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.

Part Search 1

As I'm building, I keep realizing that I'm going to need certain things. Whenever I ride the bike as it is right now, I realize how uncomfortable the seat the bike came with is. It's as if a man-hating lesbian made the seat. The saddle portion that fits between the legs kind of juts up and crushes my man-parts. Needless to say, this had to go.
Enter the Schwinn Bench Seat. Great reviews on amazon, and no man-crushing involved!

While I was at amazon, I figured I would get a couple other things. I decided to get myself a headlight and a computer.

From what I've read, the headlight is great. Good battery life and very bright. The odometer on the other hand, doesn't always work well. From what I read, the sensors on the computer are a little finicky, but I figure I need something though and it's a cheap alternative.

I should be getting these items within a week or so. None of them are really important now, but I'll want them for sure once I start riding.

Building Day 1

So, now that I have my Moon Dog and Engine, I can start. I'm going by the directions on thatsdax.com for how to assemble their engine. The first step is to mount the rear sproket.
The first thing I do is take the rear tire off the bike frame (which I know will be a pain getting back on. The directions online explain to take one of the two gaskets and cut to go inside the wheel (between the spokes).
With the gasket cut, slide it around the axel (or whatever that is on the weel), but the other gasket on the outside of the spokes, and the sproket furthers outside. Using the bolts, flat washers and lock washers, secure the three pieces with the "half-moon" brackets furthest inside.
It may seem like what I just described was easy. believe me, it was not. It took forever to do. My gaskets were not quite lined up with the holes on the sproket or the half-moon brackets and so it took a long time to align everything. Then, after that, it was extremely difficult to tighten each bolt with the spokes in the way. The whole process took about 1 to 1.5 hours with minor scratches and abrasions on my hands. but hey, it's at least done!

Next up, I'm gonna do something that's not a standard installation step. While I have the tires off, I'm going to reinforce the wheels to try and prevent blowout. I read online that motorized bicycles are prone to blowouts and some people recommended to line the inner rim with duct tape.
I don't know how effective this will be, but it wasn't hard to do and it couldn't hurt. After that was done, I re-mounted the tires and cleaned up my tools. Took the bike for a quick ride and everything seemed to be working the way it should. That's all the sun would allow for me today. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be able to mount the engine.

Hardware Arrives

Well, I ordered my engine parts from thatsdax on June 3rd and they just arrived today. That's over a month. needless to say, I wasn't happy... until I opened that box!
Beautiful, right? Well, it's all there. I will be working on this non-stop (or at least until I screw it up...

More to come tonight.

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