Harbor Freight or Honda Clone?

[Springfieldscooter]

Id love to get some opinions from everyone, especially Scotto...

With reguards to a 4 stroke engine.....

I see a lot of people opt for a 79 cc to 212 cc Harbor Freight style engine, then add a jackshaft, clutch, etc, and stuff it into a frame....


Why go through all the modifying and using different componets such as jackshaft and clutch, when another option would be to use a Honda clone that is available anywhere from 49cc up to 250cc .

The Honda clone has the cylinder pointing forward, which would be the only bad thing I can think of, as the frame would generally have to be stretched to make it fit.

But the pros would be that the engine is made for a 2 wheeler . They come in a variety of transmissions already built in...single speeds, automatics, and even 3 speed manuals.

Seems like they would be a more logical choice, but very seldom do I ever see anyone utilizing them.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[Tony01]

because they look like big UGLY BOXES WITH A CYLINDER STICKING OUT THE WRONG SIDE!!

just kidding. I can tell you why I didn't put one in MY bike:

I had a 50cc 3-speed manual like the one pictured in my possession for about a week. It had kick start, e-start, and a nice PZ19 carburetor that I ended up putting on my Predator 212.. and runs perfect! I test fit it into another schwinn frame I had laying around, pic below. So as you can see it doesn't fit in a standard older schwinn. So which part of the frame's front triangle would you be willing to cut up? That question right there was the deal breaker for me. Then of course I considered cutting the damn cylinder off and using the 3speed behind the seat tube (stretched rear triangle) along with all the kick and e starts, but then realized that's a heck of a lot of work too, cause either I'd need to turn around the briggs and drive the middle shaft, or make a custom shaft in place of the crank and drive the crankshaft somehow. Well then I thought, what if I didn't cut it up but simply overdrove the 50cc cylinder, modified the cam with extra lobes on both intake and exhaust and made the 50cc a 2-stroke supercharger for my briggs (at the time) along with using the 3-speed.. I was just like NAAHHHH!! so I grabbed the carb off it and sold the rest.

The engine is VERY wide, around 10", 50cc sucks, the wiring that came with it was a tweaker's mess, and there was no way to fit it without cutting up the frame and gambling on the mount angle and oiling.

 

[Springfieldscooter]

Thanks Tony...
If you had a stretched cruiser frame like a Micargi Mustang , would that change anything?

If you could install the engine in front of the seat tube, and flat, without interference up front at the down tube/head , would you still be opposed?