Getting close to fireing up the new moon dog

I am in the third day of building my first bike. My bike is a moon dog and the engine is a 66cc ht 2 stroke. I know a lot of the kit sellers say it only takes 4-6 hours to install a kit. But after reading and reading and reading some more in these forums, I have tried to do some of the other things that many of you experienced guys recommended. Like fabricating better fender brackets. Replacing the cheap fasteners. Tearing down and lubricating the bearing on the new bike. Right now I have everything installed except the gas tank. This evening I locked the clutch so the engine wouldn't turn and pedaled the bike around the yard just to see if the chain would track on the sprocket as it should and hopefully break in the mechanical gears by pedal power before subjecting them to the speed and torque of the engine. I shortened the chain and put it back together without using a master link. It is very tight and I am not using a tensioner. Another reason for the "pedaling break in" is to hopefully get the chain to a reasonable slack play without over stressing the spokes on the cheap moon dog wheel. Is there an easy way to fire up one of these engines with the bike on a stand? I would like to be able to try to work out the kinks and fine-tune the mechanicals before taking to the road.

thanks for the suggestion. i fabricated a hook to suspend the bike using the seat post tube. I'll have to see if i can fabricate a floor stand.

Re: It's Alive!

It’s alive! It’s alive! The Moon Dog growls!
Well folks, after starting last Thursday, tearing down the bike, lubing all the bearings, fabricating fender brackets, motor mounts, gas tank brackets, and a ton of other modifications, I just straddled the bike at about 3m this afternoon, pedaled across the yard, popped out the clutch and the li’l beast sprung to life. After a few laps around the house and several stops to adjust the clutch cable, I took to the road for about a two mile shake down with my neighbor behind on his brothers 50cc store-bought scooter. The bike performed great! After getting back home, the clutch cable required a little more tweaking. I then put on the chain guards, a set of pedals off one of my junk bikes, and the mechanical speedometer from my Raleigh road bike. I ran out of daylight and energy at about 9m. Tomorrow I hope to install mirrors, a tool bag on the back of the seat and a package rack. I think I’ll search the threads on the forums to see what you guys are doing for lights. Big thanks to all you guys (and gals) that have been doing this for some time now. The information you have supplied has been of great value. One thing in particular was the tip on replacing the sparkplug wire. I was about to just yank the original one out of the IC but decided to check the forum for how to properly do this. You folks came through. I had no idea the thing screwed out. It might be ok to jerk it out, but I don’t think this stuff can stand too much of the “bull in a china shop” approach. (Pun intended!)

For now, I think I’ll just sit back with a bowl of homemade peach ice cream and read what the rest of you folks have been up to.