My kids have a PW50 which I bought as a non runner and got running again. They have only been on it twice. On the second occasion they were practicing going around cones in a large field when the bike started to lose power. It seems to me that there is far far too much oil in the mix, to the point where it is dripping from the exhaust. It has an oil bottle, so I don't need to use premix, but I think that would solve my issue. I don't know if I can just run the bike with pre-mix and the oil bottle empty or if this will knacker it. Any ideas?
The exhaust baffle is clogged up with crap and oil, that's what's happening. Pull the baffle out and run the bike, apart from being louder it should run fine. You need to burn all the crap off the baffle and knock out all the debris, then it will be fine.
Can I ask how old your kids are. My boy is 4 and I was thinking of getting him a peewee. He's a rather small lad though. I was talking with Scott Redding a while back at his minimoto school which he runs just down the road from me and he reckoned getting my lad a peewee was a good way to start. It's what he started out on but I suspect he was a tad bigger than my boy.
I have a soon to be 6 y/o, a soon to be 5 y/o and a just 3 y/o. The eldest lad is having the most fun on it. He has the arm strength and the core strength to steer, hold himself upright and handle the throttle and brakes. My middle-un is 4 and has so far struggled to manage going, steering and stopping one after the other. He lacks the arms strength to maintain a true course at low speed (which he has to travel at as he lacks the forearm strength to operate the brakes properly so cant stop so well either yet!) He struggles to maintain his concentration and interest long to make quick progress. He IS making progress though and he is more than capable of riding. He just needs more time and a lot more patience to get the skills up to really enjoy himself. Which makes it hard to encourage him to try again when he can see his brother having a whale of a time at a decent speed, with chicanes and everything. This is particular to my boy though, who is easily distracted and cant easily be encouraged to persevere if he can't get it straight away. He is only 4 though and he is getting there and I'm very proud of him. The little bugger. My 3 y/o hasn't tried it yet, she still struggles with a balance bike. I've got the most hope for her though as she loves a bike, and my sons live with my ex-wife so I don't have as much influence over them.
That helps a lot. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I think I'll leave it another year. Toby was riding a balance bike at 2, and the stabilisers came off his pedal bike at 3 1/2. He loves going fast on his push bike and is a bit of a speed freak but I'm not convinced he has the strength to handle a motor bike. I may try him on a battery powered bike this year.
I'll show you a video of my lad un-knowlingly getting te back sliding too. I was so impressed. It was only his 4th run on a bike in his life! (about 10 seconds in, you can just catch it on the edge of the screen... Not bad considering he can barely ride a pushbike!)
Youd be more than welcome to come try I'm out on my lads bike using their kit. I'm in wiltshire, about 30 miles from the race school at chippenham if that is the one you mean.
That's real kind, thanks. I may take you up on that next year. Scott's race school is at Hullavington, north of the M4 J17, near Malmesbury. I'm about 10 miles away in Minety.
I'm near salisbury so it's not a million miles away. Just give me a buzz when you're ready to let him have a spin. If you aren't aware; the PW has a throttle stop so you can start him out at a low maximum speed. It's very useful.
I've been having trouble getting it to run right. It always stumbles and loses all power at full throttle. Ended up solving it by making the throttle cable be under minimal tension at both ends, and seemed to have solved it. I don't know if that's just hiding a problem for later on when they want to pick up speed a bit but it's good enough for this weekend.
