Deacon's Bike

[deacon]

I sure hope it's judging that starts this summer since I have already begun work on mine. See it under bikes only or whatever that is. The bike frame is pretty much ready to go. I switched to the 20" wheel last night but I think the pedals are too low since I had to keep the old 26" crank set. I think I will start looking for a 24" coaster bike with a good rear wheel. I am pretty much committed to the frame I have now. I have no idea why, it is all wrong for the china girl kit. I wanted to use the weed wacker engine anyway.

Next adventure will the search for the wheel or making the new engine work which ever comes first. The thrift store has about gone out of the bike business. I suppose it is yard sales for me now.

My particular bike is ideal for yard sales Since it cruises very slowly, I can run up and down the roads very slowly and just check them all out for bikes. If I find one, I will have to go back and ride it home I guess. Or put it in the trunk of my wife's car. Oh well any excuse to ride the bike will do

 

[deacon]

I took a shot of the bike now that it is pretty much complete. I decided not to go with the 24" wheel after all. I have about an inch of clearance between the bottom pedal and the ground. That should be enough since I am not going to take it off road ever.

It still needs some paint touch up but you can see the shape of it.

 

[RedB66]

Deacon....What is the appeal to the smaller wheel?

 

[deacon]

In my case it is stability.

My balance is better but it still isn't very good. So I tried the smaller wheel and I liked it a lot. I can drop my feet and the bike is low enough for me to reach the ground easily. Plus I just like the way it looks now. I could probably go with a 26" but when I rode the 3speed, I was all over the place with that 26" wheel. I'm much more stable and it's easier for me to mount and dismount over the lower rear wheel. Us creeky old guys can understand that I'm sure lol. The other thing about mounting and dismounting is you are really standing on one foot, I get terribly off balance when I do that. It is much easier for me to get on and off the beast that way.

If I get a weed eater friction drive to work, it shouldn't make too much difference in the speed either. Of course it does with the chain drive but thats okay, I like it slow. I should add that it gets a lot of positive attention for some reason.

 

[deacon]

Update on the build off bike. I had to steal the rear wheel for the delivery bike. That was when i threw the chain through the spokes. I am waiting now for two new coaster brake wheels to come. I bought them on ebay.

They are god awful gawdy, since they are white and come with white tires and some kind of hello kitty type decorations. I had planned to mount the tire from the original wheel that got wrecked but the more I think about it the more likely I am to go with the white. The bike is going to be red white and blue so the white wheel and funky tires might be appropriate. I am calling it my clown bike.

I am ever so close to giving it a try with the weed wacker engine but I am stuck waiting for the wheels so I know where to mount the whacker

 

[deacon]

It's alive it's alive... I hooked up the gas tank temporarily so I could check the carb on the weed wacker. It works like a champ. I have the axle peg on for a drive wheel and its all together except for a kill switch. I did check the kill wire and it works so no reason the kill switch wont work.

It's gonna be a great bike. I just know it lol.

They say these bikes get 200 mph but I doubt that. Still it will be fun to ride a friction drive with unlimited range. Now I'm chomping at the bit for my wheel darn it. I can have this bike ready to run in an hour after the wheel arrives.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Nice!
When's the wheel supposed to show up?

 

[deacon]

I have no idea but man i'm climbing the walls. I have a bike with a 26 inch wheel i could put it on but I hate to do that since it has the right frame for a china girl kit. The one I'm going to put the weed eater on is a ladies frame. Not good for much of anything else.

How did your friction drive do climbing hills did you need to pedal much?

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

I have to pedal to "assist" the bike only if I want to maintain speed, it will pull a pretty good hill on it's own.

 

[deacon]

cool i like that idea... thanks for all the information joe

 

[deacon]

Just so you guys don't think things go smooth for everyone but you. I bought two coaster brake 20" wheels on ebay last friday. I paid with paypal so it would go quickly. Okay in all honesty the engine setup went a lot quicker than I thought, and it will go even faster next time but the wheels now here is the story.

I bought and paid for them on friday last week. So yesterday early I emailed the seller to ask how he shipped them so I could keep up with it. He didn't answer so today he called me just now its noon on wednesday.

Oh I'm sorry charlie, I over sold them we don't have those wheels now. I can send you chrome rim ones with white tires. I can ship them today by us priority mail you should have them by next week.

I wonder why the **** he didn't tell me that last friday. I was ready for those wheels like yesterday. I have the engine on the bike, the cable run and the kill switch on there as well. So now I get to twiddle my thumbs for three more days. What a crock. I might just ride up to the thrift store to see if they have a 20" kids bike for sale.

Of course this bike I'm building isn't a priority my china girl bike still runs well. Knock on wood.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

That's what negative feedback is for.

 

[deacon]

yes it is, I swear i hate to do that for a simple mistake since i dont care about the color of the rims, what I do care about is the loss of time.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Well, a lot of times, people "accidentally oversell" on ebay....I had a go 'round with a guy about a bicycle motor chain over that very thing. It cost me time and money because of his greed.

I gave him bad feedback.

 

[deacon]

This is a case where I am building for me but what if I had decided to build one for money? Then I would be hopping up and down. I am very, very customer service oriented. If he had made me late by five days on a delivery I would be down his throat big time.

But I learned a valuable lesson. Have the materials on hand should I decide to build for someone. For now I'm just going to build and see if I can sell them in my yard and on craig's list.

I think there is a market for a cheap motor bike. Something the guy who works for a low wage can afford to buy and ride to work. This may or may not be the answer, but it's the closest thing I've seen. I have to find a source for the engines but bikes are pretty easy to find and recondition.

I think I'm going to change the mounting technique but basically it will be the same thing. There is a guy some twenty miles from me who sells on ebay. I may ride down to his place and check out some of his engines.... I wonder how many different brands of weed wacker have the threaded shaft. That sure makes things easier...

 

[deacon]

Update the wheels came. I hooked everything up and tried it out. It worked fine for about five minutes. After that I could start it with the pull cord but the drag start wouldn't work. There were some other problems as well. The pegs for the drive wheel are too small. I had to work like the devil to get the bike up the first hill I came to.

It looks like the rpms are no better than my electric motors. So I'm going to need a bigger drive wheel, Probably 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 to do it right.

Also my mount isn't very sturdy need to shore that up tomorrow. After the first time I wouldn't drag start but would start with the pull cord. I messed with it a while then just put it away. One thing the china bike taught me was patience.

Once I had the bike put away, I figure it out. The darn thing was running out of gas. I had the fuel tank mounted wrong. Oh well.

Tomorrow I work on shoring up the mount.... making a bigger drive wheel and then testing it. I really would like a way to raise and lower the engine rather then drag start it every time I stop.

 

[deacon]

So I went down and stiffened up the mount. Looks like if I use the pull start I'm going to have to turn the wheel as well as the engine with the cord. I have about decided to just bolt the drive wheel down I will most likely forget the spring all together. I might go with cable and turn buckles to hold the engine to the tire though. that is tomorrows decision..

I'll shoot a picture of the clown bike tomorrow.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

There were some other problems as well. The pegs for the drive wheel are too small. I had to work like the devil to get the bike up the first hill I came to.

You saying the footpeg/drive wheel is too small.... You had to help it up a hill? If you make the peg bigger, or replace it with a bigger one, that will give you higher gearing and that will make the hills need more pedal assist.

Or did I misunderstand something here?

 

[deacon]

You saying the footpeg/drive wheel is too small.... You had to help it up a hill? If you make the peg bigger, or replace it with a bigger one, that will give you higher gearing and that will make the hills need more pedal assist.

Or did I misunderstand something here?

With the electric I found that the larger the wheel the faster the bike. With more speed going into the hill, the less pedaling. Also I'm not sure the gearing thing works the same with friction.It seems to just slips when the bike slows down and the demand for toruge gets higher. I think the torque at the ground is pretty much always the same.

I know that in europe the size of the wheel is regulated to keep the speed down. I'm just not sure about that wheel thing till I get this bike rocking.
But trust me I will let you know.

So far all my muscles ache and thats a good thing.

 

[deacon]

I win the dumb butt of the year award. I wanted to increase the size of the drive wheel so it needed a little tap to seat the cover. Yeah I tapped it still attached ot drive shaft. I bent the shaft so that one is toast. I'm not sure I want to continue with this project after all. I was hoping this would be an easy build but it isn't turning out that way.