Well, the bike engine came in last Thursday, so it's been in my possession a full week now, and
still not nearly operational.
I'm rushing ahead, though. I have a pretty standard aluminum frame mountain bike, with a 14" gap in the frame for the motor. I ended up copping out and buying a 48cc 2-stroke engine kit from Gasbikes, though I had only heard of the troubles some people had with them /after/ I put the order through. To my delight, the engine kit came in in great condition, minus a very small dent in the gas tank. That's about where the good luck ends for me, though.
The engine was slightly too large to fit in my frame gap, as well as the bottom tube was too large for the lower engine mount. After much deliberation I decided the best effect was to mill down the lower mount by 1/8" on my friends milling machine, and design a U-bolt or exhaust clamp setup from there. I was hesitant to use the 'drill thru' method the website prescribed because of the malleability of the aluminum bike frame.
It fit! The engine fit on nicely, but afterward the chain did not. Being much too long, I had to buy a bike chain tool, at about 20 bucks-- no big loss, i'll be sure to use it later. After taking about an hour to fix the chain, I realized quite late that since the sprocket attaches directly to my back wheel, it makes it quite difficult to use the normal pedal method! The bike
barely moves when I pedal, it is quite a fight. Hopefully it is because I haven't placed the idler on the chain to tighten it up, or that I haven't oiled the piston? I heard that one person had to trim down the head gasket to get his bike to run smoothly.
And, to my horror, I've also come to realize that the handlebar setup given to me is very much designed around a bike with no shifter knobs...
I was told by a friend who has a great deal of experience with two-stroke engines that before I start the engine for the first time I should oil the piston thru the spark plug breech, as well as thru the exhaust? Seems logical.
I do realize that there is quite a bit of reading that you just sat through, and whoever does manage to make it through-- congratulations, and thank you
