Suggestions Please

GoldenMotor.com

Chalk

New Member
Oct 1, 2016
3
0
0
Arizona
I am pretty set on putting together a motorized bicycle, but I don't know what to get or where to get it. Preferably I would like a motorized mountain bike with an 80CC engine for ~$250. Any suggestions on bikes or kits? Thanks in advance!
 

Agreen

Member
Feb 10, 2013
792
11
18
Southeastern GA
You can get a large number of responses with a question like that. What it boils down to is what do *you* want? My first motorized bike cost me $0 because it was cap cobbled together from a bunch of roadside finds. My second one was a little nicer, and cost $165 because I bought a Schwinn frontier mountain bike at a Goodwill and put a motor kit on. The third was well over $600 because it was a complete custom frame-up build. You pick what you want, because in the end, it's about what you want and are willing to spend.

Now if you find a mountain bike you like, you can ask questions about kit fitment and the like. Most will fit the standard non-suspension frames.

As far as kits go, they range from about $100 and up. I have gambled a few times and never lost. Ebay kits are what they are, and I guess I've been lucky.
 

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
2,784
26
36
Indianapolis
Agreen said it right up there: think hard about what *you* want. You're not trying to please anyone else here. Think of the kind of bike you like to ride. Think about where you'll be riding most, and how often, and when (like, if at night, you're going to want some good lights). If you have any experience with working on engines or motors, that can influence whether you choose 2-stroke, 4-stroke, or electric. You also have to think about what will fit in, or on, the frame of the bike you want to motorize.
If it's a mountain bike you're after, and a 2-stroke powerplant, I think you'll soon find plenty of people here who've done the same and can tell you what works best.
 

KCvale

Well-Known Member
Feb 28, 2010
3,966
57
48
Phoenix,AZ
I am pretty set on putting together a motorized bicycle, but I don't know what to get or where to get it. Preferably I would like a motorized mountain bike with an 80CC engine for ~$250. Any suggestions on bikes or kits? Thanks in advance!
Welcome aboard.
Just to get you off on the right foot, there is no such thing as an 80cc engine, they are all 66cc, hence the 66/80cc the ads say, it can't be both ;-}

$250 is a pretty slim budget unless you go with a used bike.
A quality engine kit like a real Grubb Skyhawk GT5 66cc is ~$150 http://www.bicycle-engines.com/2-Stroke-Engine-Kits/ and worth every penny of it.

Whatever you use for a bike I recommend it NOT be a $100 Huffy, you need a good bike with good brakes before you throw an engine on it.
 

Tyler6357

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2012
1,293
294
83
Santa Barbara, CA
You will have difficulty making a decent motorized bicycle at $250 but it's possible. You will have to buy a used bicycle for sure. Sometimes you can get a good cheap bike on Craigslist or similar site. Look for steel frames with a large enough V in the middle to mount the engine. Also, look closely at the rear wheel, you want wide rims so you can put fat tires on them. You want it to have 36 spokes so you can mount the rear sprocket that is driven by the engine, you can use either a rag joint set up or a sprocket adapter set up to mount the sprocket. Sprocket adapters are better because they drive the hub and not the spokes. All mountain bike rear wheels have a hub with many sprockets to change gears on the peddle side, try to find one with the largest diameter hub you can if you want to use a sprocket adapter. I use hubs that are about 2" in diameter on my mountain bike so that that the sprocket adapter that I use will fit. I found a great deal on an older mountain bike on craigslist for $10 once, it's possible.
Good Luck!
brnot