what did you do to your motorized bicycle today?

Toadmund · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

CTripps said:
Took the cruiser out for a while. It runs pretty nicely, and has nice pull when you hit the 'sweet spot' in the throttle. A new problem's popped up, of course. I'll be cruising along at about 1/3rd throttle, and you can hear the engine start slowing down until it stalls out. There's little or no positive throttle response at this point. Opening the gas cap had no effect, nor did holding the primer on the float down. After a short time, it fires right up again and powers up to speed smoothly, but a few minutes later the same slow down and eventual stall out will occur. Scratching my head a bit on this one.

My intuition tells me that your bowl fuel level isn't meeting the demands of your throttle usage.
Not sure but what i do know for sure is that if you are using an NT carb, the distance from your float tangs and base should be 21 mm's (tuirn your carb upside down)

Well what i AM BASICALY SAYING IS YOUR BOWL ISN'T REFILLING FAST ENOUGH TO MEET DEMAND AND YOU MUST ALTER THE float needle to allow more to flow in to meet demand.

Damn cpas lock, I ain't fixin that, Dammit!

(yes I am drinking, so I am just talking outof my a$$.)

5-7HEAVEN · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Today I started trial-fitting 17" moped wheels and Michelin tires onto my motorized bicycle. LBS said it's gonna be a major project. :-||

After sleeping on it, I decided to have the LBS respoke the moped rims to the bicycle hubs with 13-14g SS spokes. Should be much easier and cheaper. My bike hasn't broken any spokes in a year, and it uses OEM SS 14g spokes front and rear.

577-Jersey · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

CTripps said:
Hmm... possible, I'll put it on the check list. I'm wondering about the exhaust getting gooped up interally as well, since it's still on break in mix.

I dont think its the muffler,,sounds like fuel flow/float/jet issue.

CTripps · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

That's what I'm thinking, too.. It's had that problem before. I have drilled the cap to relieve vacuum lock (which was one issue), already tweaked the float level, probably needs more of a bend.

obesepolice · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Tore it back down to fix a few more things. Decided I wanted to go with a faux patina look. I've been poking around Ratrodbikes.com to much lately. I did some experimenting with color and process. I ended up laying down a grey sand-able primer base and wet sanding that. Then a coat of brown primer, wet sand. Then a couple coats of khaki beige. I then top coated it with clear engine enamel. Let that dry for a couple of days. Then lightly dabbled heavy duty gel stripper in the usual places. let that dry and went to town with a dish sponge and 600 grit paper. Then a mixture of salt, hydrogen peroxide, and venager. I've been spraying it occasionally thought the weekend. I like it. the way i allpied the stripped, i could control how much actually went on so i could kinda feather the paint out easily. with out really getting sanding marks.

CTripps · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Pulled the carb off the cruiser, drained it and pulled the bowl. Tweaked the tines for the float up again so it should be open for the longest it can be. Any more than where they are now and I might as well just take them out altogether. Put it back together and on, then pulled the fuel line off the petcock. Using my compressor and a piece of kit-line, I gently ran pressure backward through the petcock (after loosening the gas cap) until there was a steady gurgling in the tank. Held that level of air flow for 20-30 seconds. In doing so, I saw bubbles/leaking coming from around the (yes, stock) petcock, around where the plate/top fastens on to it. Though they looked good, one screw took a full turn, the other took a turn and a half. No more bubbling there.

Now it's time for a test ride.

577-Jersey · May 5, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Good deal,,
Hope it runs better,,I have an after market petcock on my bike along with one on the carb,,I noticed the fuel runs out kinda slow,,but the bike runs great,,Im gonna up the line to 1/4" and see if that helps with the flow,,I also put on a briggs fuel filter(clear)I found at advance auto parts for $4.99.Went for a 17 mile ride today cruised around 23-24 MPH perfect the whole way.I plan on going to moms this week,,its 15 miles one way with some big hills,,cant wait,,should make it there in less than 50 minutes,,takes me like 30 min in my truck.So far I have just over 70 miles on this build and its getting stronger after every ride.I really appreciate all I have learned from you guys in such a short time here on the forum.

Good times...

Tom

CTripps · May 6, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Well, the ride went as planned, but I ended up taking the beast instead of the cruiser. All it wanted to do was dribble fuel from flooding. Too much on the float lever, I'll tweak it back a bit.

Not a bad trip out, wound out to around 64 kph at one point. The store finally got them in, so I got a phone/GPS holder for the handlebars. It can be moved to another bike easily, so I'll be able to put it on the cruiser for a GPS speedo.

killercanuck · May 6, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

That's a good top end CTripps, can keep up with traffic in town at least.

Had time to burn on a mock up for a change. Rear wheel is temporary, sry for the skinny butt. Getting there:

LabRat · May 7, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg-hY6ZlE2E

54 RMLL, 54 FSC, 2012 29" Silver Onyx. Riders, Labrat, Sledge, Spaceneedles Seattle. Chase bike 600cc Kantana. Location 5 mile drive. Tacoma Washington.

6labrats username on YouTube, There is a part Duce.

PS,

Root my directory of vids.... yeah, my friends and I, we are a lot of fun!

xseler · May 7, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I re-tightened all my fasteners and tracked down a weird squeaking noise to a broken bracket on my 410 chain guard......just removed the guard for now as I don't wear bell bottoms anymore. Also re-aligned my chain tensioner for smoother operation. This sure helped on the effort required to pedal the bike and sure made it quieter!

I also swapped out my front brake pads for some better ones.

Swapped out my standard kick stand to a rear mounted unit. I can just feel an expansion chamber exhaust in the near future!!!

xseler · May 7, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I tried something today that seems to have made a positive difference in the performance of my engine. I doubled the exhaust gasket. It doesn't leak (at least yet) and the engine revs easier, idles much smoother, and higher rpm is also 'smoother'. The exhaust port on my engine is a rounded rectangle, while the exhaust pipe is a smaller diameter round.

If this is something that is gonna cause catastrophic damage, please let me know. But, for now, this seems to have made things better.

dsword75 · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Took it for its first long haul after break in from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Wa for treatment at the V.A hospital. Got stopped at dusk and given a verbal warning for not having my headlight wired yet. Still four stroking a little and stretched the chain but nothing I wont happily fix tomorrow. .flg.

NJZ · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

While debating what else I can budget in to justify the shipping on a 6-8 dollar gear cover/clutch cam and went to town with j who weld. I am sure the first bump and game is over we'll see. Removed chain links and idler altogether.fit looks nice. Will try and put up picks. Also hijaced a tire and super light weight rim put cruiser tire on that up front, and put the knobby on the standard rear wheel iteresting to see how long it goes whle I order

happycheapskate · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Is there a thread just for "ride videos"? That would be cool. People can hear and see different bikes and admire them and decide what to build.

LabRat said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg-hY6ZlE2E

54 RMLL, 54 FSC, 2012 29" Silver Onyx. Riders, Labrat, Sledge, Spaceneedles Seattle. Chase bike 600cc Kantana. Location 5 mile drive. Tacoma Washington.

6labrats username on YouTube, There is a part Duce.

PS,

Root my directory of vids.... yeah, my friends and I, we are a lot of fun!

577-Jersey · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

happycheapskate said:
Is there a thread just for "ride videos"? That would be cool. People can hear and see different bikes and admire them and decide what to build.

Thats a great idea,, I'm gonna make an HD vid with music and motor noise edited,,next week,,Ill start one if there is not one already.

Good Times...

Tom

happycheapskate · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Please send me the link. I've made some demo videos of my bikes, and will make scenic videos or picture slides in the future. I think there are a lot of good ride and helmet cam videos from members and on youtube. The thread would bring a lot of traffic to this site.

CTripps · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I'm pretty sure posting videos in this section would be the best place...

Anyway, went out and grabbed a couple of replacement tubes for a slightly smaller set of tires this morning, and then replaced the front on Harley59's bike with one. Went from 26 x 2.10 knobby to 26 x 1.75 smooth. She took it for a little test ride and is pretty sure it'll help with the vibration in the handlebars.

Tweaked the brakes on the beast as well, now it stops between my lines in the back lane again.

577-Jersey · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Oh yeah,,you should get a little more top end out of it with that rubber also

ResetBTTN · May 8, 2013

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Since I had to find out the hard way that the retro analog speedometers are garbage I re-installed the bicycle computer I picked up to clock speed and distance.
I say re-installed because I took it off to return it...didn't work. Turns out it worked but I threw away the instructions before programming it to start working...duhh. Thanks to the tech at the bicycle shop it's clocking.

I'll come back and post my top out speed once I get the replacement exhaust from Jim @pedalchopper.
Also I zip tied some cables to tidy those up, loosened the carburetor cable; it would reposition itself in the down position if I pushed it all the way up. It was just too tight.

I also UPLOADED a handful of pics. Check out Coops Custom in my photo album.

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