am i a terrible person for wanting to mount a motor on this classic bike?

eltatertoto

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so here is the story. about 8 years ago a little old lady at a church sale sold me this 3 speed hub shift sears free spirit for $3.00 and also had the matching womans bike. she said she and her husband had bought it new in the 70s and never rode it. so i bought it, and cleaned it up to look just as good as the picture below. since then it has been in storage (a hook on the roof of my grandmothers garage) and i havent touched it. seeing as my 70s murray has pretty much served its life as an MB and is unsafe to ride, i was thinking of keeping the 70s trend going and using the free spirit.

another question i had, is what are the odds of a newish huffy bike front fork fitting on this old chicago made bicycle?

thanks alot for all of your' opinions.


here is the murray right before i took her engine off.



and here is a stock photo of the freespirit. mine is in the exact same condition.

 
It's your bike, do as you see fit.Everything being opinion, I think frame mounts look absolutely dreadful.Takes all the "bike" character away and looks like a duct-tape motorcycle you'd see in India, but that's me.You may be able to make a few $$ on the bike then slap your rig into a decent beater and still have a few $$.
 
Leave it alone and ride it as a pedaler or sell it.
Put the motor on something that has V brakes and fatter tires (hint- mountain bike).
Caliper brakes on a motored bike are a good way to get killed when you really need to stop NOW.
 
change your frame before you get two seat stays through the back of your legs or the :poop:chute!.


classic? couldnt care less, looks just like any other 70's frame. millions of them.


those seat stays WILL let go with some use. so, from the sake of safety, either gusset those joins or swap the frame. sorry :(


brakes? yeah....the MTB is the way to go :) non-ally.
 
Headsmess, what is it about those seat-stays that differs from the murray pictured above (other than the freespirits are pointy)?Just curious, I just went and looked at my Fuji Opus III and it had the same pointy brazed stays.You figure some fatties had to have beaten those skinny framed bikes over the years.Is it common for them to give way??
 
if id had a camera at the time maybe a visual would be more conclusive?


ok. you weigh, say, 90kg (i weigh 66) on an mtb with nice fat seat stays, butted hard up against the tube at point of max load transfer, you can bounce around all day.

now, change the join so that its about 1/8" wide, and is under "shear" every bounce you make. make it out of brass so its nowhere near as strong as the tubing its joining.

stick a vibrating engine inside it. then hit potholes and bumps at slightly higher speeds with even more weight on it than it was ever intended to take.

it wasnt my bike. and he was lucky and got grazed and shocked, not mutilated. but it can happen! that join lets go!

if it doesnt have 26 or 20 inch rims. in my opinion it doesnt deserve an engine :) and if a join isnt a logical solidly engineered joint, i pass on the frame. put it down to experience with and without engines :) ive even snapped a hoffman bmx :)


then again...australia has the best roads in the world ;) maybe thats part of it?
 
if id had a camera at the time maybe a visual would be more conclusive?


ok. you weigh, say, 90kg (i weigh 66) on an mtb with nice fat seat stays, butted hard up against the tube at point of max load transfer, you can bounce around all day.

now, change the join so that its about 1/8" wide, and is under "shear" every bounce you make. make it out of brass so its nowhere near as strong as the tubing its joining.

stick a vibrating engine inside it. then hit potholes and bumps at slightly higher speeds with even more weight on it than it was ever intended to take.

it wasnt my bike. and he was lucky and got grazed and shocked, not mutilated. but it can happen! that join lets go!

if it doesnt have 26 or 20 inch rims. in my opinion it doesnt deserve an engine :) and if a join isnt a logical solidly engineered joint, i pass on the frame. put it down to experience with and without engines :) ive even snapped a hoffman bmx :)


then again...australia has the best roads in the world ;) maybe thats part of it?
Well I'm going to consider that was either a substandard or already compromised bike, that was then beat up with an engine and rough usage, an anomaly, rare anomaly.I've never heard of it, been to many a bike forum, rode them throughout the 70's through now and you KNOW it would be a bigfoot-like story about the dude getting "stayed" by his frame.
His Murray is a cheapo (no offense to murray owners) hi-ten steel bike.That Freespirit is made of old superior quality steel, unless it's got cracks it's probably fine.HeadSmess, have you seen geebt48cc's bike?
One breakdown in the world isn't enough evidence to chuck a good frame, my opinion.
 
definitely sounds like fun. (lol) the freespirit has been spared. i picked up the (almost) perfect bike for this. its a magna fixie or fix-d if you are actually looking at the bike. its got a hub sprocket on the left side for if you want to be a hipster and not have a coaster. only downside is i'ts only a 20 tooth. so whenever i get the time im going to take the wheel to a bike shop to see about getting a 30ish tooth to replace that, then tack weld it at the threads so it don't come unscrewed with the torque of the engine. apart from the threads being the wrong way, i cant really see any reason why a hub mounted sprocket don't trump the spoke squishers. bike is all ready apart from the sprocket situation.
 
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