My first build! join in the fun

rawville

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Aug 13, 2009
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Hey everybody.

I've been lurking the forums for about the last week soaking up all the info I can before I order my parts this coming Monday.

First off let me tip my hat to you all. I've seen quite a few very impressive builds on this site and I hope that my 2nd or 3rd build can sit in the same class.

But for this 1st build, I'm going budget style. I want to learn the ins and outs, find out what works well and what doesn't, push the bike to it's breaking point, then rebuild it stronger.

Not gonna be much eye candy here, just utility.

To start it off, I picked up a schwinn jaguar for $20 yesterday off craigslist. The guy only wanted $60 for it, but I got haggling in my blood and I couldn't help myself :D . To top it off it already had multifunction bell speedometer on it. Now, it does have a bit of rust on the chain, sprockets, and brakes, but nuthin a little tlc won't remedy. The seat was also kinda lopsided, but I plan to make my own, so that isn't much of a problem. I linked a pic of it at the bottom. check out the temporary seat made out of a bike rack, a piece of mdf, and a folded towel (not to comfy for longer rides :D )

I have decided that for this first build I wanna try out one of these HT engines. More specifically a Skyhawk or Starfire. From all my research it seems they are pretty much the same thing, just made in different factories. I did read somthing on another site that suggested the Starfire has a bit more power and is better constructed, but it seems there are more Skyhawk parts available on the market, and since I plan to really put some hurtin on this 1st build, I think the skyhawk is the way i'll go.

I do have a questions about where I should purchase my Skyhawk from though. Preferably somewhere on the east coast (since i live in FL) that carries the blacked out skyhawk kit. If yall know of any dealer besides Pirate Cycles that meets that criteria, please, do tell.

I also plan to pick up one of them jack shaft kits from sick bike parts. Letting the engine make use of the 7 gears on the jaguar seems like the most logical choice, even if it does cost more than the engine kit itself :unsure: .
while on the topic of the shift kits from SBP, has anyone manage to break the Freewheel that comes with the standard kit? is the Heavy duty freewheel really worth $50 more?

Now for the matter of the seat.

I was thinking of making a custom one. I found a thread on here once with a guy that was making his own, but i can't for the life on me find it again. I was thinking something along the lines of a wide banana seat with springs somehow mounted to the equivalent of a sissy bar for shock absorption. the guy who was making his own seat gave me the idea. he had said he realized how easy it would be to implement after he had already finished welding his seat frame. i sure wish i could find that thread again :rolleyes:

anyways, any helpful hints or tips yall could shoot my way would be greatly appreciated.

I'll try to keep this thread updated as the build progresses

Rhett
 

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Great Bike. Looks like your well on your way to creating a great motorbike.

There is one thing you might want to be careful of, if the speedometer is wireless. The HT's ignition system creates magnetic pulses that interfere with digital speedometer's signal. So it may not work if the engine is running. Or if you have a wired system you should be in no trouble.

Have a great build!
 
Great find on the bike. What a steal.
Im about 30 min away from completing my first build.
Good luck with yours. Take your time putting it together... trust me.
There is sometimes a lot of frustration putting all together.
I just took mine out for the first ride... let me tell ya it was well worth the aggravation.
I have a few kinks to work out, but nothing major.
Just what i messed up rushing bc i thought i knew it all once again.

A fair warning on the bike. You will most likely have to drill your down-tube for the frame adaptor for your motor kit. your tube appears to be to big to not use the adaptor. i just went through this with mine.

Good looking dog by the way.

Hey, if you remember how about write back sometime and let me know how the build goes.
 
cool project. you are going to have fun.

A fair warning on the bike. You will most likely have to drill your down-tube for the frame adaptor for your motor kit. your tube appears to be to big to not use the adaptor. i just went through this with mine.

Please do a little research here, before you drill your bike frame. There are better methods of mounting -- without drilling your frame.
 
rawville, if I may, a suggestion on the seat suspension question. I have a 24 inch Huffy I am converting to a trike, and I wanted the seat back and down just a bit, with suspension for it. I stared at it a whole heck of a lot, and concluded I wanted a tractor style seat with the horn just about where the top of the seat tube is.

So, I am fabricating a rear stay/brace to stiffen the trike rear-end a bit, and have included a hinge point that allows the seat to pivot vertically up and down from the top of the seat tube, with a pair of near vertical supports, one to each side, that pass under the rear of the seat in a horizontal bar that supports two seat springs. The seat will compress about 1/2 inch when I sit on it, and will have a further 1.5 inches of play vertically to absorb shocks. This will effectivelt make the frame a crank-forward frame - the engine is in the under seat space inside the rear triangle of the original rear wheel.

It is slow going, as I am doing all of the work by hand, with a hacksaw, a Dremel tool, and a file. I am also making two custom rear wheel hubs the same way - which is truly a pain in the keister. Couldn't find any commercial hubs that were the right dimensions for the drive axle sleeve/hubs and would accomodate a disc brake each side, which I want.
 
i spent a good 4 hours today tinkering with my seat ideas.

i'm pretty happy with the results, but i still need to work on the rear side of it a bit (too late to go to Home Depot so i just ghetto rigged it for the moment to test it out)

all it took was a horribly uncomfortable seat off a really old racing bike, a shock fork off a mountain bike, a 1/2" (3/4" OD) piece of steel plumbing pipe, a heavy duty door hinge, a piece of 1.5" wide 1/4" thick steel, and a hand full of hardware.

the first picture show the whole rig. i decided that instead of fabricating my own seat i'd just use one (or two if I want to let someone else ride with me) of the many seats i already got laying around and attach it to a horizontal pipe. this allows me to slide my seat horizontally almost 24" :D

the 2nd picture shows the front part. i hacked up the old racing seat and attached the door hinge to it. i know it's not the prettiest thing, but it's functional. i'll fabricate something nicer next time i visit my pops (he's own an old fabrication plant where they built all the steel framework for NASA back in 70's/80's).

the 3rd picture shows the 1/4" steel extensions i made. this part took longer than all the rest put together. i had to shape them with nuthin but little hand grinder and some files. they came out pretty nice though. i just hope 6 bolts is enough for all that torque getting put on them :cry:

the last picture show the ghetto rigged part. i plan to attach another hinge here some how, but since i only had one, the back part is currently hanging from a chain i bolted inside the tube of the fork. it actually isn't that bad but it lets the rear end sway left and right about 1.5" which i'd rather not have. i'll try to work on that some tomorrow if my engine doesn't arrive first :devilish:
 

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quick question

my front tube is too thick for the engine mount so i'm gonna do that U-clamp mod i've seen on other bikes.

but how do i get the bolts out the front engine mount. do i have to take apart the engine?

if so is there a good thread on the disassemble of HT engines?

thanks
 
quick question

my front tube is too thick for the engine mount so i'm gonna do that U-clamp mod i've seen on other bikes.

but how do i get the bolts out the front engine mount. do i have to take apart the engine?

if so is there a good thread on the disassemble of HT engines?

thanks
bolts? bolts have heads
they are probably/ usually 6 mm 1.0 studs
unthread them would be the answer
as in turn them anti clockwise

why would you have to disassemble the engine to remove your engine mounting studs?
 
mine don't have heads (unless their inside the engine). how would i remove these? or am i gonna have to cut them to the desired length?
 

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