hi, i'm trying to build a motor assisted bike for my brother and was wondering if anyone could tell me what would be virtually the cheapest way to go with a kit?
around a hundred if you go with the weed whacker friction drive.
BAD news: it isn't a kit you have to work out the mountings yourself.
Good news: it isn't that hard to do... you can do it with parts from home depot and simple tools.
no, not in australia, I'm in texas. I know I could get the kit for about 150.00$. I was just trying to do it as cheap as possible and because this will be my first attempt at trying I wanted to make sure I was investing as little as possible. I'm gonna go with a kit just for the instruction manual and a parts list. I want to do my best not to screw it up, hehe.
Welcome Meldbid, I just want to say that cheapest isn't always the best route. For example if you ride like me, a cheap motor will last only a few months. Thank goodness I have a friend that has a complete machine shop and helped me rebuild my old chinese motor with high quality bearings. I know that the cheap motors come with a bushing (which blows out after a few months of hard riding) instead of a needle bearing. If you decide to get a inexpensive motor, break it in slowly and try not to go WOT at all and you should get a few thousand miles out of the motor.
Many have seen 4-5000++ out of bushed engines. (use a 24 to 30:1 mix).
I second the advice to not run WOT/high rpm very long. Short busts of 30 seconds or so? O.K.
Break in by varying the throttle and engine speed, don't lug the engine, and as stated short busts of wide open throttle.