The Parts Part Two
The first article on parts covered some of the lesser parts, this one covers the parts that are the absolute lifeblood of your bike.
The Frame
The frame links the engine to the wheels, so you want everything to match up perfectly. Although most people don't think about the frame, it is extremely important. Some frames on the Chinese pocket bikes aren't constructed as well as others. Nearly all the water-cooled models have nice, straight, neatly welded frames. But some of the Cag, air-cooled models leave a lot to be desired. You can make your bike faster by making the frame lighter. You could drill some holes, though that makes a lot of pocket bike owners cringe. You want the chain to turn freely, without a whole bunch of friction running from the pinion to the back sprocket. If this is occurring, anyway, then unbolt your engine from the bottom of the frame and re-align it.
The Engine
This is the coolest and noisiest of all the parts on your bike. Pocket bike engines usually come in 4 flavors: 40cc or 50cc and air-cooled or water-cooled. Generally the water-cooled pocket bikes go much faster. The engines are designed to reach much higher revs, and the water cooling system stops them from over heating. The engine consists of a whole range of parts. The main components of the engine are the: piston, con rod, crank case, head, cylinder, reed-valve and carburetor. All pocket bikes have reed inducted engines. There is an incredible list of things you can do to these parts to beef up the performance of your engine. Basically you produce a powerful engine by increasing its revs, and shorten the time it takes for the engine to reach its highest revs. The quicker it can get to it's top revs the faster you will go. Plain and simple.
The Carburetor
Out of all pocket bike parts... the carburetor is the part that causes beginners the most grief. It's the part that controls the flow of fuel into the engine, so the engine can burn that fuel and create power. The wrong fuel mixture metered into the engine could mean either poor performance or a damaged engine, so it is critical to adjust the carburetor just right so you produce maximum speed without hurting the engine. There are books and websites that can give specifics on how to learn this.
These are some of the main parts of pocket bikes, and keeping these updated will help maximize performance and appearance.
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