Questions from a beginner

ceb24 said:

pedals will be spinning way to fast to put my feet on if I need to stop quickly.

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The pedals should not spin, unless you want them to. Can you attach some pics of what you got? I cannot picture your setup.

ceb24 said:

I recently bought a huffy cruiser with a 2-cycle engine kit. The bike needs a lot of work and I have a couple questions that maybe someone can help me with.

First off, the bike uses coaster brakes, which I don't like because the pedals will be spinning way to fast to put my feet on if I need to stop quickly. I would like to install hand brakes on the bike but I'm not familiar with cruisers and I don't see anywhere to mount the brakes such as on my mountain bikes. Any suggestions?

Also, the engine is a pedal start and I would like to convert it to a pull start. However, I've noticed that this would mean installing the pull cord where my clutch is. Right now the clutch is essential to stopping otherwise the bike keeps accelerating. How would I go about making this conversion?

Thanks!

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This smells like a troll post since so much is wrong here...

But just in case it is legit, you are going to need the help!

From the sound of it, you bought a bike that someone else built? Is it a 48cc or 66cc in-frame China Girl? For the rest of this post, I will assume it is and you are using a Huffy Cranbrook style beach cruiser frame.

1) The pedals should not be spinning if you are not pedaling. Just like riding a non-motored bicycle that is not a fixie, you should be able to coast without the pedals egg-beating. If they turn automatically with the motor, either the rear hub is jacked or the builder did something very odd.

2) You should have bolt holes for fender mounts over each wheel, on the front fork and under the seat. If so, you can bolt side pull brake calipers there.

3) The pull start goes on the opposite side of the motor from the clutch, over the magneto. The clutch remains the same.

ceb24 said:

Not a troll, just a huge newb. I have no experience with coaster brakes and I thought they worked similar to fixies. I did buy the bike from a builder. The pedals do spin when it's running, but I think this is due to boot leg repair done on the wheel. When I took it off the bearings all came out. Anyways, I've ordered a new one so that should be fixed.

As for the engine question, it was a dumb one. From the pictures online it looked like the pull cord was on the same side.

Anyways, thanks for the answers

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In that case, welcome! There is a ton of information here and it is easy to lose a couple hours just reading through old posts, but well worth it.

It does sound like your coaster brake hub was toast, then. It should allow you to just coast when not pedaling and then apply the brakes when you press the pedals backwards. I upgraded my stock Falcon coaster brake to a Shimano E110 hub and it works a lot better, but still need to add a good front brake since it takes a loooooong time for the coaster brake to haul down a bike from 40... I have a 90mm drum brake sitting in a box that is waiting to be laced into my front wheel.

maurtis said:

In that case, welcome! There is a ton of information here and it is easy to lose a couple hours just reading through old posts, but well worth it.

It does sound like your coaster brake hub was toast, then. It should allow you to just coast when not pedaling and then apply the brakes when you press the pedals backwards. I upgraded my stock Falcon coaster brake to a Shimano E110 hub and it works a lot better, but still need to add a good front brake since it takes a loooooong time for the coaster brake to haul down a bike from 40... I have a 90mm drum brake sitting in a box that is waiting to be laced into my front wheel.

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Yes, a coaster break is not good enough once you mount a motor on a bicycle.

I had to stop suddenly once with a coaster brake once on a motorized bike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYzOVwpfmrw

getting these things to go fast is no problem, getting them to stop is