Riding in the hood.

I got my son in law up on the bike tonight. He was suitably impressed. With a little luck I'll have him on his own bike and someone to ride with. I'd like to get a few of us so I can find someone to joy ride with.
 
Deacon
Thats great you are just the man to show him the ropes as well you now have a good working knowledge of the bike and how to make it work. How thick of a base gasket did yo go back with when your did your tear down?
Norm
 
I reused everything from the original build. I was lucky nothing had to be replaced except the rings. I just slathered all the gaskets with bearing grease.
 
I just realized something this morning.. it is ten am and the temperature is over 50. I bought and built my bike so I could run errands, and now I don't have any errands and I still want to ride. I am trying my best to think of an excuse to ride. I know I don't need one but still lol.

I think i need to test pulling a trailer with the bike, yeah that's the ticket test the trailer pull.
 
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every time I have a bad day with the bike I still learn something. Yesterday my son in law rode the bike and the brake lever broke loose and got stick against the side of the bike. I freed it today and then had to kick the brakes a few times because they got locked. Had other strange noises off and on, so I decided to pull the wheel and see it I could loosen the brakes.

Then I found it. One of my bolts that holds the rear sprocket on got sheered. No telling what other damage it did but I replaced the bolt with a quarter inch one inch long hex head bolt and it fits perfectly. Not only that but the bent coaster brake clears the hexhead just fine. At least it did on the test ride.
 
I have no idea what really happened. It's also possible the nut fell off and it worked itself our far enough to be popped off. I found the head of the nut in my drive way but I never did find the nut. At least I think that's what I found.
 
Are you saying your brake arm for the coaster brake came loose?

I made a strap out of heavy furnace strapping metal (technical term there) and used a heavier nut and bolt.
 
yes it either broke loose or the bolt came out not sure which. When son in law got back the brake arm was pointing straight up in the air an in the wrong direction. I made a heavy duty strap from a pipe clamp and found a heavy bolt for it. I'm going to keep an eye on it from now on.

I'm learning as I go along. Next time I build one i'll have all this crap figured out. then I can have new crap go wrong lol.
 
Deacon, you will want to check your wheel to make sure its not loose or too tight. I sheared my brake bolt one time while a car was trying to check me out comming toward me in my lane:eek:, I locked up the rear wheel, snapped the bolt, missed the car, and continued to ride for a short ways. All of a sudden my rear hub locked up and my bike started ridding like a fixie with my pedals spinning at speed. My coaster brake had spun four full turns tight, clamping the bearings down so the wheel froze up...Kelly
 
I tightened it last night. You are right it did get a turn out of tight.While I was at it i checked all the bolts in the sprocket and they were all loose. I have no idea what that was all about. I tightened them up and tested it and the bike does much better.

I was happy to note that a 1/4" hex nut will allow my bent brake lever to pass. I know now that if I lose one of the bolts or nuts I can replace it with a simple 1/4" one. The funny shaped head had me worried. But it isn't any flatter than a standard hex head.

Like everybody always says check the torque on all your nuts after every ride. At least after every tank of gas.
 
Yesterday was 73 degrees here and today was 64. Yesterday at 73 I wore a thermal vest and a heavy tee shirt, today at 64 I wore a long sleeved shirt and shorts to ride. I have no idea what that was all about except maybe the direction of the wind is different today. Anyway it was my first bike ride no socks and shorts. Now if I could get a helmet exemption life would be good.

I know you all need to wear them, but in my case it really isn't necessary lol. No working brain to protect you know.

One thing I have noticed and made allowances for is that cars at stop signs on cross streets almost always misjudge my speed. At first I thought that they didn't see me, but they do they just don't expect me to be on them so quickly. Now i just slow down when i approach one.
 
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I think the thing I love and hate most about the transylvania county chopper is that it is never done. Last night while my wife watched the news and more news, I cut off a kickstand to replace the one I lost. Today I plan to replace the crank set from the 26" set to a 20" one. I'm never going to pedal it more than an few feet at a time, and it will allow me to lower the seat.

Well I stopped long enough to do the modifications and now it looks much better (to me). If it warms up a few more degrees I'm off to try it out.
 
So I rode the bike and all is well, but what amazes me is that people still call out to me so they can come look at the bike. Young and old black and white everybody loves these things. I wish I had the talent and the infrastructure to build them.
 
you have alot more talent then i think you relize deacon. we have see pictures of you motorized bicycles and they are nice! and yes everyone loves them. :D
 
Today the weather is nice. I took the TC out for a spin. The crank off the twenty inch bike makes it a bit easier on the turns as the pedals don't drag but. I have very, very little torque for starting on hills. As a matter of fact I couldn't on a couple and had to reverse my course. I'm going to give it a few more days and if I can't figure out how to do it, I'll just switch the crank back. Once you break it loose it's no sweat to switch it out. I'm taking suggestions if anyone has one.

So far the best I have been able to do is to reverse field and try from a different direction. I don't much like that since sometimes there just is no other easy way.

I just had a thought. They are always at a stop sign intersection where I'm sitting on the hill. If I'm sitting on the hill the side streets can't be going up it. On the really steep ones maybe I should just turn right then swing around and come back where I don't have the stop sign and turn right again onto the street I want to go on. That might work.

It's a little circular but it might work.
 
i always take the long way lol. i head to work and it is a straight shot by the car but not when on my motorized bicycle. i take the scenic route :ride:
 
I went back out and tried again. It has a little to do with clutch throttle coordination and a little to do with staying off the worst hills. Oh I can work out a way to do things, I usually can. Jim Valvano (sp) The coach at NC state univ when it won the national championship was dying of cancer and his last statement to the student body was "Never give up, never give up, never give up." I like to add one more part, If you think life is too hard on you, remember NEVER GIVE UP.
 
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