Ceramic balls? (Bad joke filter, on)

I hadn't used them inside the engines yet, but am considering it on a future build as ceramic is very hard and very durable, they should work ok and last, but I would do it on a secondary engine that I could put in and experiment with for a few hundred miles at least. You can get all ceramic bearings in the right size but they also sell them with ceramic balls and steel races. Personally if I was to experiment with these I would go with the ceramic balls and steel races until I knew more about how they perform.
As for performance they wont give any increases, but for smoothness and reliability they should shine pretty good in those 2 areas, especially on a balanced crank assembly.
 
Yeah, my thoughts too. The one thing I DON'T want is to make this tiny motor faster. I did 25 pedaling a street bike, ONCE. I see no non painful future in high speeds on bicycle tires and brakes. H.
 
These motors are fairly easy to make fast too... I got a few bikes well past 40mph with little effort... Helmets and gloves are my friend on these...
 
I'll bet. Ceramic balls would be good, too :=) Ok, broke the bad joke rule. Since you seem to be a real wrench, do you know any stock numbers for U.S. made seals? I'll find them, just looking for a shortcut. Also, is anyone pressing these wheels apart, and re assembling them successfully? They aren't quite Harley quality, are they? Thanks again, H.
 
Howardgf said:
Yeah, my thoughts too. The one thing I DON'T want is to make this tiny motor faster. I did 25 pedaling a street bike, ONCE. I see no non painful future in high speeds on bicycle tires and brakes. H.
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Sounds like my one wheelie I did. Only done one ONCE and that's enough to learn my lesson.
 
about 6 or 7 years ago, I pulled a clutch hub apart & a crank & pressed them together & running again just so I'd know what that job is like - at these low prices for new parts, I'll never do them again
 
Howardgf said:
I'll bet. Ceramic balls would be good, too :=) Ok, broke the bad joke rule. Since you seem to be a real wrench, do you know any stock numbers for U.S. made seals? I'll find them, just looking for a shortcut. Also, is anyone pressing these wheels apart, and re assembling them successfully? They aren't quite Harley quality, are they? Thanks again, H.
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You can try Garlock's catalog here... http://allsealsinc.com/klozure_catalog.pdf
or see if National Oil Seal has an online catalog..
 
crassius said:
about 6 or 7 years ago, I pulled a clutch hub apart & a crank & pressed them together & running again just so I'd know what that job is like - at these low prices for new parts, I'll never do them again
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No Doubt... considering the labor involved in splitting a case to true a crank or the actual truing and balancing, not to mention clutch issues too, I find $69 plus shipping a lot more appealing for a good bottom end that's already balanced... Sometimes it's easier (and in some cases cheaper) to replace than repair on these little engines. If you think 4 good bearings for the clutch and crank, better hardware, new seals and gaskets, you're already looking at around $60 or more... Now add in the labor to split the cases and swap out all the bearings or the amount of lathe time it takes to true a crank etc, and that price becomes even more appealing.
The tope ends I'll re hone a cylinder if I spent some time porting on it and plan to reuse, but a mildly ported cylinder becomes a paperweight once it's shot since the cylinders cost about $18 and it takes about 20 minutes to do a mild port job... You can spend hours on a jug to get it just perfect and it'll pay off when you crack the throttle, these you would want to save and re use if possible, but not a stock or just a mild port job... it's cheaper and faster to replace...
 
I agree with you all, however, I have been reading about Grubee(?), DAX, and other hotshot engine suppliers, and there are too many complaints to really trust anyone of them, every time. I don't mind tinkering, my labor is very inexpensive, to me, anyway. I'll probably only replace bolts and studs on my first engine and see how well, and long, it runs as delivered. Next one will be a ground up experiment. Then I'll have something to compare. Any opinions on Jaguire CDIs? Supposed to make engines last longer, and run smoother. Do they? Thanks guys, H.
 
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The truth about the cdi's is still quite controversial since none of them truly show a timing curve, the people who bought the jaguar cdi's ended up disappointed since it slowed their bikes down, both in acceleration and top speed because the timing retards back too much, even on the hottest setting, the stock cdi prevails. The HD Lighting cdi is a much better product but performance is about equal to stock when a few people took the time to measure the speed and acceleration, the HD Lightning is well known to be very reliable tho. The Rocket cdi, the one that's simply encased in a pill bottle is another good one but pretty much the same with very close to equal to stock performance.
I've been just using the stock unit but keep a few spares, tho I've never had one fail on me. But if I was going to get an aftermarket cdi, the HD Lightning is the best quality.
 
I've found it very hard to identify any 'performance' part or mod that will give more than 2 or 3 mph.
 
Hi Dave, Crass, et al. I have to admit that I know nearly nothing about 2 stroke engines, so I rely heavily on those with real experience. As I said, my aim is not suicide by bicycle, but the once claimed 30k mile, vibrationless HT engine. I'll be happy with something in between. My interest in the CDIs was the claim that it reduces destructive impulses in the engine. In a 2 stroke, wouldn't more, or less cyl. base thickness do that, by moving the ports? H.
 
moving ports enough could give less power, but that might mean flogging the engine to get up hills which could hurt it pretty badly

the old H2 motors came with very rich carbs that slowed them down some & seemed to help motor longevity
 
G'day mates. Got some pictures in my album of my Nel lusso build. Nothing spectacular, just a log. Any new info here? H
 
Davezilla said:
The truth about the cdi's is still quite controversial since none of them truly show a timing curve, the people who bought the jaguar cdi's ended up disappointed since it slowed their bikes down, both in acceleration and top speed because the timing retards back too much, even on the hottest setting, the stock cdi prevails. The HD Lighting cdi is a much better product but performance is about equal to stock when a few people took the time to measure the speed and acceleration, the HD Lightning is well known to be very reliable tho. The Rocket cdi, the one that's simply encased in a pill bottle is another good one but pretty much the same with very close to equal to stock performance.
I've been just using the stock unit but keep a few spares, tho I've never had one fail on me. But if I was going to get an aftermarket cdi, the HD Lightning is the best quality.
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I am going to have to disagree from experience Dave. I installed the HD lightning and have been running it for the past few months. I never noticed any difference in performance over the stock $5 cdi and the $70 junker is crapping out on me on the high end with like 300 miles on it if that. My stock one has like 5k miles across three different builds. I say if you want performance slap your money elsewhere as this is just snake oil of the wild wild west here.
 
Not to disagree with you but this is probably the first I've seen in this forum with a HD failure... I already knew about the performance being hyped up but really, I hadn't heard of any failures with this one. I have heard of the knock offs not being reliable, and had a personal not so good experience with the pill bottle one, but was able to get it working before I contacted the seller/builder (red and black wires soldered in backward).
I'm also aware that not all failures will be mentioned in the forums...
 
I've heard of a few failures and a few I got less performance. Mapbike had problems with his down the road and I should had taken his advice before I bought this paper weight. Does it start the enjoy and work? Sure. Does it do anything? No. I've been trying to diagnose this problem for over a month (only riding the bike every other weekend) and I did everything other than the cdi because a seventy dollar cdi should surely last. But for real there isn't a reason to buy it. It's like buying one of those performance chips on eBay doesn't do crap, but it'll still run.
 
Mornin' guys. Let me jump into this discussion before I'm ready for CDI stuff. I read that the stock ones do wrist pin harm by being too advanced. IF that's true, and Jaguire, and others have figured the inner workings out, why does this problem exist?The schematics look simple enough, and timing apparently is component adjustable (How could it NOT be?), couldn't a builder hit any timing point/curve desirable? I may get deep into CDIs later, but since I am still disassembling my Wally's Nel Lusso (Aussie Crate and Barrel) Huffy (Build log in my album) to grease bearings, I REALLY appreciate reading opinions of 1000+ milers on these issues. heck (Oops), 1 mile puts y'all a mile ahead of me. Thanks, H.
 
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