OBX Fisherman
New Member
Here's a huffy motorbike I built for a friend. He picked up a 66cc Skyhawk engine when it was on sale at Fathers day and then scored this bike from a local Goodwill store for $30! I made a custom motor mount on the front of the engine. The mount is a plus shaped piece of metal welded top & bottom to the frame.
The biggest problem we had was the idler bracket. It kept bending and coming loose no matter how hard we tightened it. The plastic idler also came loose from the bearing and the stud stripped out. We finally took it off and I came up with the ultimate idler setup. It's 2 pieces of 1/2" angle iron welded between the frame. Inside that is a block of 3/8" thick steel that can slide up an down in the track the angle iron makes. The block of steel is drilled and tapped with 3 holes, 2 for the bolts to secure it in place and 1 in the center for the idler stud. I ended up using the stud and idler from my "Thats Dax" kit since it was in better shape than the Skyhawk parts. There is a plate on the outside of the block of metal to sandwich the angles.
After we fixed the issue with the idler we started snapping chains, mainly the connector link. Again I raided my “That’s Dax” kit and used the heavier chain which has held up with no problems. I also noticed the heavier chain tracks onto the rear sprocket without snagging like the smaller chain would do. We also added some front brakes to the bike as the coster brakes are not enough. The only think I don’t like about this build was the frame and the petcock on the tank interfere. The tank has to sit at an angle. I need to see if I can find a fitting to angle the petcock inward.
About $200 in bike, engine kit and odds n ends.
Pics:
closeup of idler
backside of idler
Made our own offset seat post.
The biggest problem we had was the idler bracket. It kept bending and coming loose no matter how hard we tightened it. The plastic idler also came loose from the bearing and the stud stripped out. We finally took it off and I came up with the ultimate idler setup. It's 2 pieces of 1/2" angle iron welded between the frame. Inside that is a block of 3/8" thick steel that can slide up an down in the track the angle iron makes. The block of steel is drilled and tapped with 3 holes, 2 for the bolts to secure it in place and 1 in the center for the idler stud. I ended up using the stud and idler from my "Thats Dax" kit since it was in better shape than the Skyhawk parts. There is a plate on the outside of the block of metal to sandwich the angles.
After we fixed the issue with the idler we started snapping chains, mainly the connector link. Again I raided my “That’s Dax” kit and used the heavier chain which has held up with no problems. I also noticed the heavier chain tracks onto the rear sprocket without snagging like the smaller chain would do. We also added some front brakes to the bike as the coster brakes are not enough. The only think I don’t like about this build was the frame and the petcock on the tank interfere. The tank has to sit at an angle. I need to see if I can find a fitting to angle the petcock inward.
About $200 in bike, engine kit and odds n ends.
Pics:
closeup of idler
backside of idler
Made our own offset seat post.
