trouble shoot the bike itself

usually I spend my time \trouble shooting motors or batteries but tomorrow I have to trouble shoot the bike and running gear. I has a very rhythmic thump and accompanying vibration that is getting to be annoying. I think after my walk tomorrow, i will try to figure out what exactly it is.d

If feels like it is in the rear or maybe the trailer but I'm not sure. Just another day in the life of a junky builder.

I switched out front ends because it seemed to be there. I took off and the bike was WORSE went home immediately and fixed the flat tire. Again it was better but still shaky, I just went down and tightened the front wheel now it seems tight but I won't know that was the vibration until I ride it again tomorrow. I swear these bikes were just not meant to do fifteen miles and hour most of the time. I mean sure down hill with Lance Armstrong maybe for five minutes but for an hour or two a day, no. At least not a thrift store bike lol...

i spent the whole day off and on working on the stupid bike... I think yours might be the way to go. If I weren't pretty sure it is the trailer dragging behind I might just do that. The only thing that isn't bolted and welded is the trailer connection. It has to be loose so that pretty much has to be the problem. I torqued the heck out of everything that could be torqued. At least the bike got a good going over.

I think it's my trailer construction. I am going to pull it down tomorrow and weld all the joints that are just bolted now. Without the welding keeping it tight and more or less square it probably isn't pulling straight because the hitch is hooked to a spot off center to allow for the swing around the rear tire of the bike. I hope the welding of the trailer joints will take care of the thump thump thump when I ride,.

yes it carries the batteries and I doubt that I can pedal fast enough to replicate the action while dragging the friction drive assembly. Also I cant feel it while rolling the bike with the trailer so it has to get up some speed at least. I'm using the shotgun approach. Start with the easiest things then move up the ladder. This is the top of the food chain, if this doesn't work, I'll just shoot it like the man said.

Just in case anyone is interested I fixed the problem. Once again I had a lesson from my dad reinforced. He always said if something fails, look to the last thing you changed/fixed first. In this case I put a new tire on the rear wheel. It was a bit knobby and my motor mount wasn't tight so the motor shifted and the knobby tire made the bump bump bump and vibrations because the motor was riding on the edge not the center.

When I took trailer off, I found it to be rock solid tight, so I had to look elsewhere. The crooked drive was staring me in the face the whole time. I just couldn't see it because I was too sure it was something in the bike itself. Dad wherever you are I'm sorry I didn't pay more attention when you were alive. If I had, I would be a smarter/richer/better man now.