China Girl Motor on an Old Mountain Bike

[Russ McClay]

This is my ride. From ordering the motor in China (I'm in Taiwan), to finding a
suitable used bicycle to full assembly and then putting over 100 miles on it: 20 days.

I now have post-assembly blues! I love this bike so much. I'm in my late 50's and I feel like a teenager again riding it.

This shot was taken in the cemeteries high above Peitou, Taiwan.

Russ

 

[maurtis]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Fantastic, that motor looks great in that frame. Did you clean up the fins yourself, or did they some nicely cast like that? They look nice and straight.

 

[Russ McClay]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Hey maurtis --

Fantastic, that motor looks great in that frame. Did you clean up the fins yourself, or did they some nicely cast like that? They look nice and straight.

Yeah, how about that clearance on top! The weirdest thing ever is that I found that and a couple of potential candidates for bikes on the local Taiwan sell boards. One looked particularly suitable so I called the guy and said I'd like to buy it ($25 bucks). In closing I said I was going to put a motor on it, just to see what reaction I'd get. Surprisingly he said that he got the bike from a friend and it had a motor on it! He subsequently found another bike and put the motor on that and thus he was selling the bike I bought. That wouldn't be particularly unusual in the States, but here in Taiwan neither I nor the guy I bought the bike from has EVER seen a motorized bicycle here. We became fast friends.

As for the casting...the motor is right out of the box.

Russ

 

[maurtis]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Nice, awesome story and glad it turned out so well. Around here the closest I have come to meeting another motorized bicycle rider i saw a motorized bicycle in my local bike shop that was in for repairs. Apparently the motor "fell off" and subsequently did a lot of damage to the bike itself.

Since the owner did a whole bunch of things horribly wrong, I did not reach out to try to get their contact info to meet them. Perhaps I should, since they definitely needed some info from this forum! LOL

Ride on!

 

[Russ McClay]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Lol!

What's your ride these days, maurtis?

 

[biknut]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Your bike looks real good Russ. What kind of tires are those? I like the way they look too.

 

[maurtis]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

What's your ride these days, maurtis?

Currently making do with an electric bike, the Mongoose CX24V450, which I am about to trade out the 24V SLAs with 36V of lipo.

A couple of months ago I blew up my HT, then sold off the parts to fund my son's go-kart project. This was my girl shortly before the wrist pin bearing went and took pretty much everything with it...

BUT... I am in the planning stages of my next gas build. I keep flip/flopping between a stretch cruiser with a 4 speed Lifan and a vertically mounted Predator like Scotto and CCC are building. Those guys do such pretty work, it is hard to not want to copy them!

Whatever I do, I want to get a welder and take some welding classes. My next build I want to get fancy!

 

[maurtis]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Your bike looks real good Russ. What kind of tires are those? I like the way they look too.

Looks like these? Cheng Shin C1218

 

[Russ McClay]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

Hey maurtis --

Currently making do with an electric bike, the Mongoose CX24V450, which I am about to trade out the 24V SLAs with 36V of lipo.

A couple of months ago I blew up my HT, then sold off the parts to fund my son's go-kart project. This was my girl shortly before the wrist pin bearing went and took pretty much everything with it...

BUT... I am in the planning stages of my next gas build. I keep flip/flopping between a stretch cruiser with a 4 speed Lifan and a vertically mounted Predator like Scotto and CCC are building. Those guys do such pretty work, it is hard to not want to copy them!

Whatever I do, I want to get a welder and take some welding classes. My next build I want to get fancy!

Wow...cool electric bike. And the gas bike is awesome! That's the kind of frame I would love to have...but so far haven't been able to find one here in Taiwan.

I'm new here...what is the abbreviation "HT"? Also, I'm curious as to how many miles you put on that motor before the wrist pin disintegrated. What a bummer!

Good job finding the tire, btw. =) That's definitely it.

Russ

 

[maurtis]

Re: China Girl on an Old Mountain Bike

I'm new here...what is the abbreviation "HT"? Also, I'm curious as to how many miles you put on that motor before the wrist pin disintegrated. What a bummer!

Hey Russ,

HT = Happy Time = China Girl = funny name for the common 66cc 2 stroke kits My wrist pin bearing let go around 400 - 500 miles. I actually had the cylinder off at one point to replace the wrist pin bearing, but could not get the wrist pin all of the way out. Instead of trying to force it out, I just put the wrist pin back in...

In hindsight, I should have kept trying

Good luck finding a cantilever style cruiser frame, I am sure one will turn up eventually!