I wasn't sure what to put as the title as this will actually have a few questions and a story to tell. 
Back in October I decided I was going to put an engine on an old bicycle that I had practically never used. A higher end Raleigh Cruiser bike. I initially got the bike several years back thinking I was going to use it for exercise and well..... that never ended up happening.
Anyhow, my first attempt to motorize this bike was using an amazon.com kit I bought. The kit was cheap and at the time I didn't know any better. Well despite months of fighting with it and lots of research, I was never able to get the engine to even start. It would kick over and immediately die despite several replaced parts, tons of tinkering, and sealing all the engine ports like a deranged madman with a glue brush of glory.
After a ton of frustration, I finally threw in the towel and bought a new engine all together this time from Zeda. The engine was significantly more expensive but that gave me a lot of hope that the engineers put some serious thought into it. Needless to say, the new engine works great but it's scary fast.
I did a few small trips with the Zeda engine before something unfortunate happened that.... I wish I could say I didn't expect. The chain slipped and broke (actually broke the freaking chain) due to the questionable design approach of the back sprocket. I consider myself lucky that it didn't break the spokes of the wheel and that I only left with minor'ish scrapes and bruises after being kicked from the bike at speed and hitting a tree.
So I went and bought myself a Hub-Mountable sprocket from BikeBerry along with a new chain and a proper chain tensioner. I'm a lot more optimistic about the safety of this approach.
I went with a 62 tooth back sprocket this time as acceleration is significantly more important to me than top speed. 99% of the roads in my current town have a speed limit of 15 MPH so to stay on the good side of the cops, I am gearing my setup for acceleration.
Does anyone on the forum roughly know the top speed of a 62 tooth sprocket for a ~3 horsepower Zeda engine? Or what kind of acceleration rate to expect?
The entire weight of the bike + engine including myself on said bike would be close to 200 pounds.
Has anyone done winter riding? I should have started building this in the spring but... lack of foresight.
Back in October I decided I was going to put an engine on an old bicycle that I had practically never used. A higher end Raleigh Cruiser bike. I initially got the bike several years back thinking I was going to use it for exercise and well..... that never ended up happening.
Anyhow, my first attempt to motorize this bike was using an amazon.com kit I bought. The kit was cheap and at the time I didn't know any better. Well despite months of fighting with it and lots of research, I was never able to get the engine to even start. It would kick over and immediately die despite several replaced parts, tons of tinkering, and sealing all the engine ports like a deranged madman with a glue brush of glory.
After a ton of frustration, I finally threw in the towel and bought a new engine all together this time from Zeda. The engine was significantly more expensive but that gave me a lot of hope that the engineers put some serious thought into it. Needless to say, the new engine works great but it's scary fast.
I did a few small trips with the Zeda engine before something unfortunate happened that.... I wish I could say I didn't expect. The chain slipped and broke (actually broke the freaking chain) due to the questionable design approach of the back sprocket. I consider myself lucky that it didn't break the spokes of the wheel and that I only left with minor'ish scrapes and bruises after being kicked from the bike at speed and hitting a tree.
So I went and bought myself a Hub-Mountable sprocket from BikeBerry along with a new chain and a proper chain tensioner. I'm a lot more optimistic about the safety of this approach.
I went with a 62 tooth back sprocket this time as acceleration is significantly more important to me than top speed. 99% of the roads in my current town have a speed limit of 15 MPH so to stay on the good side of the cops, I am gearing my setup for acceleration.
Does anyone on the forum roughly know the top speed of a 62 tooth sprocket for a ~3 horsepower Zeda engine? Or what kind of acceleration rate to expect?
The entire weight of the bike + engine including myself on said bike would be close to 200 pounds.
Has anyone done winter riding? I should have started building this in the spring but... lack of foresight.
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