TOTAL POCKET BIKES TUTORIALS

BLATA REPLICA REVIEW

I have owned 3 of these bikes now and have rebuilt all 3 from the ground up. Blata as a company have an excellent reputation of making some really impressive bikes. The replica versions will never be as good but for a fraction of the cost there are certain things you could do without.

The bike is very sturdy, with a solid swing arm and a strong main frame. The quality of welds is nothing special, with some of the sections not welded completely.

BENEFITS

These bikes are cheap to buy parts for as the parts are nearly as cheap as standard air cooled bikes, on average here is an example of some parts:

Starter motor repair kit $30AUS
Gasket set $10AUS
Piston and ring $30AUS
Water pump rebuild kit $20AUS
Big bore kit 46cc $100AUS

The only downside i have with these bikes is the design of the internal water pump. You won’t know when the water pump belt breaks because its hidden behind the pull starter. Other manufacturers get away with this by having an external pump but as a result their belt system runs off the rear cog and is subjected to getting damaged or caught on something.

PERFORMANCE

The blata rep bikes have about 7hp, which is more than 3 times what is found on the air cooled pocket bikes. When first riding a water cooled pocket bike, you will notice the clutch will grab much higher to suit the bikes higher revving nature. One thing though to note that these clutches will wear out quicker if you are not holding the throttle on nearly all the way so you will want to be on the throttle or off.

The standard tyres are nothing to write home about, they are usually threaded tyres. The issue comes from the quality of rubber and design of the thread used, I only got about 8 hours out of my tyres till they started loosing all their thread. Going through the corners I didn’t feel very stable on these tyres, the rubber was hard and felt like I could not push the bike safely. I would recommend getting a set of sava or pmt tyres, even a set of Zonghas will do the job.

BUILD QUALITY

Like any non genuine pocket bike the quality of build is going to be pretty average, but remember what you are getting for your money. The average price for a Blata genuine bike is about 2500aus. These bikes cost between $700-$800 new, so for the company to make any money there has to be shortcuts taken. The welds on the frame are pretty average, with 1 of the bikes I have owned having a gap in 2 of the welds allowing moisture to get in and eventually rust. The finish on the frame can also be quite bad, one of my bikes had some areas of the painted frame flake slightly. This can be easily overcome by sanding down the frame and finishing it off in your own colours. Other than that the bikes are pretty good in terms of build quality. You may eventually want to replace the pull start rope with some from a mower shop.

SUGGESTED MODS

I have fitted a big bore kit to my blata rep and found the increase in cc to be quite noticeable. The bike pulls harder from down below in the rev range. To fit the 46cc head kit you must machine one section of the block, the reason for this is because the 46cc piston is actually longer than the standard 39cc and the piston contacts one section of the block. It doesn’t take long to remove that section with a file though. I would also recommend fitting a 18 or 19mm dellorto carby.

In this article I review the blata replica pocket bike, this is a great bike and its still my favourite.

REAR RIM/BRAKE ASSEMBLY

The rear rim has 4 8mm by 50mm long bolts holding the back rim on. These were rusty and they hold the spacer to the back wheel so it was a must to change them. i got stainless steel bolts and the bike looks much better as a result.

MOTOR BOLTS

These aren't necessarly necessary to do but it gives a much cleaner look and the bolts will undo much easier when you haven't got crossthreaded bolts.