Building Day 2

Today's mission is easy (and by easy, I mean hard). We are going to mount the engine into the bicycle frame. Usually, this is no problem since the engine comes with a mount. Unfortunately, the Moon Dog I have selected to use has a thick front mounting bar which the supplied mount does not work with. Reading online, there were some options to consider. The two solutions I found both involve drilling the frame and either using a thick spring for shock resistance or just using washers to fill the gap that will be present. I chose the latter since I could not locate a spring that would work.

I went and bought a 4" long 5/16" hex-bolt, bag of 5/16" washers and some 5/16" lock-washers and hex bolt (see a pattern here?) at Lowes/Home Depot to prepare. I also needed some kind of small plate to go where the engine would have sat had there been a smaller bar. For this, a blind door-jam worked out great and it was actually painted gray to match the engine. Score! Just drill a 5/16 hole in the center and you may have to widen the existing holes on both sides.

Now, to get everything installed, I had to drill some holes. I held the engine sitting on the rear bar while projecting where the the front bolt will have to go through the bar to mount straight. I had a friend make the bar where the holes should be drilled and sat the engine down. Make sure you don't mount it too high so the spark plug/cap will still fit. I could not get the bar drilled with the large bit right away and just gradually moved up through one size larger than 5/16" (sorry, can't remember. 3/8" maybe?).

With the hole there on the frame, we can mount the engine. Put the bolt and washers through the plate and sit it on the engine. Use the supplied metric nuts/washers on the engine bolts that were threaded through the new plate. Tighten with a torque wrench since it may be difficult to do so later. Use your bag of washers to fill the gap that is present and thread the bolt through the hole you drilled.
Use the supplied metric nuts/washers for the other side to secure the side that you did not have to modify with the mounting plate.

With the bolt going through the frame, use washers, lock washers and bolts to secure the side you modified. There are plenty of pictures that show this done more clearly than what I just wrote.

With both the engine mounted and the sproket in the wheel, The two biggest modifications to the bike are done. It feels like I'm about half-way there at this point.