Requisite New Guy Thread

I've been batting around the idea of a motorized bicycle for a few months now, and am just about to pull the trigger on a 4 cycle kit. I was originally enamored with the 2 cycles (my grandmother's stinginess in me), but as this will be my method for going to work 30 miles round trip the all-over-the-board reliability and quality control of those 2 cycles from China have sufficiently scared me off from those.

Current plan is a ThatsDax kit or similar (looking for best bang for the buck) on the most stable ride possible. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I have concerns about friction drive and loss of power from slippage being an issue. The kid in me begs for a shift kit to help go faster, but the survival instinct is balking at that idea. Really no hills to speak of. Just long straightaways and lots of Q-Tips behind the wheel.

Thanks for the forum! I look forward to learning.

Thanks for the welcome, fairraicing31. I'm an admin on a rather busy discussion forum, so it's nice to see a mod toting the welcome wagon.

As for fixing the 2 stroke myself, I'm sure that I'd get to that point eventually. Maybe getting one of those and then doing a tear-down as I saw elsewhere to get rid of any impurities and whatnot would help me get there. However, the last thing I wanna be doing is playing mechanic at 6:30 in the morning when I should be tootling to work.

The other thing which worries me about the twos is noise. I really don't wanna torque the neighborhood with my bike sounding like an angry bee in a tin can. Those fours see to be quite a bit more subdued than the twos, sound-wise.

Fifty is the maximum for it to be a moped in the state of Washington, so I'm golden there. However, the only real difference that I can see in law between 50cc and 51cc is requiring a motorcycle endorsement and having it insured. Pretty minor, really, considering I'll have to get mirrors, full lights and blinkers, and both title and register the bike. The last part I'm really not looking forward to, but if that's what it takes then so be it.

Not that they'd tear down my engine and measure the displacement, but I get what you're saying.

The waiting begins. I pulled the trigger on the 50cc four stroke Titan over at ThatsDax last night, and I found a couple bikes on craigslist last night that show promise. Waiting for an email on those.

Now I need to go research a full lighting setup and buy that along with mirrors, then off to the big city for a helmet. According to Grady at ThatsDax the lead time on the engine kits is 5 business days, so add shipping time and I've got two weeks of wait time ahead of me. Painful for those types such as myself that make a decision and want results NOW.