Intro plus questions

M

mischievous

New Member
Thanks for being here everyone. While I may be a newb at motorized bicycles, I am by no means a newb at mechanics. I have built everything from lawnmowers to very high performance road racing cars. I have at my disposal extensive tooling. I live in Utah. I am a late 40+ YO married guy. the bike I am building will be primarly use for fishing, camping and cruising around race paddocks. I would like to build something that can haul my fat (225 lb) arse around at say 25 MPH. Remember that at this elevation performance will drop. I have a Trek 990 hard tail mountain bike I plan to use for the pinnings. I had researched and decided that a Grubee 80 with an aftermarket X-chamber was the ticket but I am already questioning things. Please give me bullet points to these questions:

>> 2 stroke -v- 4 stroke. 2 stroke is simplistic but will a 4 stroke be more reliable? If so how much more if equally operated and maintained.

>> Clutch - I am confused. As I understood things the engine basically was a direct drive with a clutch to disengage the drive. Yea, so how and why a centrifugal clutch? Are they different than say a snowmobile or other centrifugal clutch??? Is it just a nominclature thing?

>> Parts and pieces - How much is available and prefered shelf stock compared to custom machining (ie mounts and such)? What spares should be kept on hand?

>> Brakes - I need to know the god of friction is on my side!!!!! Can stock bicycle brakes (caliper type) get the job done?

thanks!!
 
i like 2 strokes, and haven't had any major probs with them, and i think they're reliable, as long as you've got a good engine to start with, and you know how to tune it up. i've got about 1500 miles on one, and maybe 1200 on the other. it's mostly preference, though. people with 4 strokes will tell you how great they are, and vice versa.

plenty of parts available from the forum sponsors to your right and left, as well as stock replacements.

i run a coaster brake in the rear, and a drum brake in the front, and it's all the stopping power i need, and then some. calipers work fine.
 
**** I like 2 stroke because they are cheaper, simple, easy to work on, and I like the in frame like on a mountain bike, kind of like a dirt bike.

**** The 2 stroke does not come with a centrifigul clutch. The clutch that comes with it works to either engage or disengage the engine. The action of the clutch is pretty smooth and works just like one in a car.

**** I would recomend going to sick bike parts ( on the left side of the screen) and buy some aftermarket parts. The parts I think are critical to get to replace the stock parts are: plug wire, engine hardware kit, gas cap gasket, intake manifold o ring, fuel filter, and clutch cover ( this really quiets down the clutch noise).

**** Your stock caliper/v brakes will be plenty. Since you have a clutch lever on the left side of the handle bars you loose a spot for that left brake lever. Sick bike parts also sells a dual pull brake lever that you can put on the right side of the bars and will pull both of your brakes.

Welcome to the hobby, its a blast!
 
I just remembered something.

I would recomend finding an alternative to mounting the sprocket to the spokes. I use an adapter that mounts your sprocket to the disk rotor mount. Your rear mountain bike hub must be disk compatibal. If it isn't I would get that type of hub and run the adapter.

Kings sales and service sells the adapter and they have a link on the right side of this page.
(the one with the pics of the sprockets)
 
mounting to the spokes didnt give me a warm fuzzy either. I made a hub adaptor on some manual machines. It's more primative than the nice aftermarket stuff but hey I made mine.
 

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