The Bike Machine

Jon

Looking At Your Pic Of The View From The Bottom, The Two Bottom Bolts (of 4 That Hold Engine To The Drive) The Two Bolts Center Of Bolt To Center Of Bolt Will Be 2 And 7/8" Apart If It Is A 76/78mm Clutch.

Ron
 
Just in case you need another motor I assume. Knowing the clutch size lets you know what new motors will fit on the drive system.
 
jhensersky said:
It is, as you might guess, an engine for a bicycle. It has a friction drive.

I bought one at a rummage sale and apparently, it was never used. Never had gas in it.

Except for a few specks of rust on the friction roller, the engine was spotless.

There is no manual and an internet search for info produces little.

And K & S Industries is no longer in business.

I did find a pic on the internet (see attachment).

So I put the engine on the bike, put in a new spark plug, and put in gas & oil (16:1).

It won't start for me though.

I took it to a small engine guy and he couldn't get a spark from it. He said the spark plug was probably not the culprit. He didn't want to look at it further because he figured he wouldn't be able to find parts for it.

So I am stuck with an engine that probably would work just fine if I could just figure out what it needs.
Click to expand...
when i was 12,13yrs old 4 kids in my neighborhood had The Bike Machine. It was a great little motor. had a spring load lever to lift motor off tire. Goes about 22mph, my best friend had a speedo on his bike. there should be a little compartment with a little bottle for spare gas mix. i think most of my friends order them from an ad in the back of popular mechanics mag. This was back around 1986-87. Great find! it would be an easy fix . let me know if you want to sell or trade. I need a new project-i just restored an old clinton 3hp outboard. there are tricks to get the Bike Machine moving faster-let me know if you want to know.
 
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dont switch motors. fix it . its either not getting fuel or spark. you might check out the carb. somewhere on it there is a model number.order a kit and rebuild it-really simple. i cant remember how you turn these off but if there is a kill switch-make sure its properly connected. you should sand the magnito, check the plug.
 
Oh my gosh I'd thought I'd never see another Bike Machine. They were advertised on TV a little around 1979, and I remember making a comment to my dad 'That looks pretty neat.' The ad had a jingle 'It's the super way to give you bike super go power. Oh whoa, get the Bike Machine!' Next thing I know for my 13th birthday that was my present! It was awesome! It had little compartments on top for a bottle for oil for mixing with the gas, and another compartment for tools to tighten up the mounting brackets, adjusting the tire height from the flywheel, and changing the spark plug.

That thing was built like a tank! The friction drive flywheel rested right on top of the rear wheel, and the way I used it ate through a tire about every 4 months. I went through 4 different bikes with it, some 1 speed bikes, then a few 10 speeds. If I would fall or jump ramps or wreck my bike, it would kill the motor usually, but it would just start right up. The vibration of the motor eventually made the rear frame welds break, and I would either have to get them rewelded or replace the bike.

I'd pull up to the gas station, plop 2 quarters on the counter and be done. Don't let anyone fool you, with a new spark plug and a good gas mixture, that thing would do well over 35 mph. A tankful of gas would get you about 90 miles. I lived in Texas at the time, and would make trips from Houston to Galveston on a tankful.

I know about 3 years down the road it just stopped running, and my dad found compatible parts at a lawnmower shop that sold parts for Echo lawn equipment. IF I remember right he had to replace a coil and points I think. Eventually I became care age and the bike sat, and eventually my father gave it to a friend's child. I wish I would have kept it though it was so much fun.

Some specifics I remember about it...

1. When you first ran the motor for the first few tank fulls of gas, you are suppose to mix double 8:1 with the oil as the motor gets broken in.

2. There is a gas cuttoff valve that you should use to run the motor out of gas if you don't plan to use it for more than a few days.

3. There was a plastic spacer which you would put between the tire and the flywheel drive to adjust the system so the right amount of pressure was placed on the tire. I was about 1/4" thick if I remember right.

4. Fill the rear tire about 5 lbs. over rating and maintain that for the spacing and for use. Tires seem to last longer that way.

5. Unit just free spins if the tires are wet. Don't even try.

Wish I had another. Have fun with that!
 
I have one of these little 31cc Mitsubishi built engines on a bike sitting in my bicycle shop showroom. From my prior research, the motor internals were apparently interchangeable with some of Echo's backpack blowers!?!? The history of these units is as follows (by my same prior research): marketed by Kidde (the fire safety folks); orig designed for a fire dept grade smoke blower (hence, friction roller driving on rubber covered wheel of fan's drive spindle); then "re-thought" as a bike engine! This was purportedly due to Mac getting their smoke blowers to market first!

To all of those dealing with K&S "Bike Machine" issues, link for a free PDF download of owner's manual: http://www.bikebug.net/manuals/Bike-Machine-Manual.pdf. It will cover all of the needed GENERAL stuff.

Relative to the issue of no spark, I tend to agree with everyone else on eradicating the surface-rust buildup from 30-plus years of humidity on new/unused metal parts. They may also have had a coating of cosmolene, or other protective lube, to negate same. In either case, getting to the spark system to sand &/or degrease is crucial. If you'd find a dead coil/stator/condenser/etc, you can source low-$ solid state conversions from Stens & other small engine pars suppliers; they've been out since before they built this unit! Make sure to source one for the 2-stroke, as 4-stroke units exist, too. I used one on a SKILL chainsaw which had the dumbest exhaust fumes routing method in history: cooling vanes on flywheel sucked the exhaust gas back into the points===D-U-H!?!?!?!? Ten bucks, plus an hour's work, solved it all.. Also had a vintage Puch dirt bike with a totally FUBARed ign system & did same to it.

If it ever DID have fuel in it you'll likely need to pull the carb off & do a full teardown. Salvage all gaskets by carefully removing from mating surfaces with a single edged razor blade. Plan to re-use: gaskets, rubber, plastic components, & float/needle/seat parts. If you don't have access to a heated, ultrasonic vibe-tank (3-stages using white vinegar; followed by a baking-soda rinse; followed by distilled water rinse), instead a thorough soaking/cleaning of the thing in laquer thinner (EXCEPT items I've listed above for re-use). HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!!!!!

BEFORE YOU TEARDOWN THESE UNITS: make sure that any nuts that retain shaft mounted items are NOT reverse (i.e.: left-hand) thread. It seems that the majority of the nut-N-bolt parts' descriptions in the manual are of SAE, & NOT metric, fittings.

As a life-long pro mechanic, AND bicycle shop owner, with a background in product design engineering, I want to broach the following: I have read some postings on other sites about these engines from people who advocate using glues/adhesives/caulks/liquid weld compounds/etc to repair these & other things. These are likely being advocated by the same ilk of folks who think you can buy a REAL bicycle from a store which also sells maxi-pads &/or Barbie-Dolls!?!?!? PLEASE REFRAIN FROM BOTH OF THESE PRACTICES; IT CAN KILL YOU &/or LOVED ONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I have a bike machine I love it. I had it for 25 years still in the box. Installed in twenty min. Started on the first pull.
 
Hi!

I have a BIKE MACHINE that is brand new and never opened. Would anyone like to purchase it or know anyone that might.

THanks!
 
I have one also,and was having trouble with it running right,so took it apart and checking found in really nice shape.

In the prosses of working on it was looking at a pocket bike engine and found that they would bolt right on in place of the Mitsubishi engine.
 
i know this is an old post but these do turn up from time to time and info is tough to find on them so thought i'd post in-case someone is looking. i bot one a while back was almost as new.. installed it with some light modification as it didn't come with all the attachment hdw. road it over 500 miles with a semislick and in all types of weather in the rain all it needed was to pedal it a bit to get up a little speed befor applying throttle to keep it from slipping.. it developed an issue with staying running a while back and i haven't gotten back to it yet . there is an owners manual that you can find online can't remember where right now and as to a spark issue there is a point set located under the pull start that controls the spark it has a condenser also
 
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