its two-strokes to give every rider the ability to hit a button and go. The part number is 55112045044.

Terry
 
Of course there's not a part number for the china girl - it's a KTM piece of equipment, not a HT piece of equipment, but it might work which is what we're talking about.

The pull start is junk from what I've heard. If it was a solid piece of equipment, there would be more people raving about it. Instead, we hear all the time how it breaks the spring after 25 pulls.
 
Unless I'm missing something, this kit is $500.00 and we don't even know for sure that it would work on a little happy time motor. I've had a couple of the pull starts which held up fine. Even if they did break eventually, I can buy a whole bunch of pull starts for $500.00. If I have to make a part for the pull start so that it is more reliable, it is still probably less hassle than trying to adapt this motorcycle starter to a HT. I hear all the time about how engine mounts break and how this is wrong and that is wrong... all on a budget motor. I haven't had all this constant breakage. I bet Venice hasn't either or he wouldn't keep using them. I think sometimes newbies assemble kits poorly in haste, have problems and then blame it on the cheap kits they bought because they were cheap. Go easy with the pull start. How many forgot to pull in the clutch before they pulled the starter and broke the mechanism? It is easier to blame the part than admitting to being at fault. Just saying... it gets old hearing complaints about something being cheap when we bought it because it was affordable. Is it a Morini? Or does it have fine German engineering? Of course not. So, upgrade some bolts, don't reef down and recognize these engines for what they are... a great bargain in cheap transportation. My rant... not against you or anyone in particular... just this whole business of bashing the little HT motor. If we want better quality then we have to pay up.
It would be great if someone developed an affordable electric starter for the Chinese kit motor, and in a price in keeping with what it is starting.
SB
 
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