Case for NOT motorizing your bike
 

Seems that the fork just folded back for no apparent reason (pothole,crack,etc...)

If you want a motorbike ,buy one that is designed and engineered properly for it purpose !

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=uCxeQ_1599433921

Can't read the article without signing up, and I don't care to sign up at this time. Can you give a summary?

Looks like steerer tube or headtube failure, best as I can tell from the grainy video-- front wheel comes back and shoves itself into the downtube, turns the bike into a catapult. The guy basically does a front flip on flat ground, riding a BSO hybrid converted to a gas bike.

Similar Failure
 

Found another example of a similar failure.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f160e12d69.jpg

I see people buy walmart bikes and turn them into powerful e bikes. its crazy to have a bike that can do 35 but it has the cheapest components.

How did they run power from the engine to the wheel on that? Is there a chain or belt on the left side?

Call them mopeds like they are.

People who do that crap knowingly and wilfully disable power limits and crank sensors. I have had a few co-irkers brag about their hotrod-ed gasoling and battery powered mopeds--that they then drive 30MPH down MUPs with. As with all these things--the problem is 'adults' who are the operators who cannot be trusted to not be jerks/idiots.

Honestly, the best thing about foul weather in fall/winter...all those idiots disappear when it is below 70F and sunny.

The only motors I need for my bike are the ones I walk around on.

Yes the drive chain is on the left side. If you look at the chainstay you can see an idler is bolted on and by looking through the wheel the drive chain is visible just under the seat stay
The drive cog for these motor conversions fits over the outer part of the hub . It's attached with 9 bolts that go through the spokes . On the inside of the spokes there are 3, 120 degree arced metal washers the bolts also go through. Between the drive cog and the washers there are two circular rubber buffers that act as a buffer and what hold the contraption to the spokes.
I'd expect that rear wheel gets a lot of stress and are prone to failure since the motor torque is directly applied to the spokes .

Someone was discarding a wheel and this was still attached.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...944580e51c.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cb58bda9e6.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d14d5dfb7f.jpg

I'm with you...
Seeing more and more fat people on motorized devices(other than cars and (real)motorcycles) . A huge number of those are kids!!!

I watched a small engined bike pull away the other day when I was driving. Rider not pedaling. Didn't get to see the hardware but that could well have been it.

Ben

yep. I ride my e bike all year as long as there is no snow. 25 miles a day commuting.

People commuting is an entirely different matter. My issue is that for every one person I know/see who needs the help commuting or simply getting out and riding, I see 3-4 young jerks joyriding motorcycles on the MUP....the worst being the tools who strap a 2-stroke gas engine to a WalMart Special and spew blue smoke for a solid mile behind them.

Just had a idiot pass us on a gas bike I was just passing some people wile riding our e tandem at 18mph and I get a radar alert on my garmin of a vehicle coming fast on the MUP look back and this idiot]=t forces me back over I bet he was going 30. no lights or anything no helmet either.

Yeesh... they attach it directly to and torque the spokes? Not an idea I would want to try. Especially since it'd be torquing mainly the left side spokes. I mean, I'm sure the spokes can handle a cyclist putting pressure on the pedals, but a gasoline engine is a different story. And when you consider that they're putting these engines on Walmart bikes, it's a recipe for disaster.

Want a Petrol powered Moped, buy a proper Moped.

I was passed by a guy on an ebike while on my 20 mile loop ride yesterday and saw two more riding together going in the opposite direction. Not one of the three were "commuting". When I was a teen back in the late 70's, a kid at school took a small kids bike and would attach a lawn mower engine to the bike with handlebar accelerator. The way it propelled the bike was to jam a portion of a baseball bat onto the drive shaft of the engine which would then be mounted so the bat was up against the rear wheel of the bike. I would see this guy flying all over town on his "bat drive". I even had him make me one. I didn't keep it long. The worst I saw was his back wheel would become all warped from the excessive pressure of the motorized "bat" against it. Stupid.

For less than the cost of motorizing a bicycle, you can buy a motorcycle. In fact, I traded an old Nishiki bicycle for my first street motorcycle, a Honda CB175. Unfortunately, my first street motorcycle got me my first traffic ticket, and led to my being on the most-wanted list among traffic cops in my neighborhood. I would have been better off keeping the Nishiki.

Mine was a 71 Honda CL350 coming from mini-bikes. Didn't get the bicycle riding bug until 10 years ago.

Yeah but all the ebike people will tell you that they need the boost because of age/injury/disability/etc just to enjoy a ride. I say bull. I see people speeding along the MUP at excessive speeds on these ebikes all the time. I suppose our local cops will soon have to start enforcing the existing rules. Have you ever noticed on the ebike forum all the discussion of “faster”, or the ebike ads that tout speed? We did have a radar speed trap on the local MUP last year and I hope we get another one soon. Very sad.

UN-Fortunately there are jerks everywhere, in every segment ... I got kicked off the E-Bike section of this forum, because I kept insisting that, an E-Bike with a throttle was a MOPED... :foo: and, that my, E-Bike, that I HAD, I had to pedal to get any assistance, and thus was was an E-Assisted bicycle... ;) and that, there was, and certainly IS,, a difference , between the two type of assistance... NOT, it seems in most peoples mind anyways who ride an E-Bike... :rolleyes:

People who ride a bicycle with a motor, even though, it's an electric motor, and use only the throttle, and do not pedal, are riding a moped... :twitchy: It's that simple... IMO

OK, some people who use the throttle do... actually pedal, but,... .the original concept to allow a motorized bicycle to be "allowed" to be ridden as a bicycle was to have "assistance", but one must still pedal... It would seem the laws have been altered by the powers that be to include, once again a moped as a bicycle... 350 watts MAX, of assistance, where you did, actually, need/must pedal, has changed, to anywhere between 350 watts and no throttle, to 750 watts and a throttle and no actual need to pedal, and still be a bicycle. :bike:

instead of commuting on an e-bike why not just drive?

People tend to frown upon driving a car down a MUP.

Parking. My coworkers asked me all the time why I ride to work. I spell it out like this. $1.25 hour for parking. 8 hours a day of work, hour lunch break, parking early to be on-time and leaving work a bit late....Parking Services here caps at $11.50 a day last I knew. 5 days a week. 52 weeks a year. Comes out to $2,990USD per year in parking. $3K. Gone. Poof.

One of my coworkers got an e-bike to go to work after he heard me spell it out. Physically demanding job and long hours....He too discovered the $3K 'raise' by simply not driving was not pocket change. He was earning that money all along just for the Parking Fairy to eat it every day.

$3K is just the easily quantified bit. NVM paying for gas, or maintenance. Fewer driven miles can also lower your insurance on your car too. Now for the Big City $3K is 'cheap', but LNK isn't the Big City nor do people here earn Big City wages. Do the math with all the things you'd do with an extra $3K per year in your bank account.

No really. I live in Philly. $3,000 is a large chunk of my yearly property tax bill.