Northwoods Ridgedale Cruiser Build

biknut

biknut

Well-Known Member
This is my first. I just bought this bicycle for the honors. It's all alloy, about 30 lb total. All I've done so far is remove the fenders. It's made by Kent. I've ordered a black slant motor kit from Zoombicycles, but it's not here yet.

Lemme soo if I can figure out how to post a picture of my bike.

 
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I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes as I've been considering buying the same bike for my next project. Best of luck with it!
 
My apologies ladies and gentlemen, this is my first a attempt at posting pictures on this forum and I'm having a little technical difficulty. Bear with me, I can do this.

img0941k.jpg

By biknut at 2010-09-29
 
no apologies nessesary. great looking ride! gonna make one heck fo a motorized bicycle. glad to have you with us biknut
 
Ive read more bad things about aluminum frames then good. Keep an eye out for cracks. BUT..... I wish my bike only weighed 30lbs ! More like 130lbs.

:)
 
biknut said:
This is my first. I just bought this bicycle for the honors. It's all alloy, about 30 lb total. All I've done so far is remove the fenders. It's made by Kent. I've ordered a black slant motor kit from Zoombicycles, but it's not here yet.

Lemme soo if I can figure out how to post a picture of my bike.

Click to expand...

First let me say....welcome to the forum! And secondly, you could not have picked a better bike to motorize....PERIOD! And I don't only say that because I own one and have built several of them, it is just hard to beat this kind of bike for the money....seriously. The Northwoods is a pleasure to ride with or without an engine and furthermore I've got almost 4,000miles on mine with a 4-stroke engine and the frame is as worthy as any and more worthy than most, especially for the money.

When people bad mouth aluminum frames and blah blah blah alloy frames crack.....guess what, all frames can crack, titanium, cro-moly, mild steel, aluminum, carbon fiber. Aluminum rocks and don't you forget it! Great bike you got there, can't wait to see it motorized.....cheers!

Here's my No wood....Ridgedale.....




Enjoy your build and don't hesitate to ask questions if you run into issues....this place has the answers!dnut
 
Thanks I feel the love guys. This is my new home. Even though I'm a novice with motor assisted bicycles I've done a lot of custom fabrication on my motorcycles.

I never even heard
of these bikes before 3 weeks ago, but I'm already hooked. If it has 2 wheels and burns gasoline I love it.

I've learned from experience that forums like this are where all the knowledge is found, so I plan to ask a lot of questions. Someday I'll give back too.

Right now I'm really looking forward to getting started. I have parts ordered from different suppliers, and I'm sure I'll need a lot more before I'm through. Knowing the way I work I'll probably have the first $1000 home built lol.

There's 2 areas I find suspect. The stock motor mounts, and the rear sprocket attachment. I'm trying to get a sprocket adapter and sprocket from Pirate, but they're out of stock of sprockets so I wait. I also don't care for the stock motor mount hardware. I'll probably make something of my own but I need the kit in my hand first.

I wonder whats better, rubber mount, or solid mount. I saw an ingenious mount made from hockey pucks that looked interesting. From what I've seen so far opinions are all over the map.

Since I already have 3 motorcycles I want to try to not make my bicycle look like a little motorcycle as much as possible. Scotto's bike looks a lot like what I'll probably end up with.

I'm planning to mount two 1 liter fuel bottles on a water bottle cage mounted to the seat post for a fuel tank. Also looking for a rear rack I like.

All suggestions welcome.
 
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Another part I question is the chain tensioner. Why aren't there any spring loaded ones? I don't like the way the stock one looks.
 
I'm wondering how difficult it would be to remove all the stickers? Can they be peeled off or are they under a layer of clear coat?
 
 
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fishguts said:
I'm wondering how difficult it would be to remove all the stickers? Can they be peeled off or are they under a layer of clear coat?
Click to expand...

To answer your question, they don't peel off....unless left in the sun for 70yrs. or so. Simple fix, if you look real close at the pics of my bike (real close), you'll see that I use a Sharpie permanent marker on them....it works very well and easier and cheaper than new paint....I'm not kidding!
 
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scotto- said:
To answer your question, they don't peel off....unless left in the sun for 70yrs. or so. Simple fix, if you look real close at the pics of my bike (real close), you'll see that I use a Sharpie permanent marker on them....it works very well and easier and cheaper than new paint....I'm not kidding!
Click to expand...



Hmmmm ... looks like I'd have to scrape them off, sand out the bike and repaint. Durn. Was hoping that wasn't the case as that can make the difference in what bike I buy.

But I do like these bikes and they look like a good base for a build.
 
Creative Engineering said:
You won't need the chain tensioner for this bike. Tension the engine drive chain at the drop-outs using the adjusters...just like a motorcycle...add a spring loaded or rigid idler on the pedal chain side.

pics:

MANIC Mechanic Parts.htm

Jim
Click to expand...

Thanks a ton. It helps a lot seeing the same motor already mounted in a bicycle just like mine.

Using the tensioner on the peddle side??? I never thought about that, but that does solve the problem. I have seen spring loaded chain tensioners available for the peddle side. That solves that problem.

I already have the sprocket adapter, and sprocket on order from Pirate. They don't have a motor mount like that on their webbsite. I'd sure like to get one. Do you offer one, or can it be special ordered through a distributor like Pirate?
 
biknut said:
Thanks a ton. It helps a lot seeing the same motor already mounted in a bicycle just like mine.

Using the tensioner on the peddle side??? I never thought about that, but that does solve the problem. I have seen spring loaded chain tensioners available for the peddle side. That solves that problem.

I already have the sprocket adapter, and sprocket on order from Pirate. They don't have a motor mount like that on their webbsite. I'd sure like to get one. Do you offer one, or can it be special ordered through a distributor like Pirate?
Click to expand...

The engine mount in the photos worked great! I assembled that bike a year and a half ago, and the customer rides it almost daily.

Out of 20 or so of that design, I had several that cracked at the bends. They were all local builds that were fitted with one for testing. 3 customers had engines that vibrated a bit on the excessive side. It was on these bikes that the mount broke. One bike vibrated so badly that when sitting still and revved...the whole bike was a blur...

I have since done a re-design that includes all machined parts.

I'm working on a motor mount program for Pirate Cycles and Pistonbikes. I'm waiting to see if any of the 100+ that have been shipped fail before producing mass quatities.

I never had a problem with the old, pan style, mount...but then again, I chuck engines that vibrate badly. They get a crank balancing, or are used for parts.

Jim
 
Today I made a little progress. I bought 2, 30 oz aluminum fuel bottles from REI. My local Bates Discount Cycle supplied this 3/8 pipe thread petcock for $14, and Turner hardware, the best hardware store on the planet, had a tap and die plus a brass lock nut. This is what I ended up with. I'm going to use 2 of these bottles mounted to a bottle cage mounted to the seat post for fuel tanks.



biknutproductions2005.jpg

By biknut at 2010-10-01



 
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If I use the horizontal drop outs to adjust my motor drive chain then I think these tensioners would do the trick for tensioning the peddle chain.

This one should probably work.



For some reason I'm leaning more toward this bracket which would allow me to use lots of different kinds of tensioners.

 
Here's my fuel tanks finished boys and girls. Not a great look, but not too bad either. Now if I just had motor.





 
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