Cranbrook Builders!-Please Help!
- Thread starter CARider
- Start date
If you say so. You're the only person to have broken a Cranbrook axle that I know of on this forum, but sure, its a bad axle. Ok.
Almost 1000 miles now on a huffy with the factory wheels, these are hard miles with much of them being on a rough dirt road I weight 215 lbs and I have not even had to regrease my bearings once since building this bike up, the rear hub is nice and tight just like it was when it was new, all I did was grease the hubs with a very high quality industrial grease and ride it 30+mph for most of the miles that are on it.
Nothing wrong with the Huffy hubs at all in my opinion and experience, just need to be greased with high quality grease and adjusted right.
Map
Nothing wrong with the Huffy hubs at all in my opinion and experience, just need to be greased with high quality grease and adjusted right.
Map
No problems with mine after I regreased with Lucas Red & Tacky grease and adjusted the cones to the proper tightness. My bike has taken some harder than normal pot hole hits with no issues at all......just glad that mine came with the thicker spokes.
Broke an axel, replaced and fixed by bike shop, bent that axel. Seems like a bad combo. Free wheel is just better, in every single way.
The only thing I'm really worried about is the fenders. I know they need reinforcement and that's cool, but every build I see they straight up remove the fenders. I live in a place that has wet ground a lot so I need fenders.
You have to also remember that the cheap Huffy fenders will start rusting on the inside if you don't coat them with something. You're better off with some plastic commuter fenders.
Mix up some JB Weld and put a thick coating on the bracket and rivets on the underside of your fender. This will help strengthen the part that is most likely to fail.
I wouldn't trust JB weld not to crack with the vibration of a motorized. Just make yourself some good steel brackets. Fenders are not the thing you wanna take a chance with. (I call it a front fender ski trip, It ain't fun.) The rear fender can break loose also. I think it was 2door that can tell you how bad it can get.
And my rear wheel, hub and bearings on my 2011 Cranny have been doing just fine for almost 2 years with my 200lb arse. The 2010 and 2011 Cranbrooks came out with better welds, steel rims and 12 guage spokes.(Don't know about the 2012 model.) The only thing after that is BRAKES. A coaster brake alone is NEVER a good idea.
fatdaddy.
If the coaster brake assembly was properly installed, serviced with good quality hi-temp grease and everything was properly adjusted, the only way that I can think the axle might bend is if the coaster brake were slammed really hard. I honestly don't know if that even would bend the axle or not, I just can't think of anything else that would cause it other than something not being properly adjusted. Coaster brakes are very widely used on bicycles, and have been around for a long time. They do require more attention and maintenance than other types of hub, especially in a motorized application. But bending two axles is nothing to do with your weight, height or the design of the hub. Sorry, but you're blaming your bad experience on a part that's not known to fail at all. If others had had this problem as well, then it would certainly be a possibility. But what we have here is an isolated incident with the person that had the bad experience making a subjective claim of faulty parts, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. So far, no one who has commented is accepting the explanation that is being given. The scary part is that if you don't know or care what actually went wrong, you are very likely to blame almost every problem you have on the parts that fail, and in my opinion that is going to come back to haunt you. You'll do something wrong one day and not realize it, and it will cause you or someone else a serious injury. I'm not trying to diss you, bro. There is just something about the attitude of automatically blaming a failure on a part without trying to figure out what actually went wrong that bothers me. Especially when evidence to the contrary is ignored.
I am with BigButt on poor installation will cause any rear wheel to fail, and perhaps all the Huffys I get in here with trashed rear wheels and cheap poorly installed engines is evidence of just unskilled people building as cheap as possible.
All I know is this Huffy with a trashed rear hub I took in has it's new $50 HD hub with drive sprocket and band brake here and getting dropped off at my local bike shop to be mounted today.
It's not a Cranbrook but after pulling this wheel hub apart I can see that inside of hub itself seemed to still be in good shape, it was the bearings, brake and mounting parts that self destructed.
I imagine I could have just replaced the coaster brake guts but if I'm going to dink with a Huffy at all I don't want to cut corners.
All I know is this Huffy with a trashed rear hub I took in has it's new $50 HD hub with drive sprocket and band brake here and getting dropped off at my local bike shop to be mounted today.
It's not a Cranbrook but after pulling this wheel hub apart I can see that inside of hub itself seemed to still be in good shape, it was the bearings, brake and mounting parts that self destructed.
I imagine I could have just replaced the coaster brake guts but if I'm going to dink with a Huffy at all I don't want to cut corners.
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I built my machine before I found this forum. I didn't realize that there were so many differences in the quality between the brands. If I had known, I may have started with a 'better' foundation. With that being said, I already owned the Huffy, so the adventure began.
Would I have done some things differently ----- absolutely.
Have I regretted how I built my bike and the way it works -------- absolutely not.
A mechanical novice can have trouble just assembling the Huffy starter bike. The experienced person can make a masterpiece out of the same box of parts.
Would I have done some things differently ----- absolutely.
Have I regretted how I built my bike and the way it works -------- absolutely not.
A mechanical novice can have trouble just assembling the Huffy starter bike. The experienced person can make a masterpiece out of the same box of parts.
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I installed the wheel correctly, the axel and hub were installed by a different party each time. The only conclusions I can come to is either A) Both the walmart employees and then a the bike shop assembled the hub incorrectly. B) The coaster brake arm got jarred out of it's lock on the wheel, and caused my axel to slam. (once, maybe twice no way) C) the axel was a piece of junk, just like everything else on the bike (Tire tubes both had bulges from get go, the fenders in general the seat, ect..,) I've never thought coaster brake hubs were a good choice for such high speeds. They certainly cannot be the sole braking device of such a machine either.
