Stuff is about to get real

So we've been through the bumble bee bolt on and the bike bug, both are special in their way but both have their limitations. First off , they are slow, no surprise here - they are friction drives, not the fastest horses in the barn. Second: if the ground is wet forget about it, it will spin and tear up your tire. and third they just look weird.
Don't get me wrong, I like  scrubbers a lot. Though I haven't ridden them I hear friction drives from Dax and Staton are the bee's knees. The Velosolex helped the French get from lci a' la' after the war and many years after. And lets not forget the AMF roadmaster moped! Oh wait, yeah...lets forget that one.
For years I have been a member of 2 great forums about motorized bicycles: motorbicycling.com and www.motoredbikes.com They are both full of info about electric bikes, friction drives and The 80cc Chinese bike engine.
Let's talk about the latter - first off it's not 80cc, it's 66. There are a lot of theorys about why the Chinese label it 80 and not 66 but most people think it's just a marketing trick, and when I say trick I mean lie. Another oft mentioned point about these engines is that there is ZERO quality control. You can get a great engine or you can get a piece of complete rubbish. It's a crap shoot. With that being said that's kinda the fun of it. These engines are cheap so you don't feel bad about getting up in there and messing with stuff to make it work better or in some cases work at all.

The nuts and bolts that come with it are cheap too so it's a good idea to replace them. Everything you have heard about theses engines are true. These engines shake bolts loose, they can fall apart while you are riding them, the can go 40mph (or so I have heard, I am too chicken to go that fast) and have you heard these are addicting and a blast to ride? Well, that's true too!











I have wanted to build  a chain driven motorized bike ever since I was made aware of their existence maybe 10 years ago. I didn't have the skill, the confidence or the money back then to make myself one so I let the urge pass. Last St. Patrick's Day in the Irish section of St. Louis called "Dog Town" My brother in law and I were watching the drunks walk to and from the parade from the safety of my cousin's porch. Down the street rode 2 hipsters on their noisy 2 stroke powered motorized bikes. My PHD brother in law looked at me and said "Ever build one of those?"
 "No" I said as I took another bite of my very tender corned beef sandwich on dark rye.
"I'm thinking about it" he said.
 "Really?" I was surprised, He rode a fixie sometimes but I didn't think a college professor would want to ride on a rattling Chinese death Huffy.
"Yeah, I really want to build one...you should too".
 With my wife in hearing distance and a few fine St. Louis made adult beverages in all of us, I said "I just might"
Looking at my wife I. of course asked "Can I?"
"Do whatever" she said.
IT JUST GOT REAL.

 

Next time see how I took the above pile of rust and house paint and made me a motor bike!

Bike Bug Diary part 2

Yes, Yes, I know....
Ok, where was I?
oh yeah - the Bike Bug.
I got all the needed parts from Mike at bikebug.net . It wasn't cheap but I felt it was cheaper than tuition to a trade school and I wanted to learn 2 stroke engines.
I was inspired by this image I found on Pintrest.
I had that typhoon frame I wasn't sure what to do with so I decided to give it the military style olive drab paint job. maybe it's because I'm a sucker for earth tones or maybe its because I'm a flag waving, gun totin' Jesus loving patriot, (wait, I'm an Irish Catholic Democrat...forget what I just said) but I love the look of an all olive drab bike. If takes away missed matched parts and matches all of them. It can make the newest bike looks like it stormed the beaches of Normandy and lets face it, if you are sloppy with a rattlecan, it hides a bunch of imperfections. I added a rear fender, a light and a speedo that never did work right along with a few other do-dads and I got this

Not a bad looking bike if I must say so myself. By the way I am a sucker for green and tan on a bike, along with black and tan (witch is also a wonderful drink for us Irish Catholic Democrats).
So here is my "Army Bike". It has a 3 speed Shimano rear coaster. it rode great as is but the reason I painted it in the first place was to put the bike bug on it so I went to work getting the bike bug ready.

All the parts I needed arrived and I go the engine put together. It was rough going since I had no idea what I was doing but I was able to email Mike and he was helpful in getting her up and running. Soon I had a cool, almost legitimate looking friction drive motor bike.

Pretty Sweet, Huh? I made a little video about it too, Wanna see it?

Is it fast? No. Do I look cool on it? Oh hells no. Is it fun? Sure. Is it practical? not really, but I brought something that was dead back to life. I saved it from the scrap heap and that's not nothing. 

This little engine was just another gateway drug to other things...and they are on their way, stay tuned