HF preditor on the way

Today I rode the park on my ebike and had a grand time. My wife went to church so I decide to do the three mile ride to Walmart on my ebike. I hooked the trailer up with extra batteries and off I went. The ride kicked my butt. I realized that the ebike is fine for excercize and for riding the trail even but for a serious trip, even a short one I need a strong motor.

Since I carried the HF greyhound back even after I butchered it, I decided to buy from them again. The preditor 2.5 hp was on sale for 109.99 and I found a 20% discount so on a whim I bought it.

I have a new emotor on the way as well. I will be stripping the E motor off the big coaster bike and adding an emotor to the small light 24" with gears. That will help a lot with the park ride I think.

Anyway here we go again. I still going with the keep it simple stupid concept. cause I am simple and not so bring most of the time.

So I will be building another big gas bike after all.

I have been comparing the picture from the predator and the Greyhound and the are very similar. I am not going to chop this one up. I am going to leave it just like comes from the factory and just live with it. The top gas tank adds a couple of inches. If it is a real problem I will just change the rear tire from a 24" down to a 20". With an engine this big there isn't going to be any pedaling for sure. So the size doesn't make any difference I think.

The muffler is going to be up against the seat again I think but I learned to make a heat shielf from a bit of roof flaishing. I should be able to take care of that this time. I also know this time I have to mount so that the engine is fairly level to get the gas from the tank to the carb. Or at least keep the tank full. Maybe this one won't have the gas tank leak problem.

What I am going to do this time is try to build a strong bracket so it won't twist. Those things are not weed eaters lol. My number one priority is to mount it so when it goes down the motor sits level.

I will figure the rest as I go along. I can use my old drive wheel from the Greyhound. The bike itself is heavy but the last one pushed it along just fine. I have a huge fear of a bike with an engine this big just disintegrating on me.

Since I know how to work out most of the problems from the last build, this shouldn't be too bad. Of course as Lincoln said about the play, "How bad can it be?"

Excellent idea about the muffler. I moved it around on the manifold but never was happy with it. Once I get it mounted and running, I think I will see about rerouting the exhaust without removing the muffler. A baffle outside might work okay, just to redirect the exhaust.

I still have to finish the bubblegum bike. as an ebike with front wheel drive. That is going to be my ride down the park trail bike. I need the exercise. There won't be much with this new bike.

One interesting thing is that the threads on the end of the drive shaft at 5/16 24 on the greyhound they were metric. I wonder if the mounting holes will be 3/8 or metric like they were on the greyhound.

I hope they have all the bugs out of the engine. I just want to ride it I don't want to be tinkering with it. I'm not going to butcher this one any more than I absolutely have to. I figure the less I do the more likely it will be to fun correctly.

I have some real decisions to make with this. The first is where to mount it. There are six mounting holes on the drive shaft side of the motor. I hope there are four more underneath it. I would like to mount on the drive shaft side, but I still would have the issue of the motor twisting. Twenty pound is significant weight.

I am also determined not to butcher this engine at all if I can help it. So the engine has to sit level on the wheel. That is going to be the first issue I have to address. You don't have that concern with 2 cycle engines With pumper carbs.

I just noticed from the picture that this thing has a sticker that says 99cc that has to go right quick.

the order is still being processed. lol

I am just doing all the research i can before it gets here. It is pretty much the same as the greyhound so I have a good idea what I am going to have to overcome. I did find my rails from the greyhound so I won't have to buy any metal. I'm not sure if any of the hinges I have will work or not, but I hope so.

I did some welding to be sure I could make a good solid weld on the rails so I wont have to worry about it vibrating loose. I like to get things as ready as possible. I won't be testing it till it is on the bike because I might have to weld around the motor and I don't welding around a motor with gas is the best idea. I have done it by throwing a cloth over it but it isn't something I would recommend to anyone else.

It should be about a week before we are good to go. I will post pictures when it is. I am also working on a trail ebike at the same time. I'm waiting for a motor for it now. Even if that motor doesn't work I will just pull the one from the big bike I plan to put the predator motor on. It works fine but the motor hangs off the side so it would be off balance for a front wheel drive. I have one coming I can mount over the wheel. I hope.

I have been giving this bike a lot of thought, which is to say wandering around saying what if a lot. I am beginning to think that I should go back to the 20" rear wheel. Even though I spent a small fortune (the cost of three used bikes) on that rear coaster brake wheel in the 24" size. Those four inches with my balance as bad as it is right now, might make a big difference.

If I find that the front wheel drive Ebike, which I am also building, when the motor arrives, doesn't really need the gears, I can always use it on that bike. With those wide whitewalls, it might be cool on the bubble gum colored bike.

I say this because the 24" ebike I ride now threw me to the ground yesterday and then jumped on top of me. I know how to fall, so I wasn't hurt, but I do hate being thrown and pinned by a bicycle in public. It doesn't do my man's man image much good.

The bike threw me again this morning. I am definitely going to have to do something to make mount and dismount easier. I hope I can do something to keep this bike frame it is stronger than any I have had so far.

Also the engine is on back order till mid June or later.

my predator is on back order. It wont be here until at least next week, maybe longer. So i thought now is a good time to get the stuff ready for the motor. It looks as though it is identical in design to the greyhound so I am going to rig the bike to accept that kind of engine.

First I had to move my electric rhino to the bubblegum frame. I tried it on the front pulling a light trailer with my battery pack. I took off on the trail today and it ran like a three legged dog. Not to mention my tongue was hanging out when I got home.

So I dumped the gear drive rear wheel in favor of a using the 24" coaster wheel. It is the one I had bought for the greyhound, but decided it was too tall for my short legs. So I moved it to the step through frame of the bubblegummer. I moved the motor from the front to over the rear wheel again. With the coaster brake and fat tires the side pull brakes were unnecessary so I used that cable to lift the motor

I saved the shifter to use as a throttle on the predator. I wish I hadn't removed the front brakes but I do have plenty of the harp type brake systems laying around. I can always replace it.

I pulled the front wheel and repacked the bearing the easy way loosened the bearing cone and pack the bearing then flipped the wheel and packed the bearing on the other side and retighten the one cone. Makes a mess but even if the bearings are out of the cage, they still seem to work okay.

The final move was to put two 12v 12ah batteries on top of the sissy drop bar with hose clamps. So it's ready for trail riding. I feel much better about it now. I ran it around the block to check it out and it works much much better. That frame is a real lightweight. I don't think i would trust it with a heavier motor.

Oh yeah I also put a big seat on the little 24" dandy. My butt and those little road biker seats just don't match up.

So tomorrow I will probably begin setting the big black huffy up for the predator. I AM NOT GOING TO BUTCHER THE ENGINE. I need to type that a hundred times

I got to thinking last night before I fell asleep that I only have one brake on that ebike I rebuilt while I am waiting for the predator engine. I also am using a coaster rear wheel with a mountain bike chain ring and chain so there is always a chance of the chain jumping off. Not a good situation if you only have a coaster brake. So I decided that I needed an emergency brake,

I don't need a full time brake and I have the handle bar space spoken for, so I used the old cable run which went through the handle bar goose neck. Instead of routing the cable to a hand brake handle, I just put a pull on it like an old car's hand brake. If my chain jumps off I will have to pull and hold the cable and hope it stops. It's on the front wheel so It should be okay,

Then I went to work on the engine lift. I spent three hours trying to make different things work, then out of the dregs of my mind, I remembered when Comfortable Shoes and I were building those weed eater bikes and something one of us came up with popped out at me.

To lift the engine simply, all you have to do is build a scissors hinge on the motor side of the read wheel attached to the motor mount. Run your hand brake cable to the hinge somewhere near the hinge pin point. Then just pull the hinge forward and the motor lifts almost effortlessly. I'm not shocked at how good it works, but at how long it took me to remember that I used it two years ago and had forgotten it that fast.

I am going to try that on the heavier predator engine when it comes.

Push trailers are awkward as well even more so. At least that is my opinion. As for the bike with twenty pounds of dead weight. The motor is not dead weight except for the first two pedal strokes. It is my experience that once they are moving they do quite well.

To be honest I thought the weight of the Greyhound would make me crazy, but I adapted to it quickly. I don't know maybe it is just me.

I like your bike, it looks really sharp. I need taller handle bars though.

I rode my ebike after I made that post. The ebike has a five pound motor and twenty pounds of batteries and even it isn't a problem. It is a pain when it is standing still it wants to go all kinds of places I don't want it to go, but once it moves pedals or motors it is fine. Pedals and motor is a little hairy sometimes, but not bad. Best ride is all motor but on an ebike you are gonna wind up pushing if I do that too much.

As for the pusher imagine the push comes from an angle, that happened to me a lot when I turned. The bike itself is stable till that motor tries to turn it when you don't want to turn. I only used one wheel for my pusher so it might be better some other way. Bobtail push trailers are fun though.

I think you can get used to most anything to be honest.

Honestly I find the bmx bars the best. When I buy a cheap thrift store bike to butcher for parts I always save the bars, the crank set, all the bearings, the wheels and chains.

These days I find a full sized frame of any kind, then I use the handle bars, crank set and wheels from the bmx. Something about that combination fits my body size. I'm just a hair under 6ft. and 210 right now. I'm old with bad balance and not as flexible as I used to be. With that combination I can get a bike that is stable, low enough in the rear for me to mount even with a motor on the rear. Tall handle bars allow me to sit back so my weight is over the space just in front of the rear wheel and makes the bike stable. Sometimes I use the larger front wheel and it throws the weight on the rear and even that is stable.

That is the configuration of the new predator when it comes. 24" wide coaster wheel in front. 20" wide bmx wheel in the rear. Once I get it running well, I will probably spring for a rear white wall tire to match the front one.