I Bought My Engine

I've begun!

I bought my engine motor from thatsdax.com the other day. It come with everything I need to make a bike move. The only downside is that it takes two weeks to be shipped. I've got plenty to do though.

Before I attach my motor, I have to get my bike, paint it, and prep it to drive. I'm going to paint the frame red and reinforce the tires to prevent blowout/puncture.

More to come this weekend when I begin work on the bike, but for now, I at least know it's happening.

I Think I Found My Bike

I was prowling the Motored Bikes.com forum last night and found a pretty good resource for building a motorized bike out of a Kulana Moon Dog bicycle that can be purchased at Wal-Mart. The bike looks nice, although I think I'd have to paint it since I don't like the color choices. I'm thinking red to match my car and since red is my favorite color and all. The orange (and the blue not pictured) just don't look too nice in my opinion.

There's a lot of discussion in the forum about the success of fitting the standard 2-cycle engine into the diamond frame of the Moon Dog. Apparently, it fits rather nicely with almost no problems that can't be easily fixed.

The pictures featured in this post are from users who have used this bike to successfully mod the bike. Engine selection is still up in the air as of now. I basically have three choices: KingsMotors, ThatsDax, or generic ebay motor. Either way I go, it will be an 80cc motor that can go about 30-40mph and get 100-150mpg. This is exactly what I want. I just need to find out who had the most luck with either engine. Right now, I'm reading the best stuff about the engine from Dax since they seem to be better made.

Here is a picture of what I kind of hope to make. The frame is orange, so, just picture it red and that is what it will be.


The more and more I think about this whole thing, the more excited I get!

Decision Time!

Welcome to my new blog!

I plan on using this as a means to track my purchase, building and troubleshooting my new moped! With gas prices as high as they are, the temptation of having 100-150mpg is pretty appealing and this seems like a fun a rewarding way to go about it.

I decided to make my own motorized bicycle over purchasing one because of many factors. The main reason is because I'm the one who is going to maintain the bike, so I might as well understand every nut and bolt. I wanted to get experience in engines and mechanic work and figure this could be a great chance to understand how to do this maybe on a larger scale.

I was thinking about getting a scooter (Vespa, Yamaha) but decided against it mainly because of the value you get for the price. A Vespa looks really nice, and I may get one in the future, but that is money I don't have and really it would defeat my main drive to do this which was to save money.

My first (and maybe biggest) decision is what frame and motor to get. I've been reading a lot, and from what i can see, no matter what you decide, there is no one decision. There are trade-offs for everything in either ease of installation, aesthetics, and performance and reliability. I have some ideas and feel really hopeful so far.

I'm really looking forward to this and how rewarding this could be. Having a motor-assisted bike could end up being a very fun project! Save money on gas, get my hands dirty and learn a lot of helpful experience. Just hope it goes smoothly is all.

Wish me luck!

/tk