Madwagon goes to the Park

comfortableshoes · #1 08-28-2008, 08:52 PM

I hope and plan to ride the MadWagon to every park in my town (there are a lot) and snap a picture. This one is on my side of town and is a quick 1 mile ride from my house. It looks out over the water and there are lots of things for kids toplay on. Its a nice spot. I can't bring my dog there but, I can ride my bike there.

So making this plan will make me ride my bike into other places than the office park ti ride in circles.

deacon · #2 08-28-2008, 09:07 PM

great looking bike.

UncleKudzu · #3 08-29-2008, 12:07 AM

nice looking frame on that bike. is Madwagon the brand? and that appears to be a friction drive, right?

comfortableshoes · #4 08-29-2008, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleKudzu

nice looking frame on that bike. is Madwagon the brand? and that appears to be a friction drive, right?

yeah MadWagon is the brand. They are a an American company that imported/had these made in China. solid steel frame based off really old school designs. Other than that I couldn't find much more information. A couple of the bicycling forums really railed on them hard- because they have a steel frame, are heavy and the components are cheap.

I read that, saw the picture on craigslist and thought, "D@mn, that'd make a nice motored bike!" I snagged it for $35 and I think it was worth every penny. Not to mention that the name is PERFECT for anything motorized!

I think it's crying out for more work on it though. I think I"ll be playing with this one for a long time.

It is a friction drive- 31cc ryobi with a mount so that I can move engines easily.

deacon · #5 08-29-2008, 06:52 AM

So is the ryobi fast enough and got enough guts for you. I have one coming I hope. I paid for it but it is moving rather slow and the salesman won't tell me anything about the shipping now that I have paid for it. EBAY of course.

the Bolens I had seemed to do really well. I like the way your bike looks by the way. I heard you mention cable stretch. I had that on one of my bikes till I replaced he cable with a chain. I use just enough cable on it to marry it to a brake lever. It seems to have done the trick.

UncleKudzu · #6 08-29-2008, 09:33 AM

yeah, i'd happily pay $35 for that frame! very nice.

i looked at your weblog for your motorized adventures. good job of documenting your motorized adventure.

SpiderSpartan · #7 08-29-2008, 11:36 AM

Hey, I have that exact same Homelite engine that's on your blog. I have to close the choke to keep it running. I'm in the middle of attaching it to my bike using a chain drive. What did you have to do to go legal? Just fill out a form? I'm in ohio and I'm afraid I'll have a hard time making mine legal, if I even try. Check out what I've got so far.
Motorized Bike (SpiderCast)

comfortableshoes · #8 08-29-2008, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiderSpartan

Hey, I have that exact same Homelite engine that's on your blog. I have to close the choke to keep it running. I'm in the middle of attaching it to my bike using a chain drive. What did you have to do to go legal? Just fill out a form? I'm in ohio and I'm afraid I'll have a hard time making mine legal, if I even try. Check out what I've got so far.
Motorized Bike (SpiderCast)

I can't wait to get that little homelite running again. I'm going to rip it down entirely and rebuild it from the ground up if I can't get it to run with just the carb cleaning.... A spray bottle of carb cleaner was only $5 at home cheapo. Do you have the 25cc or 30cc model? It's going to be my experiment engine- I've found some resources on modifying them to do a lot more. Homelites are the weedeater engine of choice on the RC speedboat lists for mucking about with. So I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. I'm calling it my winter project.

In Mass it was easy to get the registration, fill out the form and then find a RMV that will process it without getting a VIN#. It costs $40 for 2 years. So far Framingham and Lowell RMVs will do them with no issues. Beverly RMV will not.

I've been following your blog. When I saw that the homelite didn't have a threaded shaft I figured I'd go the same route as you and add sprockets. I've found a lotof jackshaft kits out there for a small amount of money. I suspect I'll have to keep my pedals because my butt is too big for that little engine to move around. Isn'ta that homelite a tiny little thing?!?

UncleKudzu Thanks for the props on my blog. I have a lot of fun writing it and keeping track of my (mis)adventures. and yeah I'm in love with that frame... Is that wrong?

Deacon- the ryobi is fast enough. I pedal up to 5 or 7 mph and drop the engine and I get to 14 pretty quickly, she builds up speed and cruises around between 14 and 19 easily. I'm having some issue at WOT, so tonight I'm going to clean my muffler and see if that makes a difference and go back to stock tuning on it. I'll tell you one thing when that thing is runnig well it handles my weight (195lb) easily. I'd like (kind of) to see what it does with less weight on it. A reason to diet? The engine starts up pretty easily and will easily bump start but I like the pull start. At a little above middle throttle position I pedaled up a hill at 14mph. I've got to try it without and see what she does. I made the trip to the park and back in short time.

As far as guts I haven't tested her enough to tell you more about teh pull. I do see that the muffler on mine will need cleaning often, and I bet mine would do better if I did a carb cleaning. But the walbro on it is pretty nice, it has more movement ont he throttle than the craftsman did- so more range in speed, not just WOT and idle.

SpiderSpartan · #9 08-29-2008, 01:09 PM

I've got the 25cc. If you look at the drive shaft there should be a type of nut at the base(there was on mine at least). I was able to use a deep socket ratchet to take off the piece that accepts the square rod, which was good, because mine was broken. Here's a pic. That left me with a short threaded drive shaft. I had to spray a few sprays of carb cleaner into the gas tank and run it through the system when I first got mine, but now it runs great. What type of mods have you found for this thing? I wouldn't mind trying to get a little more power out of it. I think the 25cc are 1HP.

MrLarkins · #10 08-29-2008, 01:31 PM

that is a great idea...I think I'll do the same thing...we have a few parks here, and some that are farther (i could make a day of those)...the closest is Toad Suck Park...I'll take a pic.