I think it might be considered good manners to introduce myself, so here goes.
This forum has been invaluable to me as many of the threads here saved a lot of time when working on my engine. Unlike some here, the bike I run wasn't built to look great or go very fast, it was built out of necessity; Usually I ride pedal cycles that are the best part of a century old, they're heavy and unyielding. Unfortunately the garbage collection where I am sucks so I have to transport most of it to the city dump myself, pulling a trailer with a couple of hundred pounds of trash on a century old Tourist isn't fun and, to be honest, is flat out dangerous. I can't overcome the weight of the trailer on a bridge that can't be avoided to get there once it has stopped, nor on the queuing ramp at the dump meaning that if it rolls back it's game over, nor do rod brakes really stop the bike on the way down. To make matters worse, it got in the way of my recreational cycling as it would put me out of commission for the entire week, by which point it would be time to drag the trash there again.
By chance I had a cheap 90s mountain bike left over from an electric bike project that didn't work out, the frame is bent so it was going to be thrown away with everything else. Having pieces of an engine kit from somewhere in the past, it suddenly struck me that the way the engine pulls is the opposite to where the frame bends, so it wouldn't pop back that way and, as the bike was no good anyway, it wouldn't matter very much if it broke after a while, it seemed logical to order another engine kit, the cheapest one I could find (Think it came to £62) and strap it onto the frame along with the trailer mount. The bike had better brakes that could actually stop the trailer, it was just horrible to pedal as the frame is too small and, honestly, I dislike the geometry on modern bicycles anyway. Overall I didn't expect the engine to last long as it would be pulling a lot of weight with no break in, nor did I expect it to be fun to actually use. Needless to say it smokes and coughs like ****, the ramp at the dump is so steep that it has to be hit at full speed and the engine almost stalls at the top, but it made life so much easier and also turned out to be fun to use without the trailer.
So that's my story, I guess, wasn't sure what else to write as I doubt anyone else here really shares my other interests - I play around with old computers and synthesizers a lot - thus I shan't prattle on about those.
Unfortunately I recently ran into issues with my engine, but as that's going to require another wall of text I shall take that to the appropriate sub-forum.
I thank you for being welcoming, though I probably won't post here very often as I'm not exactly a huge enthusiast for this thing (though my friend decided to copy me, but with electric instead, so I'm looking forward to smoking his bike and making him run out of electricity 20 miles away from home) and it's largely just a tool to me.
As a quick note, if you set your cookie preferences for this site only to 'necessary' it seems you can't log in, not sure why that would be and it's obviously not a chore for me to have corrected this, but I guess there's an answer for anyone who runs into it in the future.
This forum has been invaluable to me as many of the threads here saved a lot of time when working on my engine. Unlike some here, the bike I run wasn't built to look great or go very fast, it was built out of necessity; Usually I ride pedal cycles that are the best part of a century old, they're heavy and unyielding. Unfortunately the garbage collection where I am sucks so I have to transport most of it to the city dump myself, pulling a trailer with a couple of hundred pounds of trash on a century old Tourist isn't fun and, to be honest, is flat out dangerous. I can't overcome the weight of the trailer on a bridge that can't be avoided to get there once it has stopped, nor on the queuing ramp at the dump meaning that if it rolls back it's game over, nor do rod brakes really stop the bike on the way down. To make matters worse, it got in the way of my recreational cycling as it would put me out of commission for the entire week, by which point it would be time to drag the trash there again.
By chance I had a cheap 90s mountain bike left over from an electric bike project that didn't work out, the frame is bent so it was going to be thrown away with everything else. Having pieces of an engine kit from somewhere in the past, it suddenly struck me that the way the engine pulls is the opposite to where the frame bends, so it wouldn't pop back that way and, as the bike was no good anyway, it wouldn't matter very much if it broke after a while, it seemed logical to order another engine kit, the cheapest one I could find (Think it came to £62) and strap it onto the frame along with the trailer mount. The bike had better brakes that could actually stop the trailer, it was just horrible to pedal as the frame is too small and, honestly, I dislike the geometry on modern bicycles anyway. Overall I didn't expect the engine to last long as it would be pulling a lot of weight with no break in, nor did I expect it to be fun to actually use. Needless to say it smokes and coughs like ****, the ramp at the dump is so steep that it has to be hit at full speed and the engine almost stalls at the top, but it made life so much easier and also turned out to be fun to use without the trailer.
So that's my story, I guess, wasn't sure what else to write as I doubt anyone else here really shares my other interests - I play around with old computers and synthesizers a lot - thus I shan't prattle on about those.
Unfortunately I recently ran into issues with my engine, but as that's going to require another wall of text I shall take that to the appropriate sub-forum.
I thank you for being welcoming, though I probably won't post here very often as I'm not exactly a huge enthusiast for this thing (though my friend decided to copy me, but with electric instead, so I'm looking forward to smoking his bike and making him run out of electricity 20 miles away from home) and it's largely just a tool to me.
As a quick note, if you set your cookie preferences for this site only to 'necessary' it seems you can't log in, not sure why that would be and it's obviously not a chore for me to have corrected this, but I guess there's an answer for anyone who runs into it in the future.
