The not worth building bike!

[waistofhumanspace]

NEL LUSSO HUFFY WAL-MART SPECIAL
This bike only had one redeeming quality, it was the rims, EXTRA WIDE! the brakes were crap, I ended up relacing the rims on good high speed hubs, the seat was junk, the handlebars bent, the frame was thinner than a pop can & cracked on most every weld line & wasent worth rewelding over & over again, the rubber on the tires wore out within a few miles, the chain broke just from trying to start it,the gas tank wouldnt stay in one place then cracked apart, it looked like a great bike that would be cool to cruze around on.... looks dont get you down the road!

 

[scotto-]

It's not a wonder......it's a genuine Huffy lol

 

[cuberasnapper]

too bad everyone doesnt see the light i hate to say it but there junk went through all that work for nothing built a felt and wow what a diferance

 

[MotoMagz]

Most around here do not have the cash for a Felt.I think they see the light but its just not in their budget.

 

[wheelbender6]

The goal is to build a Felt quality motorized bike on a Huffy budget. It isn't easy.

 

[BADBOOH]

There is alot of good bikes for low prices out there. And if you scan through craigslist enough you may find a really good bike at low cost. I have said this to many people and will say it again. HUFFY's are crap! Any new bike at walmart or target for under 200.00 is crap. The Huffy was cheaper than the motor kit. Just say no to HUFFY's! and drugs. They both will shorten your life of happiness.

 

[jnnova]

I bought the Nel Lusso also. I am a custom car fabricator too and this is my first build and I was surprised of how low the quality is on this bike. All welds (I use that term loosely) have weld splatter all over them and the welds themselves are very weak at best. All metal is extremely thin. The metal on the fenders is so thin they had to bolt the supports on. I could go on and on....but it's working out for me but it's gonna look better then the quality. Both bike and engine are Chinese and are perfect examples of why we need to go back to manufacturing our own products here in the US. My next bike will be be significantly different and high quality..but learning a lot. My suggestion to anyone wanting to get into motobiking is do what I'm doing...screw up and beat up on the cheap stuff..once you're done learning move on to the quality.

 

[rustycase]

Tnx for the review W !

Sure is a nice looking cruiser...

From the pics I can see the seat springs would never work for someone in my weight class... I really need to find a source for bigger/better springs.

Best
rc

 

[Fulltimer]

What a shame. It really is a good looking bike!

Terry

 

[donphantasmo]

Good looking bike, man. The only thing I can say, is get some front brakes, and get rid of that seat. I have a better aftermarket springer seat for my Huffy Panama Jack. Your rear will thank you for it.
Otherwise, awesome set-up

 

[waistofhumanspace]

Good looking bike, man. The only thing I can say, is get some front brakes, and get rid of that seat. I have a better aftermarket springer seat for my Huffy Panama Jack. Your rear will thank you for it.
Otherwise, awesome set-up

did you read the words or just look at the pictures?

 

[mesmith]

Hey, new here.....I have a Huffy Baypointe with a 66 cc canadian motor, and it stands up to all I give it. Just because some are shoddy doesn't mean they all are.

 

[Sgt. Howard]

My Cranbrick is over a year old now. Same frame as your Nel Lusso. My welds are holding up without complaint, the wheels are straight, I put a caliper front brake on the thing as I knew the coaster alone wouldn't do it and I replaced the tires with something a little more resiliant. Sucker runs fine. I never go off-road with it, don't spend a lot of time at full throttle if I can avoid it and keep up on loose nuts and bolts. I weight 200lbs on a good day. I am prone to thinking you got a lemon...
PS- I am currently building two Panama Jacks, two Campus Crannies and two Karaokes- all cranbrooks like your Nel Lusso. I've not found any fault in the manufacture thereof. That's my experiance in the matter.
the Old Sgt.

 

[BarelyAWake]

...and I think that's the point, that the quality of your lowest cost box store frames is inconsistent, that it's best to know that beforehand & to take it into account when purchasing and examine each individual bike for shoddy manufacturing processes...

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Getting a great bike for a great price is NOT easy. But it can be done. One way is to talk to some of the long-time members on the forum here and find out what some of the best vintage and antique bikes are. Then, start trolling Ebay, Craigslist, local classifieds, yard sales, etc. My old JC Higgins is pretty solid, and my wife's vintage Schwinn is seriously heavy-duty. I see stuff like this going for $125 to $200 more often than you might think.

 

[NunyaBidness]

I got my first motor bike from my LBS. I bought a used mtn. bike they had already gotten ready for sale. i paid $100 for it and it was a good bike. The second bike I got from a friends family owned pawn shop. Just as good as the first bike, yet in need of a little work to get it ready for a motor. The price was much better though, $19.20, after tax.

Shop around and you can find good deals on bikes. Sometimes you find the really great deal.

 

[waistofhumanspace]

I beat my bikes like they owe me money! everything I use is stress tested constantly because there is NO gentle way to flogg things! If I can keep something togather, anyone else will get years of life out of it, I can not help it its my nature to destroy weak engineering.

 

[mapbike]

I run my Huffy Karaoke at WOT most of 16 mile trips at a time, it has about 800 miles on it now, welds are still perfect, and it's a very comfortable bike after putting a cloud 9 seat on it.

I agree that the Huffy bikes and most of the other cheap bikes are for sure a crap shoot just like these cheap engines we are putting on them.

I ride many miles on very rough & rocky dirt roads, so mine takes a real beating everytime it goes out, I weigh 200lbs and I cruise on these dirt roads at 30+ MPH most of the time, got mine off amazon.com for $103 shipped to my door, I added, heavy duty thorn proof tubes, good wire bead Kenda Cross type tires, caliper front brake, and all bearing had the factory grease cleaned out and replaced with Peak industrial High Tack Grease, best grease made in my opinion and it should be @ $32.00 per tube.....ouch!

This is one bike I will never get rid of, I got lucky and got a good-un and I'm keeping it, NOT as good as a Felt or Nirve.....ect. But for the price this has been a very good bike.

Peace, map

 

[Hot Dog Piggy Tails]

I beat my bikes like they owe me money! everything I use is stress tested constantly because there is NO gentle way to flogg things! If I can keep something togather, anyone else will get years of life out of it, I can not help it its my nature to destroy weak engineering.

It's part of mine also I tell ya I did run into one Cranbrook through my years with Pacific and SpeedSterMotors Purchasing I picked up a Pallet for my Shop and one of the Cranbrooks under the paint had what appeared to be a radial hairline that'd been sprayed over (from the Pacific Cycle factory over in China..Accidental of course)but it had all the perfect trueness of all the other cantilever frames and good wheels on it(I always resell these to bicycle riders or givem away..trade stock) it turned out that the roll assembly that rolls the two cantilever support/rear triangle upper bars had ran the right bar and the tube stock had came to an end and the other was so close to it it kept it square all the way through the mig weld part of this facility so the right canti tube(of the crecent shaped tubes) was actually two peices and if I lifted it up it did'nt bend(pretty good mild steel really) but the Patron out of Oregon called and said that the frame had cracked. Sure enough when Id got down there the tube was 2 peices yiu could tell cause the paint had cracked between the two (supost to be one)canti bar. well welded this and put an extra support there and put a rack on it for him. The consistency out of probably 300 bikes looked at and 110 bought through Pacific Cycle VIA WalMart was actually pretty consistent I would have purchaed about 295 of the bikes at full Retail.

Some of the bikes probably 2 out of 300 were trouble makers Especially with a Motor. The splatters were near nill on the Schwinns but were more seen on the earlier Grey Cranbrooks. I was part of a 3 person law suite that ended in a changing of the front bracket for the CranBrook fenders only one was my bike and he bought everything for the build so luckily I did'nt get sued..after that I quit using most thier fender's and ALL of Pacifics supports. The new double tab does last a long time on the Cranbrook front fender now if one was to use it. bu the back needs replaced as does the front and back on the Nel Lusso.
Rick.... Til' the Wheels fall off!

 

[yimmie]

sorry to here that. mt first mb was a walmart shwinn. it held up, but i didnt feel exactly safe on it. i heard this problem before with the huffy frames. i would try to find a good ol steel frame from 50s or older and swap everything over. as i saved enough $ for a old steel frame i swapped out my junk frames on my mbs. much better riding.