Blue Nirve Switchblade

Had so much fun with the first one, decided to do it again. Like giving birth to evil twins. It has been a long winter here in Iowa indeed.
 

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Very Nice. Now you need pictures of them both together :)
I agree. This winter is too darn long.
 
SICK!!SICK!!SICK!! NICE TWINS Qquestion is that the original 3 speed hub in the rear and did you have to weld a break lever to get the rear tire to fit also move the engine sprocket out with some washers behind the sprocket any way thats a nice looking bike . larry
 
Larry: Both of these are single speed hubs. I see the newer ones have the 3 speed. When you get the Clamshell Sprocket Adapter from Livefast it includes an ingenious little spacer for the coaster brake arm (with no welding required). This setup would probably clear a 2" tire. In order to clear my 3" tire I used two of these spacers on the brake arm, and 1/2" nylon spacers between the adapter and sprocket. I ordered the flathead bolts (longer) and countersunk button washers from Fastenal to attach the sprocket (so the bolts would lay as flat as possible on the sprocket and clear the brake arm). The frame then needed a tweaking to get all that to fit between the dropouts. The best way I could think to do that was 1 foot braced to the inside frame on one side and 2 strong arms pulling on the other side. That needed to spread open at least 1/2 inch. As far as the motor drive sprocket, I did not turn mine over or add washers for shims like Blaze did. I did investigate and try that idea, but was not comfortable with the results. I modified the 10T drive sprocket by grinding the black coating off the teeth down to shiny metal. I used a small grinding stone on my power drill at first, then cleaned up and polished with a hand file. Then I used the KMC510 BMX chain which fit nicely on the slightly thinner teeth. This chain is slightly narrower/thinner than the one supplied in the kit which also aided in clearing the fat tire. The alignment looks okay, and seems to operate fine when pedalling the bike, but we'll know for sure once it is put under load. If you want I can take some better pics of rear wheel for you. Didn't mean to write a book over here, but looks like I did. Getting both chains to clear the tire/frame/brake was one of the biggest challenges on this build. I really wanted to keep the 3" tire. There's always more than one way to skin a cat. Clint Eastwood played a Marine Sergeant in a movie called "Heartbeak Ridge", and was always telling his troops to "Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome". That's what I did here. It was alot of trial and error until I was satisfied. The second bike was alot easier once I knew exactly what to do. Hope this answers your questions, if not let me know. Regards, John
 
where did you find that diameter heat wrap? - all i can find is the 3 inch wide car headder wrap! thats no good for tiny pipes.
 
Had some 2" wide header wrap left over from a hotrod project years ago. Still too wide for small pipes, so took about a 6ft length and cut it up the middle. That was enough for both bikes. The material likes to fray a little on the cut edge so keep the factory edge to the outside and try not to handle the cut edge. I wrapped very tight, hands were sore afterwards. Doubt if this will ever come loose, but I still used some small guage wire every 4 or 5 inches to tie it down. Good luck!
 
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