Beginner Comptetition questions?

[YesImLDS]

I asked MBR these questions and he suggested I make a thread so everyone who would be interested in something like this could learn a little bit about it. Maybe some others can chime in with questions and answers as it's a learning experience for me and I am sure others would like to know as well.

What size tires/rims are optimal?

What kind of speeds would you normally hit?

What sprocket would normally be recommended?

Do people normally run lightweight bikes like aluminum mountain bikes or just your standard cruiser frames?

Is there like a practice run before hand to learn the track?

Are there any limitations to the china girl classes?

 

[YesImLDS]

Also now that I remember I wanted to know if the riders would regularly peddle just to start or throughout the race? Seems like that would be pretty cheatsy to me

 

[Trey]

Good idea for a thread gentlemen!

I have no intention to race, but I'd sure like to know some basic things for discussion with folks.

I'll be following along. Thanks.

 

[bairdco]

seems like most racers use modified cruisers without thinking of how much weight can really matter. my first bikes were heavy beasts, built more to survive the streets instead of the track, and weighed 75-80 pounds.

the last bike i built weighed 50lbs and was a lot faster, and easier to handle. too bad it never finished a race. on it's first outing i led a coupla laps until my pedal fell off.

the next race i snapped a ring starting the bike in the morning.

then i threw away all my broken china motors and sold the rest, vowing never to build another modified china engine. i may build a bone stock 50cc just for the slower classes, but...

my next bike will be handmade and using a minarelli v1 moed motor to run in the mid range class, or unlimited, depending on how fast i can make it.

as far as pedaling goes, it ain't called motor bicycling for nothin'. pedaling helps you at yhe start, out of corners, and anytime you need a boost to get your engine up to speed. i ran a tall gear and pedaled my ass off in every race.

tire size is up to you. i usually ran 24's. mostly because i'm short. i built a bike with 16" moped wheels (equivalent to 20" bicycle wheels) and the bike kept up.with the 26'ers for the most part. long straights they were a little faster, but getting out of corners was awesome. smaller wheels accelerate faster but you need more power to keep them spinning at top speeds.

gearing is based on the bike and the track. you figure that out as you go along...

 

[mapbike]

dang bairdco.... no more china girl builds.... you have been such an inspiration to so many of us on here, You have to keep a couple china girl up and going man..... that just aint right at all for you to give them up completely....

They can be a pian in the backside when you build them to run high rpms a lot, but I like to tinker so I dont mind messing with them.

I do want to build a very strong reliable 4 stroke bike at some point, I may actually build a pusher bike with one of the HF 196c GX200 clones I have just hanging around not doing a thing good.

Hope you'll share some pix of the future project and best wishes.

 

[bairdco]

map, after my crash two years ago i never built another street bike, and all my race bikes blew up so i don't want to put money and time into them anymore.

i'm slowly building a minarelli 50cc custom bike, but my laptop's busted so i can't post pictures. but i'll figure out some way to get a thread started when i've got something more than parts to show for it...

 

[mapbike]

map, after my crash two years ago i never built another street bike, and all my race bikes blew up so i don't want to put money and time into them anymore.

i'm slowly building a minarelli 50cc custom bike, but my laptop's busted so i can't post pictures. but i'll figure out some way to get a thread started when i've got something more than parts to show for it...

Well, as bad as I hate to see you give up the china girl builds, I do understand, these little engines do good when built to just cruise around at moderate speeds like they were intended to do, but all the high rpm running does take a toll on them fairly quickly, so far I only have one that has held up good to the hard running, and the engines I have that have lasted the longest are those with few mods and cranks that are untrue and wont allow the engine to rev to high, so these engine have always been 30-35mph rides with 36T sprockets and have held up really good and have been very reliable.

Well Ill sure be interested in watching any type of build thread you start on the build.

I wish you the best with whatever you decide to do bro.

Shan