Fosscati FG4 Billinudgel Bullet

This is about my latest build - a Schwinn Deluxe 7 Cruiser with a Honda / Grubee rig. There were a klot of problems to overcome not least the Shimano Nexus 7 speed internal hub that came with the bike. I had to make my own sprocket and clamps for it. Having designed and made the clamps & holes for the sprocket I wonder if anyone else ever needs to motorise this bike I could supply them with the clamps etc. cos although the first one cost me $180 to make I could get them made for much much less if I was having a batch of 10 done.
Anyway you can let me know if you are interested and I'll see what I can do.
I also had to replace almost all of the kit to get something of half decent quality. In the end the only Chinese bits that were useable were the gearbox and clutch but I had to make a new engine shaft key, the tank (but that was rebrazed to stop the legs leaking, the cables, the throttle minus the kill switch, the two grips but not the clutch lever. Everything else was ditched because it was too substandard to use. If I could have ditched the tank I would have. The petrol cocks were too weak to screw in by hand without breaking.
The moral of the story is that I now nearly have an Australian kit of my own and all I really need is a tank supplier but I think the Z50 Honda kids bike has a tank I could use. The quality control of the smaller parts has sunk to such a low that is no longer just an inconvenience. Who wants to pay expensive air freight for something when 50% of it goes straight in the rubbish bin ?
The Honda motor locked up during the assembly & wouldn't turn over. It turned out to be a small piece of black plastic in the crank.
Must have got in there in the factory. That was very strange I thought.
The Schwinn D7 is a steel bike with steel fenders and weighs a ton but the Honda motor is noticeably more powerful than the HuaSheng and can handle the extra weight. It has more torque at low and at high end and drives rather like a car. Very smooth and pulls up hills so much better than the HS on the lighter Schwinn Alloy 7. The springer forks make a huge difference to comfort and I won't be going back to rigid forks. One huge drawback to this bike is the fact that it has a rear coaster brake - a nasty invention from the days when people thought kids legs were better for braking than their arms - but it wouldn't stop you on a hill and takes a long time to stop on the flat. The bike has front V-brakes or I wouldn't have bothered using it. The rear coaster brake should have been consigned to the dustbin of history sometime in the 1950s but sadly it lives on in almost every American designed cruiser.
I doubt this bike could handle a HS motor but my next build might be on the Alloy Felt Heritage which has twin V-brakes. I'm not sure I can fit the enfgine mounting tray in the bottom of the frame. I'll decide that today.
Without the help of these two forums I would have been in queer street on this build.
Anyway here are some pics of the finished product and the custom built hub. I love the 7 speed internal hub gears cos the chain never comes off like on a derailleur. Pity about the coaster brake though.

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Very nice I like it a lot, great work

datz510 has made some tanks and might be up to more see his Rotten Orange build - Gary Fisher Aquila shifter buildup!

This is a real nice build. You thought it out and did some nice work. I have a deck and a Subaru EHO35 I want to mount like this except with some of the Sick Bike Parts Shift kit adapted to it. I would like to know how the 7 speed internal hub works and holds up.

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LennyHarp of Lenny's Bikes & Things
http://lennyh.com
The true value of a man is not judged by what he has, but rather by what he can do without.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an action, but a habit." -- Aristotle

Shimano Nexus 7 & 8s are very good if you take care of them. You can't rebuild them like a Sturmey Archer but if your thinking of driving the motor through it that's fine because a cyclist's legs put a lot more power out than a motor and legs give a sudden snap of power unlike the even torque from a motor. I don't see a problem unless you thrash it to bits. Hub gears can be changed while staionary which is good if you need to start off and you are on top gear. The Nexus 7 is expensive and so is the Nexus 8 and then you have to get a special clamp made up. Why not by a Cadillac Cruiser which comes out in October and offers the NuVinci hub as standard - a great bargain for what you get. The NuVinci is the cleverest thing to come out for bikes in a long time. If you want a hub brake I reckon the roller brake has to be better than the coaster but frankly I'd not want either.

Not sure about the more power as an Olympic sprinter has about 0.5 hp for a short burst and the motors here run from 0.5 hp to about 5 hp. Yes I have my eye on the NuVinci hubs as a great development in cycling and small motor power transfer. Again I wonder about durability and repairability. Derailluers systems are hard to beat that way.

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LennyHarp of Lenny's Bikes & Things
http://lennyh.com
The true value of a man is not judged by what he has, but rather by what he can do without.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an action, but a habit." -- Aristotle

Don't think you're right about 0.5HP for an olympic sprinter. The force going onto the cranks from a hard burst of strong legs is really immense. I've come accross only one bike of 4 hp and that was someones moto morini and was quite a large 2-stroke motor.
The trouble with derailleurs is changing the gear when there is a lot of force on it. If you can pull in the clutch maybe it'd be OK or close the throttle a bit between changes but people haven't seemed to have had more problems with hub gears using motors than using leg power. My Honda is 2HP and I could pedal up hills that it couldn't only I can't keep it up for more than a hundred yards. I'm stronger than my Honda over a short distance I reckon and I'm 57!

Here is a link to a members build that is using a over 4 about 5 hp motor.
TREK 4500/ GEBE w/ GP460 build
As to how many hp a person in world class Olympic shape can produce for a short burst I do not have a link only a memory of a 30 year ago article I read. I could be way off and we can out produce these motors, but I know at 56 I do not have near the hp I used to.

__________________
LennyHarp of Lenny's Bikes & Things
http://lennyh.com
The true value of a man is not judged by what he has, but rather by what he can do without.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an action, but a habit." -- Aristotle