h HELP PLEASE - Cranbrook and Grubee g4 t eng./belt drive 49cc 4 st Rack Mt. Issues

[occchopperfl]

uggh.

whats the saying?

"good is never cheap and cheap is never good"

In my personal experience:
a. The Huffy Cranbrook and its wheel set seems a little thin.
I tighten rear hub "perfectly", not tight, not loose, then the rear hub gets loose.
b. bike is top heavy, and ride needs some getting used to.
c. rack mount kit needed to be modified to work.
d. chain pops off

Questions/Comments Please:
1. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to correct the wheel problem?
??? try lock tite, try again, buy heavy duty wheel set???
2. many have used Cranbooks successfully, and some complain that frame is thin and rear hub is weak...
??? buy heavy duty bike ---> grubee gt1 or gt2 or worksman???
3. Top Heavy feel...
??? Buy a mid engine mount kit???

Thank you for your help...

 

[recumbentbill]

input

Rack mounts are generally top heavy. Been there done that. My cranbrook is in frame 4G.
Go with heavy duty rear grubee hub with 44t sprocket laced to a double walled rim with 12 gauge spokes. Pics of my 4g cranbrook on below link

http://www.motoredbikes.com/album.php?albumid=993

 

[occchopperfl]

Bill,

I am EXTREMELY grateful for your help/response.

Nice Cranbrook!

You do also have a suspension fork and a front drum brake nice addition.

Can you kindly post a link to for your vendor(s) for your parts?
(rear wheel, front wheel, front drum brake muffler)
Can you suggest a vendor of a in frame kit?

Thank you again Bill, and I look forward to your response.

 

[recumbentbill]

vendor for inframe kit

Bicycle-Engines.com has the grubee inframe 4G kits, heavy duty hubs, sprockets and most every thing you will need. The suspension front fork came from Ebay. The 1" steerer tube susp forks are hard to find. Most on ebay are for 24" wheels and the 26" forks are usually a 1.5" steer tube or a 1" steer tube that is too short. The cranbrook needs a 1" steer tube that is at least 6" long and threaded. The sturmey archer drum brake came from a amazon.com vendor. I got the 70mm but think I should have gone for the 90mm drum. I laced up both wheels myself. The rear 12g spokes came from staton engines they are 260 mm length. Bicycle-engines.com now has a complete rear wheel with the 12g spokes and the HD axle. I went to my local bike shop with my sturmey archer drum and got the mechanic to enter all the rim and hub measurements for the proper spoke length. The seat is a cloud nine {amazon]

Check out the history of my cranbrook build
http://www.motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?t=21652

 

[occchopperfl]

Thank you soo much Bill again.

I'm starting to get a headache.

Can you give me a "reality check" on the total costs, if I may ask?

Would it make sense to take the loss on the Cranbrook, and buy a grubee gt1 or gt2 bicycle? @ $315.00 plus @ $115.00 ship - puch. (included off the cuff: hd frame, hd wheels/hub, rear engine sprocket installed, front suspension, triple brakes, MADE for motorizing)

(it would be nice if the grubee bicycle had a front disc or drum, and a "real" disc brake in the back)

Sigh...

Thanks for your guidance.

 

[Whizzerd]

Sorry to hear of your troubles w/ the rack mount. Your chain will stretch for a hundred miles or a little more. Make sure your sprocket is concentric to the hub and doesn't wobble at all. Your sprockets must be aligned too. It's all part of the learning curve and a PITA!

 

[Irish John]

uggh.


Questions/Comments Please:
1. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to correct the wheel problem?
??? try lock tite, try again, buy heavy duty wheel set???
2. many have used Cranbooks successfully, and some complain that frame is thin and rear hub is weak...
??? buy heavy duty bike ---> grubee gt1 or gt2 or worksman???
3. Top Heavy feel...
??? Buy a mid engine mount kit???

Thank you for your help...

The Grubee GT1 & 2 cruisers are not really heavy duty - granted they are made from thicker steel tubing (unnecessarily thick steel I might add) and they do have 12g galv steel spokes but they are actually a poor quality bike and are very cramped and nasty to ride compared to a Schwinn cruiser. They also have cheap and nasty forks and cheap hubs. I have tried the GT1 and found it severely lacking in most things and it is totally too heavy. Then there is the problem of the stem which can snap in two because it is built to a totally unacceptable standard. I find that on cheap cruisers the rear axle lugs are 2 or 3mm thinner metal than on a better quality cruiser and the thin axle lugs deflect under the torque from the motor. The steel also is like cheese when you tighten the axle nuts hard onto it and those nuts must be tightened hard. Soft steel lugs will never hold the wheel in place. Micargi are an example of cruisers that just aren't good enough for motorising but there are plenty more examples. I also think going for a rack mount 4G is not a good idea - it is a very top heavy kit even on the frame mounted version.

 

[occchopperfl]

Hi John.
TY for your input. I think you tell it like it is.
I do already own the grubee g4t engine/drive rack mount kit. It is for sure top heavy.
I do already own the Huffy Cranbrook.

May I ask what you would do/buy in my shoes?
Lets say I have a budget of $250.00 - $400.00.

Thank you.

 

[Irish John]

Hi John.
TY for your input. I think you tell it like it is.
I do already own the grubee g4t engine/drive rack mount kit. It is for sure top heavy.
I do already own the Huffy Cranbrook.

May I ask what you would do/buy in my shoes?
Lets say I have a budget of $250.00 - $400.00.

Thank you.

If I lived in the USA I'd buy another cruiser bike - we do not have the supermarket Schwinns that you have in the US so I can't speak about them but I'd be looking closely at the Schwinn Jaguar in Walmart. The only Schwinn we can buy here this year that is a classic cruiser frame is the Deluxe 7 which costs $1000 Aus. You guys are blessed over there.
I'd probably keep the 4G rack-mount kit but I'd be keen to see if it could be adapted easily to a frame-mount - presumably the tray is the big item and they don't cost much. I like rack mounts but not the Grubee ones - they are really just an afterthought unlike the proper rack-mount kits. Most rack-mounts seem to use smaller motors as well.
I don't think your Huffy is going to cut the mustard. A quick look at the axle lugs will tell you if it's OK to use it. Compare the lugs thickness against the ones on a standard quality Schwinn which I can tell you are 4.9mm thick on a steel cruiser and 6.9mm thick on the alloy cruisers.
I prefer the alloy Schwinn cruisers because I think they are easily strong enough and have thicker diameter tubing which better suits the engine trays yet the frames are lighter and thus more fuel efficient compared to the steel D7 which is very heavy and consequently often breaks spokes and needs a wheel rebuild with 14g DT Swiss spokes. Taiwanese s' steel spokes vary in quality and many batches are too brittle.
If you lived closer I'd tell you to buy one of my bikes with a 12 month unlimited warranty but I can't get a working gearbox at present and there is no way I want to try the 4G again in a hurry until I know it has the right reduction ratio and the thinner version for Honda GXH 50s has bush bearings that I suspect will wear out just like the older GBs and then the importer won't carry spare parts.
I'm holding out for the EZM kit which I'm hoping will allow me to get back to building bikes but it is very hard to find out the facts about anything these days on MBc.
If money isn't a problem I'd sell the 4G kit and buy a Staton kit or maybe a cheaper belt & pulley wheel kit that I'd research first on MBc.
How thick are the lugs on your Huffy and are they alloy or steel and is the steel soft as alloy.

 

[Irish John]

Addendum: I'd add that any beach cruiser axle lug more than 1mm thinner than the figures stated above will be too thin to withstand the forces exerted by the motor without deflecting or pulling the axle forward in the drop-outs.
I wonder how much an extra 2mm of metal on a Micargi axle lug would add to the cost of their bikes but don't get me started on the subject of the cheap & nasty!