Sketch
Member
- Local time
- 10:33 AM
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2009
- Messages
- 87
(please see attached photos)
Just before Christmas, I received my Honda frame mount kit from bicycle-engines.com. I put it together over a period of about 5 days and spent a couple days test riding it for a few hundred yards at a time, attempting to get the problems with the chain alignment worked out. Finally, I switched the orientation of the rear chain sprocket and started to get something that worked without kinking and the chain coming off. With more work on the chain tension, I finally felt that the whole thing was coming together.
I checked bolts and screws for tightness after the test rides. I checked my oil level and the gearbox level, making adjustments. I had followed all the instructions, as best as they could be interpreted.
After my first longer ride, which was about a half hour of travel time, the gear box had developed holes (see photos 1 and 2).
I am currently making a warranty claim, hoping to get an entire new gear box.
Photo 3 shows my bike. It's a little beat up because the trip included getting hit with a snow storm on the trip back to the house. I don't think that could have had anything to do with the metal failure of the gearbox housing.
Right now I am a little frustrated, but I know these things can take time to work out. I suspect that the "flatness" of the two sides of the gearbox weren't manufactured perfectly enough, and that the pressure from joining them created the stress that caused the cracking.
Given the failure, it makes me also think that it's a little frustrating that nowhere in the assembly instructions, which are meant for a shop technician it appears, are there torque requirements - which I would kind of like to see for this type of project.
Comments welcome???....
Just before Christmas, I received my Honda frame mount kit from bicycle-engines.com. I put it together over a period of about 5 days and spent a couple days test riding it for a few hundred yards at a time, attempting to get the problems with the chain alignment worked out. Finally, I switched the orientation of the rear chain sprocket and started to get something that worked without kinking and the chain coming off. With more work on the chain tension, I finally felt that the whole thing was coming together.
I checked bolts and screws for tightness after the test rides. I checked my oil level and the gearbox level, making adjustments. I had followed all the instructions, as best as they could be interpreted.
After my first longer ride, which was about a half hour of travel time, the gear box had developed holes (see photos 1 and 2).
I am currently making a warranty claim, hoping to get an entire new gear box.
Photo 3 shows my bike. It's a little beat up because the trip included getting hit with a snow storm on the trip back to the house. I don't think that could have had anything to do with the metal failure of the gearbox housing.
Right now I am a little frustrated, but I know these things can take time to work out. I suspect that the "flatness" of the two sides of the gearbox weren't manufactured perfectly enough, and that the pressure from joining them created the stress that caused the cracking.
Given the failure, it makes me also think that it's a little frustrating that nowhere in the assembly instructions, which are meant for a shop technician it appears, are there torque requirements - which I would kind of like to see for this type of project.
Comments welcome???....