The motors in these moped/scooter style are often direct drive. I have ridden a few at Shanghai cycle show,a genuine 250 watts barely moves the weight of the bike plus my 105 KGs. 350 watts and it starts to become useable if you weigh less than 70 KGs,any more and it won't drag up a hill,I managed to get 20 mph out of one but it took for ever to get there.

Most of the cheap Chinese are 800 watt and will move a little chinese person around at 35 mph,you often see them loaded with Mum,Gran and 2 kids,they move ok but only on the flat( most Chinese cities are flat being built on old flood plains).

So to be useable with our European weight you really do need 800 watts,obviously this uses batteries up quick so 20 Ah is really the minimum.

But it is almost impossible for the police to tell the difference between 250 watts and 800 watts so the importers/sellers feel quite comfortable in telling you that their bike is 100 per cent legal.

But the Achilles heel of illegality is weight,most weigh 60-70 kilos (max legal 40 kilos) and it's not classed as a tandem,if you buy one you become adverse to letting anyone weigh one because innocence of the true weight is probably your only defence and the seller told you it was legal.

I have a couple of 250 watt Chinese cheapies at our warehouse,they are sort of bikes and sort of mopeds,fully stripped down they weigh 37 kilos but anyone over 60 kilos would be very disappointed with the performance.

No rubbish,no ulterior selling motives,this is honestly what I know about these bikes. If you want 30 mph plus performance it has to be illegal as a bike and let no one persuade you otherwise,but for some the illegality does not matter.

KudosDave

Tried it up and down the road. Only a short couple of minutes, Not exactly a ball of fire but moving along OK. Will be fun finding finding out if it will manage a hill or not.

 

Brakes are awful. Noise!!!

 

Lets see if pictures work.

 

[ATTACH]9725[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]9726[/ATTACH]

 

Old Fart,don't want to be a killjoy...but what does it weigh?

KudosDave

Its currently in pieces. So i will try to weigh all the bits tomorrow.

 

The rear swing frame? Whatever its called looked rusty, Luckily its still solid, But thought i would give it a coat of rust killer and a good paint before putting it to use.

 

The frame is very basic and not that heavy. I weigh less than 85kg. Unless ive been to the All you can eat Buffet..

 

When i mentioned 30mph it was just a dream, 15mph is plenty. But it would be good if it could do a hill at something a bit faster than walking pace without pedalling though. I think thats going to be the issue from reading the comments so far.

 

For the money i will spend on fixing this up though i cannot complain.

 

Keep the comments coming.

 

 

 

 

Mine was ok on the flats and slow up hill as long as not too steep with me (80 kg at that time), with my daughter who weighed 40 kg riding it was like a motor bike it barely slowed on hills.

Toward the end of its life I stripped all the covers and anything else I could off it, which dropped its weighed significantly and improved hill climbing.

In the end its rear wheel/motor ended up in my chopper bike and works a lot better as you can pedal properly and it's lighter.

Is there anything in the motor i can service or improve whilst its off the bike?

Not unless there is a problem, I popped my cover off after a few thousand K's and the brushes were like new still, if the bearings are quiet and its running ok I would leave it alone.

Five years ago, before I discovered lithium batteries and true pedelecs, I tried a Chinese genuine 30mph electric scooter, an "EVT4000E".

 

It was UK registered, with a V5C, number plates, tax disc (free), MOT, and insurance.

 

This talk about weight reminded me of it !

 

Minus the batteries, it was quite respectable, and could even be lifted up steps etc.., but when the four 12v 50ah SLA batteries went in under the seat, it was heavier than my 125cc motorbike.

 

The build quality wasn't actually too bad, with disc brakes etc.., but electrically it was frightening, there were no fuses at all in the main 48v power feed....

 

When you do the rear swinging arm, don't worry too much about rust killer. Give it a good wire brushing, and then a coat of Hammerite or Smoothrite. which will protect it for years. The only other paints that will protect it are two-pack paints or proper powder coating.

 

I had a Suzuki from 1979, which was my only transport, so got used in the winter. After the first winter, all the paint was peeling off the swinging arm. I took it off, stripped the remaining paint and applied the phosphate rust killer. I then sprayed it with zinc-rich primer, then normal zinc primer, followed with about 6 coats of black and 2 of clear. It looked beautiful. By the following January, it was all pealing back off, so, in disgust, I wire brushed and Hammerited it. Three years later, all the paint was still intact.

I have some zinc rich primer, I bought 2 tins after reading a review in one of the car mags. They tested a whole batch of stuff and this primer came out best.

 

Damn you have me wondering now. Which one should i choose?

Nothing will cure rust. I've used all the Rust Busters stuff including the expensive two part epoxy that is used on oil rigs in the North Sea with every rust inhibitor you can name, and it will still work its way back under the paint after a year or so. This mainly with modern classic old cars which I wanted to keep going.

 

Hammerite is the same but just not as good. The surface will look fine but a good tap with a peening hammer will soon knock it off and show the rust underneath. Even if it was taken back to almost bare metal as long as a small pitted bit of rust was missed it will come back and spread under the paint. The only advantage of Hammerite over the two part ones is that it's cheap and easy to knock off the bad bits to resurface every year. It does work a lot better in an environment where it's open to the elements strangely. I painted a rusty wheelbarrow which was left outside with the stuff with very little preparation, and it's still good after years. It's the underneath of cars which it won't really work on.

 

You do have more chance with bike frames though and a wire brushing with a good electric drill preferably down to bare metal then rust inhibitor and top coat will work for a while.

I've had my best long term results with Hammerite too, but only when I also use their rust proofer as a primer.

 

Here's the underside of my Honda SH50.

 

I used an electric wire wheel to remove all of the loose rust, then two coats of Hammerite No.1 Rust Beater, then two coats of Hammerite smooth black.

 

When using Hammerite you have to make sure that you overcoat within the specified time limit, before the initial set, unlike conventional paint.

 

It's tricky to get a nice looking finish on exposed areas, but it provides a very hard durable skin for things like frames and chassis.

Back in the 60s i used to use a thing called Kurust on old cars. Don't know if you can still get it but it used to last for ages and i never put any other paint on the top of it!

Back in the 60s i used to use a thing called Kurust on old cars. Don't know if you can still get it but it used to last for ages and i never put any other paint on the top of it!

That's what I had on my Suzuki. It didn't last 5 minutes.

 

Forget the zinc rich primer. It still lets moisture through, which is what does the damage. Only Hammerite (and clones), epoxy (2-pack) and polyester (2 pack or powder coat) are waterproof out of the common paints. Hammerite goes through a chemical process during the first six weeks, which changes it to a glass-like substance. It's not like a normal paint.

.....Hammerite goes through a chemical process during the first six weeks, which changes it to a glass-like substance. It's not like a normal paint.

 

I guess it's as divisive as Marmite. You either hate it or love it.

 

It goes against most painting skills, mustn't be brushed out too much, mustn't be put on too thinly, and can only be overcoated while still sticky.

 

If you get the different technique right though, wait for it to set properly, then it's a much more impervious skin than most single pack coatings.

I've had reasonable results with spray on Smoothrite, but all Hammerite paints are very saggy, The trick is a lot of very thin coats. It's the same with that radiator paint, which I think is the same stuff. That brush-on radiator paint is impossible. You paint it on really thin and smooth. You stand back and admire it and then go for a cup of tea. when you come back it's all at the bottom of the radiator in one big sag.

Yes, good point Dave, thick coats do run easily on vertical or sloping surfaces.

 

As you say, several thin coats in that situation, each one as soon as the previous one has skinned.

 

Another thought, I use cellulose thinners for cleaning brushes (and hands), much cheaper than the genuine Hammerite thinners, and turps has no effect at all.

Assembly begins. Some idiot who may have been me, didnt take enough pictures whan stripping it.

 

I have a load of washers that i know were on the rear wheel. But at what position??? Guessing i will find out after a few miles.

 

When i first tried it, none of the rear lights worked. Found a grey wire one of the front connectors hanging out. Stripped it back and refitted it.

 

Brake light now works. Indicators work. But i dont have any tail lights?

 

6 rear indicators, 1 brake light and no tail lights.. Not looking forward to getting into the spaghetti of a loom..

 

A couple of blue wires on the speed controller that appear to do nothing?

 

 

I think the plan is to get the middle lamp to be the tail light and the 2 side ones to be the stop lamps. Indicators are in the top box.

 

Bulbs are 36volt..

 

Sometimes i plug it in and all the bulbs glow dimly. I may strip all the plugs off and solder all the wires together. Maybe less hassle than trying to find the dodgy plug/pins.