Alright, I was procrastinating this thread until the bike was 100% finished just to prove I do finish some of my projects but I cant wait any longer. Some of you probably remember me from the endeavor with the "overpowered electra". Well when I decided to take a break from that project I bought a $100 wallmart bmx bike to get me to and from work while I saved for a car or a real bike. I specifically told myself this bike WILL not end up motorized... but I was motorbike sick and couldn't help it.
Step one was taking a 2004 homelite that's been collecting dust under my work table for a year or two and stripping it down. She was looking a little dirty so I threw everything in a big pretzel jar filled with gasoline and let it all soak for a day. Everything cleaned up pretty well so I rebuilt the little engine with brand new gaskets and gave it a few coats of hi-temp black I had laying around.
Then after some youtube searching I designed a new motormount based on a couple different people's setups where the engine is on a swingarm rather than constantly forced to the tire. this allows the whole setup to be clamp-on instead of having bolts going through the frame, and the engines ability to swing off the tire will allow for a lever clutch system in the future. I also reused the socket spindle that I ran on the other two bikes but I'm currently working on an alternative that will grab when the tire is wet.
I've never been a fan of the motorized bike kit tanks because they just don't look right in my opinion. So I went ebay hunting and scored a 1980 Rupp enduro gas tank for 60 bucks which holds plenty of gas and suits the bike a lot better.
The lights are run by a dynamo/generator that hangs from the tensioner assembly and runs on the top of the tire instead of the sidewall because i had issues with it eating a cup into it really bad.
The bike has 400+ miles on it so far and I really don't have any complaints, runs smooth with only little vibration at low and high speeds, it's been topped out at 27mph so far but I only really cruise at 15-20. Aside from minor failures on the mount that have been reinforced everythings been working pretty good. I have plans to paint the bars and tank sometime in the future, and add one of those older style button seats and maybe some fenders. but in the meantime it's rideable and gets me around with about 120 mpg and only having to fill up the tank once a month for the price of gas, which is easy to deal with.
Here's some pics
This is with the old tensioner assembley which snapped off after about 100 miles.. its since been replaced with a new version in the next pic which has added supports and is still going strong. The new one still uses the eyebolt and I used a heavier spring I had laying around for less engine bouncing.
what do you guys think?
Step one was taking a 2004 homelite that's been collecting dust under my work table for a year or two and stripping it down. She was looking a little dirty so I threw everything in a big pretzel jar filled with gasoline and let it all soak for a day. Everything cleaned up pretty well so I rebuilt the little engine with brand new gaskets and gave it a few coats of hi-temp black I had laying around.
Then after some youtube searching I designed a new motormount based on a couple different people's setups where the engine is on a swingarm rather than constantly forced to the tire. this allows the whole setup to be clamp-on instead of having bolts going through the frame, and the engines ability to swing off the tire will allow for a lever clutch system in the future. I also reused the socket spindle that I ran on the other two bikes but I'm currently working on an alternative that will grab when the tire is wet.
I've never been a fan of the motorized bike kit tanks because they just don't look right in my opinion. So I went ebay hunting and scored a 1980 Rupp enduro gas tank for 60 bucks which holds plenty of gas and suits the bike a lot better.
The lights are run by a dynamo/generator that hangs from the tensioner assembly and runs on the top of the tire instead of the sidewall because i had issues with it eating a cup into it really bad.
The bike has 400+ miles on it so far and I really don't have any complaints, runs smooth with only little vibration at low and high speeds, it's been topped out at 27mph so far but I only really cruise at 15-20. Aside from minor failures on the mount that have been reinforced everythings been working pretty good. I have plans to paint the bars and tank sometime in the future, and add one of those older style button seats and maybe some fenders. but in the meantime it's rideable and gets me around with about 120 mpg and only having to fill up the tank once a month for the price of gas, which is easy to deal with.
Here's some pics
This is with the old tensioner assembley which snapped off after about 100 miles.. its since been replaced with a new version in the next pic which has added supports and is still going strong. The new one still uses the eyebolt and I used a heavier spring I had laying around for less engine bouncing.
what do you guys think?
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