The Chinese 2 stroke kits for bicycles have gained some popularity. I started there a number of years ago myself.
They are inexpensive and they are cheap and they are not worth it. Cheap as in bad components, unbalanced crankshafts, poor castings. In my experience they are frustratingly unreliable, you might need two to keep one running. They are also noisy and prone to vibration to the point of nerve damage if run for any extended period. California will not approve them under CARB II. I moved on learning the hard lesson in the meaning of the phrase 'false economy'.....when an initially inexpensive item begins the mission creep of breakdowns and replacements until you got more $ into it than the better item would have cost up front.
Happens with tools too if they're used hard every day. Which is why it's tough to get reliability as a daily commuter out of one of these made in China set-ups without major revision and even then it's questionable.
I realize some enthusiasts might come thinking that with a hundred dollar department store bike and another hundred and a half in a China made kit they're going to get a quality touring machine or something. Truth be told most, not all of course but many of the folks who build up these kind of bikes put very few miles on them, maybe zip around the neighborhood aannoying the neighbors and an errand run here and there totaling a couple hundred miles or so a year. But day in day out get on it and ride reliability for commuting isn't going to be there. Outside of this, you won't see any of these cheesy kits mentioned on this blog.
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