NEXT Mountain Ridge Full Suspension Friction

Since my XR75 is pretty much complete and as reliable as I could ever wish for I was getting bored and decided to build another bike.
I had a Staton Friction kit that was still new in the box for a few months since I hadn't had the chance to install it on the little ladies bike and it was just screaming at me whenever I walked by it. So I bought a NEXT Mountain Ridge full suspension MTB with front disc to throw it on. My focus on this build is going to be simplicity and light weight since my other bike is a tank and I don't trust my trunk rack to bring it anywhere. I plan on taking this one around with me for fun and hopefully so I can get some people test riding and buying some. She's a really fun ride.

I'm probably going to paint the staton mounting hardware thats currently silver to black to match the rest of the swingarm and rack. I have it mounted in much the same way as I did on the XR75. Figured if it works why re-engineer it. I just mounted a couple 4 watt luxeon flashlights under the handlebar but haven't taken a picture of that yet.

Oh yeah, I'm running Continental Town & Country 26x2.1 with slime tubes. They make for a great ride so far.

Hope you enjoy the pix! More to come as soon as I work on it some more.

 

[SirJakesus]

Thanks NH. I haven't taken the night shots just yet due to laziness and other projects.
I have put about 20 miles on it since my last posting and the cagers road manners and reactions to the bike are impressive to me. Cars see me as an actual vehicle and tend to hang back before deciding to pass with lots of clearance.
I had a family in an oncoming pickup truck all wave to me on my first ride and I've had many odd stares and smiles.
Max speed so far has been 36mph which I achieved in the trough of one of our many sine wave roads here. She's very smooth and controllable. Not twitchy or bouncy even on these crazy roads.

 

[sparky]

http://www.monkeylectric.com/m132s_gallery.htm

HAH... Those are awesome!! Can't believe they're only $65.

Custom ones found at this Gizmodo article (gotta read the description and comments!!)... http://gizmodo.com/5281315/monkeylectric-turns-your-bike-wheel-into-a-display-while-you-ride

Which reminds me of these $12,000 22" rims that any pimp would ride on... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWTnwKAO_b4

Sorry to get off track, but that whole bike is TOO clean, SirJakesus.... everything from the lighting setup to the bag to the wheels I would love to see some night shots of the lighting system and the rims. And what kind of tires are those, BTW?

 

[SirJakesus]

Thanks sparky.
The bike may be clean now but its nowhere near finished. It still feels a little thrown together to me but thats why these **** things take so long for me to complete.
The tires are Continental Town & country 2.12's. They also come in 1.9 wide but beefier tires definitely add a lot of stability on rutted, uneven country roads. I think I bought them from performance bicycle when they were on sale awhile back. The rubber is really hard, made for high mileage and puncture resistance. They seem to shed road dirt very well so they're just about perfect for friction drive. The PSI range on them is 35-65 so I run my rear around 55 for good engagement and run the front around 40-45 to smooth out the bikes handling. I have about 100 miles on that set of tires and the rear one shows NO sign of wear from the FD except for one small abrasion I caused by not tightening my extension brackets up enough, allowing the channel to move and disengage slightly on one of my test runs. You can even see the seam down the middle and all those little injection molding nipples still there but most have been "plucked" towards the tire center.
I know I will be able to get some patterns at night with slow shutter speed with at least the back wheel when I'm stationary. I would need a helper to take pictures of me riding to get the full two wheel craziness captured. Bear with me though, weathers been all out of whack lately. Getting tons of rain which makes it unpleasant at best to be taking night shots. Furthermore this things so darn clean at the moment I don't want to have to spend another half an hour with a spray bottle and rag getting her back to showroom shine. Hehe.