Recently, I picked up a 2-stroke 66cc engine off of BikeBerry’s website. I planned to build myself a motorized bicycle using a regular mountain bike at home for getting to and from work, as my electric scooter was no longer cutting it. This taught me a lot of lessons, and here’s what I think you should know if you want to buy a motor for your bike, the challenges I ran into, and what you should expect when trying this on your own.
I know I usually don’t post content around this subject, but I spent a good two weeks on this build and wanted to share my thoughts on the kit as well as my mistakes. Think of this blog post a bit like an extended review of this bicycle engine kit – the good, the bad, and the dirty.
The Good
I bought the “Racing Stage 4” type engine, which includes a performance cylinder head, an upgraded exhaust, and a performance carburetor. These parts were all high quality and well made. You can buy the exact package I bought here.
The engine kit was a bit of a pain to assemble, but the instructions covered most of what I needed in order to build the kit and get it working.
The Bad
They advertise this kit as a universal motorized bicycle kit. This is, however, false. I had issues with the carburetor and the exhaust not fitting correctly with my frame, forcing me to orient things at weird angles and even remove one of the pedals.
The instructions aren’t great – They give you instructions to build the bike, but then if you have any issues they are incredibly difficult to troubleshoot.
My kit came with a faulty CDI. I was able to solve this issue by purchasing a new one off of Amazon, but it led to multiple days of headaches and difficulties.
The Dirty
Once I finally got the kit working, the engine blew up on my first go riding it. I was using an 18:1 fuel ratio, more than enough oil, and I wasn’t over-revving the engine. What ended up happening was the piston cracked, jamming the crank shaft and damaging the piston housing and spark plug.
I am currently trying to get this resolved with BikeBerry’s support team, but I’m somewhat disappointed that there isn’t more information about this kind of build online.
What’s my overall opinion on BikeBerry motorized bikes?
Overall, if you absolutely want to build a motorized bike, BikeBerry kits offer your best bet. However, if you’re purely looking for something to get you from point A to point B, do not buy a motorized bike engine kit. You would be better off buying a used moped or an electric bike conversion kit, which is significantly easier to get working.
