Hello all!
Last weekend I was at a Barnes and Noble and happened to see a DIY magazine featuring several articles about things that people have built. The particular magazine that I was looking at had an article about making a motorized bicycle and featured links to this forum, bikemotorkit.com and gasbike.net.
After reading that story I was hooked! I had no idea that this was possible! I'm really wanting to build a bike.
In my spare time, not that I have too much of it, I'm digging through the posts in this forum and trying to find out as much information as I can before I get started.
So in the interest of speeding this process along, I'd like to ask a few (probably redundant - maybe stupid too) questions.
1. I'm probably going with a two stroke engine so is there anything other than the Grubee Engine or Stinger Engine that I should consider or are they all basically the same?
2. I'm considering using a beach cruiser style bike purchased from Wal Mart. Probably a Schwinn or Huffy. One of the models has hand lever brakes and the other has kick brakes. Is there a preference between either style when you add the motor? I've noticed that the kits include a clutch hand lever, kill switch, and the twist throttle. It seems like you'd run out of room for the hand brakes?
3. On nice days, I'd like to ride this to work which is about 15 miles away from where I live. I'd be using rural and residential roads to get there. Is there any reliability issues with the motors running for any extended period of time? It seems like most of the posts that I've read, people are using them in short jaunts around campus or neighborhoods.
If anyone wants to add any other thoughts, advice or guidance, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks to all of you!
Marc Randall
Decatur, AR
Last weekend I was at a Barnes and Noble and happened to see a DIY magazine featuring several articles about things that people have built. The particular magazine that I was looking at had an article about making a motorized bicycle and featured links to this forum, bikemotorkit.com and gasbike.net.
After reading that story I was hooked! I had no idea that this was possible! I'm really wanting to build a bike.
In my spare time, not that I have too much of it, I'm digging through the posts in this forum and trying to find out as much information as I can before I get started.
So in the interest of speeding this process along, I'd like to ask a few (probably redundant - maybe stupid too) questions.
1. I'm probably going with a two stroke engine so is there anything other than the Grubee Engine or Stinger Engine that I should consider or are they all basically the same?
2. I'm considering using a beach cruiser style bike purchased from Wal Mart. Probably a Schwinn or Huffy. One of the models has hand lever brakes and the other has kick brakes. Is there a preference between either style when you add the motor? I've noticed that the kits include a clutch hand lever, kill switch, and the twist throttle. It seems like you'd run out of room for the hand brakes?
3. On nice days, I'd like to ride this to work which is about 15 miles away from where I live. I'd be using rural and residential roads to get there. Is there any reliability issues with the motors running for any extended period of time? It seems like most of the posts that I've read, people are using them in short jaunts around campus or neighborhoods.
If anyone wants to add any other thoughts, advice or guidance, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks to all of you!
Marc Randall
Decatur, AR