Finally got it right!

Scootmeister

Member
Local time
6:05 AM
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
153
Location
Inner Banks, North Carolina
I started this build in the early days of motorized bicycles when it was typical to build around a cheap donor bike, as they were called. Back in those days, builders would use what they had in the garage, pull a discarded bike from a dumpster, or pick up a bike at a garage sale. My donor bike was a Murray Santa Cruz that I picked up at an auction for $25. The project has been in the works now for a bout 6 years with many variations of engines and configuration. But now, I think I finally got it right. The “old school” all steel cantilever frame is made with 1” tubing, so it’s not as rigid as the newer larger frames. I welded a fork stop on it to prevent jackknifing and I redesigned the rear wheel mounts for additional strength. The Springer front end and Springer seat provide plenty of bump absorption, and the Rhino Lite double wall rims and stainless 13 gauge spokes are plenty strong for a MB. The Shimano disc ready hubs with 205mm discs and Avid calipers provide plenty of stopping power. I replaced the bicycle control levers and cables with scooter components for added durability. The best improvement has been the combination of the Huasheng / Stage III gear box with the SBP shift kit and Shimano 3-speed hub. The bike has plenty of starting power, gets up to cruising speed quickly and with the poo poo pipe is quiet as can be. There is no gear box or chain noise and the entire drive train is smooth with almost no vibration. The latest improvement has been the addition of a LED head light and LED tail light. Both are very bright and are driven by two lighting coils I wound and mounted to the Huasheng. I installed a rheostat on the headlight so I can crank up the brightness if needed at night and can dial it down during daylight riding to extend its life. For the tail light I removed the bulb and hardware on a vintage Yamaha tail light and installed a Cree LED in the original socket. With all of these improvements the bike is a joy to ride, is totally dependable, and the little Huasheng starts right up and runs like a sewing machine. It is by no means a power house, but I can cruise at 35-40 all day long. There are a few things I especially like about this setup. One, I can pull up to a gas pump and refuel without worrying about premix. Second, I don’t have to worry about batteries for my lights any more. Finally, I can get up to speed quickly and my wife no longer has to wait on me with her Vino. A little editorial note, I have tried just about every combination of engine and drive setup you can think of and this one by far is the best. The Sick Bike Parts shift kit is the key that makes this setup work, it is worth every Penney of the cost. My congrats to Jim and Pablo for a job well done on this design. Attached are photos of the final product.



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Great looking build. If you ever want to turn your bike into a 3 speed fully automatic here is how you can do it. Automatic's have the advantage of being one less thing to think about while riding. And meeting legal requirements. North Carolina requires an automatic transmission system with no manual shifting device. Many states are like this. The automatic's is a legal loophole to have multiple gears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPmcULLV4Uc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Brian has two kinds of auto shifters. The one in the video is rim driven and the other one is belt and pulley driven. You have to ask about the B/P one. He may still have a private video of the B/P shifter upon request. And he will sell either shifter by itself. The B/P one looks similar to a LandRider's derailleur minus the jockey pulleys. Both shifters can be adjusted for what speed you want them to shift at. Here is Brian's business phone number 818-758-9283.

You may also want to consider these items as well: front and rear signal lights, brake light, horn and tachometer/hour counter. That's the fun of these bikes just when you think its perfect you discover several more things you can do to them.
 
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Great looking build. If you ever want to turn your bike into a 3 speed fully automatic here is how you can do it. Automatic's have the advantage of being one less thing to think about while riding. And meeting legal requirements. North Carolina requires an automatic transmission system with no manual shifting device. Many states are like this. The automatic's is a legal loophole to have multiple gears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPmcULLV4Uc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Brian has two kinds of auto shifters. The one in the video is rim driven and the other one is belt and pulley driven. You have to ask about the B/P one. He may still have a private video of the B/P shifter upon request. And he will sell either shifter by itself. The B/P one looks similar to a LandRider's derailleur minus the jockey pulleys. Both shifters can be adjusted for what speed you want them to shift at. Here is Brian's business phone number 818-758-9283.

You may also want to consider these items as well: front and rear signal lights, brake light, horn and tachometer/hour counter. That's the fun of these bikes just when you think its perfect you discover several more things you can do to them.

Thanks for the infor Land Rider. Here's my problem. If I want all of the amenitities I will ride my Harley Road King Custom. It has the turn signals, the brake light and all that good stuff. The reason I like MBs is they are simple and primitive, they take you back to a time when life wan't so complicated. I realize that all the things you mentioned add safety, but people are attracted to these things because they add a little adventure to life. I thought about putting my Sram Automatix hub on this bike to make it "legal", but I grew up in an era when driving muscle cars with lake pipes and other off the grid accessories added a little pizzaz to the experience. I checked the video and the automatic shifter is interesting but I don't want to spend more on an accessory than I spent on my entire drive train. I started out with a stick shift like the ones that came on Schwinn Orange Krates, but went to a grip shift which is a little counter intuitive for an old guy like me. I might go back to the suicide shifter after the Christmas parade.
 
Here in Tennessee we aren't required to have tail, brake or signal lights; nor a horn. Still I have them for safety reasons, since most of the traffic we encounter is larger and faster than us. Where the tachometer/hour counter comes in handy is keeping up with oil changes and cleaning the air filter. I change my oil every 50 hours and clean the air filter ever 10 hours. This is key to getting a long life out of your engine. You can get a tach/hour counter at Northern Tools. They are small and won't take up a lot of room.

I'll check into the Sram auto-max hub you were talking about.
 
Thanks for the lead on the tach, Jerry. For $43 it looks like a good deal. My problem is where to mount it, my bike is pretty spartan. Where did you mount yours? It looks like it's 2 screws and one lead wire and you're in business.
 
Hi BlueGoatWoods. I guess I wasn't real clear on the time frame. It didn't take six years of constant work, I just kept modifying the bike over that period. Between changes I would ride in parades and to and from town. It's basically taken me six years of trial and error to figure out what combination of parts work best. (I'm slow but determined!)I took the bike out for a little joy ride yesterday and I'm amazed at how much better the current configuration is compared to what it use to be. I'm getting it shined up for our annual Christmas parade next Saturday. We'll have a couple of MBs,, some Cushmans, and a Vespa or two, plus a lot of modern scooters including my wife's Vino. The MBs usually get the most attention because people look at them and say,, hey I would like to make one of those! If I told them it took me six years they would back off in a hurry.
 
That's kind of what I was saying before. With these bikes its never really over. At some point you're going to discover a way to make it even better. That's the joy of our hobby.
 
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