I
istbenz
Guest
this is going to be my little bit of rambling about my experiences with my project. a little background about me, i'm very mechanically inclined and have experience working on everything including farm equipment, automobiles, motorcycles, and aircraft. this has been (is) a trying yet rewarding experience. the wife thinks i'm nuts but she doesn't try too hard to stop me.
to start let me say that i've been working with a 70cc kit from Dax- can't complain about the engine.
first thing i did was order my engine from dax through ebay. next i decided on the huffy cranbrook and ordrered it from walmart (the bike was o.k.- i don't recommend it- more on that later). so, all my stuff arrives about a week later and i set to putting it together. this is where the fun begins
the bike is cheaply made (of course) and i wasn't at all impressed with the quality. i guess you get what you pay for ($100). the fenders were warped and the front wheel was out of round. this is a single speed bike with a coaster brake.
the first 'trial' i had was with installing the sprocket on the back wheel. i had to remove the brake components and trim the bearing cover in order to get the sprocket to seat properly. this took three tedious hours of tinkering, aligning, and tightening to get the sprocket installed.
next was engine intallation. the down tube was too large for the engine mount and rather than drill the frame, i tried every kind of clamp i came across- C-clamps, muffler clamps, etc. these, of course, did not work.
i finally ended up drilling the frame and using a tie rod end bushing between two washers on the mounting bolt. this worked wonderfully. 
i discarded the heavy drive chain that came with it as it was too hard to work with. regular bicycle chain did the trick. total time for this install was probably about thirty (that's right 3-0) hours. okay, so i putzed around with it alot.
so i got this bike going and it was working pretty good....until my wife drove it.
i don't know if she really had anything to do with it,but it broke after she drove it! she took it around the parking lot at our apartment and rode the brakes all the way down the hill; i could hear the brakes making noise and the engine bogging down as she was driving away.
when i got back on it, the brakes felt 'sticky'. as i drove it throughout the next week, i noticed a difference in the brakes- they seemed to be dragging and would get stuck on when i stopped.
it all came to a head this monday as i was driving away from work. it was six o'clock and i was just pulling into traffic leaving the hospital; as i put on the brakes to slow down, they locked up thereby killing the engine and bringing the bike to a sudden stop.
luckily, i was able to catch my fall and recover though it was not gracefull. i suffered two small lacerations on my ankle, several bruises on each leg, and worst of all- almost crashing in front of rush hour traffic 
.
when i got home, i immediately began to take the brake apart and see what was wrong. i couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. i put it back together and the wheel still felt like it dragged a little bit. when i got it back on the bike, the peddals seemed to have alot of travel before the brake engaged and when it did engage, it was excessive.
at that point i was done fooling with the cruiser's coaster type brake. i had seen a pretty cool bike at tatrget the other day- it is the schwinn jaguar. i went and bought one after dinner that very night.
this time it only took me about three hours to get everything going- the install on a multi-speed bike is MUCH easier. when i took it for the first test ride, i got to the end of campus and the chain fell off. i kinda got sucked between the sprocket and the wheel. this was sudden stop, bruise your legs event #2. i carried the bike home and examined it. it seemed that the plastic idler wheel wasn't spining properly. i tinkered with it and got it put back together. took it out for test ride 2 and the same thing happened at the same place (talk about bad luck, i have to walk about an eighth of a mile uphill back to the house
). during sudden stop, bruise your legs event #3, the chain broke. so i peddaled the bike home and packed it in for the night.
after getting a new chain and some parts to build my own idler, i went back at it. the new idler was an axle stub with nylon spacers sandwiched between two fender washers. it rolled quite well and i thought it would do the trick. alas, it was not the answer to my problem. after the third mishap with this bike, i finally figured it out.
the idler mount is two pieces of metal that clamp to the frame and allow the idler to remain in the desired position. my problem was that the frame where this thing clamped on wasn't large enough for it to clamp tightly. this allowed the idler to be pulled in toward the wheel (the force is prettey much downward from the chain and since the idler is offset to the inside, it pulls that direction). this whole contraption rotated inward and two things happened. 1) the chain fell off (so that's what is was!) and 2) the assembly moved between the spokes (aha! so that's cased the suddned stop #4!). the end result was more bruises, a broken spoke, a warped wheel, and a very discouraged motor bicyclist!
let's add this up: in 1 week- 4 accidents, 1 broken chain, one broken spoke, 1 bent wheel, and 1 very beat-up owner (picture this smily face with two black eyes and a missing a tooth!)
the wheel will be ready on tuesday and i spent an hour and a half at the hardware store last night inventing my next idler. this idler will be awesome! (i hope) i'm gonna try to make it spring loaded- i'll share my design on here (if it works )
well i hope this makes up for not posting anything in a while. peace.
to start let me say that i've been working with a 70cc kit from Dax- can't complain about the engine.
first thing i did was order my engine from dax through ebay. next i decided on the huffy cranbrook and ordrered it from walmart (the bike was o.k.- i don't recommend it- more on that later). so, all my stuff arrives about a week later and i set to putting it together. this is where the fun begins
the bike is cheaply made (of course) and i wasn't at all impressed with the quality. i guess you get what you pay for ($100). the fenders were warped and the front wheel was out of round. this is a single speed bike with a coaster brake.
the first 'trial' i had was with installing the sprocket on the back wheel. i had to remove the brake components and trim the bearing cover in order to get the sprocket to seat properly. this took three tedious hours of tinkering, aligning, and tightening to get the sprocket installed.
next was engine intallation. the down tube was too large for the engine mount and rather than drill the frame, i tried every kind of clamp i came across- C-clamps, muffler clamps, etc. these, of course, did not work.
i finally ended up drilling the frame and using a tie rod end bushing between two washers on the mounting bolt. this worked wonderfully. i discarded the heavy drive chain that came with it as it was too hard to work with. regular bicycle chain did the trick. total time for this install was probably about thirty (that's right 3-0) hours. okay, so i putzed around with it alot.
so i got this bike going and it was working pretty good....until my wife drove it.
i don't know if she really had anything to do with it,but it broke after she drove it! she took it around the parking lot at our apartment and rode the brakes all the way down the hill; i could hear the brakes making noise and the engine bogging down as she was driving away. when i got back on it, the brakes felt 'sticky'. as i drove it throughout the next week, i noticed a difference in the brakes- they seemed to be dragging and would get stuck on when i stopped.
it all came to a head this monday as i was driving away from work. it was six o'clock and i was just pulling into traffic leaving the hospital; as i put on the brakes to slow down, they locked up thereby killing the engine and bringing the bike to a sudden stop.
luckily, i was able to catch my fall and recover though it was not gracefull. i suffered two small lacerations on my ankle, several bruises on each leg, and worst of all- almost crashing in front of rush hour traffic .when i got home, i immediately began to take the brake apart and see what was wrong. i couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. i put it back together and the wheel still felt like it dragged a little bit. when i got it back on the bike, the peddals seemed to have alot of travel before the brake engaged and when it did engage, it was excessive.
at that point i was done fooling with the cruiser's coaster type brake. i had seen a pretty cool bike at tatrget the other day- it is the schwinn jaguar. i went and bought one after dinner that very night.
this time it only took me about three hours to get everything going- the install on a multi-speed bike is MUCH easier. when i took it for the first test ride, i got to the end of campus and the chain fell off. i kinda got sucked between the sprocket and the wheel. this was sudden stop, bruise your legs event #2. i carried the bike home and examined it. it seemed that the plastic idler wheel wasn't spining properly. i tinkered with it and got it put back together. took it out for test ride 2 and the same thing happened at the same place (talk about bad luck, i have to walk about an eighth of a mile uphill back to the house
). during sudden stop, bruise your legs event #3, the chain broke. so i peddaled the bike home and packed it in for the night. after getting a new chain and some parts to build my own idler, i went back at it. the new idler was an axle stub with nylon spacers sandwiched between two fender washers. it rolled quite well and i thought it would do the trick. alas, it was not the answer to my problem. after the third mishap with this bike, i finally figured it out.
the idler mount is two pieces of metal that clamp to the frame and allow the idler to remain in the desired position. my problem was that the frame where this thing clamped on wasn't large enough for it to clamp tightly. this allowed the idler to be pulled in toward the wheel (the force is prettey much downward from the chain and since the idler is offset to the inside, it pulls that direction). this whole contraption rotated inward and two things happened. 1) the chain fell off (so that's what is was!) and 2) the assembly moved between the spokes (aha! so that's cased the suddned stop #4!). the end result was more bruises, a broken spoke, a warped wheel, and a very discouraged motor bicyclist!
let's add this up: in 1 week- 4 accidents, 1 broken chain, one broken spoke, 1 bent wheel, and 1 very beat-up owner
(picture this smily face with two black eyes and a missing a tooth!)the wheel will be ready on tuesday and i spent an hour and a half at the hardware store last night inventing my next idler. this idler will be awesome! (i hope) i'm gonna try to make it spring loaded- i'll share my design on here (if it works )
well i hope this makes up for not posting anything in a while. peace.
