Trying to start building

[woodstockjr]

Hi Folks--

My name is Dan and I live in New Hampshire. Long story short I am trying to set myself up with a motorized bike for my commute to work and it is mostly out of necessity and desperation that it's come down to that. 10 miles to work is just a bit far for me to push the peddles everyday and I need a break.

I got low budget 2 stroke kit from BGF. I have two 1995 Gary Fisher mountain bikes and both 32 spoke rear wheels. One is the Montare that is fatter aluminum frame and rapid fire shifters and the other is steel frame special edition Grateful Dead Hoo Koo Ikoo with grip shifters. I think I am putting it on the steel frame and I will be getting the small front mount adapter from Sick bike parts because the front mount is 1.9 inch on the motor and my down tube is 1.3 inch.

My first issue straight off is the rag joint sprocket adapter going on my 32 spoke wheel. The rag joints are not uniform thickness and the 9 hole design doesn't fit on the 32 spoke wheel. I don't see any hub adapters for 32 spokes and new wheels are too expensive for me. I am going to try thinner bolts as I see a couple people did that but haven't been able to see if they had success.

I am heading out on my first hardware trip now with my wifes car that has issues of its own so hopefully that trip won't be too epic.

I appreciate any suggestions and inspiration. I am thankful for this forums.
I will try to give updates here in my intro thread so hopefully my experience can benefit someone as well.

Dan

 

[george_n_texas]

I only use 1 rag joint on the outside myself and put the bolts in from the inside pointing outward. Hope that helps. Welcome to the MB site!

 

[BigBlue]

woodstockjr,

Welcome to the forum.

Here's a post where someone used a rag joint on a 32 spoke - see Hoze513 response:

http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=39173&highlight=rag+joint+32+spokes

Reading a couple of other threads, it wasn't recommended since the wheel isn't as strong as a 36 spoke wheel.

I would recommend forum member AI.Fisherman's doc on setting up your engine: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GcesQihc7-mm3hJGf7UPiqOaRXZ8ekUT99QUZq2qXXE/edit

Become familiar with engine as much as you can, so that when problems occur, you'll know the engine inside and out.

Don't ride that engine flat out or it is going to wear out very quickly.

Good Luck,

Chris
AKA: BigBlue

 

[woodstockjr]

Just thought I would update on my motorbike project. As of four days ago I got the whole thing together enough for a preliminary test ride. It started up first try!
I have been breaking it in slowly ever since and with some little tweaks here and there, as of yesterday I am running it smooth with no issues.

Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of troubleshooting and issues along the way before that first start up was attempted. This forum was indispensable for that and I know it would have definitely taken a lot longer without the forum, if I could even do it at all, I am not so sure.

When I have a little more time I will try to find the best places here on the forum to post my pics and improvements I am planning on doing. I will also try to do an entry somewhere about what worked and didn't work in my process. I am very happy with my present result as it is solid and smooth (even with my 32 spoke wheel with rag joint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Even with cheap chinese plug it came with (and it is definitely one of the weakest sparks I have ever seen on a plug that still had any kind of spark to it!)

I have the NGK equivalent replacements so I still have that power to look forward to when I swap those in and move to a higher gas mix ratio when I ease out of my break in. I have mix for 2 gallons that I plan to go through before I increase that ratio.

Thanks again and I look forward to hopefully giving back to this forum more than I have taken. I am hooked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[2door]

Thanks for the update Woodstock. We really appreciate it when folks come back and let us know if the advice they recieved helped.

Have fun and please, ride safe.
Tom