Deacon's bike build

Since we are going to build a bike, not a motor bike first, I guess this is the place to start.

I bought my first bike at salvation army. It was the suicide bike which threw my old butt into the side of the neighbors house. Thank God it was brick not aluminum siding.

Then I bought two bikes on Craig's list, One of which was a big red huffy cruiser that I have two electric motors hanging on. I haven't ridden it in a while either. Hummmmm. And the other is the sissy schwinn now laying in parts on my shop floor. All over my shop floor actually.

But the last few that I bought, I bought from the thrift store here. It seems not only do they sell bikes of dubious quality inexpensively, but the sell one or two in pretty good shaped. My biggest problem not is checking to get the right one. The Transylvainia chopper was made from a cruiser, a girl's twenty incher, and parts from the huge mountain bike. All three together cost less than $25. That is not to say I don't have a ten dollar chain and a eight dollar mirror, and a ten dollar tail light that has never been turned on.

All that is to explain that today I'm going to go looking for a new frame to start with. I'll take some shots of the thrift store bike rack and the bikes there.

Buy the way, i am about out of bike parts since I junked out and threw away a lot of parts last week. So I'll try to let you guys follow along with the build so you can see exactly what goes into a Transylvania bike.

LET ME SAY HERE IF YOU THINK THIS IS A WASTE OF YOUR SPACE AND THE FORUMS TIME PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DELETE IT. I WON'T MIND AT ALL.



So I went to the thrift store. There were about five 3 speed bikes. I would probably give one a try if it weren't for the skinny wheels. They had an old JC HIggins 3 speed that had the generator light kit and luggage rack on it. Very cool bike actually. If I just wanted to restore a classic i would have bought it but I'm more into destruction than restoration. I wonder how those skinny wheels would do with a motor sprocket on them?

They also had one mountain bike with two sprockets on the front crank and a bunch of sprockets on the rear. I could convert it to a single speed. Use one gear lever for the clutch and one for the throttle and not have to change anything else.



I have a spare 26" crank set for a cruiser and I think I could make it work up front. I wonder if I could use the sprocket from cruiser rear wheel I have on the mtb rear wheel if I take all the sprockets off it. I wonder if it would fit.

Anyway I didn't buy anything I'm still looking.

I have begun to call that place my bike shop. My wife is even getting into the act going to look at the bikes with me. Okay I have to twist her arm a little but she took the picture of me. The JC higgins is a chick bike, but you know I made the sissy schwinn work. I just don't know. I might give it a couple of more weeks before i decide. That one might be gone but there will be others. Problem is most of them have these thin thin tubes in the frames... The Higgins is pretty substantial.

I have a couple of surprises planned for this one. It probably won't be a chopper though. I have some nice parts laying around I want to incorporate in the next one If I can find the right frame.

I know I did this earlier but it seems to be lost in the ether.

I decided to get a head start on my build. I have an idea what I want to bike to look like generally. I have a good wheel I wanted to use so I decided to pull it off the parts bike and repack the bearings.

I put a set of vice grips on the left side axle nut, then I used a 15mm wrench to remove the left side nut. I carefully laid the wheel on the left side vice grips still attached.

From the right side I removed a washer that was between the axle nut and the frame of the bike. I put that into my parts container. (peanut butter jar) Then I removed the axle nut... then the axle bearing cone... then i worked the bearing ring out. I had to find a nail to do it since it was gummed with old grease and it was a tight fit. Worse than denture paste, yes i know about that too.

I put everything into the peanut butter jar, I mean parts container.

I lifted the wheel gently from the axle. The axle stayed upright held in place by the vice grips. The axle bearing was right on top. I lefted that one off, sprayed it with carb cleaner, then repacked it with grease. I won't tell you what kind so pablo won't have to fuss at me. Since I hadn't disturbed any of the left hand parts, I just replaced the bearing and then the wheel.

I cleaned and repacked the right hand bearing and then reassembled the wheel nothing to it. the attached image is of the right hand axle system parts I removed. they go left to right in order starting with the bearing.

Front crank set.

This takes some explaination as to why anyone would switch these out. First of all I'm not planning to pedal a bike very far these days. I have tried honest and it just isn't a comfortable thing. I can go like the devil down hill and even on a flat stretch but the hills just kick my fat butt.

If that weren't so I would not have bought the bike engine. So with a motorized bike I want to be able to pedal to start, to pedal if I hit a really bad bad hill, to take a turn with the clutch engaged, or to get it home if I run out of gas. I have done that.

Since the pedals are not the primary power source they are more for comfort than efficiency in my case. On the Sissy Schwinn and the Transylvania chopper the pedals on a full sized crank were too long. They hit the ground in a leaning turn on the chopper. The high end was a bit uncomfortable. Since I had the crank set from a twenty inch girls bike and they fit well enough, I switched them out.

I thought I would show you how the crank set looks and explain a little about how to pull one. First of all only one side has a bolt to remove it. Its the left side. Then of all the fun things EVERYTHING is treaded backwards. Yes that's right nothing will thread the way it should.

1. I spray the pedal connection with penetrating oil. Yes grasshopper the pedal has to come off. I found a good 4 pound sledge hammer is the right tool for the job. A claw hammer would probably work in a pinch. Set your wrench tight on the pedal nut and gently tap it with a hammer if it doesn't move with just your brute strength. If the tap with the hammer doesn't work GET A BIGGER HAMMER.

Once you get the pedal off remove the big nut. once that is off remove the left hand bearing assembly.. REMEMBER HOW IT CAME OUT. then slip the whole crank arm through the bike. Take out the right hand bearing and note which side is in and which is out.

Now carb cleaner and repack the bearings before you reassemble the crank. This is the full 26" crank set for a cruiser. Everything is there but one of the bearings is turned wrong and the washer is on the wrong side that was to keep the bearings from rubbing in storage. Just remember how yours some out and you will be fine.

Now if anyone can tell this better please do I'm just telling what I did and it may be all wrong

Well I'm going to walk through the build as I go. I'm not sure if I'm going to use that wheel after all. I think I have a design in mind but I'm not sure yet. I'll have to see what is available at the bike shop over the next few weeks.

Oh heck Norm I'm just using plain old bearing grease. I have used it for years in all kinds of bearings. It's stick and it's a mess but I use it for everything from bearing lube to gasket seal. Most always works for me.

Heck man It's just a bike.

I decided to build two bikes instead of one. I know, I know I'm out of my mind in spades. I went back and bought one of the 3 speeds. Yes Norman you knew I would, but I'm going to make it my hybrid electric bike.

I'm going to take my large red cruiser and make it the bike for the next gasoline engine. So shessss don't tell my wife.

The bike I bought was the Ted Williams 3 speed. The JC Higgins was gone already. The Teddy has a luggage rack on the rear. It also has cruiser brakes on the rear and a hand brake on the front.

Since people usually have a reason for not riding their bikes, there is almost always something wrong with an adult bike in a thrift store. In this case it was the missing front wheel bearings.

I stuck the wheel I repacked yesterday on the bike when I got home to try it out. Then I tried the bearings from another wheel I had laying about. Low and behold they interchanged. I don't really need the bearings in the donar wheel since if I ever use it, I probably will use it on a trailer. Bearing would be nice but not urgent for it. I'll just pack that with grease.

Anyway i now have a perfectly serviceable 3speed bike. I think I'm going to take the grease fitting off the rear hub and shoot some 80 weight gear oil in there. Give it a chance to work out that old stiff grease.

After a while, I will pull the rear fender and then attach a motor to this one. After I ride it a while, I can decide which motor and battery combination to use.

I'm happy that so far it was an easy mechanical fix. I'm gonna have to pull it apart to paint but I can paint it with anything, no gasoline on this one.

I guess now any more posts on this bike will be in the electric section.

so what if I put a gas engine on it...

That was way too easy. I have the electric motor on already. Just have to run the wires now and it's ready to go. Tomorrow is supposed to be a good day. If it is, I'm going to ride the bike trail with this lil thing. After that if it runs good, I think I'll sell the other two electic motors with drive wheels on ebay. The start getting the big huffy ready for a motor.

One thing I did this time I have never done before. I hacksawed off a chunk of the rear fender to make room for the electric motor. It actually looks pretty good. I'll try to make a picture tomorrow but I'm moving this bike to the electric section now that it has a motor.

I have been thinking. I bought a 20" bike for the chain ring and crank. Now I think I will convert my big red huffy into a chopper.

NO just bored lol.

I have never had an electric chopper. I think this might be something worth doing just to see how it does. Heck I have everything on hand to do it with. Won't even have to but a thing.

well my kind of chopper lol... the transylvania style chopper with an electric motor. Just a pitched back bike.

Talk about a nice bike to ride though... I switched the chain ring for one that is much smaller on the 3speed i just did. Man that thing is so easy to start from a dead stop now it hard to believe. I may find a three speed for my next gas build if i do another one.

I pretty much gave up on the Electro Teddy for now. It just isn't quite what I thought it would be, so I moved on to building the PO-Boy Electric chopper.

I can't really call it a chopper since it misses some of the elements of a true chopper so I'm calling it my Poboy Transylvania Country Electric Hybrid Sorta Chopper. I need a shorter name so if you want you name it. Anyway this is the before shot.

I started with a bike I had already made some changes to but anyway here it is before.

I'm not sure if I want to do a step by step on the paint or not. I'm kinda trying to decide what to do with this bike. I wonder what would be a good frame color? I leaning to psycodelic (sp) orange.

After thought I forgot I wanted to do a modern camo pant job on the next one. Not the old jungle green but the new tan and brown one. This is just not be the best bike for that.