Disguising an engine

I agree with both PatrickW and MikeJ.

First, cops aren't stupid, and they ARE trained to observe accurately. Second, they will pretty much treat you as your behavior warrants.

The first rule of the road is really simple: Drive in a safe and prudent fashion for conditions. The most important condition being, what are you driving? If you are driving a bicycle on a straight and level road, pedalling at a reasonable cadence, maintaining a speed of 20-30 mph is reasonable and prudent. Forty, fifty mph or even higher speeds is neither reasonable nor prudent - on a bicycle.

Riding a bicycle up a hill at 30 mph, sitting down, still pedalling only a reasonable cadence, is neither safe nor prudent - everyone who has ever ridden a bike knows you aren't doing that with your legs. Just a fact of life.

Bike Motors...

Nice post, Mike...and all quite true. I have had some sort of bike motor, off and on, since the 1950's when I was a kid, and they go a lot farther back than that. I had several that were a lot like H-T 2 strokes connected by a 'rubber-band-type belt' (remember those, guys?) to a huge ring/pulley almost the same size as the rear rim. A few were drop-down hinge type friction affairs that flopped onto the front tire...many were made by Whizzzer and others for Sears and Sawbuck, and Johnson Smith. You just unhooked the latch and let it down onto the front tire whille holding a knob on a shift lever sorta thingie to keep it from bouncing back up and flying in your face, till it made contact with the front wheel and you roared off with about 1/2 raw horse power.

The police would invariably stop ya just to look the thing over and ask questions. Folks all got along much better, then, before we hit the '60s and the whole social structure of this country started circling the bowl.

Seems we're circuling the bowl backwards these days!!!

Truth to the Prof...

First of all, remember the time before the ‘Cultural Revolution’ of ’64? Everyone seemed to get along much better, things were much smoother, and the policeman really was your friend. No hassle, no fuss, just stay clean and all was fine. Nobody got stopped for ‘no reason’, no problem just for problem’s sake, no fuss as long as you weren’t being an idiot. It all seemed to have changed some, due mostly to the SDS and a mess of other radicals. Things got so stirred up that it was very hard to just be a plain, straight, young person. Overnight, everyone became ‘one of the usual suspects.’ Now, the “Professor” comes along with his far left field ideas, and want’s to stir things up. Well...

Professor, I don't know what it is you “Profess,” and I certainly hope it is not to our young people, but get ready for a lesson...I'm older than you, I've been around longer than you, and obviously have seen a whole world more than you. I am not trying to denigrate, merely set you straight on your facts. You are wrong about not having bike motors other than 'lawn mower engines' as is quite obvious from my post and whole forums full of threads on this great site and others on this very subject. Please, we would appreciate you not blowing off about things you don't know anything about. I have read long enough, listened to enough, and am tired of hearing your drivel and non-sense, as are most of us. Pack it up and take it home or, please, listen to the sound of reason: Mike, SimpleSimon, Mort, Me, and others. You are wrong!

Of course, we do all agree you are free, as everyone should be, to express your opinion. I sincerely hope I have not been disrespectful, Sir...if I have, I apologize. But you hit a sore spot when you, in effect, implied that I, and several of us, were the equivalent of liars. Shake hands and enough said...K?

I am sorry, Guys, for taking so much space, but I just had to let this out.

If you live in a state that you have to Disguise a gas motor,cops can still hear it, don't put it on. One day you will have a handfull of tickets.

America is not free anymore...

"Stealth Engines"...

TA DA...At last the sound of reason and common sense...(if I may paraphrase)..."If you live in a state where a motor on a bike is not legal, don't put one on!"...period, end of sentence.) As a quick analogy, "D**k painted his shed Green...Green Sheds were illegal in his state...he had to repaint the whole shed. Don't be a D**k." It makes no sense what-so-ever, but it applies; he could have saved a lot of hassle if he hadn't painted it green. I don't agree with America not being free anymore...it is...and if you want to change the law, just petition your congressmen, or vote them out of office at the next electiion...get the proposition put on the ballot as a public reforendum, then lobby like he*l...that''s why we have the government we do...what do you think is going to happen at the next Presidential election, when most of the congress seats come up for election, too? I have a suspicion there will be quite a few changes! What do you Guys think?

Pat, Problem is that none of them, NONE OF THEM, adopt common sense as a platform. They all seem to take one set of issues and adopt common sense while they are allowed to be bought out of their common sense on others by lobbyists.

Mort, I think that common sense is a seriously limited commodity now days. Far too few people have much of it, and if they do, they don't use it. I doubt whether most politicians have any at all. I pray that "American Common Sense" wakes up come election time.

You and I, both. This situation in our Country didn't happen overnight. Both parties have sharred power for a long time. They have become proficient in jamming it too us and it's time for a change...

I won't vote D or R, ever again!

PatrickW said:

By chance do any of you 'Stealth Gurus' happen to know any policemen? Just exactly how stupid do you think they must be? Don't y'all have any inkling that when they see a bike going down the street with nobody pedaling, smoke and the smell of rotten eggs trailing from behind some 'clap trap' bag or milk crate slapped on the back, that they just might get a little suspicious? I envision Wile E. Coyote on the seat, and 'Acme Hide-a-Motor' stenciled on the crate. I hope I'm not sounding demeaning here, I certainly don't mean to be, but just how many of you think that those same policemen didn't slap an illicit motor on their bikes when they were younger and tried to hide it from the police or their parents? Use good, common sense out there...you will get more respect.

Click to expand...

Back when motorized bicycles used to be illegal in my state, I rode RIGHT BY cops on my bike without them even noticing. The engine is so quiet that I doubt it could be heard if your car windows were closed (I added a 2nd muffler to an already quiet engine). Although my engine is a 2 stroke there is no smoke since I switched over to the Opti-2 oil. As you can see by the photo, my engine is not only hidden from the sides by my saddle bags, I have also mounted a double layer of thick "pet screen" across the back so it's not visible from the rear, either. Since the front is totally uncovered, I have plenty of airflow across the engine and through the pet screen out the back. I feel that drawing the least amount of attention to myself is the best way to avoid behing hassled....even though the bike IS legal in Illinois now.

Warner