Texas Riding Blog

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biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
The weather got back to normal. It's in the 70s now for the last few days. Tonight I went for a 25 mile ride over to the UTD campus to see if the university cops want a piece of me. I made lap around the campus. The university cops had someone pulled over on 3 of the 4 sides of the campus. When I rode by them I slowed down a little so they could get a good look. Nuthin!! Same story as everywhere else. Dallas, Farmers Branch, Addison, Carrollton, Richardson, University Park, Highland Park, Irving, Garland, SMU, and UTD are motor bicycle friendly, at least to me they are.

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CajunJamie

New Member
Feb 18, 2011
8
0
0
Texas
Hi all,
I am new to the forum and live 1 hour Northeast of Dallas, in Commerce, Texas (home of Texas A&M University-Commerce).

I am still deciding what will be my first build. I'm looking at different kits, but can someone please explain to me the difference between say, a "super rat" and something like a 66/80cc slant motor. What makes it a "rat" or "Super Rat"?

Thanks!
Jamie
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
Hi all,
I am new to the forum and live 1 hour Northeast of Dallas, in Commerce, Texas (home of Texas A&M University-Commerce).

I am still deciding what will be my first build. I'm looking at different kits, but can someone please explain to me the difference between say, a "super rat" and something like a 66/80cc slant motor. What makes it a "rat" or "Super Rat"?

Thanks!
Jamie
Welcome to the forum. Add one more motor bicycle rider to the Texas rolls. I can't really answer your question about rats because I don't know myself, but there is a forum section for them so you can do research about them.

I believe all 80cc China Girl motors are really 66cc in reality. It has to do with differences in the way the Chinese measure engine displacement compared to America.
 

CajunJamie

New Member
Feb 18, 2011
8
0
0
Texas
Many thanks. I saw in the above posts people discussing "Rats" and "China Girls" and wasn't familiar with what either meant.

Happy riding!

Jamie
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
Many thanks. I saw in the above posts people discussing "Rats" and "China Girls" and wasn't familiar with what either meant.

Happy riding!

Jamie
Welcome to the forum Jamie. What part of Texas are you in. I'm guessing East Texas?
 

dan+1

New Member
Mar 5, 2011
120
0
0
Texas
I imagine that the actions will draw more attention than the motorized bicycle will. If a person goes buzzing down the sidewalk at 30 mph scarry little old ladies I expect he would get some attention. Riding responsible with in the guidelines of bicycle norms will be treated as a bicyclist. Just my opinion.

In the country alot of ranchers on quads get by on the road fine, but if a kid is smoking donuts on public road or lands and acting likesmart asses they get special attention.

I think it will be like anything else in Texas, tread lightly, be respectful of others and we will be just fine. Act like a ass, get treated like one.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
I imagine that the actions will draw more attention than the motorized bicycle will. If a person goes buzzing down the sidewalk at 30 mph scarry little old ladies I expect he would get some attention. Riding responsible with in the guidelines of bicycle norms will be treated as a bicyclist. Just my opinion.

In the country alot of ranchers on quads get by on the road fine, but if a kid is smoking donuts on public road or lands and acting likesmart asses they get special attention.

I think it will be like anything else in Texas, tread lightly, be respectful of others and we will be just fine. Act like a ass, get treated like one.
I think you're exactly right, especially while we live under this gray law.
 

txlixard469

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
72
1
0
austin
I am new to this MB riding and getting alot of looks by all but I have yet to get hassled by the men in blue .I live in Austin TX. now if I can keep my bike running for more than 2-3 days I'd be doin good but ! person toldd me it's like a harley your always working on it my fav. creed is the bike creed
"I strive to constantly better my skill of control over my machine. I will learn its limits, and use my skill to become one with my machine so that we may keep each other alive. I am the master, it is the servant. Working together in harmony, we will become an invincible team."
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
I am new to this MB riding and getting alot of looks by all but I have yet to get hassled by the men in blue .I live in Austin TX. now if I can keep my bike running for more than 2-3 days I'd be doin good but ! person toldd me it's like a harley your always working on it my fav. creed is the bike creed
"I strive to constantly better my skill of control over my machine. I will learn its limits, and use my skill to become one with my machine so that we may keep each other alive. I am the master, it is the servant. Working together in harmony, we will become an invincible team."
It's good to hear that the authority's aren't interested in harassing you for riding your MB on the street. Seems like that's the same everywhere in Texas.

As far as dependability goes, my China Girl has proved to be very durable. Maintenance is easy, and I haven't had a failure in hundreds of miles now. It did take a while to iron out a few bugs initially, but since then my bike is holding up extremely well. Usually the only tool I carry when I ride is a cell phone. I frequently ride 20 miles at a time. I'm pretty sure there's nothing special about my bike, and anyone should be able to expect the same kind of performance. Good luck with your riding.
 

AustinFlyer

New Member
Mar 9, 2011
4
0
0
Austin, TX
Great to see all the fellow Texans on the forum. Question for you... does anyone know of a shop in TX that fabricates Felt Cruiser frames into sealed tanks? Thanks for the help!
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
Great to see all the fellow Texans on the forum. Question for you... does anyone know of a shop in TX that fabricates Felt Cruiser frames into sealed tanks? Thanks for the help!
I have no idea but if there is they'll probably be located near Austin, or San Antonio. That's the hot bed of motor bicycling in Texas.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
So I found myself riding along down a straight away that resembles the Bonneville Salt Flats, with a strong tail wind. Just as I got up to 33 mph my my motor started losing power. Then all it would do was about 15 mph all of a sudden. I thought maybe I seized it, or maybe the ignition is going bad, maybe spark plug?.... I was in the middle of a mission so I just kept going. When I got to the barber shop, I got off and looked for the cause. I noticed the choke had vibrated half closed. That's the first time it's ever done that.
 

tampico

New Member
Apr 21, 2011
5
0
1
Corpus Christi, Texas
Nice post! Hi! I'm John in Corpus, and it now strikes me as funny how after a few years reading these posts every so often, I only now thought to join in. The "catalyst" which now compels me to join in?... Well,... no cop has ever before, thoughout the years, ever expressed anything negative about my gas motor-assist bicycles, in fact,... they (typically) merely laughed, and asked a couple of friendly questions. Ater all these several years, I finally encountered, the other day, a "busy-body"/bored cop, way out on a country road outside of Corpus, who wanted to make a big/negative deal about the 48/49 cc "China Girl" on my mountain bike. I had pulled out of the driveway, driving, as normal, usually for me, on the shoulder, when he (Nueces County Constable) stopped ahead on the shouler, and waited for me to catch up to where he was sitting. He eventually got back in his patrol car after I pointed out that the motor is 48-49 cc, hence, under U.S. Federal law, still legally just a bicycle,... and Federal Law, in the abscence of ANY specific Texas statute, is the only concievable law that specifically could be applicable to a gas motor assist bicycle under 50cc displacement... Texas has never bothered to codify ANY specific GAS powered bicycle assist statute. As he got back into his car, he said I should have a helmet on, to which I expressed feigned dismay, bleating out,... "When did they pass THAT new statute for bicycles!?!", to which he mumbled that their isn't one, but that it's a "good idea" anyway... Whereupon,... he then drove off from whence he came... HA! "Creeping authoritarianism!" Of such little increments are suffocation of our innate freedoms inexoribly suffocated!... ALL hail "The NANNY STATE with the mailed fist!... Police officers have the LEGAL authority to enforce codified laws, NOT their own paticular pejudices,... whether pro or con,... on ANY particular issue. I know this is an extreme irritant to some "Barney Fife Types" out there,... but it is a FACT of life/law for some SUPREMELY IMPERATIVE REASONS!... An excellent analogy could be,... if I'm walking in the middle of the desert, and I suddenly pause to yank my pants down, and take a crap, am I then subject to some contrived legal/law enforcement punishment, even/ESPECIALLY(!) in the utter absence of any law stating whether it IS,... or it is NOT, legal to take a squat, and defacate right square in the middle of the desert?... In this scenario I present, there are no offended people around me in that desert to object/complain/and/or snicker, but then,... miraculously(!)... a policeman (Star Trek teletransporter fashion...) appears out of thin air,... packing an extremely itchy ticket finger,... and an (obviously "put on") "bad-hair day" attitude ,... and proceeds to try to make MY day as miserable as his (ostensibly) has been.......... I easily develop bursitis in my knees if I get rough on my knees, so pedaling extensively can leave me a bit crippled for a few days... Yeah, I've been using these 49cc bicycle motors to save on gas,... especially whenever the price starts creeping too high at the pumps, or simply taking a few spins around here, or Houston, "just for kicks" whenever I need to uplift my mood/spirit. Something about the wind in your hair that enhances that special feeling/sense of "FREEDOM"(!)... Freedom, alas,... I trully fear will surely become a very precious/scarce/extinct:confused: thing indeed as this tired, worn out, old planet continues to fill up with yet more overcrowding (By the way, whenever is "enough" of us-humans,... ever "ENOUGH"...:confused:,... and eventually, merely "given enough time" just the sheer complexity, and population growth numbers/mass demographics compel bureacrats everywhere to regulate/stifle the last little gasp of freedom out of the very last stubbornly human "hold outs"... Then we "humans" just evolve, as a race, into some dreadfully bland "Borg"/hive based abomination... Sigh........ I used to live aboard sailboats at free anchorages (as humans have done since even before recorded history...), and then, back in the eighties' in California, incrementally,.. they passed local ordinances to make such a lifestyle impossible/illegal, so that THESE days, if you want to live-aboard in coastal California, you have to be "very comfortable" to "very rich"... Authorities tend to have a seemingly natural/instinctive antipathy against "Gypsies", Or "Sea-Gypsies", plains indians, etc., etc., or any other overtly free/nomadic types of individuals for that matter... Excessive conformism is inherently hostile to a "free spirit"... The California seafaring/live-aboard community, very sadly, was not a cohesive/numerous/notable enough constituancy to protect its' interests/lifestyle,... hence such a completely free (in ALL aspects...) way of life,... simply is now EXTINCT, gone forever,... in California... There, sadly, are always going to be some "busybody", authoritarian-mindset people lurking around, whether it be a cop, beaurocrat, politician, clergy, schoolyard bully, etc., etc., ad nauseum,... to enthusiastically seek to shove (metaphorically speaking...) some apendage of theirs up into our anatomy... Remember that toleration of abuse,... inevitably invites only more ,... abuse...... OUR responsibility should be to seek, by virtue of banding together, as an identifiable element within our communities, to give a common voice to our interest/rights as citizens. Petitions/initiatives, etc., to extoll, and further the gas/electric motor-assist bicycle interests will be neccesary to repel the inevitable future assaults on the motor-assist bicycle choice/option. Eventually, the status quo "legal gray area" that the (gas)motor assist bicycle owners in Texas currently enjoy(tolerate?), will inevitably be supplanted/replaced by some codification of law that will be possibly even hostile, or at least indifferant to our interests... I lived for many years part time in Mexico, and I can wholly assert to you that legal "gray areas" (ambiguity) in the laws are usually NOT in the citizen favor, but merely a vehicle for corrupt/abusive authorities to bugger the citizenry. I say this,... even though, incidentally, for almost ten years now, my closest friend down in Mexico has been a cop,... but, so far in his life, he has comported himself as that "rare phenomonen",... of a trully decent fellow who does not pull that "mordita" crap (policemans' extortional abuse) on hapless citizens, or tourists... We owe it to ourselves to be pro-actively engaged,... to encourage all viable modes of transportation that ease the gas cost burden, and lessens oil imports from foriegn, often hostile nations... It should be INCESSANTLY hammered away against any detractors arguments prejudicial to gas/electric bicycles, that if EVEN a "paltry few millions" of Americans regularily hopped down to "where-ever" around town on their daily errands, instead of their damned gas-pig S.U.V.,... you could make a really significant dent in oil imports... I mean "everybody", except foriegn "petrol-tyrants" would love to see THAT developement,...right?... Regularily using a gas sipping errand hopper (of whatever mode) should be agressively presented as what it is,... a manifestation of actively "hands on" behavioral patriotism...
 
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biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
Hi John, welcome to the forum. We Texas motor bicycle riders need to stick together for sure. Everything you say about the current situation in Texas is correct. We ride in a legal gray area. Hopefully when legistration comes, we'll be able to keep it reasonable, and fair.

Maybe as gas prices keep getting higher and higher it'll make it easier for us to stay legal, and also get more people involved in motor bicycles.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
I've been planning for weeks to ride my MB down to lower greenville and show it off to the great unwashed masses. It's an older part of town that's been taken over by up scale yuppies, and young middle class progressive types.

Since I don't have anything I have to do today looks like today is the day. Someone was telling me about a skate board shop down there that might have interest in motor bicycles. I think there's a scooter shop close by to there too.

If it turns out nobody is interested then it means I will have rode my MB 30 miles just for the fun of it lol.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,653
475
83
Dallas
I just got back from a 50 mile ride around town. My longest ride ever. From Farmers Branch to Lower Greenville, to Deep Ellum, to the Farmers Market, to the West End. Then over to the American Air Lines Center, up the Katy Trail to Highland Park, through SMU. and University Park. Then over to Love Field and back up to Farmers Branch.

Used a total of about 40 oz of gas. No mechanical issues at all.