Has anyone ever used a Felt Cruiser

[madbiker1]

Iron Bolt

Oh yeah, I forgot to include a pic of the Iron Bolt.

 

[Irish John]

Oh yeah, I forgot to include a pic of the Iron Bolt.

Are those tank straps on the Iron Bolt stainless steel Madbiker? They look different to the fixings on the MP. Can you describe them for us?
The MP looks like it was designed as a motored bike. It really does look good now you've finished it.
Given that the MP is steel and probably heavy you may find it needs the 56T especially for hills. I reckon with a Honda it would take a 52T max and maybe a 50T depending on how steep the hills are but the HS engine isn't as strong a puller and needs a slightly larger sprocket. The Schwinn D7 is a steel cruiser with big fenders etc and weighs a ton but it's OK on a 48T with Honda except on really steep hills and I mean exceptionally steep. I've ridden a D7 fully laden carrying my tools and 10 litres of ginger cordial over the mountain range I live near and I weigh 85 kilos. Had to pedal quite hard to maintain speed on long twisting hills but it didn't drop below 30 km\hr. A 52T would pull it up anything you'd find on an asphaltic surface but I can't get a 52T or 50T so I use the 48T. The 56T makes the chain clearance problems harder to resolve cos it's that much larger and comes very very close to the rear seat stay.

 

[madbiker1]

MP 4 Stroke Motor Pics

The tank straps are merely thin aluminum bar that I got at the hardware store. I chose these because they are easy to shape and don't rust. John, I didn't want to switch out the nice rear wheel, but I couldn't find a way to keep that rear axle from moving. The wheel always moved just slightly to the left side of the bike. I'm not sure what "skill" I needed to keep this from happening, but I was very frustrated! I think that my problem with the pedal chain coming off was two fold. First, the axle moving and making the pedal chain too slack. Secondly, the one piece crank that I originally got with the kit was junk. First, the sprocket started slipping on the crank after only 10 miles because the metal was soft and cheap ($$@$!$@ Chinese Junk) . I had to weld that. I actually had three separate kits with the same problem. That lasted for a while until the bearing cone started stripping out the threads on the crank. As soon as that happened, the crank got wobbly and threw the chain off the chainring constantly. Welding didn't fix the problem, so I had to get the updated 3 piece kit to replace the two one piece cranks that I had. As far as the chain tensioner bringing the top and bottom of the chain closer, I was able to remove a link and solve that problem. I agree that the Felt website is lame. It's too bad that they don't market these bikes better. I have attached some closeup photos of the bike, so you can see how little room there is for the chain, and also you can check out the chain tensioners on the rear dropouts. Upon request, I can provide my installation manual for the Felt Iron Bolt. I didn't have any luck trying to upload it here. I also wrote the installation manual for the Schwinn Jaguar at www.bicycle-engines.com. -Erik

 

[Irish John]

The tank straps are merely thin aluminum bar that I got at the hardware store. I chose these because they are easy to shape and don't rust. John, I didn't want to switch out the nice rear wheel, but I couldn't find a way to keep that rear axle from moving. The wheel always moved just slightly to the left side of the bike. I'm not sure what "skill" I needed to keep this from happening, but I was very frustrated! I think that my problem with the pedal chain coming off was two fold. First, the axle moving and making the pedal chain too slack. Secondly, the one piece crank that I originally got with the kit was junk. First, the sprocket started slipping on the crank after only 10 miles because the metal was soft and cheap ($$@$!$@ Chinese Junk) . I had to weld that. I actually had three separate kits with the same problem. That lasted for a while until the bearing cone started stripping out the threads on the crank. As soon as that happened, the crank got wobbly and threw the chain off the chainring constantly. Welding didn't fix the problem, so I had to get the updated 3 piece kit to replace the two one piece cranks that I had. As far as the chain tensioner bringing the top and bottom of the chain closer, I was able to remove a link and solve that problem. I agree that the Felt website is lame. It's too bad that they don't market these bikes better. I have attached some closeup photos of the bike, so you can see how little room there is for the chain, and also you can check out the chain tensioners on the rear dropouts. Upon request, I can provide my installation manual for the Felt Iron Bolt. I didn't have any luck trying to upload it here. I also wrote the installation manual for the Schwinn Jaguar at www.bicycle-engines.com. -Erik

Thanks for that info Madbiker. Very informative. Those one piece cranks need stronger bearings because the chinese ones with the kit are rubbish and the original bearings on a Schwinn etc aren't strong enough to handle the increased leverage on the bearings caused by the extra width of the crank. I suspect that the bearings failed and that caused the threads on the crank to fail. On the other hand you have been the victim of a quality faded crank - there'll be more quality fade problems with Chinese economy in recession so I reckon we'll see more of this happening.
Pity you had to remove the chain guard to fit the engine mounting tray. Was the gap too long just above the chain guard or something?
The moving axle on the rear dropouts is a worry and not what I'd expect from Felt but Jim Felt was a great cyclist and not necessarily a great bike builder. He certainly has the silliest and most annoying website this side of the Mississippee.
I suppose you tried changing the washers ets before you changed the hub. I was really disappointed to read about that happening on a bike costing megabucks - I suppose the high price goes to pay the poet and isn't spent on the bike's quality!
Whatever the problems its the first successfully mounted 4-stroke on an MP and for that you should be congratulated. Well done madbiker you have a really robust looking beastie of a bike.

 

[edrock]

Quick question with regard to felt cruiser frames and 4 strokes. What bottom bracket did you end up going with? My felt cruiser came with a 1 piece crank, however most of the 4 stroke kits come with a upgrades for a 3 piece bottom bracket. From what I can tell, my frame's bottom bracket is not threaded, the cups are just pressed in. Did you end up purchasing the sbp's conversion kit?

 

[madbiker1]

Hi Ed. I wound up buying two 3 piece conversion kits, one for each bike. They worked for a little while, then came loose because the threads weren't matched very well. I fought with those things for about 10 hours before I decided it wasn't worth it. I took the motor off the Felt MP and replaced the original cranks. Sold. For the iron bolt, I superglued the adapters to the threaded bearing cups, and sold it before it fell apart again. If you haven't bought the four stroke kit yet, I would seriously consider an "80 cc" mid-frame two stroke engine, or a rear mount tire roller or chain drive kit with a 2 HP two stroke. The tire roller kits are super easy to install, but don't work well in the rain. The chain drives are a little more work, but are all-weather. The nice part about the rear mount kits is that you can put a four horsepower GoPed engine (GP 46 or GP 42) on the bike. These engines only weigh 9 lbs. I have one on my Cannondale SM500 and it screams! -Erik

 

[Irish John]

Quick question with regard to felt cruiser frames and 4 strokes. What bottom bracket did you end up going with? My felt cruiser came with a 1 piece crank, however most of the 4 stroke kits come with a upgrades for a 3 piece bottom bracket. From what I can tell, my frame's bottom bracket is not threaded, the cups are just pressed in. Did you end up purchasing the sbp's conversion kit?

Hi Ed, If you are using a 2 stroke you can keep the crank the Felt came with. If you are using a wide 4-stroke I suggest using the wide 1 piece crank that comes with the kit. The 3 piece is rather ugly which matters when you have a nice Felt and an adapter for the Euro bottom bracket will cost quite a bit. The ones that Grubee offer are cheaper but they are a pathetic copy of the real one only using thinner bolts and trally badly machined parts. IMO they are actually unusable. If you use the wide one piece go easy on the pedalling and on the back pedalling to operate the coaster brake because the forces exerted soon stuff even heavy duty bearings up - the wider crank exerts more force and those BBs aren't made strong enough to take it.

 

[give me vtec]

Quick question with regard to felt cruiser frames and 4 strokes. What bottom bracket did you end up going with? My felt cruiser came with a 1 piece crank, however most of the 4 stroke kits come with a upgrades for a 3 piece bottom bracket. From what I can tell, my frame's bottom bracket is not threaded, the cups are just pressed in. Did you end up purchasing the sbp's conversion kit?

I used the sbk conversion kit and it works/looks great...

 

[madbiker1]

Mid Frame Weedwhacker Engine?

I believe that the 3 piece conversion kit that I was using was probably the lousy Grubee one. It is the one featured here: http://www.bicycle-engines.com/wide-crank-conversion-p-295.html. Terrible. What would be really cool is if someone mated a 4 HP GP46 Goped Engine to a low profile gearbox so it could be mounted mid-frame. Is that even possible? The GP46 is only 10" high, so it might fit in a mountain bike frame. I'm not sure how wide it would be with a gearbox attached. I got my GP46 at http://www.promotionracing.com/pedsales.htm.

 

[edrock]

Thanks for all the reply guys. I think I'm going to buy the sbp conversion kit. I already have a 4 stroke and I plan on installing the sbp 4 stroke shift kit when it comes out. I'll need to make sure that they will work together.


Thanks again for all the help.