While normally I subscribe to the "to each their own" philosophy... when ya start trying to pawn off builds to the general public that are so cheap & built so poorly they're dangerous it really starts to bother me - the backwards forks are only the tip of the iceberg unfortunately, an obvious telltale of worse to come
It's hard to tell from such small pictures, but the problems are well known - coaster brake bikes aren't the best choices to begin with for obvious reasons, un-reinforced full fenders have a habit of breaking free and locking up wheels, the cheapest box store cantilever frames are known to fatigue and break, lets not even talk about single wall rims, 30mph & a pothole... :shock:
...and that's not even including problems with the engine installation - which while these pics were too small to pick out problems, if the guy didn't even notice the backwards forks while building, taking the pics or even posting them - I somehow doubt his mechanical skills were up to the task of mounting the engine properly.
Then there's the "DUI" thing... meh...
He may well be right, you may indeed not need a driver's license in Kansas - but keep selling death traps & marketing them to drunks specifically and you can bet soon enough you will need a license, or they'll be outlawed completely as is the case in other areas (or over regulated to the point it's effectively the same).
It's really starting to irritate the heck out of me, I
really enjoy building these things and it seems some are doing whatever they can to screw it up for everyone. TBH I won't sell them for some pretty simple reasons - not least of which is if you didn't build it yourself odds are you don't understand it well enough to maintain it safely. Then there's the fact that if you build one nice enough to be truly safe, the price is high enough you'll not be able to sell it as they might as well buy a moped. They really
can be reliable and fun, but they are based on cheap Chinese engine kits so much needs be done, modified & upgraded that selling them with any sort of honesty at the prices people expect is pretty much impossible.
There are exceptions of course, but as ebay & craigslist make abundantly clear - that's not the norm :? Whatever madness ya can come up with fer yer own personal use I'm all about and I love ta see what people come up with in the quest for style & speed - start selling them to Joe Public and ya better have a little bit in the way of basic standards, if not some self respect.
