What would you do different?

T

texfromkansas

New Member
I am in the process of building my first motorized bike. I have over $1300 invested in the build and that does not include the bike itself. My question is, what would you do different on your first build knowing now, what you didn't then?
 
1. Do not drill through the frame for the front mount, when I bought my first kit that's the way the front of the engine was mounted.
2. Do not use rubber in the mounts, it will cause a loose engine when it squeezes out.
3. Do not use the 410 chain, replace it with either 415H or 41.
4. Install a inline fuel filter.
There are more but these are the most important.
 
I'd have chosen a more comfortable frame. The bike always performed well but was so hard riding it was too uncomfortable for any distance more than a couple of blocks.
That's why I went to cruiser or chopper style frames. Much easier on my old body.

Tom
 
The only thing wrong with my first build was basically everything that came in the 66cc GT5 geometry kit, except maybe the billet head and that was questionable. That said, I loved that horrible quality Chinese kit even though by the time I sold it the cases and head were literally the only original pieces and they were re worked. I learned a ton about motorizing a bicycle and do believe the kit is the way to learn. Now I am building a Huasheng 4 stroke on a beach cruiser that will come out substantially better because of what I learned.
 
Greg58 said:
1. Do not drill through the frame for the front mount, when I bought my first kit that's the way the front of the engine was mounted.
2. Do not use rubber in the mounts, it will cause a loose engine when it squeezes out.
3. Do not use the 410 chain, replace it with either 415H or 41.
4. Install a inline fuel filter.
There are more but these are the most important.
Click to expand...


That's the way mine still is --- didn't find this forum until a month or so after it was built.

With that being said, my bike has seen some rough duty in the mountains of Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and SE Oklahoma. No issues with the hole so far. I do check it after a hard run, though.....
 
Well, with my first two bikes probably not build them at all. My last bike, probably a few things. With the bike I'm working on, I'm hoping once it's done I'll say nothing. I'm building this bike from the bare frame up and taking my good old time, and doing my best to make everything the way I want it from the engine to the gearing, the way it looks and rides, the lighting/electronics, going piece by piece so everything is exactly how I want it. I want to be able to put it together and leave it alone. Taking a year to finish it could be a good thing, I've had lots of time to think about how to do certain things and make decisions, search eBay about a thousand times and ask people for advice, now I'm ready to build and in a couple weeks I'll be able to order the last of the parts I need.
 
From my first build experience...
Start with a quality engine like Dax or better
Start with a frame that'll easily fit the engine
Have all the parts necessary to complete the build before starting (I'm still guilty there sometimes)

Although my first build was very successful I did have my share of challenges to overcome like starting out with a bike that had just barely enough frame space to fit the engine, this lead to some serious modifications to the frame and mounts to get it to sit in the frame rigidly. I bought an engine kit off ebay thinking they were all the same, this engine lasted me about 90 minutes of run time before I found a critical problem with the crank. By this time I found this forum and was reading up on everything, and it was then when I found out some of these engines are a lot better than others so I completely ditched my efforts to repair my first engine and bought a Dax bottom end to put my top end on, I also ended up buying a new carb since the one that came in the kit kept shedding off rubber from it's built in fuel valve causing the engine to cut out randomly, I did fix the problem but decided to use the better carb.
My rear mounting setup was rock solid but my front mounting system used a steel bar going thru a slot I cut thru the frame for the engine to bolt directly onto. Thinking these engines couldn't make enough power to cause problems I rode the bike like this during testing and while awaiting enough free time to paint, I was going to weld the steel bar solidly into place but those few hours of run time kinda added up and I found a nice sized crack in the frame caused by the slot I cut for the mount to work... Lesson there is to go ahead and weld everything into place BEFORE riding.

Best thing I can tell new builders is to use the best quality engine and kit to start out with, and TAKE YOUR TIME with your build to get everything right, don't assume a frame is strong enough to ride on until everything is welded up and completed. These engines aren't very strong right out of the box, but can get that way real easy once a little porting is done and a good pipe is added...
 
I'm a small engine repairman by profession and have been building motorized bikes for almost thirty years, but when I saw the Chinese motor kits I thought I was in heaven. I've been thinking of putting a kit on the market for a long time but was not smart enough to know how. What a great way to get people motivated into mechanical things. Get the young kids into the garage with their dads and build something fun together. Anyway, I balanced a lot of flywheels but never a crank. So I learned so much on these little motors about balancing because I got three in a row from boygofast that shook so bad they were unrideable. So that's what I'll do differently when I make a new chinese bike. Make sure the vibration is at a minimum and eliminate all the associated problems that it causes, like broken mounting studs cracked frames, buzzing hands, etc. It's not an easy process and most builders will try everything but balancing to eliminate vibration. Like rubber mounts on the motor and bars, weights in the bar ends and extra attaching points for the muffler. I started out buying new Walmart Schwinns to install the kits and sell. It went pretty well until the market was saturated and the profits went way down. And then when I encountered the vibration problem, the extra time to put it right made me stop selling motorbikes.

Good luck to future builders. I hope the industry acknowledges and fixes the vibration problems.
 
I wish I had known how cheezy the kit throttles were when I first built. I went through a lot of the usual stuff people learn, but the throttle to me was a real standout as being a totally crappy part that needed instant replacement mine physically broke within an hour of use. I now have a $4 ATV thumb throttle on one bike and an SBP twist throttle on my daily driver and like them both for different reasons.
 
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