Jet 80 (66) vs Grubee GT5-A (66)

GoldenMotor.com

Yggdrasil

New Member
Sep 4, 2011
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Greater Bangor Area
Well i find myself in a bit of a conundrum, having just familiarized myself with the sad news about the potential bar on importing these little motors i gotsta get moving on my build if i want to use one of these kits in the near future. I've been searching on the forums and others across the net and i cannot find a proper comparison for these two motors. I know the generic responses like they're all pretty much the same, yadda yadda. As far as i can tell they indeed are identical, just wondering if one is better than the other, or if like gasbike.com they will both end up being a gt5. I essentially want whatever one is slightly more reliable, if such a thing is possible.

Cheers
Ygg
 

The_Aleman

Active Member
Jul 31, 2008
2,653
4
38
el People's Republik de Kalifornistan
They're all a gamble. Some motors are little gems, others are nothing but trouble. No 2 motors are truly the same, not even from same manufacturer.

Regardless, when the motor needs work down the line, you might find parts harder to get. In the long run, a 4-stroke is cheaper and less hassle to run, trust me.
 

bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
264
63
living the dream in southern california
the Jet 80 is not presently being imported into the US, and the Grubee is.

there is no impending "ban." if you have proof of one, let me know. there's a whole thread here already with people crying "the sky is falling," yet no shred of proof.

the jet most likely will come with the simple and effective, and in most opinions, much better NT carb, while the GT5 comes with the problematic CNS. some people get them to work, some people don't, and some people just throw them into a pile and replace them with the NT.

the GT5a also comes with a cheap bicycle chain, low grade castings, blows head gaskets on a regular basis, warps heads, and a multitude of other annoying problems caused by low quality control and a sinister conspiracy created by Don Grubee to dump chinese garbage in the USA by disguising them in the form of bicycle engines, as china's landfills are already filled to the top with cheap, metal slag.

that last part i just made up. sorry Don Grubee.

the first part i didn't. you should be sorry, Don Grubee.

i dunno about the jet. never owned one.
 
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Yggdrasil

New Member
Sep 4, 2011
36
0
0
Greater Bangor Area
Well i dunno if it's hearsay or no, i just know that most places that sell these motors have been out (as far as i can tell) for a few weeks if not longer. So it seems to me something is amiss, Piston bikes offers both engines for the same price, so maybe i'll get one of both and do a sidebyside comparison!

Man i wish i remembered what kind i used to have, didn't have the goofy skyhawk logo i know that for sure, got near 5k out of it. Thinking i'll try the jet first.
 

Yggdrasil

New Member
Sep 4, 2011
36
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Greater Bangor Area
PS sorry for another "which kit" type post, i only ask because i couldn't find real answers about what the frig's going on in kitland lately. Thank'ee kindly for the help y'all.
 

bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
264
63
living the dream in southern california
what's going on is that Nationwide Access LLC, the parent company of Gasbike.net, is the ONLY legal importer of chinese bicycle engines, and the grubee skyhawk factory is the ONLY factory in china that's been certified by the EPA to ship engines to the US.

this means that every motor you see is either an earlier model brought in before 2010, smuggled in from somewhere else (canada, most likely,) or the grubee skyhawk GT5 series.

ALL vendors have to buy new engines from Gasbike, unless they're getting them illegally, or from someone with an overstock of older motors, or if they themselves have a stock of older motors.

so, the supply depends on how many Gasbike orders at a given time. if they buy one container load, those must be meted out to various suppliers, i'd assume to the highest bidder, or to favored customers. after that container load is sold, everyone must wait for another shipment.

if you notice, everyone seems to suddenly have tons of motors in stock, then they all run out at the same time, then they're all in stock again. and some vendors don't even bother to change their websites, and will send you whatever motor they have in stock, regardless of what they advertise.

it seems the supply isn't meeting the demand, and it's possible that the vendors are as jumpy as everyone else, and think if our evil empire sneaks a ban on 2 strokes in overnight, they'll be stuck with un-sellable inventory.

that's the jist of it anyway. i may not be 100% accurate with every statement, but that's about as close to the truth as anyone's gonna get.
 

rohmell

Active Member
Jun 2, 2010
1,531
6
38
New York
Buy anything under the sun except the Grubby Grubee Garbage. A few people around here that wanted to get into Motorized Bicycling gave up after trying to deal with problems with the Grubby Grubee Garbage, and dumped everything on CraigsList and never looked back.
 

Yggdrasil

New Member
Sep 4, 2011
36
0
0
Greater Bangor Area
Ok so i ended up getting a z80 for this build, i'm on the cheap right now so I reckon it's as good as any. Still intend to do this comparison when new shipments of motors arrive to dealers hopefully driving cost down a little.
 

Yggdrasil

New Member
Sep 4, 2011
36
0
0
Greater Bangor Area
I'd be into that, problem is i can't weld (yet) and it seems to me for honda/subaru/briggs ect you would need to weld up a jackshaft to make the drive chain fit right... could be wrong though
 

mxer115

New Member
Aug 11, 2011
15
0
0
az
Buy anything under the sun except the Grubby Grubee Garbage. A few people around here that wanted to get into Motorized Bicycling gave up after trying to deal with problems with the Grubby Grubee Garbage, and dumped everything on CraigsList and never looked back.
I feel you.... after having to buy another muffler and yadda yaddda only to have my motor **** out because the stud snapped in the rear motor mount... cant re thread iut.. its crooked.im either dumping this pos china money dump on craigslist, or buying a golden eagle motor the tanaka 40cc :-||laff
 

Fulltimer

New Member
Aug 13, 2010
1,321
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Saint Augustine, FL
I agree 100% with the statement about going with a 4 stroke. I have a 2 stroke and I will run it until it dies or until I finally decide to just switch to the 4 stroke. Who knows when!

Terry
 

gubba

New Member
Dec 29, 2008
149
0
0
jacksonville, florida
i have installe well over 30 china girls for my customers......
every grubee motor has come back wornout within 3 or 4 thousand miles.
the last 10 installs havee been with RAW 66/80 motors......i have not had ANY come back because of motor failure. several have over 6,000 miles and a couple of them have over 10,000. mine now has 9,000....
grubee???? no thanks
rawmotors.com has them in stock
by the way.....
bikeberry.com shows a 'flying horse' 66/80 ( a very reliabe motor) for sale but when you receive the kit it has a grubbe skyhawk in the kit. "sorry"... the invoice says, we had to send you this one.


stay dry
gubba
 
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