what bike meets these requirements?

N

needtransportation

New Member
Hello my name is mike and im looking for a bike to motorize for transportation until I get my liscence back. Im 6'4" 290lbs so I need something that will stop me safely, I like the feel of my sisters cranbrook but I dont think a coaster will be safe at 20+mph and would prefer something with either disk brakes or the little rubber pads that grab the rim. I am mechanically inclined but dont have fab tools so something that allows a straightforward I stall without much custom fab would be prefered. I am currently working fastfood since I cant legally repo right now so my budget is low at 150 max. I am not trying to build a speed machine that does 40mph or a highend showbike so hopefully something meets my needs. What bike would you reccomend?

Ive read that all china girls are about the same quality but are there any vendors to avoid or vendors that offer good service after the sale and a low price?

My last question for now, 49cc is the limit in my state without a liscence but is there anyway they can tell the difference between a 49 and 66cc engine without tearing the engine down and measuring the bore and stroke?
 
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Welcome to the forum, Mike!
I hope that you enjoy yourself here!

$150 can get you a bike worthy of building up if you plan on buying new. To save money I recommend checking any thrift stores and swap meets that may be in your area for a good, used bike. No matter what bike you get, new or used, you will need to take apart the wheel hubs and clean/ grease the bearings. If you have the tools and skills I recommend cleaning and greasing the pedal crank bearings and the fork bearings too.This will also reveal any issues they may have that need addressing for safety's sake. Use a quality automotive grease, not some cheap off brand stuff.
The cheapest vendor I know of for an engine kit is rose326a on ebay.
The engine kits offered on ebay from any vendor are all a crapshoot. It might be awesome or it might be crap. Also there really is no after sale support when dealing with ebay sellers.
Do you feel lucky?
Buying a kit from one of the vendors that advertise here such as VeniceMotorBikes, ThatsDax, JNM, Jakes, BicycleEngines, will get you good after sale support in case you get a box of crap. They cost more but the old adage " you get what you pay for" rings true in this instance.
So good service and a rock bottom low price don't really exist, but you don't need a $300 kit to get good service either.

$150 really is not enough to get a reliable bike built considering the cost of a bike, engine kit and any other odds and ends that may need to be bought along the way. $300 is more reasonable. You might get lucky and a member here may be offering a used kit in good condition for cheap, but it may be "sold as is".

All the engines look nearly identical. There is no other way to determine the size of the engine without doing a tear down and measuring the bore and stroke.

There are "pigs" that frequent this forum. Let's just be kind with our words, ok? :)
No, I am not a LEO either.

I hope that we all here can help you get a bike built and you can enjoy the ride and higher quality of life offered by motorbicycling!
 
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Thank you for the warm welcome and I am sorry about the pig comment , I understand not all law enforcement is bad as I have dealt with hundreds of officers in my business its just that I live in a greedy county that likes to use the police and courts as a major source of revenue and so I was specifically referring to the local pd I will be dealing with on my daily commute.

The $150 budget was for bike only, I understand that I cant get a bike and motor for that cheap. What bike meets these requirements? I have and continue to search the web but I dont know bikes well enough to know whats good and what isnt.
 
its good youre looking at better brakes. you may wanna look at a worksman bike with drum brake . they have realy rugged frames too.
 
Welcome to the best motorized bicycle forum on the web....

In my experience a good coasterbrake works just fine when you also have a quality front brake, most of the cheaper bikes now days have cheaper type coaster hubs, shimano makes about the best ones going these days, I have a huffy bike with the cheaper coaster hub that I have been riding since 2010 and I have had no issues so far with it, its not a daily rider though and I only have a little over 1000 miles on it, for a big man like yourself it made not hold up for long, im 210lbs myself but the extra 80lbs you carry might be a bit much on a cheap hub.

If you can find an I expensive bike at a yard sale or flea market you can order some good heavy spoke wheels from piratecycles.com and then you'll have something that shout hold up good for a big fells as yourself.

The wheelmaster wheels they sell with the rear having the Shimano 110 coaster hub and a front wheel with the Sturmy Archer Drum break hub up front are both pretty good choices and should give you good safe service, im gonna say you will save money by buying good wheels like I spoke of here and put them on a used inexpensive bike because if you buy a new bike that has all the heavy duty stuff on it youwill likely pay several hundred dollars for it and even then it may not be compatible with mounting and in frame engine without some fab work.

Some people will argue this but, if you find a Huffy or Schwinn etc... cheap and then upgrade the wheels youcan have a solid bike for the least investment, depending on what the bike cost you may be easily in the $150-$200 range at the most and you'll have a safer bike with good brakes.

Another option is if you can find an older mountain bike with the good v brakes, just remember the bikes with rear suspension or frames that have the smaller opening where the engine should go wont work out good for mounting a china girl in frame and most of the mountain bikes dont have the 12ga heavy duty spokes either which I like to use when I can and the larger the rider is the more important it is to have strong wheels and heavy duty spokes in my opinion.

Best wishes and I look forward to watching your build come together and hope that you can get it done as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Map
.wee.
 
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You being a big guy should buy a used quality bike on craigslist.org. They have a lot of good bikes for cheap. Find one with a good disk brake in front and V brake in the back. Good thing about a coaster brake is it takes away one brake handle.
 
The Schwinn Jaguar. That is a great platform for a motorized bicycle. I've owned two of them, both are still on the road and never had a problem with the frame, hubs, brakes or anything else. The front engine mount needs to be fabricated because of the low, curved downtube but otherwise the Jag is a super bike. Needs a layback seat post so, as Dan said, you aren't doing the Chicken Dance when you're riding it. The Jag is a little short in the crotch area.

Here's an old thread with some pictures of member's Jaguars > http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=8368

Tom
 
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I would suggest a higher end mountain bike from the mid 80's early 90's with good alloy rims and V-brakes. With plenty of room in the frame and better quality hardware groups than current new box store bikes, the used market has a lot of great candidates.
Specialized, Gary fisher, GT, Mongoose, Schwinn, Trek all made great hardtail steel frames easily found used for $100-150 bucks.
Add some high rise BMX bars and a good seat and these frames are comfy and reliable.
My Specialized Hard Rock large frame Pig was found on cl for $125. Just keep your eyes peeled.
 
Welcome to the forum. At 6'4", most beach cruisers will be too small for you. Firmstrong makes some larger beach cruisers. A mountain bike with a large (20-22") frame should be comfortable for you. It is important for the bicycle to fit you, especially if you must pedal start your engine.
I have a love/hate relationship with law enforcement also but realize that we are far better off with police, than without them.
 
60weight said:
This looks like a fair deal close to You..
http://knoxville.craigslist.org/bik/4377899998.html

Or,like Map,I like the Cranbrooks with a front brake added..easy and cheap to do.
Click to expand...

I saw that one this morning but wasnt sure if it would be decent but I guess ill email and see if its still available.

I can probably talk my sister out of her cranbrook, what does it take to add a front brake on it that will safely stop a fatboy? I saw a front wheel with drum brakes with a built-in dynamo to power a headlight, is something like that an option on this bike?
 
needtransportation said:
I saw that one this morning but wasnt sure if it would be decent but I guess ill email and see if its still available.

I can probably talk my sister out of her cranbrook, what does it take to add a front brake on it that will safely stop a fatboy? I saw a front wheel with drum brakes with a built-in dynamo to power a headlight, is something like that an option on this bike?
Click to expand...

Piratecycles has a wheelmaster front wheel with a sturmey archer drum brake in it for a good price, that will work good, also on a Cranbrook you can do as some have done and put a mountain bike fork set on the front that has the V Brakes and have some darn good front brakes also just remember the cranbrook bikes have a 1" fork stem and the 1 1/8" wont work, I bought a brand new set on ebay a while back for $30 this way you can have suspension and a good front brake, the same forks will work on that Scwinn also
 
It's easy enough to convert a single speed cruiser with only a coaster brake to a bike with caliper brakes. I'm a guy of similar proportions and I've built two bikes based on the Cranbrook this way. The Cranbrook has nice thick spokes and a frame well suited to motorizing. I do tend to switch the handlebars out with ones that are more forward to extend the reach and make the ride more comfortable.

I've been using these brakes...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041X5XR2/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Total cost is still under $150.

Craigs list, for most people, is also a very good option, as many have recommended. I only bring the Cranbrook with additional brakes up to encourage outside the box thinking.
 
That craigslist motorbike looks good in the picture. Who knows how good it looks in person.
The year old engine could be a very good one or it could be crap. It's still a hit or miss ordeal like all engines are.
I would buy it anyways for that price, it's like buying an engine kit and getting a complete bike to go with it. Even if the engine failed, a new one is not hard to get.
 
needtransportation said:
http://knoxville.craigslist.org/bik/4377390387.html they are willing to trade even with me, she said its 50cc and the engine is about a year old, is this a decent bike?
Click to expand...

I say make the trade, you can always upgrade things as you want, but it looks like that is a solid build just from the pix, its hard to know without being face to face with it and hearing it run, but it looks good and may be ready to go as is...


Map
dnut
 
I got the bike, runs decent but not enough power to pull me up steep hills without peddling. I didnt notice until I brought it inside in the light but they replaced the rear wheel with one from a multispeed bike but the crank is from a single speed, it has no rear brake, and I broke the clutch lever right after they left. All in all its as scary and fun as I expected and I both love it and have buyers remorse considering what i traded for it.
 
Don't give up on the 48cc it can be made to run better, I have two that after a little work run at about 32 Mph on flat ground. You can add a side pull bmx style brake to the rear and use a dual pull lever on the right side. When you say you broke the clutch lever is it the lever itself or the cable, either way you can find those fairly easy from the vendors on the sides of this forum.
 
I broke the metal handle on the lever wich was just really light cheap pot metal so hopefully the replacement I saw at kings will be better quality. Im not giving up on it but after just a few minutes test driving it i am hooked and need MORE POWER, it has a really funky exhaust on it that goes around the left side of the front tube then curves back and up around the right side then screws into a small expansion chamber then back into a tube then a coke can sized muffler and im guessing it is hurting my power and hopefully ill have the cash to replace it with a better exhaust soon. When you say dual pull does that mean it will operate the front and rear brake at the same time? If so can I set a bias to work the rear a little before the front? Im sorry for my ignorance but I know almost nothing about bikes and have not ridden since I was a kid.
 
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