Update: As far as the bike is concerned, I attempted attach the chain guard to the clutch. Seemed fine, but, pedals collided with the bottom of the chain guard. I then attempted to remove two washers each on both sides. The chain then began to rub against the chain guard of the Hilliard clutch and the pedals Still collided with the case. I got pissed off, grabbed my Dremel rotary tool and cut out where the chain and pedals were rubbing. These are things I imagine having to deal with on a custom build, but this should not have happened on a prebuilt fully or almost fully assembled product.
As far as gasbike is concerned, and I think I got them figured out as they have the attention span of a goat on meth. You have to keep at them, one day after the next, speaking in short concise sentences and if you show them photos, be sure to use your photoshop skills to highlight the exact problem. They will only glance at the picture and if it isn’t Immediately apparent, they pretend everything looks fine. I get it, they busy warehouse. They at least sent out the missing parts and replaced the damaged parts except for the jackshaft kit which was reordered today, for the 4th week in a row…. Any mention of the frame being warped or out of alignment is quickly shutdown in the form of hanging up the phone or profusely denying the possibility that their immaculate frames arrive molested in any way. Am I saying I will never do business with them again? No, absolutely not. I think gasbike and the tech are just fine for what they do! I think the problem arises when dealing with any phatmoto purchases on their site. It’s as if they are acting as a 3rd party agent to Phatmoto on your behalf. One would just be better off buying directly from phatmoto than going through gasbike.net. As far as providing missing or replacing damaged parts, it has been immaculately handled aside from my jackshaft kit issue, which if I hear correctly is the ones having issue sending out. If a part or component from phatmoto didn’t arrive, that means you are denied BY Phatmoto, not Gasbike, for whatever arbitrary reason (e.g. not sending a photo of the issue). So, even though my overall initial experience was full of suck, just true absolute suck, it’s just miscommunication on all parties including myself. So I can’t say at all that Gasbike is 100% or even 50%. Maybe 30% +/- of the problem. They atleast honored the warranty up to but not including the frame and that is a Phatmoto issue as far as I can tell. So, if gas bike had an untarnished reputation here, don’t let me blemish it. Somebody somewhere has to draw the short straw; and that person is me! Woot! I doubt it will be you.
All in all, I guess everything is…. Disappointingly fine. Not a good feeling to have to cut into something so expensive and I still have no idea how to fix the alignment issue. I will have to take the frame to an expert aluminum welder like
@Tom from Rubicon. The chains, the pedal chain is perfect. Moves silently, the drive chains from engine to clutch, and clutch to rear sprocket though are very very loud. I don’t know if it’s because my chains are too loose or because the clutch chain is still a bit twisted. Might be due to their weight and size compared to a Shimano chain, not enough lube,or not tight enough. Or even too tight! I’ll figure it out. The engine does turn on and run fine except I am in a higher elevation. I will have to get some kind of adjustable carburetor. Phatmoto sells a “racing” carb but it’s same as stock just adjustable. If you guys know of or have any suggestions for what is compatible, I am open to suggestions because I’m not turning up much info on phatmoto specific Lifan LF-153 79cc. I heard most if not all carbs and exhausts will not work because the holes are way different than most other brands. The kickstand failed ROFL! Didn’t last a day of actual riding. Just crushed underneath the weight of the bike it’s self. Tried to bend it back into position using a shop vice and a breaker bar. The shop vice gripped well, yet the table unfortunately met the same fate as the kickstand. So I ordered a replacement from Amazon, the Portland works “power stance” kickstand. That looks like a good chungus piece of metal. Once everything gets in, I’ll give you guys some pictures of the bike in a semi functional form or another!
