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Thread: Motorized bicycles

  1. #1
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    Motorized bicycles

    I got myself wrapped up in a new hobby. Motorized bicycles. Buy a complete 2 stroke Chinese engine kit, and slap it on a bicycle.
    My first MB was a Walmart road bike with the motor already mounted but never finished. Looked like someone gave a Monkey a monkey wrench and told it to fix it.
    I took it apart, cleaned it up, and remounted the engine and controls.

    20200723_121219.jpg

    After messing around with this one for a week or 2, I started eying my cruiser bike. My wife and I bought a couple Giant Suede , forward pedal bikes several years ago.
    I bought a motor kit from Bikeberry and started work on it. A few days later it was ready to ride. This is one comfortable ride. Does 30mph and is very roadworthy.

    20201005_143139.jpg

    20201005_143154.jpg


    Anyone else bombing around town on one?
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    Toronto Ontario
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    In July I helped one of the neighbourhood kids install an electric conversion on his bicycle, he really likes it....Rod.

    P.S. You're back to the beginning of the motorcycle, a small engine in a bicycle frame.......Rod.

  3. #3
    I've been considering getting a motor for my 'beach cruiser'- I love riding a bike and I really SHOULD just for the exercise, but I'd like a motor backup just because

    for pure 'bombing around' on motor, I have a Segway Ninebot that's a lotta fun. I use it to go to Walgreens, night bank deposits and such. I had to use it last summer to fetch my truck after my ride got drunk while I wasn't looking. 7-1/2 mile trip. My legs got a bit tired but it did the job

    I know this much about going 30mph on a bicycle, I personally would get an actual disc brake setup for the front wheel...
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    Mt Pleasant SC
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    We have these for neighborhood roads, beach, paved, dirt and gravel trails.
    24mph, 5 power levels, up to 40 mile range, throttle or pedal assist, dual disc brakes, front shocks, cargo racks. 3700 miles on mine. Never had a flat with Kenda special tires.
    Rad Power Bikes, Rad City model.
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    Last edited by Bruce King; 10-19-2020 at 10:43 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
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    Someone in the neighborhood has one of those with a 2 cycle engine and little or no muffler hear it 2-3 blocks away.
    Bil lD

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
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    Sure it’s be fun, but there’s nothing like The feeling of human powered bicycles. Quiet, smooth, and good exercise.

    I’ve been mountain biking for about 25 years. There’s a whole new genre of mountain bikes that are battery assist. I get it, but don’t get it. Earn your downhill!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
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    There's a guy around here who has one of those, he rides around with a gas can in a little trailer, smoking a cigarette most of the time. Not my lifestyle, I prefer a pedal bike and getting some exercise, but to each their own, I guess. A lot of people think I'm crazy too, last year I had my longest day ever when I covered 129 miles towing a canoe on a trailer with my camping stuff in the canoe.
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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Columbus, OH
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    I think around here,since it has a motor, it needs to be licensed to operate on the roads and also have a rear view mirror.
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  9. #9
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    In Michigan, up to 100cc requires no license or insurance. They are to be registered as a moped.

    I have flashing lights on this bike and use them when I'm on the road.

    If I didn't have a motor on the bike, I wouldn't be using it, as a bout with Amiodarone induced thyroid toxicidy took all my strength away 4 years ago.

  10. #10
    100cc, no license... hmmm

    Anyone ever see one of these?
    hodabonanza.jpg
    circa 1968 Bonanza mini bike with a Hodaka 100cc dirt bike engine. Popular Mechanics tested one of these in 1969 I think, dam thing did 0-50 in 6 seconds! A dealer in town used to sell Bonanza's, I saved up to buy one when I was 15 years old, but it would've taken months to get it, and the money was burning a hole in my pocket so I got a first-year (1970) Honda mini-trail 70. Still wish I'd gotten the Bonanza, it'd be fun blowing by all the UTV's I see on the road with a dinky minibike!
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    100cc, no license... hmmm

    Anyone ever see one of these?
    hodabonanza.jpg
    circa 1968 Bonanza mini bike with a Hodaka 100cc dirt bike engine. Popular Mechanics tested one of these in 1969 I think, dam thing did 0-50 in 6 seconds! A dealer in town used to sell Bonanza's, I saved up to buy one when I was 15 years old, but it would've taken months to get it, and the money was burning a hole in my pocket so I got a first-year (1970) Honda mini-trail 70. Still wish I'd gotten the Bonanza, it'd be fun blowing by all the UTV's I see on the road with a dinky minibike!
    I remember those minibikes from the '60s & '70s, though they usually were a kit that you assembled & provided the engine, usually a Briggs & Stratton. Hodaka dirt bikes were the real deal & had a reputation for being very fast.

  12. #12
    state regs vary a lot from state to state. Virginia's slow speed vehicle rules have much different regs than PA's slow speed vehicle rules and the electric bike rules are pretty much the same. However, a gasoline motor is different from electric. the gas engine model must be licensed have lights, etc. That said, there is an eccentric fellow here in town that has a bike operated with compressed air their is a pair of scuba tank looking things over the back wheel. An air motor, and a little weed wacker engine runs a compressor to fill the tanks. There is a sort of regenerative compressor gizmo hooked up to the other wheel to compress air as it goes down hill. I am told he had one that operated just by centrifugal force spinning a fly wheel, but the range was just a couple miles. An earlier one had a roof built over the bike that was solar panels and had an electric motor wound into the spokes. Don't know if it is true, but was told as a teenager, he bought a kerosene powered model jet engine and mounted it on the back of his bike. Supposedly got up too fast and hit a curb, wrecked and was burned badly on his arm.

  13. #13
    Join Date
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    I sold that first bike to a fellow that just got out of jail, his wife still in jail, no license, and needed something to get around with. $250 and I let him have it.
    Today I'm looking at an Iron Warrior bike to mount my other motor on. This one will be the hot rod. Dual disc brakes. Strong frame.

    I was in the garage-shop last week with the door open, (it was warmer then) and I see my next door neighbor ride by on a MB. What the heck?
    He liked mine so much he bought a Walmart Mongoose online for under $100, ordered a bikeberry motor kit, and slapped it on.
    We went for a 4-5 mile ride to check it out. He already has a high compression head and racing carb for it.
    It's going to be a fun summer in 2021.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

  14. #14
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  15. #15
    Join Date
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    Whizzers are quite expensive. Cruzzer makes them now.

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