Hello all,
A few weeks ago I helped a friend clean out a snake infested shed deep in the Aussie bush where he had stored bit's and pieces for years. One 'piece' was a bicycle with a German made Sachs 30cc two stroke motor driving the rear wheel. It appears years earlier his missus lost her drivers licence for serious DUI (six times over the legal limit) so John bought this machine for the silly chook.
Poor thing was forever going over the handlebars (due to drink) and soon she was over the thing. It remained in the shed ever since. She and John have long since divorced so I made John a modest offer for it and now have a little bike which gets along at about 14 to 16 Mph and uses little fuel.
I also bought John's 1980 Model Kawasaki 750Z which has been standing in the same shed unused for around 12Years, but as yet have not had time to get this serious looking thing running. Frankly, it scares me a little.
These little Sachs contraptions are governed to 200 Watts in Australia but I have learned ex-factory they come with 500Watts (1/2 a kilowatt) or about 0.7 of a HP. I have also learned there are countless THOUSANDS of these machines in use in Europe, in particular Holland and Germany.
I have also discovered those clever Dutchmen have found the CDI units in these machines have a rev limiter built in, reducing RPM to 3,800 and the simplest way of re-gaining the missing 300 Watts is drilling a 6MM hole into a particular spot on the CDI and they will run over 6,000 RPM. This simple modification has increased the speed of my machine from about 20Kph to about 33Kph.
Meddling bureaucrats (and elsewhere) in the EU are responsible for turning highly developed little engines into asthmatic contraptions which would hardly pull the skin off a rice pudding. But the Dutch have found a way around it. I'm really delighted to have re-joined the World of motorbikes after so many years. I intend to build a few more little mopeds and get the mongrel Kawasaki going. I had two Matchless 500CC singles back in the 1960's when I was a 16 year old.
A few weeks ago I helped a friend clean out a snake infested shed deep in the Aussie bush where he had stored bit's and pieces for years. One 'piece' was a bicycle with a German made Sachs 30cc two stroke motor driving the rear wheel. It appears years earlier his missus lost her drivers licence for serious DUI (six times over the legal limit) so John bought this machine for the silly chook.
Poor thing was forever going over the handlebars (due to drink) and soon she was over the thing. It remained in the shed ever since. She and John have long since divorced so I made John a modest offer for it and now have a little bike which gets along at about 14 to 16 Mph and uses little fuel.
I also bought John's 1980 Model Kawasaki 750Z which has been standing in the same shed unused for around 12Years, but as yet have not had time to get this serious looking thing running. Frankly, it scares me a little.
These little Sachs contraptions are governed to 200 Watts in Australia but I have learned ex-factory they come with 500Watts (1/2 a kilowatt) or about 0.7 of a HP. I have also learned there are countless THOUSANDS of these machines in use in Europe, in particular Holland and Germany.
I have also discovered those clever Dutchmen have found the CDI units in these machines have a rev limiter built in, reducing RPM to 3,800 and the simplest way of re-gaining the missing 300 Watts is drilling a 6MM hole into a particular spot on the CDI and they will run over 6,000 RPM. This simple modification has increased the speed of my machine from about 20Kph to about 33Kph.
Meddling bureaucrats (and elsewhere) in the EU are responsible for turning highly developed little engines into asthmatic contraptions which would hardly pull the skin off a rice pudding. But the Dutch have found a way around it. I'm really delighted to have re-joined the World of motorbikes after so many years. I intend to build a few more little mopeds and get the mongrel Kawasaki going. I had two Matchless 500CC singles back in the 1960's when I was a 16 year old.