Best Place to Buy a Kit From?

I'm guessing you are looking for a 2 stroke kit?
These motors vary wildly in reliability and there is some tinkering involved to get them to perform nicely. Customer service from the dealer is what is going to make you happy or get you heated, I can only recommend who I have dealt with http://venicemotorbikes.com/shop/?product_cat=bicycle-engine-kits

And the pk-80 you have to scroll down to find it
http://custommotoredbicycles.com/bicycle_motor_kits_21000pk80_motor_kits

After you get your kit follow these tips and you will eliminate a lot of headaches
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GcesQihc7-mm3hJGf7UPiqOaRXZ8ekUT99QUZq2qXXE/mobilebasic?pli=1

Good Luck and make sure to post a build thread with lots of photos, we love pics...and welcome to the forum!

Try a read on this thread. SlowBalt is pretty good with these 2strokes, if he's happy with it , it's probably a decent kit.

http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?p=507137#post507137

With these kits you get what you're willing to pay for. There's two building philosophies: 1) Spend the money for a high quality kit from the start. 2) Buy a cheap kit then spend money to upgrade it. I personally use Staton Inc, EZ Motorbikes is another good dealer. Both are American companies. I've got over 5000 miles on my Staton kit with no problems yet.

Do a forum search for them

Total Newbie here but I was told by my friend who got me into these bikes that Piston Bikes was a good place. He never spoke with anyone there but ordered some parts. I called and talked with Greg with my wants and concerns and he was very indepth with me and when I called back later he remembered our conversation which is helpful lol.

He didn't try and sell me the store as a matter of fact told me to wait on stuff I wanted. I placed my order yesterday and a couple hours later it was marked as shipped however as of today it still hasn't been picked up by UPS.

I went with the PistonHawk kit. The carb is what sold me and lots of extras.

Best of Luck!!!
Dan

I got mine from Pistonbikes......everything was as promised. Fast service with zero issues.

Good luck with your build!

Wjionieis said:

I checked out there website and just before I was going to hit order I remembered seeing that's Dax on the forum website as being American made?

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it's not really made in america, from what I can tell. I've heard that they upgrade a lot of the native chinagirl hardware though.

Have you decided which kit your getting? I pondered that for quite awhile lol.

Wjionieis said:

I checked out there website and just before I was going to hit order I remembered seeing that's Dax on the forum website as being American made? Has anyone had experience with them they could be just as bad any of the Chinese ones? But from what I can see piston bikes is my best choice I will call over there right away. Also anyone from Lansing/mid Michigan area on this forum?
Thanks
Will

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Thats Dax is excellent kits, he upgrades several of the parts here in USA like better screws, bolts, studs, I have one of the balanced lowers I just got together a couple weeks ago, so far the best engine I've had so far, smoothest and fastest, I did some port work and a few other mods, to make it run as good as it does.

Another thing about Dax Is the owner. Duane, he is a good honest guy that provides great customer service.

" Once you go Dax you wont go Bax"

Map

If I remember it correctly it can be somewhat complex to determine what can be labeled as American Made when there are multiple countries involved. Personally I would be a little hesitant on being too hard on DAX. As I understand it the effort and the domestically produced items included in kit can make a difference. I may be wrong but that's how I understand it.

KenX said:

If I remember it correctly it can be somewhat complex to determine what can be labeled as American Made when there are multiple countries involved. Personally I would be a little hesitant on being too hard on DAX. As I understand it the effort and the domestically produced items included in kit can make a difference. I may be wrong but that's how I understand it.

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Exactly.. Is a Harley Davidson American made, a good percentage of a new Harley parts probably come over on the same boat as his kit parts.

It's shady advertising at best, and outright lying when applied to an engine built in china.
The copy should say "built in china, improved in the USA"
But keep in mind here people, if there WERE an American made bicycle engine...
It would NOT sell for $150 bucks.
More like $1500 or more at a guess.
DAX has a good reputation despite the outright deception of claiming to be "American made"
I disagree with him calling his stuff "Made in the USA", but I respect his products and his reputation enough that I would still buy from him.
Just my opinion.

maniac57 said:

It's shady advertising at best, and outright lying when applied to an engine built in china.
The copy should say "built in china, improved in the USA"
But keep in mind here people, if there WERE an American made bicycle engine...
It would NOT sell for $150 bucks.
More like $1500 or more at a guess.
DAX has a good reputation despite the outright deception of claiming to be "American made"
I disagree with him calling his stuff "Made in the USA", but I respect his products and his reputation enough that I would still buy from him.
Just my opinion.

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DITTO: 100%............!

Maybe the add should say (F50 & F80 Chinese Engines Reconditioned and Improved in the USA for Better Performance and Reliabilty)

This would be completely honest and a better selling point IMHO.....

Map

Just for information, I have now bought 24 kits from my vendor and have finally had my second failure.
It was another bad mag coil and he replaced it free within three days. Didn't even blink, just sent me a new part.
I'm really happy with mingsinternational and rose 326 (same vendor)
From what I see here, 24 kits with NO bad engines is something to be excited about!

maniac57 said:

Just for information, I have now bought 24 kits from my vendor and have finally had my second failure.
It was another bad mag coil and he replaced it free within three days. Didn't even blink, just sent me a new part.
I'm really happy with mingsinternational and rose 326 (same vendor)
From what I see here, 24 kits with NO bad engines is something to be excited about!

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No doubt thats a good record

What I can tell you is this the engines may be japanese but the rest of the kits sold by Staton Inc and EZ Motorbikes are made by them. Yes they're expensive but with general normal maintenance these kits will be around for years. So in the long run it ends up being cheaper.

LR Jerry said:

What I can tell you is this the engines may be japanese but the rest of the kits sold by Staton Inc and EZ Motorbikes are made by them.

Yes they're expensive but with general normal maintenance these kits will be around for years. So in the long run it ends up being cheaper.

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Huh?
the only part in the EZ Motorbike kit made by them is the Q Matic gearbox.

The EZM motor is good, a 50 cc Huasheng made in China,
but the rest of the EZM kit is the cheap Chinese junky parts and you don't
even get the wide crank and arms.

You get the rag joint sprocket set up and some of the motor mounts have
been total junk.

The only pic EZM has of the whole kit on their website is a very old pic of a
silent drive box.
They do not list what you get and none of it is made in the USA aside
from the very good V belt transmission and Maxtorque clutch.

I believe any of the kits you buy have the potential to last and run well for many years if they or good out of the box and you make the needed upgrades for better fasteners and in my case I like to replace the wrist pin bearing with a better one.

I will have to admit that I dont always replace the bearing before running the engine for a while, my oldest BGF 66cc has been running strong now since fall of 2009, it has ZERO mods to the internals, only replaced the weak soft mounting studs, proper maintenance and use of a quality 2 smoker oil all running through a well tuned carb makes a huge difference.
I was at my local bike shop yesterday picking up some tubes, the owner knows I have motorized bikes and thinks they are nice, he told me I was the only person around here that he knows of that has been able to keep mine going, he said he has had three people come in with them asking him to work on them, of coarse he doesn't have a clue about the engines so he always turns them away, he was hinting around about referring these people to me but I dont have the time to mess with other peoples cobbled up mess as he had described them to me...LOL!
I told him that many people have bad luck because they just dont know how to fix the simple things and do the simple upgrades to the common problem areas of these china engines. I would be happy to help them if I were to see them having trouble or I will tell them what they need to do, but no time to run a motorized bike repair shop....LOL!
As it has been mentioned many times on this forum by many people, buy from a seller who has a rep. for taking care of customer service issues and answering their emails and the phone, seen way to many people on here have an issue and some of the sellers just brush them off after they get their $$$'s

Dax, Venice, Sick Bike Parts, Piston Bikes and JNMotorbikes... I have read good reports of all these venders and I have dealt with 3 of the 5 of them I listed here personally with no issues with parts or service.

Map