My 1st Pocket Bike!

Hi, I won a pocket bike at the fair on Thursday night. It was awesome, I was so psyched about it. So I put the gas/oil mixture in it like it said and it ran fine for about a hour. Then the next day I tried to ride it and now it just keeps cutting off. I don't know what's wrong with it. I don't want to mess it up because I am giving it to my girlfriends son for christmas and I don't know much about this sort of thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Melinda

give some more info, does it start and bogg out? just cut off completely? is the fuel switch turned all the way? is it it getting the basics and engine needs, Fuel/Air/Spark?

is there any gas left in it?
more info please

Sometimes theres little plastic shavings in the fuel tank which plug up the carb or the float needle. So you may need to clean both the tank and carb.

stray has a point. if all else fails completely clean everything

Welcome to the site, Melinda. Ignore these rude buggers who didn't even welcome you .... (Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves!)

It would also help if we knew what kind of bike it was. just saying "I have a pocketbike" on this forum is kinda like saying "I saw a woman shopping at Walmart." Without specifics, we're not sure exactly what to tell yu to help, since there are about a hundred different models of pocketbikes.

Do you have any pictures? You can upload to an image hosting site like PhotoBucket, and then post the links here.

That all said, StrayDawg has got the best solution: when in doubt, clean everything. Here's a helpful link:
Cleaning stock carb tutorial

Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to reply. Guess what though. I won another Pccket Bike at the fair. That makes 2 now. I do have pictures but I don't know what model they are or who makes them. They are exactly the same except for the color. How do I post the pictures for you? No it isn't out of gas but they both do the same thing, they just keep shutting off. It starts then shuts off. Maybe it's the oil/gas mixture. The book said to use 25 to 1 for the first 5 tanks, then to go to 50 to 1. Any suggestions? Thanks alot - Melinda

. o O (Jayzus, I wanna go to the fair with this gal ... two bikes in two posts .....)

*laffs* Okay, so now you have one to give to the kid .... and I guess you'll need to keep the other one for yourself so you can ride with him!

You can upload pictures to an image hosting site such as PhotoBucket or ImageShack, and then post the links here.

25:1 is correct for the first 4 tanks. 50:1 is just a little too chintzy on oil - most of us run 32:1, 40:1 if it's synthetic oil.

You're having trouble getting it started, or keeping it running? It could be that you're not flipping the choke lever down after the bike warms up. (The choke lever is on the left side of the bike right next to the white knob, the petcock.)

ya listen to spy guy he is very good with these things he helped fix my bike

Well, I'm mainly good with the Cags, since I own several of them, and have torn down/rebuilt many more .....

Hey guys,
Yeah I guess I am pretty lucky to have won two of these fun little pocket bikes but geeze, why can't they just run right. My photobucket username is Lynch247. Here is the link to one of the pictures: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...7/SAM_0136.jpg
I think you can see all the rest of the pics from there too. Does anyone know the model of these babies? I'm giving the blue one to Landon and I gave the black one to my neices and nephew. Really it's me and their dad who ride them most but I can ride it anytime I want so it's ours so to speak. Kenny, my brother in law, thinks it's something to do with the throttle cable cause you can ride it but when you try to give it gas it shuts off. I just want it to run right so we can have fun with it. You know, ride it for more than 10 minutes without it cutting off. Thanks for all your comments and help. I really appreciate it. - Melinda

All those small chinese bikes have their quirks and theres alot of them like leaky carb,chain always loosening,rear wheels hard to line up,engines vibrating alot,engine startup quirks,carb getting loose and screws falling out....On the outside they seem to be pretty well made until you actually rip one completely down and see the shoddy weld work aswell as actually being put together by chinese kids..The chinese have a different code of labor laws and quality control compared to the US...

the best thing to do is get some grade 8 hardware kits and some loctite green and blue and unchinese as many screws/nuts as you can with loctite and better grade screws

The petcock going into the carb is a big restriction for supplying the carbs with proper fuel flow...They must be modded to get proper flow...look up petcock mod...That should help with the engine cutoff problem if not;-adjusting the clip on the needle in the slider should help;-you could look for a loose carb too

The engines were designed more for lawn equipment and not for performance...The cylinders have a squish thats too loose on the tolerance to actually make true power...

Those little bikes also have a break-in regimen that must be adhered to if you want the engine to run its best aswell as last awhile...For the first 4 tankfuls you should be mixing the fuel to a 28:1 ratio....For those 4 full tankfuls that need to be burnt off at that fuel ratio mix the bike shouldnt be ridden at full throttle at any time.For the first 10-15 minutes of its first time start up it should be left idling on a stand with proper airflow..After that it must be gently ridden.The break-in process is a long and lengthy process but needed to ensure a properly running engine..The cylinders and bearings need to seat and wear in[loosen up] to proper tolerances before you can go fast on it....If you try to see how fast it will go without properly breaking it in youre prone to scorching the cylinder rings and damaging the tin reeds and needle bearings in the wristpin and crank.......After proper break-in you mix the fuel to 32:1 and then you can ride it anyway you want within reason...

Nice little Cag ...... Cagllari/Daytona, full fairing, 47cc engine.

This is CAM2, one of our resident experts on most of the bikes on here (having owned practically one of every kind there is and building many more.) He knows his stuff, and is always willing to help out new people.

Hang in there, hon, we'll get ya back up on two wheels again ....

Thanks for all the advice! I am going to try out the petcock deal and see what happens. I really appreciate all the help. Happy riding!

Hey, anything to help out a fellow pb'er .... don't forget to get an inline fuel shutoff valve, as you'll be basically converting the old one into a straight pipe.

That mod, by the way, is in the Air-Cooled section, top of the page, in the Air-Cooled Mods section. Here's the link:
Petcock Mod

I am not a pocket bike expert by any means but with 15 years servicing for Poulan and Stihl I do know my way around 2 strokes. The carburetor needs adjusting, probably just running too lean on the low end. Any small engine or saw repair shop can do this for you if you arent' comfortable with it. This is a common problem for new 2 strokes and listen to Cam2 about the breaking in period. hope this helps

Hello

You just need to clean inside your Carburetor.

I bought my first Pocket bike about 2 days ago and once i brought it home i started it up finally after trying several times but once i would push on the throttle i would start moving a little
bit but then the engine would stall right away.

I brought it to the place where i bought it and he looked inside the Carburetor and it was all gunked up becase apparently the
manufactures puts loads of oil and eventually with time it clumps
up and the slightest gunk in your carb can cause this problem.

I am now driving my Pocket bike pretty frequently but i am trying my best not to drive it as there is snow everywhere and i wouldn't mind sparing all the wipeouts, i picked my bike up very fast after i wipedout because it was sliding on the ice towards a car and once i picked up the bike i accidentally hit the throttle because i expected it to have been stalled and VROOOM starts dragging me into the middle of the road!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help with the problems I was having with my pocket bikes. They are both up and running perfectly now. We did the petcock mod and it really makes a huge difference. We also finally found the adjustment screw for the idle or whatever and the response time is much better now. Before it had a little lag before it would actually start moving. Anyways everything is in order and ready to go. You help has been greatly appreciated and I will keep you all posted on how Landon enjoys his gift. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! Sincerely - Melinda Lynch

Merry Christmas, Melinda. Don't forget to get pictures of you and the kid enjoying your new bikes.