How to shove my shaft into a tight bearing

GoldenMotor.com

Tom from Rubicon

Well-Known Member
Apr 4, 2016
2,856
6,171
113
Rubicon, Wisconsin
Yup, the jackshaft housing was improperly welded to the frame just as @Tom from Rubicon said. I even took it to a local bike shop and he concurred with the assessment. I don’t know how this is going to play out, I hope gasbike.net is willing to exchange bikes or at the very least, I can strip the frame and they could send me a bare one. I will ask them. I promise the very moment I get some free time I will figure out how to migrate this post to my original thread (unless a moderator has such powers, I would really appreciate it!). Wish me luck guys, my future riding with you all is now in the hands of gasbike. I can’t that you all enough for all the help and advice, especially making me feel like part of a team or community… that means the world to me.

-Cole
No worries Cole, Eric and or maybe Tony01 can help with the continuity.

Tom
 

Makomea

Member
Jul 9, 2023
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Pikeville, Kentucky, USA
I don’t know what to do or what to say to them. I spoke with the technician, I won’t name drop him. He seemed real cool at first, basically offering to send out any and all parts to replace damaged and missing things. However, every time I brought up the fact that the tube isn’t true to the frame it would rub him the wrong way. As if I was lieing to him or trying to get a new bike because of a couple scratches or because a chain fell off. The more he asked over and over, what parts did I need, I told him I need another frame. I gave them pictures of every imaginable angle and he either just couldn’t comprehend what I was saying or willfully disregarding it. You could hear the frustration in his voice, threatened to hang up on me and said I won’t be getting a new bike, get that out of my head. The disdain for me was unreal. I had to calm him down as if I was the technical support agent because if I didn’t he would have hung up and I would have got nothing sent. I sent images as requested when requested. The photo that Tom said was a good photo showing it, that’s the first one and he couldn’t see how cambered, how angled the shaft was. I told him no matter where the engine is, that chain is going to rub. I have is torqued hard to the left just to get the chain from off the top of the housing of the clutch. He asked if I could use a spacer, well, I suppose a spacer might work to get the clutch to stick out more, but it won’t change the camber of the jackshaft. Everyone knows that unless your chainring or sprockets are anything less than vertical that the chains are going to pop, jump, and even break! I tried to point that out, it just made him madder. Dude is obviously going through some things, I don’t know. He couldn’t see it when I gave him a couple pics and a simple explaination, he couldn’t see it when I emailed him every picture I had. I wrote a supplementary email explaining in detail what is going on and why new parts won’t fix it. He said I was drowning him in information, and he just circled back to wanting a single photo or two, which I provide and he willfully doesn’t see it or is so busy and In a rush that he just isn’t understanding me or what I am trying to convey. Why is it so hard to just do an exchange? Why is that a sin? I know there are people out there, and he said as much, that want a brand new bike just because the chain fell off or so,etching simple happened so they are strict on that. He just can’t believe that the frame is anything less than 100% perfect. The frame is perfect! All but that speacially welded bottom bracket they use for the jackshaft. It’s clearly off kilter. I ordered Timken high carbon chromed steel bearing 6202-2RS bearings, installed them, and the shaft perfectly and it yields the same amount of camber as the busted bearings that came with the bike. It’s called proof. I’ve done everything they have asked of me and more and kept my patience and understanding. You really have to see it in person. You would have to feel and see with your own eyes that this tiny tube is messed up or have years of experience as a welder like Tom to be able to see it via a 2 dimensional image. It’s not the other people giving me issues, everyone else is fine. The technician though, the guy that’s supposed to know this inside and out. Telling me verbatim that nothing like this has ever happened before and he thinks I am the one that is screwing up the alignment? Everyone else, it take what? 30 minutes?man hour or two at most to put the bike together, start the engine and ride without calibrating a single thing. Me? I spent the first couple days getting everything perfect. The jackshaft was the very last step of the process! Even I didn’t notice this issue until then and I had my hand and eyes all over it checking, double checking, greasing, lubeing…. Guy, nothing is impossible, there is a first time for everything and Muphys Law applies to gasbike.net and phatmoto just as equally as it does the rest of us. Yes, maybe I do write too much in forums or emails but I kept thing short and sweet for two damn weeks. Even forgave him for not shipping out the missing parts but he can’t give me the time or consideration that maybe his predisposition juuuust might be in error? He complains that shipping out a bike costs 250 +- dollars yet offers to send 300 dollars in parts that won’t help? Where is the logic in that? I offered to pay the shipping ffs! Guys, I don’t know. Maybe it’s where I have a country accent. I am hillbilly. I can’t help that but I am not stupid and trying to treat me as if I am seeing things that aren’t there is about the most grandiose narcissistic gaslighting technique ever displayed. I am not willing to write the guy off yet. Again,I am sure the dude is going through some things in his personal life, but that was unprofessional and frankly cruel. He’s the guy that decides if I get a refund or exchange or not? He makes that call? He said at best they will take the bike back and refund my money but even then I am still not getting a new bike? Dude can’t stop me from buying another. I’ll buy 10 of them if I wanted too. A bent frame is a bent frame, it is what it is and he taking out frustrations on me to the point of actively going out of his way to prevent me from doing an exchange. I am not trying to make him mad…

I know there are a couple people here that may know him and who I am talking about. I tried to get them to look at this forum and this post specifically as you guys suggested because they are a sponsor here with an untarnished record. I wish I had the forethought to record the conversation but damn, everyone was so professional and helpful up to that point that it didn’t even cross my mind. “Just fix it, that’s the point of the bikes, you see a problem and you fix it!” That’s what he said with a denigrating tone. Well, I can’t. I am not a welder or a body builder. I can’t force that which is immovable. I know most of you don’t care weather my personal problems get resolved or not and that is perfectly fine, I get it. Yet, in the spirit of brotherly love and respect, would someone here who knows the place, the guy, that I am not lieing. Please? He would cut me off every single time I brought up the misalignment. Really, he was at the point of cussing me out over this. The conversation didn’t last but maybe 5 minutes of him complaining that I just didn’t understand how to fix the bike that it’s not the frame,t hat they don’t have frames, that I am not getting frames, and more threats of hanging up if I even mention that camber issue, immediately asked me if the bike was upright, yes. Is the clutch perfectly lined up, yes, then asked me about the jackshaft, was it perfectly aligned? I wouldn’t answer, as if he was daring me to mention it or trying to get me to say the jackshaft was fine. I remained silent, it just made him madder. I will stop ranting now. If the guy sends the parts, fine. If he doesn’t, fine. I can get those cheap ass mirrors and rotor off Amazon for 5 bucks. Gasbike is fine for what it is. This shouldn’t sway anyone away from the site. That’s not my intention at all. It’s just the one guy who had a chip on his shoulder, probably a personal thing. The way he spoke to me… he said I was wasting his time and resources going in circles in the conversation. Dude, I waited patiently for almost two weeks to send 4 simple things that are owed to be by warranty. I still haven’t obtained a tracking number and he once again promised it would show up in my email in just a few minutes. Low and behold, it’s Friday now they are closed for the weekend, I’ll have to call back Monday because I am obviously not getting the promised items by Monday. That is for sure. A repeat of last week. I am sorry guys. I am done ranting. I am going to cool down for a bit and sit on my bike and make engine noises with my mouth. I’ll close my eyes and point the fan at me. Have my pony tail flopping in the wind one way or another, daddy going for a ride today. Thank you guys for having my back though. I am grateful I found this forum and I won’t let one guys bad day turn me off of having fun. He is right though, if you see a problem, you fix it, that’s the point! Yeah it is, but I paid a premium for a head start on those problems. I could have gotten this same bike for 500 dollars. Same model and already functional and assembled from my next door neighbor but I just had to have a brand new one of my own in matte green. Okay, now I’m done. Time to pick the hammer UP

-Cole
 

Tom from Rubicon

Well-Known Member
Apr 4, 2016
2,856
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Rubicon, Wisconsin
Even Hillbilly's put their thoughts into paragraphs. I do. ;) I ain't no English Major.
I don't know what your day job is Cole? Background info is beneficial.
Two things come to mind for me reading the most words I have ever read in a single post.
Did chain line ever enter the conversation?
And bent anything about the frame in question was a misnomer. Angular dislocation of the jack shaft weldment is the better description. The dude saw the photo's.
You got to know that your bike was fabricated off shore, (We all know where)
Your aggravation is well deserved. You have done a fine job of defining your grievance with out resorting to expletives deleted.

Curt makes a very good point.

Tom
 

wrench

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2019
866
1,287
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So Cal
I assume your within your warranty period
PIcs with measurements will prove the frame is defective

Take a pic of each side, measuring from the jackshaft housing to the rear dropouts
They can't argue that

Say the frame is defective because the Jackshaft housing is crooked

They should offer to send you a new frame and if they want the old frame back they should E Mail you a return shipping lable.

If they won't help you then your gonna have to file a claim
 
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Makomea

Member
Jul 9, 2023
27
46
13
40
Pikeville, Kentucky, USA
When I say “I paid full price”, the reality is, my sister paid full price. “I spent meh hard’erned muhnie!” Old habit during left/right brain conflict haha! My sister, she wanted get it, at random, after telling her how awesome these motorized bikes are and the things you guys do with them. She said she hadn’t seen me so excited about something in many years. Didn’t want me to get my self strapping a two strokes to my Huffy Cranbrook so she surprised me with it. As you can imagine, not only is it my first motorized bike but precious to me due to the gesture alone. But to answer your question Curt, indeed. PayPal was used. PayPal credit I would imagine. She’s not rich by any means but she has things figured out. I didn’t even want to tell her about the tribulations but…. [email protected] sent her an email instead of me, Her love is only matched by her wrath. Ain’t my problem now, they done poked the bear and it ain’t me, that’s for sure Curt!

As for the conversation, yes, chain line did indeed enter the conversation. You must understand though, the guy was not wanting to hear about it. He would say over and over “what about a spacer for the clutch, did you think of that? Did you think that maybe the bearing need a spacer, huh? Huuuuuhhhh?! I said yeah, but I already have the motor shoved as far left as it can go, the bolt holes will not line up if I moved the motor any further. His reply you ask? “ Then maybe don’t Shuuuuve the engine all the way left, did you even think of that?”. Making fun of my southern draw without any regard for subtlety rofl. He would say “you said your self the shaft is fine, the frame is fine, the clutch is fine, what Do YOU MEAN? Then no sooner as he heard me say the word misaligned, bent, angled, distorted, any synonym (and believe me I tried finding a word that wouldn’t…. Hmmm “trigger” him), he would immediately cut me off and threaten to hang up. Did you think of that?… man, you know, the suggestions he was making weren’t bad suggestions and I have said over and over that I a, willing to try any work around. Sad part is, the decent suggestions didn’t come until he had lost his resolve and delivered them in sarcastic and degrading ways. He couldn’t have suggested these, a week ago, when I first brought it up to their attention? Look, we all have moments we aren’t proud of. We are all human, I’m not going to stew on him. I just wished the phrase “angular dislocation of the jack shaft weldment” was in my vernacular before I called him. @Tom from Rubicon!

By trade, I am a black hat certified Coal Miner, Did surveying underground until politicians Forced most of them down. We would go into the many mines, measure the the cuts, plot them on a map, use AutoCAD to make the most accurate maps and predictions possible to maximize coal yield and to prevent the miner from cutting into old flooded mines or gas pockets among other geological hazards. I loved that job. Wouldn’t take long to finish a site, but the trek into and out of the mines, guys… miles and miles underground. It’s a whole other world literally and figuratively. It would be a dreamscape that not even todays brightest paleobotanists could imagine. One could spend an entire lifetime in one shaft and be lost in a wilderness of trees, ferns, moss, grasses, molds, Lycans, shrubs. Things that have no name, completely unknown to science. A world seen by my very own eyes that no living being has ever seen nor explored and never to be seen again, day in and day out. I would sometimes be surrounded by fresh cut coal exposing fossils so pure and pristine that color, smell, and texture was perfectly preserved only to watch these unappreciated monuments to glorious life be caked in thick white rock dust and left to crumble as the continuous miner inched forward all day In an never ending cycle of destroying one precious resource for a bounty of another. Then a fail attempt at starting an electronics repair business (not really in high demand around here) and got “the cancer”, most likely from the very job that brought me most joy and stability I had ever known. Currently, unemployed, sitting in my leaky apartment plotting my revenge against my new arch enemy, He who has no name, hence forth now known as Truffle-Nuts. Apologies for yet another long post. I wanted to address all 3 of you guys and share a bit about myself before I hit the sack and hey, I’m having a blast getting to know you all. Tomorrow, one way or another, I am going to gas that bike up for the first time. I will rig something up. It will not be safe or smart but I have ideas! I am also open to suggestion!
 

curtisfox

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2008
6,084
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minesota
My so got a free fancy swing set, because he bought one off eBay, and found one cheaper in the store. PayPal went to bat for him, he got his money back and got to keep the swing set. Not sure all that went down, but they do a great job of getting settlements..............Curt
 

Venice Motor Bikes

Custom Builder / Dealer/Los Angeles
Mar 20, 2008
7,360
2,046
113
Los Angeles, CA.
VMB is still waiting for a photo of a straight edged ruler clamped to the large jackshaft sprocket and clutch sprocket photo. Oblige him Cole, if you would please. Several perspectives.

Tom
Yes... A few good pictures (as described) would solve this mystery (& also be exactly what Gasbike would need as undisputable proof of a defective frame).
 

Makomea

Member
Jul 9, 2023
27
46
13
40
Pikeville, Kentucky, USA
Yes... A few good pictures (as described) would solve this mystery (& also be exactly what Gasbike would need as undisputable proof of a defective frame).
I have been meaning to get you those pictures Venice, it’s been a busy weekend for me. Let me go grab them real quick.

There we go, two angles for both sprockets each, with straight edge, taken 90degrees apart locked in my vice. The rest are behind and above shots as well. If you need them mounted and other angles I will get them for you tomorrow. About to pass out if you can’t tell by my shoddy photography haha! If I wasn’t so tired, I would find a 4th arm and pass a flashlight behind, but you should be able to see they are true enough more or less. Just wanted to let you know I ain’t forgot about you @Venice Motor Bikes!
 

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Venice Motor Bikes

Custom Builder / Dealer/Los Angeles
Mar 20, 2008
7,360
2,046
113
Los Angeles, CA.
I have been meaning to get you those pictures Venice, it’s been a busy weekend for me. Let me go grab them real quick.

There we go, two angles for both sprockets each, with straight edge, taken 90degrees apart locked in my vice. The rest are behind and above shots as well. If you need them mounted and other angles I will get them for you tomorrow. About to pass out if you can’t tell by my shoddy photography haha! If I wasn’t so tired, I would find a 4th arm and pass a flashlight behind, but you should be able to see they are true enough more or less. Just wanted to let you know I ain’t forgot about you @Venice Motor Bikes!
Your pictures aren't in any way what I was asking for... We're trying to figure out if the jackshaft mount in the frame is in fact welded out of square with the seat post tube...

This is what we need....

jackshaft w straightedge.jpg
 
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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Gasbikes and their various subsidiaries have a reputation for questionable dealings. Once they have your money you may as well be on a fast moving river in a canoe heading for a waterfall without a paddle. Your chances of survival are the about the same. Getting your money back depends on how you paid them.

Steve.
 
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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Found what I was looking for. Gasbike.net complaints. They haven't changed.

Steve.

 
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