Choosing the right bike - Single Speed? Does it matter?

The gearing on the bike doesn't matter since the motor drives a seperate sprocket on the other side of the wheel. Gears are nice, however, for making it easy to pedal from a dead stop (you need to pedal a bit before kicking in the engine). You can buy a jackshaft kit which will allow you to use the motor with the bike's gears, but it costs an arm, a leg, and possibly a kidney.

Idk much about the quality of the RAW engines. I'll just say that it seems to really be a "luck of the draw" sort of thing with these Chinese motors. For this reason, a vendor with good customer support is great.

If you haven't bought the bike yet it depends on your budget. If you can't afford a new "bike shop" bike. Then I think you are way better off to search craigslist for one instead of buying a new dept. store bike. There are alot of differences that aren't so obvious. Esp. in the bikes hubs. Lot of walmart type bikes have a rear hub that has the right side bearing inset quite a ways. The rear cluster screws on like a single speed freewheel does. The ratchet inside is poor. The tires bad and spokes are soft. Poor brakes. There's a reason for the $200 difference in price. Mt. Bikes are way easier first builds. Single or multi speed only matters if you want to do a shift kit later. But generally a multi speed rear hub on a good bike is a better hub and easier to build. Please read the sticky's about motor prep etc. It will save you tons of greif. Motor opinions are going to vary alot. I buy all my motors from Zoom cause I've had good luck with them.

At the begining of almost every section in the forum the first few posts are labled "sticky" that's because they were deemed to have info important enough to remain at the top of the list.

Here's a link where I took the time in type out some of the stuff I do when I build a bike. It's the 3d post from the top I think.

http://motorbicycling.com/f3/ready-build-looking-last-minute-advice-10175-2.html

As far as I am concerned craigslist is the only way to go to find a bike for your MB projects. I have got some unbelievable buys there. Look for older Mt. bikes with the small chrome moly tube frames, Most of the, the Giants, Schwinns, Treks ect. were about $400 Mt. bikes when they were new. They can usually be had for around $50. They make for a really easy and dependable build since they have really good components.

John