Safe, Easy, Practical, Friction Budget Bike Advice for N00bs...

[Porkchop]

Click on the link below. Photo gallery of s_beaudry's BMP kit with Titan 50 on a $90.00 Walmart bike. I highly recommend the first thing you do is get a bike that's realy comfortable for you. For instance I bought a bike years ago that I thought was great. Found out the hard way that after riding for 10 or 15 minutes, my hands went to sleep and my arms ached like a son of a gun from the amount of weight I was putting on my wrists. Riding position/comfort is priority. If the bike is not comfortable for you, you'll never be happy with it regardless of how you build it ! Anyway, look at beaudry's gallery. Get in touch with him. He's a nice guy and will help you.

http://www.motoredbikes.com/album.php?albumid=625

 

[Elmo]

riding position

quote "The reason I'm leaning towards cruiser is because I already own a good quality mountain bike, however I find the riding position uncomfortable. My neck and wrists get tired from leaning forward, and I would like a more upright riding position. However, if there is something about this issue that I'm missing, I'm all ears... er... eyes."

If you want to sit up on your mountain bike get a stem something like the one pictured below and a set of handelbars to suit you. If you have a local bike shop nearby they should be able to set you up with what you need. Check out these
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/handlebars/index.html#handlebarsup
there is a wealth of bicycle information on this site and they are good people buy from. looks like you are well on your way.
Elmo

 

[Pirate88179]

Click on the link below. Photo gallery of s_beaudry's BMP kit with Titan 50 on a $90.00 Walmart bike. I highly recommend the first thing you do is get a bike that's realy comfortable for you. For instance I bought a bike years ago that I thought was great. Found out the hard way that after riding for 10 or 15 minutes, my hands went to sleep and my arms ached like a son of a gun from the amount of weight I was putting on my wrists. Riding position/comfort is priority. If the bike is not comfortable for you, you'll never be happy with it regardless of how you build it ! Anyway, look at beaudry's gallery. Get in touch with him. He's a nice guy and will help you.

http://www.motoredbikes.com/album.php?albumid=625

I like the Titan 50. I wonder how it compares to the HF 2-stroke? Good to know it bolts right onto the BMP drive system.

Bill

 

[skyl4rk]

My recommendation for a mountain bike is because it is more likely you can get a front suspension and a good multi-gear system. If you can find those things on a cruiser, a cruiser frame can work too.

My motorbike has no suspension and is a single gear. On rough roads, I need to slow down a lot and stand on the pedals. The single gear is a little too high to start easily from a stop, which is where you will want to be able to pedal to get the bike moving without stressing your clutch.

So based on my bikes shortcomings, thats what I am recommending. A cruiser with a 7 speed and a front suspension would probably be as good or better than a mountain bike, because of how you sit on it and how comfortable it is.

Another thing, I used to have a seat with springs in it, and it caused major pain in the axx on longer trips. I have a solid/foam seat now which is a far better ride for me. I would try a seatpost with a shock or spring in it. But the springy seat just gave no support.

I used to pump up my 26" balloon tires to 40 or 50 psi. Thats pretty hard. I'm sure it is efficient but it is very bumpy. Now I keep them at 30 - 35 psi, as recommended on the tube. Much better ride. With a cruiser with no suspension, those balloon tires ARE the suspension.

 

[j0nnyfive]

Awesome info... good stuff.

I got to work today and wanted to slap myself in the face for asking... "why a mountain bike?" lol I somehow FORGOT that mountain bikes were made for rough riding. Wow, please forgive my idiocy there.


The problem with my mountain bike is that it has no suspension. It's old. But my dad originally paid like $600 for it back in the late 80's. I'm thinking maybe I should just start on a new bike... not sure how he would feel about putting a motor on this bike... yeah... so I'm gonna avoid that. No suspension anyway... and I can tell! Geeze! My hands feel like their gonna vibrate off!


Alrighty, moving on... NEXT question:

Ahem... it seems a little counter-intuitive to me that FRONT suspension would be so important on a cruiser. I mean, it seems to make more sense to me that REAR suspension would be more critical to keep the ol' rump from vibrating to death. Why FRONT suspension on a cruiser? Cuz on a cruiser, you don't put your weight on your hands, you just hold the handles. So... what am I not seeing here? Seems that suspension on a cruiser would run up my bill a little high.. Dunno.

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it.

 

[Pirate88179]

I will take a stab at this question. I have read on here, and elsewhere, that once you take a no suspension bike over a certain speed, it becomes almost uncontrollable. A lot of variables here, of course, like rider weight, the bike design, the speeds, etc. But, I think most will agree that once you cross the 35 mph barrier, for positive control, you need a suspension of some kind.

I have seen this first hand at 33 mph. This is fine on a nice smooth road but, add a few bumps or irregularities, and now you have a serious control problem.

But, prior to the control problem as mentioned, you might also have a comfort problem. I have looked at springer front ends for my beach cruiser and even some rear shocks. I have not added them yet but, I would bet my ride would be a lot nicer and my control envelope would expand.

Well, that is my 2 cents and I am sure others will voice their opinions on this. As a kid, my mini-bike did 45 mph and it had front shocks. I rode a friend of mine's bike and he did not have shocks and, well, it was a scary experience to be sure.

Bill

 

[motorbikemike45]

Just from my own experience.

I ride a Schwinn Jaguar 7 speed bought from Target for less than $150,00. I installed a Staton friction drive kit with a Subaru Robin EHO35 4 stroke engine, cost with engine and largest optional fuel tank will be a tad over $400.00. I like the Staton because it mounts easily and has excellent quality. I like the Robin because it is excellent quality and has run over 3,000 trouble free miles on my other bike and over 2,000 on this one. Just change the oill frequently, clean the air filter often, and replace the spark plug when needed and it will give many miles of trouble free riding. I eventually replaced the rear wheel with a double wall heavy duty alloy unit with 36 12 gauge SS spokes as the original wheel broke some spokes and bent. The front wheel is still running straight and true with the original tire. This has little to do with the type of drive system but with so much more weight on the rear and higher speeds. Bumps that wouldn't bother a pedal bike at 12 MPH are much harder at 25 MPH. Buy a springer seat post and a cushy seat, your rear will thank you. I run a Specialty Kevlar armadillo hemishere tire with little tread on the back and keep the air pressure at 50 PSI. 30 PSI is enough in the front tire and gives a smoother ride. Stronger, tougher, smoother tires are a big plus with friction drive. I also replaced the stock handle bars with a higher rise but less pull back for comfort and control. Make absolutely certain the drive roller is perpendicular to the wheel when you mount the kit. Even one degree off 90 degrees will cause excessive tire wear. I cruise at 25 MPH and top out at 27.5 MPH. I'm getting 165-180 MPG with my bike and other than the busted wheel have had zero problems. With the best (strongest) wheel my bike shop had, I've cured the wheel problem. What ever you decide to build, have fun and ride safely.

 

[Porkchop]

Looks like we forgot about Hybrids here. One of my bikes is a late model Schwinn Hybrid. It has front shock, springer seat and springer seat post, all of which are adjustable. It also has quite a bit of adjustment in the handlebars such as height, angle and rotation. Also, frame geometry, seat to handle bars and seat to peddles geometry is different between mountain, hybrids and comfort/criuisers. Aggressive tread tires which usually come on mountain bikes, are no go with friction drives to start with and they're not to good on concrete or asphalt either. That's why I said in a previous post you need to find a bike that's right for you.

 

[Porkchop]

Those Jaguars are definitely a popular bike to build in both friction and frame mount. I have considered purchasing one.

 

[Mountainman]

your dad paid how much for that mountain bike years back ??

thinking that's the bicycle which I would want to use with motor

probably a quality bicycle

MM