Your thoughts on motorized bicycles?

navitatl said:

So, have any of you had experience with these?

I drafted behind one for a while during a century. It was pretty sweet except for the carbon monoxide.

I passed one going the opposite direction couple weeks back, The one I passed was electric/electric bike not much pedalling going on even on the flat. It was hardly noticable - sound wise.

I geuss riding produces CO2 from the lungs vs carbon monoxide from a combustion engine, An electric version would be more ideal haha better for drafting.

The two stroke ones are damn noisy invest in some earplugs. :p

I'm not a total greenie but each to their own. Good if it assists ones who are less able. 🙂

navitatl said:

I'm referring to the motors that you can turn on to propel the bike when you get tired of pedaling.
What do you guys think of these? I realize it's sort of like "cheating".
But I was thinking about buying one for when I tour the east coast. I can pedal for a few hours, then use the motor for another few.
I'm not a hardcore, puritan bike-rider, so I'm OK with it. My goal is to see the sights of the east coast rather than perform some sort of physical feat.

So, have any of you had experience with these? Do you have a specific brand or website that you would recommend that I buy from?
Thanks in advanced.

If that's your goal, then why not just drive a car?😄

navitatl said:

I'm referring to the motors that you can turn on to propel the bike when you get tired of pedaling.

I tried one from Spit-Fire, and the ones on GruBeeInc look identical. I got the manual motorcycle style clutch. For your stated purpose, it is not the best because the rear wheel has to turn the sprocket, engine chain, and half the clutch mechanism when pedaling. There is a whole lot of drag. I don't know if the centrifugal clutch ones are much better.

If you are planning to use the powerplant only for auxiliary power after you get tired, then get a friction drive model because you can completely disconnect them and have nothing but the weight to contend with.

If on the other hand you want to build a dedicated moped I would get the GruBee. (I think Spit-fire is out of business.)

Hask12 said:

If that's your goal, then why not just drive a car?😄

or a MOTORcycle

From what I've seen, the motor or engine makes the bike so heavy and awkward that the things are useless as bicycles - the people use the power all the time and think of pedalling as something to do in case you run out of battery/gas.

Nothing wrong with a scooter if cycling's not your thing.

DiabloScott said:

From what I've seen, the motor or engine makes the bike so heavy and awkward that the things are useless as bicycles - the people use the power all the time and think of pedalling as something to do in case you run out of battery/gas.

Since that's a subjective judgement, why not find out what the things weigh and try putting that much weight on your bike to see how it handles?

Top heaviness makes it easier to hold a straight line, as anyone who has tried a recumbent knows.

A gallon of water or milk weighs 8.3 pounds.

Go to the "golden eagle" website and find out what those units weigh, and deadweight your bike.

I don't believe they are too heavy, provided you are able to completely uncouple the engine. My bike handled OK when I unclipped the chain (spit-fire 48cc) except my knees hit the tank a bit. The engine weighed quite a bit because slow-turning 2-strokes need a big flywheel. (4800rpm redline)

A much bigger problem than weight is driveline drag. You were supposed to declutch the engine and pedal when you wanted human power. You still had to turn the sprocket, drive chain, and half the clutch and it was very tiring.

Hmm. That would defeat the point of having a bicycle, why not by a motorbike.

HPV: Human powered vehicle, not motored. A bicycle is a HPV, as soon as it is not human powered, it is not a bicycle.

bobbyOCR said:

Hmm. That would defeat the point of having a bicycle, why not by a motorbike.

HPV: Human powered vehicle, not motored. A bicycle is a HPV, as soon as it is not human powered, it is not a bicycle.

The goal is to have the engine push me along for another couple hours after I get worn out from pedalling. I'm not really worried about how it's classified.

My uncle has a friend that has a motor on his bike. I'm going to try it out sometime this week and decide whether I would like one or not. As long as I'm still able to pedal like normal when the motor isn't on, I think I'll go for it.

navitatl said:

The goal is to have the engine push me along for another couple hours after I get worn out from pedalling. I'm not really worried about how it's classified.

My uncle has a friend that has a motor on his bike. I'm going to try it out sometime this week and decide whether I would like one or not. As long as I'm still able to pedal like normal when the motor isn't on, I think I'll go for it.

Avanti have an electric powered front wheel model that adds very little drag as it is not in the drive chain and it can be used to recharge the battery on downhills. I don't think you would get anything like a couple of hours powered cycling though on one battery.

http://www.avantibikes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=13&Itemid=24

pod said:

Avanti have an electric powered front wheel model that adds very little drag as it is not in the drive chain and it can be used to recharge the battery on downhills.

In my experience hall-effect DC hubmotors do have drag.

It doesn't matter if there's a chain involved. Pedaling still pushes the front hub forward. If it didn't then the front drum (hub) brake on my Cadillac AV-8 would not work.

I pedaled a goldenmotor hub around and got pretty tired.

navitatl said:

The goal is to have the engine push me along for another couple hours after I get worn out from pedalling. I'm not really worried about how it's classified.

My uncle has a friend that has a motor on his bike. I'm going to try it out sometime this week and decide whether I would like one or not. As long as I'm still able to pedal like normal when the motor isn't on, I think I'll go for it.

After seeing how unfit some of the people are who go on the Big NSW rides, I think you are mostprobably underestimating yourself. It doesn't take that long to build up some basic fitness to do some touring. the main mistake people make is trying to take the kitchen sink along.
Simplicity is the way to go. Mechanical assistance is not needed and is just a problem waiting to happen.

Cheeers

Geoff

navitatl said:

I'm referring to the motors that you can turn on to propel the bike when you get tired of pedaling.
What do you guys think of these? I realize it's sort of like "cheating".
But I was thinking about buying one for when I tour the east coast. I can pedal for a few hours, then use the motor for another few.
I'm not a hardcore, puritan bike-rider, so I'm OK with it. My goal is to see the sights of the east coast rather than perform some sort of physical feat.

So, have any of you had experience with these? Do you have a specific brand or website that you would recommend that I buy from?
Thanks in advanced.

G'day mate, my I suggest that you buy yourself a motor cycle and forget the bicycle all together, that is , nu-less, you want to see all, experence all, meet great people, have fun and live. If you want the latter, GET A BICYCLE and travel at your pace. No dought you will be invited into peoples homes for a meal or to stay, home bound people like to meet others that take the time to travel and spend a short while passing the breeze. It's no race, enjoy. I do speak from experiance. And if you cycle up to Broken Hill, come and stay here. won't cost you, and you will get the chance to meet people from all round the world that gravitate to my home. All cyclists, all full of life and no [censored]. Both my mountain and road bikes have this quote on them saying, " live the journey, the distination is just the starting point for another" [email hidden] Regards Terry

Quoted post said:

Top heaviness makes it easier to hold a straight line, as anyone who has tried a recumbent knows.

True, but then it makes a bike feel a little squirrelly when leaning over in a turn too. Especially when quickly turning in, when the weight is given some momentum. Granted you probably wouldn't want to tdo switchbacks...but if it ever came up...I never rode a recumbent, but I think this lean over effect would be reduced.

terry prowse said:

G'day mate, my I suggest that you buy yourself a motor cycle and forget the bicycle all together, that is , nu-less, you want to see all, experence all, meet great people, have fun and live. If you want the latter, GET A BICYCLE and travel at your pace. No dought you will be invited into peoples homes for a meal or to stay, home bound people like to meet others that take the time to travel and spend a short while passing the breeze. It's no race, enjoy. I do speak from experiance. And if you cycle up to Broken Hill, come and stay here. won't cost you, and you will get the chance to meet people from all round the world that gravitate to my home. All cyclists, all full of life and no [censored]. Both my mountain and road bikes have this quote on them saying, " live the journey, the distination is just the starting point for another" [email hidden] Regards Terry

The difference between a tourist and a traveller.
Couldn't have said it better myself.

Cheers

Geoff

Alright guys, thanks for all your opinions. You've convinced me to not use the motor, and take my time in travelling. I've got 8 months to prepare for this tour, so I'm going to get in great shape and do it all without a motor.
In other news, I'm buying my road bike tomorrow.

Although I support your decision I wanted to say for clarity's sake that I meant you have to totally uncouple the drive chain, not remove the motor.

navitatl said:

Alright guys, thanks for all your opinions. You've convinced me to not use the motor, and take my time in travelling. I've got 8 months to prepare for this tour, so I'm going to get in great shape and do it all without a motor.
In other news, I'm buying my road bike tomorrow.

So you are buying something that will fit 28c tyres and pannier racks?
What are you getting?

Cheers

Geoff

navitatl said:

I'm referring to the motors that you can turn on to propel the bike when you get tired of pedaling.
What do you guys think of these?....
So, have any of you had experience with these? Do you have a specific brand or website that you would recommend that I buy from?
Thanks in advanced.

I have a gasoline-powered one.
In short--
a Golden Eagle 4-cycle belt-drive kit, $600.
It works basically like it's supposed to, 27 mph cruise, although the vibration gets to my hands after an hour or so of run-time (this drive type is said to have the least vibration of all the gas-engine drives; I can only wonder what the others are like). The bike takes quite a bit of pounding on anything less than perfect roads, most people use balloon-tire beach cruisers or full-suspended MTB's for this stuff, and now I know why. Pedaling with the belt on is draggy, but at least with this setup you can disengage the belt quickly and easily. With the chain-drive setups there's really no way to do that, and the friction-drive kits don't work well at all.

At the moment I have some info up for it, hits on various problems and observations. I've used the motor-bike a bit more since I've updated the pages.

There's a old crazy guy with the handle "Bamabikeguy" who has rode all over the US on a motorized beach-cruiser bicycle.

If I was doing it, I think I'd pick a non-motorized but streamlined recumbent bike.
~