Finally built a cruiser

Hi all,
I have been lurking on this site for about a year and have been very impressed with the builds I see on this site.
I really like the look of the old cruisers and so, for my first attempt at trying to make a bike with nice lines, I created this as an entry level project.

Original bike is a BigW Mambo for $168. So started with quality!
Then added some bits to make it look better.
Forks, bars, stem, Sturmey Archer front hub.

The engine is a 49cc from RockSolidEngines.
I paid a little more than the eBay prices I see for some motors, but RockSolidEngines claim to do their own machining of the castings and they assemble them in their Aussie factory. I think the little extra money is worth it to know that it was built by someone who cares about their products. (btw, I am not affiliated with them, just a happy customer)

The front brake lever is a standard clutch lever which works really well with a Sturmey Archer drum brake.
I polished the clutch cover, which does not show up well in the photo but looks great.
Btw, to polish only takes about 1 hour, start with 360 grit wet and dry in your orbital sander, then 800 grit then 1200 grit, then a bit of hand polish with Autosol and instant mirror finish!

Still need to do the mag and clutch cover, paint the tank black and apply some red pin striping.
Just worried that once it is finished I will need to start the next one!

Also, added a muffler end which is a perforated tube, wrapped in fine stainless steel mesh and then inserted in an outer tube.
Clutch cover has sound deadening material inside and air cleaner box has a baffle added and there are rubber blocks in the cooling fins.
The Victorian law here says motorized bicycles must not exceed 200 watts which is about ½ of bugger all! So I may as well make it as quiet as possible seeing I can't have any power. It now only does about 18 mph ( which is probably still over 200 watts, but I don't think the local police care that much )
The good thing is, I have not broken any spokes, even on super cheap wheels and the brakes work great at those speeds!

I am an amateur racer and could easily beat the Mambo on my regular human powered bike but this thing gets more looks when parked out the front of the bakery on a Saturday morning and I can wear jeans without breaking a sweat.


Thank you to all those builders who inspired me to get the dremel and hacksaw out.

ratrod said:

Hi there brokenveloman awsome build i have something similar and never tried the upside down handlebars they look great i will go down that path soon.
let me know if you have locking problems on that rear coaster... i did maybe just a bung wheel to come out during production?

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The rear coaster works surprisingly well for a cheap bike. I took the bike to Geelong for the world UCI road championships last year, just as a bit of a joke to try and drag off the fatter guys on carbon road bikes ;-). This was before it had an engine and before the front hub brake.
On one section of the circuit, is a very long down hill. The pro's were doing around 55 mph down it, but as a spectator, I had to ride down the sidewalk with the other plebs, riding the brake the entire way (because of the crowd). By the time I got to the bottom, you could smell the heat from the rear hub! Even after that abuse, it still works great. Sounds like you may just have a dodgy one. Maybe a repack with grease would help.

Tmoney said:

Nice build dude! I love cruiser bikes. They are comfortable and look really cool with an engine thrown in. I plan on getting a cruiser bike for my next motor bicycle. I tried to fit my engine kit on a beach cruiser I have but the frame was to wide for the mounts. But if I were you i would upgrade to a more updated exhaust pipe. It looks like you have the older model exhaust pipe. But are the internal components such the exhaust filter up to date?

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I tried to remove the end cap from the exhaust but it was stuck on so hard I gave up as I did not want to damage the finish by resorting to the larger hammer