what did you do to your motorized bicycle today?

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fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
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San Jose, Ca.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I buttoned up the last of the maintenance on my bike today. I put my spraypainted magneto cover gasket on, touched up the paint on the engine and a few places on my frame as well as my headlight, and put some electrical tape around the rat's nest of wires hanging off the frame, just to make it look at least a little nicer.
Now that ya got it all purtied up, snap a pic. I don't remember if I ever saw your bike. I know I've posted enough of mine, (every chance I get.) I LIKE MY BIKE! So lets see yours bro.
fatdaddy.
 

bigbutterbean

Active Member
Jan 31, 2011
2,417
3
38
Lebanon, PA
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Now that ya got it all purtied up, snap a pic. I don't remember if I ever saw your bike. I know I've posted enough of mine, (every chance I get.) I LIKE MY BIKE! So lets see yours bro.
fatdaddy.
I am always taking pics and posting them here, lol. I just took some pics today, they are at the bottom of the second page of my thread here: http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=39776
 

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
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San Jose, Ca.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Speaking of mag gaskets, I just cut a new one from a roll of gasket maker I had laying around. My last gasket shredded last time I opened the mag cover.

I rode about 5 miles to my storage shed today, and had a couple little problems before I made it home. On the way there, one of the nuts that hold the exhaust on vibrated off. I didn't notice until the other side loosened enough to let the muffler separate from the motor. Things got real loud real fast. Luckily there was a nice pull-off area next to a railroad track, so I just pulled over there and luckily had a 10 mil nut with me.

So, made it to the storage shed, loaded up two laptop-style bags full of miscellaneous items I've been needing, grabbed my helmet (definitely been needing that), and headed home. The chain started grabbing about 1/4 of the way home, so I pulled over to find that there was about 2.5" of slack in the chain. (This is why I bring a specific set of tools every time I ride.) Adjusted the rear wheel, and took of again. Got about half way home and noticed that my left pedal arm was hitting the motor. I was like, WTF? So, I stopped again and found that I had a bolt missing from the front motor mount!!! This time I didn't have the necessary bolt to replace it, so I just made sure all the other bolts and nuts were tight and headed home. I was shaken pretty badly on the way, but I made it home under power and in one piece.

Okay, so I know I seriously need some loctite. Then I won't have to worry so much about losing nuts and bolts. Regardless, this has inspired me to add a collection of nuts and bolts to my riding tools. A few motor mount studs, a bunch of 10mm nuts, several 10mm bolts, and any other commonly loosening fasteners that I can think of. I mean, that ONE 10mm nut that I had today kept me from having to call my significant other to come pick me up. (Oh, um, I still have to tighten my pedal chain, so I couldn't have pedaled home.)

Oh oh oh, I almost forgot . . .

When I took the muffler off, or should I say, when the muffler FELL off today, I noticed something very important. There was a big sloppy piece of metal blocking about HALF of the exhaust pipe!!!! I guess in my rush to get the bike running, I forgot to even LOOK inside the pipe before I installed it. So, I took my handy-dandy flat head screw driver and got to work on breaking out the remains of the crappy weld job. I cleared out about a dime size piece of weld schlag that was JUST thin enough to chip out with a screw driver. I've wondered why the expansion chamber didn't seem to help at all. I also wondered why I had like zero throttle response, no take-off power, and just overall fuddy-duddy performance. Hill climbing nearly brought me to a stop. After putting everything back together, I could finally out-accelerate traffic again. Wow, I mean, just wow. Stupid Chinese (lack of) quality control. Still, it's my fault that I didn't QC the pipe before I installed it.
Hey BoDean, Sounds like you were in a little bit of a rush putting it together. I mean, an exhaust, a wheel and a motor mount all in one trip. I've been riding mine close to a year and I've only had to tighten up a motor mount ONCE. Other than flats, which aren't mechanical failures, I've had very little problems with my bike. I didn't use locktite either. I know it is a recomended thing, I just didn't. I think you know now that perhaps you should take some time to go through every nut, bolt and bracket on yer baby and just make sure everything is snug.
Road side repairs are sometime unavoidable, but it still bites when it happens.:-||
Good Luck,
fatdaddy.
 

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
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San Jose, Ca.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I am always taking pics and posting them here, lol. I just took some pics today, they are at the bottom of the second page of my thread here: http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=39776
DA*M DUDE, Whats it cost to fill up THAT tank?
Great bike bro, looks like it cruises. I did notice that NO ONE IS TAKING YOUR BIKE, not very easy anyway. You could dock the Titanic with that chain.
fatdaddy.
 

bigbutterbean

Active Member
Jan 31, 2011
2,417
3
38
Lebanon, PA
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

DA*M DUDE, Whats it cost to fill up THAT tank?
Great bike bro, looks like it cruises. I did notice that NO ONE IS TAKING YOUR BIKE, not very easy anyway. You could dock the Titanic with that chain.
fatdaddy.
Lol. Its a 2 gallon tank, but I usually put in a gallon at a time. I used to fill it, but gas would spew out through the vent hole in the cap, and I would come back from every ride reeking like gas. I didn't mind it, but my wife sure did, lol. This bike cruises real nice. As far as the chain, the story goes like this. We moved into our house about a year ago, and there is no garage space, and the basement steps are not easy to get a 100lb+ bike up and down. So before we moved in, I went to Lowe's and asked for 3 feet of the heaviest chain they had. I also went to kmart and bought a case-hardened padlock. Its necessary, since I have to keep it outside. After all the time, thought, creativity, sweat, frustration, pride, joy love, and not to mention money, that I put into this bike, I'm not about to let somebody walk off with it.
 

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
4
0
San Jose, Ca.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I know all about splashing gas all over yer, er, uh, private parts. It burns, It burns.
I hear ya about locking the bike up TIGHT. I use a chain and a cable lock if I have to walk away from my bike for more then 2 seconds. I have a garage that I used to put a car in. I call it my shop now and has nothing with four wheels in it. So I lock it in the shop at night. I also have cameras and alarms covering every inch of my property. NO ONE IS TAKING EITHER ONE OF OUR BIKES.
fatdaddy.
 

BoDean_LP

New Member
Apr 25, 2012
84
0
0
Jeffersonville, Indiana
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Hey BoDean, Sounds like you were in a little bit of a rush putting it together. I mean, an exhaust, a wheel and a motor mount all in one trip. I've been riding mine close to a year and I've only had to tighten up a motor mount ONCE. Other than flats, which aren't mechanical failures, I've had very little problems with my bike. I didn't use locktite either. I know it is a recomended thing, I just didn't. I think you know now that perhaps you should take some time to go through every nut, bolt and bracket on yer baby and just make sure everything is snug.
Road side repairs are sometime unavoidable, but it still bites when it happens.:-||
Good Luck,
fatdaddy.
I appreciate your advice. You're right, I threw it together rather quickly, but trust me, I've snugged every nut and bolt many times. I do a rather complete check each time I get ready to set out on a ride. I didn't have these problems on my last frame, but the geometry of this frame is slightly different. The front mount has to have a spacer between it, and the rear mount sits at an angle, thus only making contact along one edge. Any other angle, and the motor hits the pedal sprocket. I need a smaller sprocket, or a proper front mount to eliminate all the excessive vibration. The only thing I had to use as a spacer was part of the old chain tensioner. It doesn't sit right at all.

I'm just using what I've got right now. I've currently got ZERO funding. I'm having to borrow $3 here and there to put gas in it. I think I'm doing alright with what I've got, I just need to make some major improvements when the resources are available.
 

Blakenstein

Member
Sep 15, 2009
561
2
16
Alta. Canada.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Saturday night I wiped out, and today I wiped out so today I went to change my tires over to my fancy winter ones. I did the rear wheel first cause it's the bigger job.
After that I adjusted my brakes- no set screws for my v brakes but can still be adjusted by either bending the springs or moving the whole mount to another notch.
Well I chose to bend them and I snapped one. I gas welded it back together but it broke, so I brazed it, and it worked. I hate doing brakes. I'm fussy - no rubbing and no more than 5/32 gap equal on both sides.
Well , 5 and 1/2 hours , I only got one tire on but it's the rear one.
I love that brazing - heating the metal and the rod at the same time - yet having a nice hot copper zinc nickel blob ready to drop on the base metal, but not until the base metal is yellow,white sweating hot just turning molten - then drop the hot blob on there. Having to watch the different temp and state of two different things at the same time.
 
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Wickedest1

Member
Oct 31, 2012
688
7
18
41
connecticut
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

@bo...pick up a muffler u bolt clamp from the auto parts store and use that for the front mount...works wonders...got 7 mbers in my area...i was the first and everyone else has followed suit..its no more than 4 bucks everywhere...just a suggestion
 

Blakenstein

Member
Sep 15, 2009
561
2
16
Alta. Canada.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Hey Wickdst, that is exactly what I used for my front mount on my summer bike.
I wanted to use them for my rear mounts on my winter bike, but I did not go looking for them that are so small - instead I used clevasis ( chain anchors) from home depot.
They were a little large, so I used shims. ( Cut some sheet metal strips and wrapped them around. ) You can see them well in my second video.
Anyway, yesterday it took me 5 -1/2 hours to put winter tire on rear wheel.
This morning it only took me 15 minutes to change over my front!!!
All in all, I got evrything done before 9 am this morning!!!!
 

Wickedest1

Member
Oct 31, 2012
688
7
18
41
connecticut
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

nice blake...i dont have the need to use that on my rear...the motor mount that the kits come with fits the down tube perfectly...gonna prep my old 1/2 gallon tank today for stripping...gonna leave it bare metal but with clear coat...i like the clean steel look...may even do the bike too...not sure if i wanna take that on today tho...its only 23degrees out here
 

Blakenstein

Member
Sep 15, 2009
561
2
16
Alta. Canada.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

It is 16 degrees where i am, but this afternoon it's gonna be 32!!! The gas tank you're doin is one thing , but the whole bike?? Thats a big job!!! I get to take it easy now..for a while, ...maybe I'll clean my plug cause that has not been done in a long time, i might just install a new one. I just love the easy stuff.
 

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
4
0
San Jose, Ca.
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I appreciate your advice. You're right, I threw it together rather quickly, but trust me, I've snugged every nut and bolt many times. I do a rather complete check each time I get ready to set out on a ride. I didn't have these problems on my last frame, but the geometry of this frame is slightly different. The front mount has to have a spacer between it, and the rear mount sits at an angle, thus only making contact along one edge. Any other angle, and the motor hits the pedal sprocket. I need a smaller sprocket, or a proper front mount to eliminate all the excessive vibration. The only thing I had to use as a spacer was part of the old chain tensioner. It doesn't sit right at all.

I'm just using what I've got right now. I've currently got ZERO funding. I'm having to borrow $3 here and there to put gas in it. I think I'm doing alright with what I've got, I just need to make some major improvements when the resources are available.
Yeah bro, I know what it's like having no funds to work with. I'm disabled/retired and on S.S.I. If I don't get any bike business in my shop then no extra money to do anything to my bike.
But just something I saw in yer pic. I noticed that with the u-bolt installed that way it looks like it's just gonna keep pulling through the mount plate a little at a time. I can't tell FOR SURE in the pic, but it looks like you don't have the top side(round part) blocked up to keep it from pulling through. But like I said, hard to tell in the pic.
You also said that the rear mount sits at an angle, only making contact on the edge of the mount. There are a couple of problems that will come up because of this. First, Sitting on just a corner of the mount, in combination with the vibration of the engine WILL, (not may, WILL) cut the frame and it WILL eventually break. The other thing is that not sitting flat will cause more vibration to be transmitted to yer A**. And again, the vibration, all put at one small part of the frame, will cut the frame. ALL mounts must be flat.
Please don't take any of this as criticism. I AM only tryin to help, and also keep you safe. A busted frame at 35mph ain't no joke. I know, been there, done that.(almost got dead.) Then, to top it all off, a front mount coming loose will cause even MORE vibration, helping the "corner" mounted rear mount to cut the frame even quicker.
I've had frames that the engine didn't want to sit flat in. I know it can be a PITA. But ya do what ya gotta do to get it to sit flat, straight and solid. I've even made my own mounts and cut them at an angle to match the tube a few times. But the best idea I've seen here is to weld the mount in. Then ya just mount one side flat and weld in the mount to match the other side. Get it all set up yourself and you can usually talk a muffler shop into welding it cheaper than a regular welding/machine shop would do it for. My muffler guy's do small welds like that for $10.
Good luck bro,
fatdaddy.
 

happycheapskate

New Member
Nov 26, 2009
1,989
3
0
Rockwall TX
Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Success! I rode mine to the park with my daughter today. We had a good time. The air-swirler I made from a computer fan, jammed into the rubber boot over the velocity stack, worked really well. The intake was a little quieter, and it pulled hard. I'll try to get a picture later.

I found one of these in the trash, and trimmed down the blades a little to fit. They break easily! It took me 2 tries to make one.
http://www.endpcnoise.com/e/images/papst_silent_case_fan.jpg

 
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