Faster than I thought.

Went for a ride yesterday...actually had a day without rain.
The bike was running good. Had a very slight tailwind working in my favor. I was curious what my speed was so I counted pedal strokes. 55 strokes in 30 secs, so 110 per minute. I was in 9th gear - 52 tooth in front, 17 tooth rear. With my 27 inch wheels, that works out to 27mph.

That's a little faster than I thought she was doing. I usually tell people (because they always ask "how fast does it go") that it tops out at 25. Maybe I'll say 30 from now on.

Thanks for the good words, Ron.

I had a feeling my post might be a little confusing. I was running the engine. I only pedalled to calculate my speed. I was careful to pedal lightly and not increase speed. Maybe someday I'll pry the wallet open and buy a speedo.

Yeah, it was a cheap build. These old Schwinn Continentals used to be easy to come across, even in the garbage. The recent trend of converting contis/varsities into fixies might have reduced the supply a bit. I was taking a chance building with a $10 used leaf blower. I don't know how old or worn my engine was when I got it. The black fuel lines were crumbling in the tank. Luckily the carb wasn't clogged. But I got about 2000 miles on the motor last year, so I've already gotten my "money's worth" out of it. If you can buy a china-motor kit for around $100, that's a small price to pay for a lot of fun.

I wish I took pics during the build. I'm thinking about motorizing another old Continental with a Craftsman weed wacker my brother-in-law gave me. I'll take pics during that build, if I do it. My plan is for it to have a combination friction/chain-drive with 2-speeds. It's top-secret, so that's all I'm saying for now!

Drive wheel is 1 1/4 inch, BTW.