Question about 66cc kit on a Walmart bike

[Rusty_Nail]

Ok cool. Larry, on the Roadmaster did you have to bend your muffler to clear the pedals or was it fine how it came?

 

[Larry Trotter]

Mine was fine, but I have found that lots of mufflers are not the same.

 

[Greg58]

One trick to clear the pedals is to drill the holes in the muffler mounting flange a little larger, you can then rotate the muffler in and tighten it down. Use removable thread locker on the studs.

 

[waynesdata]

Walmart bikes are fine just if it’s got a coaster brake add a front disk. Anything with front, rear brakes and steel frame is fine. Expect to need new wheel bearings in cheap bikes around the 800 mile mark though. I like building on giant mountain bikes, cheap but not to cheap and pretty good quality for price. Wheel bearings tend to last around 2k miles before they start getting sad.

I had 4000 miles on my Walmart wheel bearings. Just packed with the cheep Walmart grease from automotive. Used bike rain or shine.

 

[Rusty_Nail]

Cool. Thanks for the tip.

 

[indian22]

What makes Walmart bikes unsafe is not the frame. The bikes are often assembled wrong. The brakes are unfit without an engine. The spokes and rims are too light. The wheel baring suck

I've seen some nice builds on "Walmart" type bikes, but they are what they are & Wayne as well as others have touched on several negatives with good reason. That said check every thing twice and then again before or after each ride to see if something is about to fall off. I'm serious. Blue thread locker should be used on fastener threads, this is the medium strength. Don't use the high strength thread locker 'cause you need to heat with a torch to break these loose. Replace parts with better parts when you can afford them, same goes for adding or upgrading tires/tubes, wheels & brakes to front disk brakes especially if you ride fast. Eventually every part that comes on these "Walmart" bikes you'll need & want to replace, if you ride a lot over a period of time. If this bike is your primary form of transport replace and add parts before it leaves you stranded, injured or both.

Oh yeah I hate to admit it , but I've a twenty plus year old Kent steel 21 speed mountain bike that still rides great just a pedal bike but got a lot of miles on it...no real problems with it over the years, no suspension and rim brakes front and rear no motor in it's future though.

Rick C.

 

[Larry Trotter]

It will also make life much easier if you get a double pull brake lever. There are a couple of types that look very similar but are really quite different. There is a vertical stacked type and a horizontal stacked type. The vertical type pulls on the center of a bar that has the cables attached at each end and the horizontal one pulls on both together hooked directly to the lever. The vertical type with the bar evens out the pull on each brake by allowing the bar to pivot on the lever, this seems good however there is a little flaw, if one cable breaks or comes loose the lever will then slack off on the remaining cable take away some of it's travel which may make the remaining brake less effective. Not sure what is best, but just be aware of how they work. You can find both for about $11.00. I use the horizontal one. Larry