Max in Washington

[MaximusPrime]

Howdy all...

Been checking out these forums looking for help in building my bike I just picked up about a month ago...

Turns out the kit I stumbled upon and bought off of craigslist on a bike is one of the 2009 skyhawk 66cc kits.... So far so good but still have not gotten it all together and set the idle on the engine because I believe the little c clip that goes on the throttle cable inside the carb got lost by myself or the kid I bought it from... Got a new carb for spare parts ordered and I hope it gets here soon since the nice weather is here....

Here are some pics so you all can see the paint and assembly thus far... I named her "Franken Hussy" because of the adjusting I did to the huffy emblem I had left on the peddle side chain guard....

I still have lots more to do on it... I would like to put a higher performance exhaust and a better carb and running lights and a better throttle etc... its all still in the works....

Got a lot of time in this thing so far and I am sure many more will go into it with hours of enjoyment...

Glad to be on the forums and hope I can help out as much as I am sure the forums will help me...

 

[Dave31]

Welcome, nice ride glad you joined us.

 

[SAVED1]

welcome to the forum maximusprime

 

[MaximusPrime]

Wow... the more I keep reading on the forums and finding more and more upgrades I can do to my bike the more I am learning about all the different aspects of this neat new hobby I have found.... Thanks for the great forums guys...

 

[MaximusPrime]

So... finally got my parts today from my post office (thank god I used to work at the market that it is in and could get someone to grab it for me)..... and it runs! lol

My brother and I at first tried to just use the c- clip from inside the new carb I ordered (factory NT carb) to get the one that was on the motor kit I had (NT Speed Carb with black air cleaner) running... For some reason when we got it all installed and opened the fuel valves the carb just flooded... it was behaving like the float was sticking inside but upon inspection never seemed to be out of the ordinary...

So we ended up just switching out the entire carb and got the fuel filter installed correctly and it runs.... yay!

The troubles I am having now are that for one... the rag joint set up on the rear tire with my coaster brake is just not working well... it has lots of noise in it and the idler tension pulley has already loosened on me once just trying to get it started and adjust the carb so it will idle with the clutch in....

Secondly the exhaust is riding on one of my engine mount u bolt brackets that are wrapped in a rubber nylon to lower the frame vibration and its already melting the sheathing....

And third when the idle screw on the carb is set well enough that it will hold an idle with the clutch in it is a really weak idle and will only hold it for a short period of time before it dies... and then when the motor does shut off it has lots of smoke coming out the pipe like its running rich....

My plans are at this point to save up some money to buy a new rear tire assembly that does not have a coaster brake on it, has 12 ga spokes, and will accept a good joint on the hub like the ones from Sick Bike Parts.... and until I can do so keep on tinkering with the set up I have now with the carb and rear wheel... I just know the rear wheel is gonna need replaced cause when I first bought the bike I had to repack the rear axle because of what the previous owner had done with it resizing the motor drive sprocket to fit....

I will keep posting my progress here... and any feed back is appreciated...

And Happy motoring!

 

[Ernst]

First off fantastic graphics! That makes me happy to see. I agree we can be as bold as we want since my personal philosophy is that we are but the tip or the iceberg when it comes to economic travelling.

I have a new found respect for going fishing and camping now.

Also, being rather new, I understand how we work out the small details. I placed some silicone tape around the fuel line next to the throttle cable stand on mine because in time that fuel line would ware and a hole would develop.

Vibration is my build's middle name.

I hope you will blog a lot about your build.. The shark alone makes it way cool.

 

[MaximusPrime]

Thanks for the kind words... I am trying to learn so much so quick... I am hoping in time to be able to get a welder and a grinder so other dimensions become possible such as custom fuel tanks... seat post brackets... etc....

Right now I wanna keep messing with this one till I am confident I can build a solid bike first time through... then I wanna take on the challenge of building my dream machine with an extended cargo frame and one of the shift kits installed on a nice internal 8 speed hub... but all of that is really time and money....

Till then I will be happy to vibrate my buns off on the Franken Hussy.... lol

 

[MaximusPrime]

Well hooray for the first day of summer!

Today here in Washington is just gorgeous outside and coincidentally my first day of two days in row off in over two months... so I thought today is the perfect day to take my bike out and get the carb to where it will idle...

It took me a bit to get it started as I noticed that the gas tank fuel line nipple was where it angled my fuel line into my frame and had already vibrated one hole in the fuel line.... So to correct the problem I tried angling my tank and this caused another problem of my gas not wanting to flow down the gravity feed of the fuel system... so I turned the tank back up an... viola she crackled....

So I got on my happy little way away from my house to run to the nearest store... about 3 miles from my house.... I revved it up two decent size hills near my house and noticed that it can do the hills but if its too steep of a grade I have to peddle and help it out...

Then the worst but typical catastrophic failure happened... I threw my engine drive chain and it landed between the sprocket and spokes... and my bicycle spokes shredded it proper....

It appears, as has been concluded by many others in their builds before, that the entire problem is the rag joint that comes stock with the engine kit.... This one little piece of the equation has given me nothing but fits in trying to assemble the whole project....and it has caused me to have to severely alter the rear sprocket already to make it fit the stock hubs on this huffy...

I think I need to purchase one of the SBP hub sprocket adapters and start pricing some new wheels and fast so that I can hopefully get this thing up and running while the nice weather is still here.... around Washington it doesn't last long these days...

Hope everyone is out motoring today....

 

[MaximusPrime]

So.... current progress on my build...

After throwing my motor drive chain thanks to the rag joint on the back spokes I decided that I wanted to take the entire rear tire in and get it overhauled....

I am lucky that the guy who is one of the head mechanics at my local bike shop is building his own motor bike at the moment and hes pretty familiar with all my strange requests and needs....

Since he and I discovered that the bike I have is actually already stock with 12ga spokes we decided that instead of getting rid of the whole rear tire to save the spokes and rim strip and have it relaced onto a higher quality hub.... He managed to fish up out of a box in the rear of the stock room an old 70s brand new in box Shimano D rear hub with coaster brake that has the Japanese manufacture stamp on it.... SOLID GOLD! It spun so true and nice... no noise at all... only down side is that it is chrome and will stick out a bit on the bike with all the rest of the black on it.... totally worth it for that hub though.... and the best part... hes selling it to me for $30.... lucky me...

The next issue now is going to be to get the right measurement I need for the sprocket adapter off the center diameter of that hub since from the few measurements I did get from my friend at the bike shop.... I can already tell that the stock ones sold by pirate cycles are not gonna fit....

So I am patiently awaiting the return on my new rear wheel and tinkering with a few other things on the bike....

The other issue I tackled today was the heavy pull on the clutch... I finally had enough with the return spring they have you put in between the clutch arm and and the cable stay... took it out.... that helped some... but I decided the next trick to try would be to fabricate an extension for the clutch arm that could bolt on.... I found an old chunk of pipe cut from an old floor lamp post that was exactly the right size to ride over the existing clutch arm... after that it was cutting it to the right length I needed extending the length of the clutch arm an inch... cutting a groove down the end of the tube the cable would connect to... then drilling a hole that the cable nut would sit into on one side of the pipe end with my groove... then drilling a bolt hole that would fit a loose bolt I had laying around that would pressure bolt into the original seat hole for the cable nut at the end of the existing clutch arm...

After much cutting and drilling and sanding and cutting my fingers on metal shavings and such... and more filing.. and more sanding... and some more painting... I now have an extended clutch arm on my engine that makes the pull I would say at least two thirds to about half of what it is with just the stock clutch arm....

My left hand is already thanking me...lol

Hopefully I can get this thing motoring before the end of the summer... would be a shame if I only get a few weeks with it really solid to ride.... oh well... its all fun in the garage... heh....

 

[Ernst]

Sounds good on the wheel and the progress.

I think what one woman commented the other day applies "it will never be done."

We all will be at it for some time.