[12 June 2008]
Although I have not yet added on the new fuel tanks, I did get a chance to take the motor-bicycle out on a long trip. The distance I went was 73.3 miles one way (according to Google Maps). The ride time was about five hours each way, although I did not keep the throttle at maximum. Mathematically I would have averaged about 14.6 MPH but I usually average around 15 MPH on my non-motorized bicycles (though on much shorter trips!) and on this trip I seemed to be traveling quite a bit faster than I could have pedaled.
The destination of the trip was the Popeye statue in Chester, IL.
There were a couple "incidents" of mechanical-non-reliability along the way. Below are pictured "the damages".....
I had the Planet Bike Superflash tail lights mounted on a bracket on the rear of the fender ("A" shown below). As I was going over a very bumpy stretch of road, the belt idler flipped open, and so I had to pull over to see what went wrong. At that time I noticed that one of the tail lights was missing parts--the lens and the internals were gone. I noticed that sometimes the kickstand would flip upwards over the kickstand holder, and it may have been hitting the lights as well. I don't know that there's any cheaper bike lights made much better than the Superflashes were--most just seem to "pop open" to replace batteries or whatever, they're usually not held closed with screws or other fasteners. So I don't know if I'll get another Superflash to use (depends on what price I can find them for) but I don't think most other cheap bicycle lights would really do much better.
The solution here is to mount the tail lights somewhere that they are not subjected to road vibrations, and the only place to do that is to mount them to the upper end of the spring pillows under the seat (point "B" below).
The front lights I did not have a problem with. I was wary of the new clamp system that Cateye used for their HL-530 lights, but I have to say that the front lights held solid the entire trip.
The big bolt in the "damages" photo is what used to hold the front brake cable. The Worksman bike came with a dinky little brake cable clamp that fit on the end of the cable, and had no chance of holding on when you squeezed the lever hard (I don't really know why Worksman even sends it, it's far too small and weak to work). So, I had to find something else to put behind it, that would keep the cable from slipping. I tried a couple other smaller bolts and clamps, but they didn't hold hard enough. I eventually bought a 1/2" x 1" bolt and nylon lock nut, and a couple big washers. I drilled a 3/32" hole through the 1/2" bolt just under the head, and then used the washers and this became the cable clamp for the front drum brake, clamped at point "C", shown below. (I don't have a photo of this, so you'll just have to pretend)
What happened was about one hour into the return ride, the bolt fell off onto the road. The big bolt was so heavy that it vibrated all the time and flexed the brake cable (right where it entered between the big washers) until the cable snapped off. This might have been because the cable that came with the Worksman was cheap, but it looked just like any other bicycle brake cable I've ever seen, so I don't blame it specifically on the cable failure. So I will need to get a replacement cable (don't cost much) and I will have to find a way to clamp it well that will hold, but that will not be so heavy that it vibrates.
I lost the original clamp by the by--when the big bolt fell off, I saw it fall off, and instinctively applied the brakes, and this caused the little cable clamp to pull off the end of the cable. I don't need that part, I can drill a hole through a piece of metal rod to substitute for it but I could not find it on the road.