Stepson gets a Cranbrick for Christmas

GoldenMotor.com

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
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Okanogan, WA
I was going to get my 9 year old a 24" wheel Cranbrick untill I saw him manuvering his brother's 26" blue&cream 2010 Cranny with ease this morning- Momma is not fully sold on the concept, saying 'it's too much bike,' and 'he's growing up too fast,' but I prevailed in this one. Bought the black&grey&argyle 2011 model today and hid it where I motorize them. He owns a multispeed but loves the cool looks of a cruiser... and by the time he's 16, he'll be VERY comfortable with the thing when I drop a motor on it. His older brother is counting the months untill his cranny gets a mill- that will be June of 2014, assuming the world don't end or that joy isn't totally outlawed. Meanwhile, he has inverted the handlebars and calls it his 'Midnight Bruiser' (he had me paint the fenders and chainguard black, so now it's black & blue)... quite the classy rig, BTW.
the Old Sgt.usflg
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
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Littleton, Colorado
Just a word of caution based on experience. Make sure the kid has some respect for the amount of work/money that will go into motorizing a bike. I built a nice little bike for a nephew and found it laying on it's side in his back yard, tires flat, chain off and the engine seized due to lack of lubrication.

Some kids will appreciate the gift, some won't. I even let this nephew be involved with the build but he still had no respect for what he had. Make sure your boy understands that its more than just a bicycle before you invest the time and dollars into that project.
Tom
 

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
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Okanogan, WA
Been watching how both boys handle their non-motorized bikes- I made it clear that I consider this when I determine if they need better machines. Both boys treat their pedalbikes with due respect and even do maintanance. I suspect they will do allright...
the Old Sgt.usflg
... besides, I drop them for pushups if I am not pleased...
 

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
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Okanogan, WA
I trust them both with loaded firearms- why should I not trust them with this? The old Sgt. has been teaching them on both from an early age, they will do well. James regularly travels 20-30 miles on his multispeed at age 13, Andrew, 9, can cover 10 miles without tireing too badly, both can negotiate traffic... all in all, I think they're gettng the childhood I wish I had. Start a child in the right direction at a young age and you will not be dissapointed... had to correct much of the damage done by their biological paternal unit, the gork is a master of inertia. Somehow got out of the Army with an 'Honorable' on his 214, I'll be damned if I know how... I do more work accidentally than he does by design. They are starting to grasp the benefits of proper effort coupled with knowledge, a concept that somehow isn't taught in school anymore.
Rather proud of my boys...
the Old Sgt.usflg
 

KCvale

Well-Known Member
Feb 28, 2010
3,966
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Phoenix,AZ
Nice to meet you Sarge, I too raised a boy, he's 21 now.
I had him riding a bicycle to school early as well, hahaha, I had to get a special wavier from the principle as he was in 5th grade and you had to be at least a 7th grader to ride to school.

It is great to see you spending time and sharing projects with your boys because as you mentioned, schools simply can't teach any kid the things his dad knows and can. The sad part is so many dad's don't these days.

But back to the motorizing...
Bought the black&grey&argyle 2011 (Huffy) model today and hid it where I motorize them.
So you have built one or more already?
Cool ;-}

Just allow me to caution you about putting any motor on any Wally World $85 Huffy type cheap bike, especially for your kid to ride with a motor.
It's not a matter of IF the bike will fail, it's HOW SOON, what fails, and when it happens.
It is usually the back wheel first too, no fun when you are cruising full speed.
Maybe just surprise him with a new solid bike a few month before you motorize it?
 

TexasDav

New Member
Aug 19, 2008
528
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Houston
Just a word of caution based on experience. Make sure the kid has some respect for the amount of work/money that will go into motorizing a bike. I built a nice little bike for a nephew and found it laying on it's side in his back yard, tires flat, chain off and the engine seized due to lack of lubrication.

Some kids will appreciate the gift, some won't. I even let this nephew be involved with the build but he still had no respect for what he had. Make sure your boy understands that its more than just a bicycle before you invest the time and dollars into that project.
Tom
My Nephew did the same, I fixed it a few times, but these bikes are to be stored inside dry and maintained, or all the fun goes away quickly. Hope everyone has a great Christmas!
 

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
186
58
28
69
Okanogan, WA
Just allow me to caution you about putting any motor on any Wally World $85 Huffy type cheap bike, especially for your kid to ride with a motor.
It's not a matter of IF the bike will fail, it's HOW SOON, what fails, and when it happens.
It is usually the back wheel first too, no fun when you are cruising full speed.
Maybe just surprise him with a new solid bike a few month before you motorize it?[/QUOTE]

My 2010 Huffy has more than 1,000 miles hauling MY 200lb carcass hither and yon without failure... but then, it's outfitted with the HOWARD HUB MOUNT instead of the ragwort mount and sports several remarkably HOWARD modifications. I have tested the frame and wheels as well as done the structural numbers on these bad boys... I trust them. The eariler ones, 2009 and prior, are at the low end of the learning curve.
I am a qualified gunsmith- that covers welding, machinework, blacksmithing, metulargy both ferrouse and non, structural and mechanical engineering as well as an assortment of arcane skills that would have little bearing in this endeavour. I have a turret lath, upright mill, pony gas rig, Lancaster longbed forge with two Peter Wright Anvils and full setup along with the regular assortment of DIY goodies. When I design something, I take note of the works of John Moses Browning and Paul Mauser for inspiration... while he was alive, I had the privilage of correspondance with 'Mad Bill' Ruger... I was one of the few who would call him that to his face. He offered me employment... silly me, I turned him down due to his ornery nature. Live and learn.
Point is, I am accustom to the idea of designing something to handle strong force.
And again, my experiance leads me to trust the Cranbrick.
the Old Sgt.usflg
 

KCvale

Well-Known Member
Feb 28, 2010
3,966
57
48
Phoenix,AZ
My 2010 Huffy has more than 1,000 miles hauling MY 200lb carcass hither and yon without failure... but then, it's outfitted with the HOWARD HUB MOUNT instead of the ragwort mount and sports several remarkably HOWARD modifications...
And again, my experience leads me to trust the Cranbrick.
the Old Sgt.usflg
My very 1st build was a new cream colored 2009 Huffy Cranbrook with a 48cc Skyhawk. If memory serves I had to mount the sprocket up against the spokes without the outer rag and dished out to make it work.
I only had 50 miles on it before a guy made me an offer for it I couldn't refuse.

Over the next year of daily street riding he replaced all the expected stuff like tires, brakes, seat, pedal chain, all the cheap crap that cost more to replace again and again than the cost of the whole bike three fold, and then the downtube broke just above the motor mount to finally put it to rest.
The Skyhawk motor was still good as a side note however.

All my posts regarding starting with a good solid bike, good brakes, and motor that will last is geared to all the new daily rookie kids that think they can just slap together a complete motorized bicycle for under $300 with no experience and it will be an inexpensive, safe and reliable form of transportation or worse yet, a toy to play on.

I'm funny that way since knowing 1st hand this year how it feels when you can't stop in time or something breaks.

I salute you Sgt. Howard, you have engineering prowess and I have no doubts you could turn a sows ear of a bike into a silk purse of a machine, but I didn't know that when I gave you my standard warning about 'Cheap Bicycles, Just Say NO to motorizing them!' hehehe ;-}
 

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
186
58
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Okanogan, WA
Had I built my first MB on a 2009 Huffy Cranbrook, I would doubtless have a similar attitude. There is a quantum difference between the two years in quality controll. I have also read several commentaries about how ANY ragmount tends to make the spokes 'saw' through each other... and the way that the sprocket rides on the spoke heads of a cranny makes them particularly suseptable to damage. I saw the issue when I first built mine in 2010 and spent the 2010-2011 Winter developing my sprocket mount. Three prototypes and 20 production units later, I have the system perfected.
I notice that sportsman bikes is putting out a three-piece unit.. no idea how long they've had it out, but I know my design was independant of theirs... mine boasts twice as much purchase area once it is locked down and is VERY friendly towards the Cranny. The next batch is going to see further developement in hardware, mostly because the bolts that come with the ragmount (which I designed the system to use) are slightly harder than pewter- I am thinking of converting to 1/4" coarse thread and include the bolts with the kit. The sprocket is hard enough to burn my tooling steel on my lath should I get sloppy enlarging the hole, so I would recomend it's use assuming the 44 tooth does what you need.
Understand, I did quite a bit of homework before I bought the Cranny. Almost got the Schwinn... loved the extra 4" of wheelbase and I'm something of a sucker for the retro backrack on the DelMar... but ultimatly I was sold on the 12gauge spokes and fond memories of the Huffy of the 1960's (Yea, I am that old). Had I read and belived all the anti-huffy slant that this site and the other had put out regarding the bike, I would not have bought it. As it was, once I had it running I THEN made contact with these two groups. Reading the scary stories in both groups had me confused, because what they described did not fit my experiance. The fender gaff (where somebody took a bad header when the fender wrapped up on the front wheel) was my first clue- I read about ONE tab holding the front fender to the forks where I saw TWO on mine, rather poor welding where I saw excellent welds, flimsey spokes where I saw heavy rascals... it goes on. Then I saw a 2009 model- IT WAS A DEATHTRAP!!! 2010 is where the Chinese made a major jump up the learning curve- the 2011 is even better... and to top it off, with black fenders and chainguard, it will match perfectly to the HT kit. I think somebody gave feedback to Huffy regarding cheap, Chinese engine kits.
the Old Sgt.usflg
 

Motorbikermark

New Member
Nov 16, 2011
100
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Western N.C.
I just got done putting together a 2011 Nel Lusso. I've got to admit that my original thoughts on motorizing a Huffy was "Not on Your Life" but after comparing it to other bikes some much more expensive I knew I had found my new ride! Though I'm new to Motorbiking I've been building bikes as long as I can remember, I have recently (4years ago) founded a local mountain biking group that now has over a 100 members including some pro's. The Huffy's welds are top notch, The wheels are heavy gauge, I disassembled the rear hub before ever mounting the sprocket, and was very pleased at what I found. Actually reminded me of an old Morrow hub. The rack that is integrated in to the frame eliminates alot of irritation that comes with cheap bolt ons. I did move the fender braces over the fenders that should keep the supports from closing in on the tires. I normally wouldn't suggest doing so as it tend to move the fenders about a 1/4" closer to the tire, But Huffy put 2.35 on this bike with wide rims making it close to impossible to achieve a good chain line with out going to a much narrower tire (1.95 rear 2.10 front) Keep some grease in the rear hub, check your bolts before every ride, And don't kick the front fender while turning corners, and you should have a great riding bike! I refer to mine as a "Huffman Flyer" to avoid any haters. Wow flashback moment just remembered one of my first bikes I built was a Huffy Thunder road that I turned in to a mini-klunker My older brother had gotten a 80's Schwinn so I built one my size. Anyway hope your boys enjoy their rides.
God Speed, Mark

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