The mopeds are proper motor-bikes, designed by engineers for a broad spectrum of customers. And lets face it, our MB’s are just mopeds. Our wheels are bigger, but they’re mopeds just the same.
But the reality is, there is not much for us to use. The best part about a moped is the brakes. They use proper drums, with big axles, good stuff for sure!
Sadly, the offset is all wrong for the China motors which is a major bummer because that is what most of us run. The rear hub has both a drive side and bicycle side sproket but they’re too wide and chains just don’t align. The other bummer is that the China motors require a clutch lever So if you have front brake, you end up with three levers if you run the moped rear hub.
The front hubs are good stuff too, but again, they have big axles, so if you want to run them, you need to open up the dropouts as the axles are bigger than bicycle stuff.
Their motors are just plain funky, they don’t fit in bicycles. They use good levers/controls, but there are so many choices for levers/controls that you really don’t need to steal from the moped scene. Beyond that, everything is different, so there is nothing left.
Now if you run a Morini motor, it’s a whole new world. The chain offsets are just right, and since the Morini has a centrifugal clutch, you only need two levers. A perfect match. But not many folks are running Morini motors.
So sadly, the mopeds are in a class of their own. Of course, I have a rockin’ set of big axle moped hubs in my Morini bike, but my China motored bike runs bicycle hubs, laced into Worksman wheels. Each the optimal setup for the motor used.
Rich
