MOPED ARMY

That's quite nice, but be careful: a motorized bicycle makes a very poor motorcycle or moped. A motorized bicycle's steering geometry is incorrect for a powered vehicle. The center of gravity is far too high. The brakes are a joke, there's no suspension, the electrical system doesn't exist, and it's a long way down to the pavement. Now, my experience with an ancient motorized Schwinn Racer that went to heaven last October and tried to take me along is not typical--I hope. Neither the police nor I know just what happened when I went o'er the handlebars and sailed onto the street, but at least my bike helmet saved my life. Had pulled nerves, broken collarbone and, most amusing, a broken neck vertebra. They fixed me up, but it's been a longer pull than I'd have wished.

It's possible that the bike itself failed, with the front fender brace winding itself around the front axle and thus locking the front tire. Lessons learned: wear a helmet and continue to inspect your bike for loose bolts and worn-out rivets. This last bit used to be standard operating procedure for every motorcyclist until Honda began making bikes that didn't drop parts into the street. Most mopeds are similarly quite safe, but most of these little bikes are aging. So have a look and be vigilant.

For half that price I'm sure someone would sell you a running e50 or a v1engine. Hell, several retailers have new motobecane,peugeot,and hobbit engines for less than that.

I mean, you could buy a complete lifan setup for less.

Those things really are crappy

Ok, one thing here. I did not realize that you were in Germany......shipping may be a problem...

Maybe I'm just nice? Dunno, I sold an e50 for $75 last month.complete and Running.

With you being in Germany you could buy an AM6 or similar for that price which would be significantly better

Sellers will ship products from anywhere. You just need to be creative at times. I’ve built mopeds with parts from all over Europe. It just takes a long time to arrive at times.

For less than that price I have put purchased running E50s that have run for years with no issues. Clean them up, new plug, fresh fluid and go.

Heck you can pick up a hopeful Maxi with a decent E50 for that price. Just take your time and look.

I'm pretty sure there is no way in hell the German govt is gonna let you register that thing for road use. They probably won't let you even ship that engine in legally for emissions reasons.

Those engines are just really garbo. Bad design, more like a lawnmower than a motor vehicle really.... Much better off with something vintage. If you want to build a weird thing use a actual lawnmower type engine and a comet CVT

haha no not really, china gov't has basically banned 2t and are even taking steps in some areas to round up the remaining 2t scooters and send them to developing countries in africa, etc.

pretty much the only market for these stupid bike engine kits are dumb tweakers who just want some shitty thing to slap on an old huffy, and a handful of weirdos - like some kind of weird cousin of the moped subculture- that really love tuning junky stuff to do way more than it should.

basically the only reason shit ever gets 'better' in china is because of pressure from export buyers, or for internal sale. the 4 strokes have gotten really good because of compaines like SSR and the domestic market have made big investments in improving them. Maybe an importer that actually gives a shit would push for some qc and improvements on one of these motors, but the starting point is so far behind... they are almost like a 50's postwar european design.

There are motors like this, the polini's and the cobra/ morini/minarelli's and stuff, that are made for the kiddie dirt/pocketbike market, that have modern tech and really ripppppp. if you wanted to do a project with something like that, it would make a sensible starting point, they are knocked off like crazy in china, and the companies that import them give a shit about QC because people race them and spend real money on them.

If you want to get weird and build a thing, the lawnmower engine style is definitely the best supported in the aftermarket, cheapest, and i think has a pretty good cool factor because its thumpy and rideable.

WHy would it take you a year?

I you really want to build something like that find an English or French clip on bicycle engine on ebay international.

I feel kinda offended by that paragraph. I bought my motor from a 2nd owner. The 1st owner already had it installed on a bicycle and sold it saying "the bike works mint but i am just tired of stupid minor stuff breaking".

So the second owner was riding it and his rear wheel locked up. He looked into it further and realized the problem came from the engine being siezed. I told him i was interested in tinkering with it and he insisted on selling it to me. I took off the cylinder head and the piston moved fine. The 2nd owner insisted on selling me the engine for 20.00. He also insisted on not letting me work on it at his house. So i spent an extra hour pulling the motor off in a parking lot during in a heat wave. Plus this idiot 2nd owner couldn't understand the concept of quarantining with others nearby. So we pull the motor off and it turns out the siezure occurred because the chain popped off the sprocket and got stuck. So it eithor needs a new chain or a sprocket modifycation or the clearance between the sprocket and the engine lessened. I only bought the motor so i can rebuild the cheapest motor possible but it turns out the internals work just fine so far. Doesnt make me a weirdo.

I kinda agree with the tweeker remark.

It is the easiest way to make a motorized anything, and now, the majority of people you see riding them (in my area) have some f'd up piece of crap bike, no helmet, disobeying all known traffic laws, and usually look like the tweeker homeless type.

But...

Back in it's heyday, 2011-ish, there were a lot of really good builders out there, building bikes that would put most moped builders to shame.

Modifying or handbuilding frames, custom made gas tanks, pipes, etc.

We had rides in LA and OC with 50-100 riders, and it was almost a competition to see who could make the coolest, fastest bike. The creativity was amazing, and it was much more than slapping an engine on a junk huffy, or putting mags on your stock moped.

There was a lot of innovation going around, as performance parts weren't available yet, and many people I know used the China engine as a stepping stone, going from no knowledge of anything mechanical, to becoming master builders of custom bikes.

There's still a few guys out there doing some pretty amazing things with these cheap engines, and it evolved into better engines, better bikes, using different engines, and for some, bringing the spirit of handmade motorcycles back from the 1900's.

I put a china bike motor on this rizatto frame I got for negative 40 bucks at mid ohio last year:

I made sure the mounts were all removable, basically it was the only engine that'd fit in that space cuz the original motor is short with a vertical cylinder.

It sucked.

It went just over 30 but took forever to get there and it was such unreliable garbage that after trying to sell it I talked the kid outta buying it because I couldnt do that to someone. I was only asking $75 for a running bike but man it was such total shit I couldnt saddle someone else with that trash.

Lmao

^ THIS is perfect. I like the DeNardis and the prices. That looks like a fun place to start.

Thanks for the info.

I rode this bike daily as my main transportation for 3 years. Went through 2 motors, and put over 10,000 miles on it, with only minor breakdowns that I could mostly fix in the road.