Any chance of making this work?

GoldenMotor.com

Dave31

Active Member
Mar 1, 2008
11,199
47
38
Aztlán, Arizona
Any bike can be motorized in my opinion.

You could go with a electric hub, a rear or front rack mount would also work with that frame.
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
175
63
Littleton, Colorado
Any bike can be motorized in my opinion.

You could go with a electric hub, a rear or front rack mount would also work with that frame.
Ditto:
One thing is for sure. You won't showhorn in a Chinese 2 stroke in-frame engine.

But whatever you decide on you'll have a soft ride with that suspension.

Good luck and keep us posted on whatever you decide to do.

Tom
 

mibike

New Member
Mar 21, 2015
17
0
0
Michigan
Thinking against electric, simply because they are more expensive just for the motor, then have to buy battery as well.. I'm aiming for 200-250$ as a spend limit.

Rear mount kits look over my price range too, so unless I could figure out some custom rig and manage it quite a bit cheaper I'll likely just go for some cheapo bike that can fit a in-frame kit.


ALSO... spent hours trying to fix brakes and only made things worse..

Adjusters are made out of a really cheap metal that is all bent so I can't loosen/tighten at the handles, and can't get the calipers aligned so that both sides clamp equally... Spent hours on it. Realized I didn't know what the **** I was doing and gave up. Only managed to get front brakes working but they won't spring back completely after use, so are rubbing a bit. Rear I tore out due to the adjuster warping when I tried forcing it with a pair of pliers, so the line was completely pulling through.

Are disk brakes easier to manage, like they are on cars? :p
 
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mibike

New Member
Mar 21, 2015
17
0
0
Michigan
I hear the main issue there is that the gas tank needs to be above it. And, you know, fabricating some sort of mount. And, to be honest, all the rear mount setups I've seen kinda look lame. Meh. Wonder if I could mount it to the back side of the seat post...
 

Davezilla

New Member
Mar 15, 2014
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San Antonio Texas
If you got some fabrication skills you could side mount the engine but would need to run a short jackshaft to align the sprockets... really, those Y frame bikes are very difficult to motorize because there's nowhere to install in the frame so you need to look at side mounting or mounting on top of the frame, either way I do see some welding involved if you insist on mounting to a Y frame...
if you want a full suspension bike to motorize, try to find an older proflex frame since the rear shock is behind the seat post, there is one version that has a straight seatpost which would be easy to motorize but the other versions have slanted west posts making it near impossible to install without welding and cutting.
 

Davezilla

New Member
Mar 15, 2014
2,705
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San Antonio Texas
If you can get one of these, these will take an engine really easily and the rear suspension won't interfear in any way... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-22-...965?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234d10b925

I got a Girvin front end off one of these bikes and it rides rock solid stable at 42mph... if you can find one of these front ends then convert it to a regular shock they work really well for smoothing out the bumps and you can go as fast as you want without any wobbles... Very stable front end for sure.
 

Davezilla

New Member
Mar 15, 2014
2,705
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San Antonio Texas
Here's another Proflex with the open frame and this one has the good front end... a bit pricy but worth it if you want a really stable full suspension bike that can be motorized...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-PRO...412?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418dbf7684

If this one was a steel frame so I could do some cutting and welding it would be perfect for a KTM or Morini engine... or maybe a 39cc Polini might fit in this one... the biggest problem with it being aluminum is that you can't do any cutting or welding to it without sending it out to be heat treated again $$$ ... Otherwise, this is an awesome frame.. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ProFlex-Bea...826?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2f7ed062
 

mibike

New Member
Mar 21, 2015
17
0
0
Michigan
I was more pointing out the fact that it doesn't have one yet, but yeah. Maybe someday I'll do one like that, but for now I'm going to do a in-frame on whatever cheap bike I can find around here, can always transfer it later if I want. Likely going through bikeberry or gasbike for the kit. Neither one has responded to emails I sent them though, so I'm a little discouraged on customer service. Could be busy from spring I suppose.