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Cateye Midi Bike project

Introduction

Once again, I'm going to use FF for a place to record progress on a project :p

6 months ago, i picked up a tatty "cateye" type midi-moto bike for £20.

These have a Mitsubishi designed ‘leccy start 50cc 2-stroke engine that, whilst fairly reliable, is not powerful, in fact no where near as good as the Chinese Cagllari-type engines. These bikes top out at 20mph or under, and pick up speed almost as fast as a tortoise. In addition to this, the footpegs are located too low, meaning that cornering…. doesn’t really happen (n)

However, they have a few things going for them: they are a decent size for adults to ride, whilst still being small; they have full suspension; and they have proper lights and fairing built in – true miniature superbikes. Furthermore, the engine bay is quite large….

I had no intention of trying to make it run as it was, so put in a shed and forgot about it.

Then Jordan and his brother kind of persuaded me to do something with it….

Stripped of all but the essentials:
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What the bike looks like when new:
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And what should be going in:
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- Lifan 125cc 4stroke pit bike type engine, which should hopefully have a 170cc head kit bolted on :slayer::slayer::slayer:... we shall see.

I still havent made a final decision regarding the engine choice, hopefully i will have something ordered by the end of this week, because without a new engine, i can do very little more :)
haha looks fun, just before christmas i got my minimoto out of the shed and started to rebuild it...it was a bag of bolts, engine and frame...rebuilt it in a week in the evenings...its all good fun again now!!until it breaks again
 
Looking at the engine, it has a look of the old 50/70/90 Honda that used to go in the famous C50 etc. I think the idea of the horizontal cylinder was to aid
cooling and because the footguards were very narrow. If it's as reliable as those then it should be a cracking motor.
 
yeah all the modern chinese ones are a rough copy of the old honda motors.

we have a C90 engine lying around that would be completely interchangable in the mounts; they're all the same.

The quality of the different copies varies; i have been told that Lifan is one of the best though, so we shall see...

Anyway, I have decided on an engine now: Lifan 140cc guarenteed 12hp, which means an estimated power-to-weight ratio of 72bhp/tonne.

So it should be quick enough ;)

- You can actually buy these types of bikes with a 110cc engine in, which doesnt make it as unique as i'd like it to be :( but then, it should be a lot faster than the meagre 8bhp those produce.
 
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ok, i dont see progress :(

so I'm sure munkul won't mind me posting up these pictures. 27 minutes of letting my brother loose on his pitbike not only was it fully dismantled and sorted, but it went from standing up against that box to being in the box with various sections cut out for different people on his pit-bike forum lol :p

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Engine and most of the ancillaries that munkul requires:

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Engine ( with slight oil leak from cracked casing)

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:p

Jordan
 
Cheers Jordan!

Aye i still havent done much with it. I chopped the battery box off the frame yesterday, and that was it.

Next: i need to be able to get the engine IN the frame, so the front two members will be getting modified. Then either i make a cradle for the engine to attach to the frame; or i ignore that and concentrate on making the wheel hub work with a pitbike size sprocket.
 
imo you need to beef up every single part of the midi frame aswell as modifying the engine to fit, ive had many gopeds/mini motos/midi motos etc when i was 14. the frames are shockingly ****. on my brand new midi motard the engine mounts snapped clean off with normal riding and the engine flexed foward lol

also id be looking at some half decent mountain bike calipers, suspension on these are pretty useless so ideally need upgrading aswell

not trying to wee on your cornflakes btw, i reckon this would be hell of a lot of fun when finished, just i know what these bikes are like(y)

sam(y)
 
Blud ive done this b4 wid x2 honda cx 500 engines 1 was turbo the other one usin a mini moto clutch :eek:

no dat didnt happen

pow pow
 
yeah all the modern chinese ones are a rough copy of the old honda motors.

we have a C90 engine lying around that would be completely interchangable in the mounts; they're all the same.

Munkul i cant tell the difference between my honda's and leaky loncins watching you boy! Dont try and pull the wool over my eyes to get the extra reliability lol:yum: its staying on the kart.
 
BRAPP BRAPP BRAPP

dis is well ill 4 REAL
9's 4 lyf

dis is what tupac and biggi neva managed.

y dont u buy my 125cc pit bike engine tuned by the renault F1 team develops 90bhp at the spare wheel 4 lyf:p

9s in ya face bro live an kickin
 
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