what did you do to your motorized bicycle today?

[happycheapskate]

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

Your mileage may vary, but mine ran like poo without the filter, just trying it out. The little inlet hole seems to drown it at idle, if there is no restriction at all (filter). I have had good luck with the "skull head" and the coffee strainer type filter box. I like the coffee strainer one better, keeps more dust out, and the screw to release the cover is on the side. The plate stays on the carb.

took the air filter off my china girl for a test run today, just to see how it works with more airflow. DANG what a difference! I couldn't believe the improvement at takeoff. I liked my red skull, but it looks like I'll be replacing it with a microphone screen or a mini strainer or something.

 

[rustycase]

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

OK, I'll give it a try...

Tnx guys....

My engine is wore out anyway, won't hurt it a bit to run it without an air cleaner. I'll post back if I notice any different results.
rc

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

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

I'm waiting for daylight, so I can ride to work.

It must've rained last night, 'cause the roads are totally wet right now. Yesterday had wet roads in the morn. In the afternoon, it was dry, but it drizzled on the way home. I've never fallen on my MB in wet weather.....yet.

Just for grins, I think I'll ride slowly to work on the sidewalks this morning. It'll take longer to commute, but it'll be safer.

One of the bosses told me I was brave to ride to work every day. "Foolhardy maybe", I replied. "No, brave" she replied.

I save about $5,000 a year by replacing one of my vehicles with a motorized bike. I'm also spared the aggravation of looking for parking on crowded streets, walking in the rain to my car, washing off the bird poop, etc. I get to park for free in the parking structure, while car owners pay $100-something monthly fees or $40 DAILY fees. It's in a bike rack in a covered spot on the fourth floor. It's totally safe and I use a cable to secure my front tire and a FUGGETABOUTIT motorcycle chain for the frame and rear tire. I leave the chain and cable on the rack, so I don't have to carry its 15lbs with me on the bike. In a 4-story building filled with hundreds of working people, I am the ONLY bicyclist.

That's so freaking sad! Everyone is totally dependent on their 4-wheeled cager. There are almost three hundred vehicles in this building, but only one bicycle, one moped and two motorcycles!

The majority of island people are either afraid of riding bicycles in traffic or simply totally dependent on their cars. The ones who can't afford to own a vehicle depend on the bus. I slowly pedal on the grass, past a main bus stop on the way to work. I can sense their urgent dependency, waiting for the bus.

There is such a feeling of freedom and independence in riding a motorized bicycle! I am very surprised that more frustrated commuters don't build and ride MB's. The TV channels show the congested traffic in morning and afternoon rush hour traffic. Over 100,000 vehicles on not-so-many roads on this island.

I tightened up and cleaned my new windshield, also adjusted my brakes and wiped down my MB.

I am anxiously awaiting daylight!

 

[Goat Herder]

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

OK, I'll give it a try...

Tnx guys....

My engine is wore out anyway, won't hurt it a bit to run it without an air cleaner. I'll post back if I notice any different results.
rc

just use a layer or two of nylon stalkings.

 

[scud]

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

I mounted two headlights to my frame (resembles a cafe racer)...halfway through my tear down / rebuild. I had busted my chain after breaking spokes on my rear wheel and sending the chain into the frame when running

so I decided to take it all apart, clean it, and modify the bike itself to make a whole new beast. now I'm just waiting on spokes and a master link in the mail til I can get back on the road

 

[DaveC]

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

Waiting for my last order of parts, a lot of cutoff 1/4" stainless steel allthread rod that will be a part of the truss rod mount for a Morini S5 E. Then I'll be able to go back to posting in my thread

 

[KDB]

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

I mounted two headlights to my frame (resembles a cafe racer)...halfway through my tear down / rebuild. I had busted my chain after breaking spokes on my rear wheel and sending the chain into the frame when running

so I decided to take it all apart, clean it, and modify the bike itself to make a whole new beast. now I'm just waiting on spokes and a master link in the mail til I can get back on the road

I got a price break at 10 master links.
$1.80 each. very happy with that decision.

Note to self: stock up on spare spokes.

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

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

The roads were completely wet from last night's rain. While riding thru the heavy industrial area, I found that the ocean tide had backed up into the storm drain and completely flooded the intersection and sidewalk. I tried to circumvent the area by walking my bike on a building's private sidewalk, but it was purposely blocked. Oh well, so I tiptoed and rolled my bike thru the salt water. I wasn't worried about corrosion, since the city streets were wet and would rinse the ocean water off my bike.

At the end of the day, after riding on wet roads, I ALWAYS reflect back and think.....Man, riding on wet roads is SCARY!

 

[MotorNut123]

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

primed up my frame!

 

[GasX]

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

so the car club i'm on has a thread like this. here's the link in case anyone wants to know just what i'm talking about

so to start of with...



Rode my motor bike around my neighbor hood, and found a 'your speed is:' sign. had some fun with it, going past the sign.

I have one of those. My personal best is 31mph...

 

[anim8r]

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

Found some hilly areas & went for a cruise. Broke down about 3 different ways lol
Pretty cool, though. It was a great ride in a nice area I've never seen, & I spotted & fixed some mechanical problems out on the road. That's a skill I've always admired. Now if I can just get the "prevention" part down....

 

[KDB]

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

A few weeks ago I decided I would stop following instructions and start doing what made sense to me.

Bought high-end ($10 USD/quart) racing oil and backed my oil mix down to 32/1. The engine is a China girl w/ about 800-1,200 miles on it.

After shortening the chain as much as possible and making sure my drive sprocket/ left sprocket alignment was perfect I dropped my chain tensioner entirely. I don't use a chain tensioner at all.

Let my carb lay at the 30 degree tilt it likes rather than the straight up orientation that is recommended.

200 miles later the effects are: mileage is WAY down; like 60 MPG down from 120 MPG . is is mostly due to the carb change of course and the fact that I have also stopped being such a girly-girl and now push my engine as hard as a bloody well feel like it.

The chain has slipped off the drive sprocket ONCE, just a few days ago. This happened on a very rough stretch or pavement and I suspect my perfect alignment was momentarily not so perfect. (i.e. my frame or rim twisted). Now that it has stretched some I may take just one or two more links out of the chain.

Over all I am getting better top speed and better performance and more pleasure/satisfaction out of my rides.

I started building/riding gas bikes this summer so maybe I am just coming to the point where I saying to myself "Dude, you have some idea what you are doing; run with it."

Feels good man.

 

[KDB]

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

3 a.m. here on the East Coast, just got back from 7-11; needed donuts.
Note to self: drinking 5 glasses of wine and getting on a gas-bike may or may not be legal but it is probably not a good idea.

Stay clean kids.

 

[killercanuck]

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

I built another bike for a customer Saturday afternoon, it was in a local parade that same evening. Quick ride around the block before I let it be ridden, to make sure it was solid. No problems. Designed flyers for him to hand out too. Busy busy.

Get to start on a '63 tandem too ^^)

Lots of fun!

 

[5-7HEAVEN]

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

Christmas came early.

The mailman brought me a tach from ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tachometer-...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item336f38595b

a pocket bike chain guard and two chain tensioners:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/47cc-49cc-M...&otn=4&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=4810963201173724703

1/2" ID fuel hose for my oil dispenser:

Brunton fuel pump, which screws directly to my existing bottle:

1/2" brass fittings and valves arrived earlier this week.

Tach came with instructions, should be easy to install. Need to make a bracket.

Aluminum chainguard is thin. The Tanaka expansion pipe needs to be moved 1/4" outward to clear the guard. Since the pipe is MUCH thicker, I might just leave the pipe alone and trim the guard to clear the pipe. The supplied chain tensioners are smaller than the one I made from a skateboard wheel. To clear the chain guard, skateboard wheel or new tensioners will have to be relocated further from the drive sprocket.

I didn't realize that the 1/2" brass fittings would be so heavy! Maybe I'll keep the 1/2" hose and downsize to smaller fittings and valves.

The fuel pump pick up line is too short, since the bottle is laid down, not upright as in my cage. It should be no problem to lengthen the pickup inside the bottle.

I have 10 days' vacation soon, so I'll rebuild my wheelset, regrease my gear box and install everything else then.

 

[CTripps]

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

Weekly maintenance day today, with a couple of other jobs.

The beast refused to start first thing in the morning earlier this week, seemed to feel more like dribbling gas than anything else. So today I checked it out, seems the float valve in the carb wasn't closing enough. The fuel bowl gasket was fine, gas was flowing up and out of the carb though. Minor bend to the lever and it's fine now. I'd love to know why something that was working fine changes over 12 hours or so unattended. Ran it for a few minutes to be sure and it was very eager to start up and go. No leaking or dripping apparent right now.

Second task was adjusting the motor's position by a bit. It had settled a little in frame after running for a week or two, and was leaning a fraction to the left, bringing it close (less than 1/16") to my crank. It's back to having a bit over 1/8" clear again. Yeah, it's a tight fit, but it fits.

Everything's tight and torqued, tires pressure checked and filled, horn's air bottle is full, tank's full, and it's ready to roll so I expect it to be raining tomorrow despite a clear forecast.

 

[Dirt Road Cowboy]

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

3 a.m. here on the East Coast, just got back from 7-11; needed donuts.
Note to self: drinking 5 glasses of wine and getting on a gas-bike may or may not be legal but it is probably not a good idea.

Stay clean kids.

I don't know if mixing wine and donuts is a good idea!

One time my sister ran out of orange juice, and mixed Tequilla and orange Kool-Aid!

VERY BAD IDEA!!!!!!!

 

[MotorNut123]

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

have to let the prime dry so thought of some ideas and decided im not gonna put the deraileur when i reassemble it.

 

[spanners]

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

I added a billet velocity stack from JNMotors to a modded speed carb. The standard air filter restricted it to the point it would hardly start I thought it had a fuel bock hence new filter and line. Once an aftermarket filter was fitted that made all the difference, I think the stack was hard up against the back of the standard filter when it was tightened. It did seem to give it better acceleration after some reaming of the stack to get it closer to the intake of the port of the carb.

 

[isldtime]

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

Brought my first build to life today..
Would not have been as easy if I didn't have the info I found on this forum..

THANKS EVERYONE!!