waylow
Member
Today was a Great day, I got my new bike in the mail! the Firmstrong CA.520 I got it put together in about 30 minutes and was on the road in no time, giving her a test ride. First impressions: wow is it ever different from the Cannondale F500 that I normally ride. The Cannondale has great Headshocks and is a dream to ride. The firm strong had my hands bouncing all over the place as my front wheel rolled over bumps and potholes. In the distant future I might look into some suspension forks. The handlebars are way up in the air like a chopper, and I love it. The frame is HUGE and takes a second to get used to. haha speaking of which, it has a crank forward design, and the bottom bracket is moved forward about 6 inches... riding it around normally is a huge workout for the hamstrings. peddling is like doing knee raises with resistance on the downward motion. After you get used to that, the bike seems awesome, the tires seem perfect for a motoredbike, its got good V-brakes, shimano components, fun riding position, awesome looking frame, and I love the flat black... removed all the stickers before going outside on it. One bad thing about it, is the hubs suck. I was going to replace the rear hub anyway, so no big deal there... so I guess I will just buy a new front wheel with a decent hub.
All in all, it far exceeded my expectations, and I believe it to be a perfect starting point for my engine project. In fact, I liked my 4 hour ride on it tonight so much, that it convinced me to bite the bullet and go all out balls to the wall. scrap the mitsu/NuVinci kit, Instead get the GP460 and Dominator Pipe, a multi output staton gear reduction box for future versatility. Then using ideas from Kerf, kawasaki999, duivendyk , and SirJakesus and everyone else on here who's done similar things before me, and given me much help sofar (Thank everyone very much, and I apologize if I misspelled your nick or forgot to list you too).
I have decided to fabricate a idler pulley system and sprocket changing shifting system with a front mountain bike derailleur. If anyone who has done this, reads my thread, Please post pictures from all angles and upload them in a reply post to this thread. I would really like to see some good angles and clear photos of how you mounted things.
Then once I come up with a design for a mounting bracket for the derailleur, I can draw it up in a CAD file, and cut it from aluminum stock at my university with the CNC machines. I have just come up with some designs for my rack mount brackets. That I will cut from a large sheet like 3/16 th inch steel with the university's CNC plasma cutter
Now that I have the bike in my hands, the ideas are a flowing, and believe that I have come up with some great designs. I hope to take pictures along the way to post for everyone to see how it came together. Fingers crossed, the gear reduction box and the engine will get ordered next Thursday. Once I start getting parts in, I can make final measurements and draw up the CAD files to be cut. What exciting times we live in... hurray college!
Thanks for all the help everyone! This is like the coolest thing I have done in a long time. I love projects!
All in all, it far exceeded my expectations, and I believe it to be a perfect starting point for my engine project. In fact, I liked my 4 hour ride on it tonight so much, that it convinced me to bite the bullet and go all out balls to the wall. scrap the mitsu/NuVinci kit, Instead get the GP460 and Dominator Pipe, a multi output staton gear reduction box for future versatility. Then using ideas from Kerf, kawasaki999, duivendyk , and SirJakesus and everyone else on here who's done similar things before me, and given me much help sofar (Thank everyone very much, and I apologize if I misspelled your nick or forgot to list you too).
I have decided to fabricate a idler pulley system and sprocket changing shifting system with a front mountain bike derailleur. If anyone who has done this, reads my thread, Please post pictures from all angles and upload them in a reply post to this thread. I would really like to see some good angles and clear photos of how you mounted things.
Then once I come up with a design for a mounting bracket for the derailleur, I can draw it up in a CAD file, and cut it from aluminum stock at my university with the CNC machines. I have just come up with some designs for my rack mount brackets. That I will cut from a large sheet like 3/16 th inch steel with the university's CNC plasma cutter
Now that I have the bike in my hands, the ideas are a flowing, and believe that I have come up with some great designs. I hope to take pictures along the way to post for everyone to see how it came together. Fingers crossed, the gear reduction box and the engine will get ordered next Thursday. Once I start getting parts in, I can make final measurements and draw up the CAD files to be cut. What exciting times we live in... hurray college!
Thanks for all the help everyone! This is like the coolest thing I have done in a long time. I love projects!
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