my first motor bike build

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driftology

New Member
hello forum! i am new here and workin on my first motorbike project. this is what i have put together so far. i have a sun custom retro cruiser. i had 2 wheels built around a sturmey archer x-fd front drum brake and the matching sturmey 3speed drum for the rear. i am using a problemsolvers cable doubler to pull both brakes with a right hand lever. the next step is to find a nice 2 stroke and a shifter kit. im also thinking about going with board racer style bars and a monarch front. i am open to any wisdom or advice for this project. this is an awesome forum by the way!
 

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Glad to have you! The bike already has a classic look, will be a great looking MB, In my opinion, don't paint the motor black, the silver painted motor would look very cool on that classic looking bike, and set off the mechanical reality of the motor, just my opinion, but what ever you decide, its your girl, and I am sure she will come out looking great. Keep us posted on your progress.
 
Lookin' good already no doubt (^)


FYI - I'm runnin the same Sturmey Archer hubs and the three speed is holdin' up really well to the SBP Deluxe HD Shifter Kit II, although you may find the axle nuts difficult to tighten adequately w/o stripping them to prevent movement in the dropouts. The problem is the flats on the axle (to prevent rotation) effectively reduces the threaded area by about 1/2 & there's just not enough surface area to hold under hard acceleration. It's not a fatal problem, just annoying when ya drop a gear and punch it to pass some spandexer and promptly derail the chain as the rear sprocket is a lil crooked now :p

While my bike came equipped with dropout tensioners, you may wish to consider something like this as a solution: Bikeman: MKS Track Dropout Tensioners, for 5mm Dropouts (but I dunno yer axle shaft & dropout sizes so better chk them bfore ordering).

I'd also advise usin' a drop o'loctite on the Sturmey's cable tension adjusters - I spaced that and paid the price of five spokes ripped outa my front wheel o.O Fortunately I was puttin' along at about a walking speed at the time lol


That's such a sweet lookin' ride already man - I can't wait to see where ya go from here :D


Oh right - oddly, the Sturmey 3sp seems geared a lil tall with the shiftkit (the shiftkit gearing was with a 21sp bike in mind), I'm running the 10T (standard, comes w/kit) jackshaft to crank sprocket (lil one on right side) with the 48T chainring (kit comes w/the 44T): Chainring - Freewheel - 48 Tooth w/chain guard and that seems about perfect for my ride... which is a bit of a heavy bike *shrug*
 
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to prevent axle slip in the drop out use a torque arm from an electric bike hub motor kit. you can get them from ampedbikes or just about any e-bike vendor, may even be able to adapt the brake arm from a coaster brake hub, this will stop the axle from trying to rotate or slip, internal geared hubs need the axle locked solid to the frame.
 
Hmm... interesting solution cam, I hadn't thought of that. While I've got tensioning bolts on my dropouts, they don't prevent the non-drive side (left) from being forced back - just the drive side from being pulled forward...

I'll hafta look into that :D
 
here is a little update to the project. i have picked up that spb shift kit but still no motor.
tattoo.jpg
 

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Looking good! I went with the simple motor kit from zoombicycles.com it was $129 with free shipping and a T-shirt. So far i've got about 125 miles or so on it and no issues. You can pick up a laid back seatpost from sportscarpat, you'll see his posts on here. The front drum brake is going to really pay off. I'm looking into adding that as well.
 
I am running drums up front and back. I need to find another way to link them to one brake lever. I am currently using a problemsolver cable doubler but I feel there may be too much cable drag with it. It could just be the cheap lever.
 
how would some of the linkage from one of the small 20 inch bikes that let the fork spin all the way around work?
 
here is an update to my build. just installed a starfire super rat and zoom shift kit. the zoom kit is not nearly as nice as the SBP kit. i think i will be switching over to theirs soon. now i just need a tank and i will be set.
 

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Why do people have such terrible looking bikes on this forum? There's absolutely no taste or talent here :D P.S. It's Opposite Day today, so that was a compliment ;) I love the bike that you are doing driftology but I totally think you should get the sbp kit, I agree :) And mykustomcruizer, I LOVE that bike, I'm envious
 
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