what did you do to your motorized bicycle today?

[5-7HEAVEN]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I spotted another MB rider!

On my way to work yesterday a.m., I noticed a bike rider in the fast lane on Dillingham Blvd., heading west towards Nimitz Highway. I'm on my bike, stopped at the light, perpendicular to his route, so I saw his right profile. That's strange, he's claiming the lane, keeping up with traffic. In the few seconds that he's in my sight, I noticed everything is colored black...driver's clothing, bike, Happy Time engine. There is a HT muffler on the bike. The engine's not screaming, so I'm presuming that he has a shift kit.

We'll cross paths one day. This is the first MB I've seen on the road in two months. Before the first sighting, I hadn't seen a motorized bike in over a year.

 

[Mike B]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Put a new seat on, took a spin around the neighborhood to see how it felt (great) and made myself an Al F. clutch roller bracket.

 

[CTripps]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I started off the day with a couple of confidence runs on the replaced motor, and it's running nicely. It was clear and sunny but only around 4°C, and no traffic on most of either trip until near the destinations. Weather permitting, it should be good to go for work next week.

Once I got back to the house the first priority was getting the wife's bike put back together.
Sealed up the magneto cover, remounted the CDI, connected the wiring, should be good.
Noticed while doing this that it's leaking a bit of gas, so I replaced the clamp holding the fuel line at the petcock, it was tight but could still be moved (first thing I found) then followed the line down. It was dry and seems good. I can't tell for sure right now but it looks like the gasket on the fuel bowl might be leaking. I'll follow up on that tomorrow. While I was working on it I pulled the clutch cover and adjusted the flower nut. Sometimes it would lock up the back wheel when you tried to start it first thing, hopefully that's taken care of with a few turns to "finger-tight." If not, it shouldn't be hard to set. Pulled the air intake and used gasket maker to replace the paper thin one as well. Cleaned out the 'air cleaner sponge' and cover too, since I had it apart.

Two good round trips and an afternoon spent tinkering. That's a good day.

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Put a new seat on, took a spin around the neighborhood to see how it felt (great) and made myself an Al F. clutch roller bracket.

I have GOT to make me one of these. I checked, and found I had all the parts. And I'm running out of excuses.

 

[GearNut]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Test fitted the Staton-Inc. rear wheel with dual threaded hub to my Schwinn Point Beach and picked up my EZM kit from Scotto-.
I will try to actually take some photos of this build this time around and make an EZM build thread. Time to play with it will be sporadic at best and $ is short so it may end up being updated sporadically too.

 

[NunyaBidness]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Put a new seat on, took a spin around the neighborhood to see how it felt (great) and made myself an Al F. clutch roller bracket.

First time I saw that mod, it was done by a member named Large Filipino.
On this site or the other, you can dig through his posts and find it. It was known as the "Large Filipino clutch mod" for a while.

 

[DaveC]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Worked on getting my LA Cycles BigMo back together to sell. Christmas coming up and I'm sure it will sell no problems. Some of the parts from the Dynacraft West Coast LTD is going on the BigMo like the seat, the BigMo seat was broken when I got it and at $50 for a new one I couldn't get enough out of the bike to pay for it. I'll be selling it at a loss anyway but that's ok. It's way too small for me and I'd have to do massive mods to make it work not near as well as the LTD and I have to do no chopping to it. I got front fork tubes that have brakes so I'm adding that to the BigMo for extra value.

I'll be getting back to building on the LTD when my new drill bit set gets here Monday or Tuesday.

 

[CTripps]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Put the air cleaner back together on the wife's bike, checked the gasket on the fuel bowl and sure enough, it's been pinched so it's weeping a little bit. Put it on the list of things to replace, it's not a huge concern right now. Fastened the carb back on and tweaked the clutch cable, so it should be good to go.

 

[gia]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Today was about day 6 of the "simple" task of replacing the handlebars. Nothing has ever been simple when it comes to the Flying Pig so far. The handlebars were no different. To make it more entertaining, I was also going to replace the crappy twist throttle with a thumb throttle. (Easier for me to use a thumb throttle) The twist throttle has not stayed together long enough for a ride to even happen except at idle speed.

Problems mating an ATV throttle with the Chinese motor were to be expected, what was NOT expected was that the screw to tighten the clamp to the bars was bent, resulting in breaking off a chunk of the plastic bracket.

I'll deal with it tomorrow.

In the meantime, replacing the failing seat with a new gel seat in x-large sounded great, until you realize it raises the seat a couple of inches on a bike that was already too large. I can barely reach the pedals, have to lean it over to get on and then hop along to start with enough momentum to start pedaling the bike. Just for extra interest, the clutch is still too tight, which means that it's not engaged yet when it's locked, requiring me to do my gymnastic routine with one hand clenching the clutch handle tightly.

I need to figure something else out, but smaller bikes weren't giving enough room for the engine (Grubee Skyhawk) and I ended up with this old steel frame bike that nearly everything has been replaced on. It's a good thing that it was intended as a Frankenstein experiment to even see if I could manage riding a motorized bicycle, rather than a "pretty" cycle!

So far, I have maybe 3 miles on the engine, and while I have no complaints about that part--the rest of it has been junk, especially the so-called "upgraded" twist throttle that comes apart if you breath on it. The integrated kill switch was DOA when it was installed (broken internally, but no damage visible on the throttle handle.) I didn't expect to find that the twist throttle was a problem (I am disabled) but it was impossible to use for more than a few minutes, hence the thumb throttle switch out. I searched the forums, thinking surely someone else has had an issue with twisting a throttle and used a thumb throttle, but didn't find anything. I'm a bit leery of using anything that doesn't require some kind of pressure continually to keep running just in case something DOES go wrong, even though my mechanical buddies keep poo-pooing my worries about it. They keep saying to buy another lever like is used for the clutch to use as a throttle. Anybody else got input? This is my first bike, and I'm not too well educated on mechanical anythings!

 

[GasX]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

I finished my preliminary (pre-paint) build and took her for a spin. Less that 500 yards and the final drive freewheel sprocket exploded.

 

[GearNut]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

They keep saying to buy another lever like is used for the clutch to use as a throttle. Anybody else got input? This is my first bike, and I'm not too well educated on mechanical anythings!

This type of throttle control is very common, quite cheap to do, easy to use, and very reliable.

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

This type of throttle control is very common, quite cheap to do, easy to use, and very reliable.

First, I bought a dual-pull lever, and connected front and rear brake cables to it.

What to do with the neglected single lever?

I hooked up my throttle cable to it!

Clean! No extra levers on the handlebar!

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Today the scooter windshield I purchased two years ago was installed.

It is THE BOMB!

 

[Dan]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Worked on getting my LA Cycles BigMo back together to sell. Christmas coming up and I'm sure it will sell no problems. Some of the parts from the Dynacraft West Coast LTD is going on the BigMo like the seat, the BigMo seat was broken when I got it and at $50 for a new one I couldn't get enough out of the bike to pay for it. I'll be selling it at a loss anyway but that's ok. It's way too small for me and I'd have to do massive mods to make it work not near as well as the LTD and I have to do no chopping to it. I got front fork tubes that have brakes so I'm adding that to the BigMo for extra value.

I'll be getting back to building on the LTD when my new drill bit set gets here Monday or Tuesday.

Go Dave! Lookin' forward to the pics!

Ride safe

 

[happycheapskate]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

If you have nothing in the way (shifter triggers for example), you can use cheap "thumbies" (1980s style gear shifters, $5) for a thumb throttle.

https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/i...CPYIiN9FrH8vG9jq6DPcuzlTQbtYB3e7w381Y51u6hrUm

These work great for shifters, and you can put one under the bar, loctite the screw, and leave it just a tad loose, so the lever is pulled back by the carb spring. It is important to use thread glue on the screw so it doesn't loosen and come out (the shifter will come apart). When used conventionally the screw is tight, so not a problem.

If you get the pair from Niagara Cycle Works for $10, it comes with cables and housings. They also sell the single shifter for $5, but I don't know if it has cables or housing. Probably at least a cable.

 

[Scootmeister]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Wahoo! Took the Stiletto Rat Bobber out for it's first spin, what a rip. No front brake (It took two blocks to stop), and no muffler. It sounded more like a gatlin gun than a Chinagirl. Liked the setup and the handling. It reminded me of the old Bultacos we rode as kids. The rebuilt Chinagirl is strong and consistent with quick acceleration and smooth idle. It's a bit of a challenge to start this little engine with a recoil starter. I'm surprised with the compression. My respect for these little engines and the NT carb are renewed!!!! The jackshaft on the Stiletto worked perfectly. I removed the exhaust and welded a pipe fitting on for a muffler, welded a pipe fitting on a little Chinagirl muffler and re-installed. Now it's quiet and fun, and fast.

 

[Goat Herder]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Cold and a bit rainy today had to add just a smidgen of air to both my tires. My said rear tire I slime tube is still working flawlessly with well over 4000 miles on it and all the impalements I found and removed when I put a new tire into the equitation.. . I got more power showed up today. The air atmosphere got dense enough that full throttle I had for hills stopped four stroking on on straight aways with my Morini/BoXer at times.

It is fast getting too cold for my liking now. Prolly time to bust out one of my faithful peddle bikes to stay warm.

 

[darkhawk22]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Riding time has been minimal but I did get a nice Stewart Warner Speedo installed. It's old and bouncy but gives a pretty good idea of speed.

 

[anim8r]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

Put the first 5 or so miles on my cg today. This is a neat way to get around! I'm really digging the part-time pedaling. Not sure exactly how fast or how far I've gone because my awesome old mechanical speedo doesn't actually work. Hoping I can fix it somehow. Kinda surprised at how many parts rattled off, so I put some nail polish where needed. It worked.

Thanks everyone for all the answers, old posts, stickies, opinions, words of doom & wisdom. I've never been mechanically inclined, but I've learned a lot here & now I've got this kicka$$ bike. (Or at least the beginnings of one....I don't imagine I'll quit working on it anytime soon.)

Looks like rain for the next 2 days, followed by freezing temperatures. Dang. I should build some kinda snowmobile.

 

[Ibedayank]

Re: what did you do to your motor bike today?

ordered parts to get the diamondback MTB going again with its HT motor
will see how long it lasts THIS time. still waiting on parts for the trike build but did pickup tubing to make the seat frame