Will Grubee 4-stroke Kit Fit Cadillac Fleetwood Cruiser Bike with NuVinci Shifting?

[NMCruiser]

Hi,

I have a Grubee 4-stroke kit and a Honda GXH50 engine I would like to install on a Cadillac Fleetwood Cruiser Bike that comes with a NuVinci hub. I realize I would need to fabricate a jack shaft, but would the Grubee 4-stroke kit fit in this 18.5 inch frame?

Here is a URL to the bike:
http://www.abikestore.com/Merchant2...eetwood-cruiser&Category_Code=&Store_Code=abs

I can only find this bike online, so I cannot measure the frame. This looks like a great project assuming the engine will fit. I would appreciate any feedback on the bike/kit combination. Thanks.

 

[ocscully]

I would say that the answer is yes. The Honda motors fit in the Schwinn cantiliever frames and they are 18.5 in frames. The also fit in the Felt frames though on these the fit is tight. Looking at the photo in the link you provided I believe there is plenty of room for the motor. working out the jackshaft might be a bit of a challenge but I'm sure it can all be made to work. Do you have the ability to do the fabracation work yourself? One other area that you need to address is does your kit have the one piece crankset or the three piece crankset? The bike you have chosen needs the three piece crankset.

ocscully

 

[NMCruiser]

ocscully, I have mechanical experience working with cars, 4WDs, and diesels and I have a good friend that owns wire feed and arc welders. Is the hardest part of the jack shaft aligning everything up correctly? From what I've read on the forum, I would need a free wheeling pedal crank. Do you agree?

NMCruiser

 

[NMCruiser]

ocscully

Sorry, I missed the question about the pedal crank. I have the wide pedal crank that came with the SkyHawk II kit I bought from bicycle-engines. Is that a 3 piece crank?

NMCruiser

 

[ocscully]

ocscully

Sorry, I missed the question about the pedal crank. I have the wide pedal crank that came with the SkyHawk II kit I bought from bicycle-engines. Is that a 3 piece crank?

NMCruiser

To the best of my knowledge bicycle-engines.com sold their kits with one piece cranksets. They are the ones that are generally used on beach cruisers and inexpensive dept. store bikes. They did not even offer the 3piece cranksets as an option because they didn't import any of them. bicycle-engines.com is currently out of kits and is saying 6-8 weeks till they get a new shipment. I know they had several customers that were asking for 3-piece cranksets and they didn't have them to sell, so maybe this time they will have ordered some 3-piece cranksets. It might be worth a phone call to find out for sure if they have some coming in.

As for needing a freewheeling crankset? yes thats one way of approching/achieving a solution. I don't have any experience with setting up a drive train with freewheeling front sprockets but there are threads here that address this type of set up. Use the search feature and look for a thread called eliminating the driven sprocket The member who posted it is GhostO He and his partner have put together a jackshaft and freewheeling crankset that works with the Happy Time 2-strokes and are exploring doing the same type of thing for Honda & Clone 4-strokes. The need for the extra wide crankset is causing some problems that still need to be worked out I believe.

Also you should spend some time looking at the information and parts available from Staton-Inc for the NuVinchi hub. I believe that with some of the parts they offer you would not need to have freewheeling front sprockets.
http://www.staton-inc.com

ocscully

 

[Zev0]

THAT is an AWESOME looking bike. I like the nuvinci concept incorportated into it. Wonder if it can be ordered with 12 ga spokes.

 

[NMCruiser]

I also found the bike at CostCo for $480. This seems like a great price considering the Nuvinci hub. Here is the URL:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...3&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US#shipinfo

I am not sure about the spokes, but for this price I am going to order one for my next project. It will take a while to figure out the jack shaft unless Ghost0 comes up with a 4-stroke jack shaft soon. I cannot find a manufacturer's website for this bike to get more details than the URL at the top of this thread.

 

[Zev0]

WOW, Just WOW, hundred and 20 off the price. That's amazing. Makes me want to get one like RIGHT NOW! Only I really should have 12 ga spokes, not 14.

 

[duivendyk]

Do you realize that you can only use the NV for pedaling the bike?.The engine drive is FIXED gear,unless you get a special NV hub from Staton, which has an extra input sprocket for you motor drive.

 

[MacTac]

Staton does NOT sell a "special" NuVinci hub! They sell a sprocket welded to an adapter that allows a freewheel to be used as a second input. In fact that adapter is on all NuVinci hubs from the factory. The NuVinci hub needs a freewheel added to it, (most come with this freewheel from the factory). Staton welds their machined sprocket (fixed) to a similar adapter and places the freewheel at the engine, and also uses the freewheel for pedal input.

Yes, they sell this "fixed" sprocket welded to the adapter separate.

http://www.staton-inc.com/Details.asp?ProductID=3274