Cause of MB Crash Was ?

[bootlegger]

Mountain man. Just in case you thought I had learnt my lesson. I went the next day to the shop and bought a performance carb and a 36 tooth sprocket.
I dont think its any faster but its definetly smoother.

 

[Mountainman]

we are pulling for you bootlegger

Mountain man. Just in case you thought I had learnt my lesson.
I went the next day to the shop and bought a performance carb and a 36 tooth sprocket.

we are pulling for you bootlegger
you are in our prayers MB brother
the way in which you ride
be sure to protect the vital THINGS !!
you know about baseball cups -- right ??
may be worth the money spent ??

as we ride those things fast and crazy !!!

 

[bootlegger]

Baseball cups! Mountain man Ive got balls of steel. Ive been racing boats for ten years ( Ive even raced in the states) and have walked away from several accidents.
Ive got a big ride tommorrow and Friday.
Today I helicoiled the barrel studs. They kept pulling through.
I also made a different type of sleeve for the carb. The Nylon one supplied kept leaking and sucking air. They new one works great.
I dont know how anyone who doesnt have any mechanical aptitude gets by with one of these things.

 

[Molotov256]

Faceplant

On the ride home from work today, the front axle snapped, tire ripped the V brakes off the mount, and I flew over the handlebars and more or less faceplanted. My helmet pretty well saved my @$$, and I managed to walk away with a fat lip, all my teeth, and a nice coating of road rash. Ruined a nice shirt, too!

The fork and handlebars are bent up pretty bad. Not sure if I'm going to look into a replacement fork or if I'll just part out the bike. It's not a particularly nice bike, so I'm not too inclined to put much money into fixing it.

The question lingers, though. Why did the axle snap in the first place? I didn't appreciate that much at all, and it certainly put an abrupt end to my evening plans.

 

[Mountainman]

motor bikers nightmare !!!

the front axle snapped
and I flew over the handlebars and more or less faceplanted

motor bikers nightmare !!!

man -- glad you are ok
your right -- keeping those teeth is a good thing !!!

what kind of bike were you riding ?? aprox how old ??

MM

 

[Molotov256]

Hey, Mt. Man... it's a Huffy Santa Fe cruiser bike, prolly about 2 years old - nothing fancy, but in real good shape I had the fenders off, too, cuz I just didn't trust them.

The wheel and axle came off of a Roadmaster bike which was in mint condition. It was probably a few years old, but it was a women's frame, so I parted it out since I couldn't put a motor on it, lol. Anyhow, none of it was real top end equipment, but it was all in good shape - no bent spokes or dents or anything, new tires as well.

 

[robin bird]

For my rear axle--for weight i purchased the best quality axel i could so it would not break--maybe the front should be done too !!!

 

[Molotov256]

Good call, Robin... after this incident, I'm a little leery about strapping motors to yard sale bikes, lol. Given the choice, I think I'd rather have my rear axle fail than the front. I've had a rear wheel fail before, and the bike just slid to a grinding halt, but I stayed on it.

On an unrelated note, my girlfriend is awesome. She picked me up on the side of the road and brought the bike rack to cart the wreckage home. Then she poured me a glass of scotch, served it with a few tylenol, and cleaned my battle wounds out with peroxide while I howled like a sissy. She even still seems to love me even though I look like the nutty professor. Where would I be without her?

 

[duivendyk]

What things look like doesn't mean all that much,it's usually the material it's made of that matters.The model T was popular because Henry Ford used high strength chrome vanadium steel for critical suspension components,so it lasted despite bad roads.Add the vibration induced metal fatigue to cheap front axles and you end up with these kind of life threatening mishaps.The failure of fender attachments is very rare on normal bicycles,add the motor vibes and metal fatigue will do it's insiduous undercover work and put you in danger.So better be prepared for anything.

 

[bootlegger]

This is a great thread. I just hope nobody gets too banged up.
Im figuring there are some pretty serious hospital emrgency room stories that arent on the web.
A lot of young kids are probably out riding these things as well.