attempt #3

I would get a morini if I could afford one man. I'm budget cruising loool. I have bought almost my whole bike 1 piece at a time. And broken a bunch of stuff along the way as well as fixed a bunch of stuff too. Now will my bike ever be capable of pushing 50mph - never. Will I be able to reach 35mph - deffinately.

My terms of fast and slow are totally relative. When I say slow I mean 15-20mph. When I say fast I'm talking about 30+mph. I don't wanna be limited to 20-25mph. And I don't have to be with what I'm running now. I've done a few mods but there's still room to go, and I still have parts to get (like an xchamber) so I'm deffinatley not topped out yet.

All in all it has been a ridiculous roller coaster of a hobby. But I find that's half the fun. I love my bike and I enjoy every min I get to ride it. Its also fun to work on and doesn't take a rocket scientist to tweak it. I do get frustrated some times but that's part of it too. If they were 100% problem free everyone would have one .

I dig it.

For some reason double posted

Aight so been a few since I posted...
That's cuz since I put my new tank and sprocket adapter I haven't had any major problems. \m/ >.< \m/ I did replace my chain with 41 roller chain from tractor suppy. My tensioner wheel got demolished and my cheap 415 chain twisted. Worked out great cuz I got all the parts I needed to fix it, half links, masterlinks, new chain break \m/. I really needed the chain break, they are nice to have. Was able to get rid of my tensioner with the half link. I like the no tensioner set up better. Plus 41 chain is a little beefier and I can buy parts locally for pretty cheap.

I did strip another head stud on the engine I have been running while playing with the new puch head. No big deal, just swapped with my spare shelf engine. Ill be retapping the hole, but untill I get that fixed, ill be running new engine. Turns out was too much compression with 1 head gasket. The engine just refused to wind out so I added another head gasket and it works great. Winds out great and since the swap I have a noticeable boost in low end.

Also got the fork fixed. Blew out the crown bolt riding wheelies at the park \m/. So swapped out mountain bike forks for the sexy bent springer again. I love this fork. Ride is soooooo soft and lays my bike out perfectly. Makes it a dream to ride. Just have to keep an eye on all the parts.

Got new gps app for my blackberry called map my ride. Clocked my self through the gps at max speed of 29.8 mph with my 40t sprocket. Almost where I wanna be. Ill be trying a 36t sprocket soon. I'm still trying to decide on xchamber. I'm leaning hard towards the sbp xchamber. Its not that bad looking in the down position and it looks great in the up position....

Been putting a ridiculous amount of miles on my bike since I got the last problems worked out. Its nice to ride again, now if the weather will continue to cooperate...... Ill post a pic or two when the sun comes out \m/ >.< \m/ - till then

New update -
Got a chance to take my bike out for a longer ride this afternoon. Got the speed I've been looking for - gps tracked @ 34.2mph. \m/ >.< \m/ that's the good news.....

Upon returning to my car to load up my bike, I started to look it over and check for any loose or damaged parts. Found that I had split a tire on the side wall, I had broken an engine mount stud off and my tank has a dang pin hole leak.

I'm super frustrated about the tank leak. This is my fourth tank. I thought since I had the whizzer tank which mounts different, I would have no more issues with the mounts leaking. I'm at the point where I'm giving up on the top tube mount tanks all together. Especially since this last tank was 2x the price as the others.

Engine mount stud is looking like its going to be a major issue. Hopefully I can grab the broken piece with some visegrips and spin it out. I have a set of easy outs but the name is deff deciving. I have found it to be a total pain to drill it for the easy out to grab it w/o tearing up the threads in the past. I'm not liking the way I have to mount the engine I have now. It has the smaller mount in the front so I'm having to use the crappy u bolt and plate to mount it up. This has been more than challenging to mount up. First issue I had was crappy u bolt that came with kit. Stripped it out first time I tried to tighten it w/o it ever being all the way tight. ( Don't know if you will get what I mean by this ) and no I didn't cross thread it. Problem was the engine sits too close to u bolt nuts to turn them if the plate is attatched to engine first. If you mount the plate to the tube irst then the you are un able to tighten the mount nuts. I think if I widen the holes that will fix that issue. Other issue I found is while the plate allows the smaller mount to be used, the studs still hit the down tube which led to the stud breaking off. Also noticed the studs have been rubbing my down tube leaving a bit of a groove and I'm sure this is going to ruin this frame.... Bummer cuz I really like my cranbrook frame.

Looking like imma be building another bike in the near future..... I wonder how a mountain bike would do with a bent springer fork. Then I could do a shift kit and wouldn't have bent top tube issue with tank. Just have to either find a steel frame with the right size down tube or get an engine with a large front mount.

Over tightening the tank this time deffinately wasn't the issue this go. I know this b/c I got the front mount on no problem but as far as the rear mount goes, I am unable to use the supplied strap because the smaller tubes on the side of my top tube are in the way. The plan was to drill holes through them so I could run the bolts through and secure the rear of the tank. In the mean itme I have the rear zip tied to hold it in place. This is where the leak is. I cannot belive that the zip ties are bending the mounting bracket attatched to the tank. If that is the case, that says a lot about the construction of the tank and the manufacturer who produces them.

As far as the hardware on my engine - thanks for the tip but I have replaced every piece of hardware. I bought all new bolts/nuts/studs from the home depot. I'm sure they aren't grade 8 or anything but they deff not the crap that came with the original kit. The reason it broke is clear - the nut on the stud is sitting on the down tube and the vibrations from my HT did a number on them. Its not uncommon in my experience that pressure combined with vibration to break hardware.

Took my mount off and attempted to modify it so I could use the beefier u-bolt I bought. No dice. Looks like imma be welding it to the frame for a bullet proof set up. Like on the grubee frames. Stud is also broken off far enough to where I can't grab it with vise grips. Soooooo... I'm going to have to take my engine off completely and drill and easy out the broken stud. Between the rain and the frustration I'm giving up on it for today and will revisit in a few days when I have a few more days off. Going to have to find someone with a welder so I can fix the mount.
And I just got engine broken in too dang it. Bwahahahahaha always something \m/

Last update for this build -
Decided to scrap cranbrook after thinking it over for a few days. I decided its I'm just having way to many issues with this bike and its time to just put her down. I'm kinda sad lol I have a ridiculous amout of miles on this bike. Was a great first time cruiser build and I would recommend anyone looking to build a "cheap" cruiser.

I'm deffinately not finished with this hobby though \m/. With the destruction of the cranny comes the birth of my next build - the "tour de hood". Ill be starting a new thread on that build shortly.