Well, I figured I'd mention in all fairness that like all builds the Rollfast has had it's share of teething pains. Nothing particularly devastating - the worst being that odd "pulsing" evident in my
shiftkit vids.
At first (and for far too long lol) I thought it was simply binding links in the chains... what boggled me was I'd fix them and it'd just happen again. I examined all sprockets and shafts for alignment and play, none seemed bent or wobbly so I figured it was just the el'cheapo chains. Replacing them all with only slightly better quality (Bell BMX chain) did indeed stop the binding link problem - but the "pulse" was still there
Puzzled and a little concerned as under heavy load the pulsing put quite a bit of strain on things I delved a lil deeper into the problem and as it turns out the flower nut and/or the shaft it connects to is slightly bent. No doubt a manufacturing error overlooked with the... exemplary quality control these kits are known for I'll be sacrificing the poor Schwinn's clutch pack & flower nut, transferring it's parts to the Rollfast to see if it's the shaft itself that's bent. It probably is, but it's so minute that it's hard to tell.
If the shaft
is bent I'm not gonna bother worrying about it, unlike my first build I made sure there were no "unique" modifications to the engine mounts, keeping the low expense of engines in mind I focused on keeping the engine as easily replaceable as possible, I'll just transfer the modded & custom bits to the new motor. I did actually use my "spare parts" kit to build the Rollfast so I do need another anyway, it's a bit of a bummer but no surprise.
Everything else is as minor as it is inevitable heh, the lil allen set screws keeping the shiftkit sprockets in place conspire to loosen no matter how much I chastise them for their wayward ways, dabbing blue loctite keeps them occupied for a while - but they're gonna get the red and they're gonna like it. Speaking of wandering, my rear axle has proven to have an interest in overthrowing the dictator - while my ol' Rollfast has the axle tension/position screws in the dropouts (bedanged if I know the proper name for 'em lol) I've found that only really helps lock the drive side in place as the other side is pushed
back from the torque. This would not be a problem with many axles - but like most three speeds my Sturmey has flat spots on the axle shaft for the locking tabs, keeping the axle from rotating in the dropouts.
Ofc this also means that there's 1/2 the available threads for the axle nut to grip on - it's a delicate dance between enough torque to keep the axle from moving and stripping the nut... and yea, I've stepped on those toes lol, fortunately Sturmey was wise and made the axle shaft
much harder than the nut's alloy so it's the nut that strips out and not the shaft *whew* It's not as big a deal as it sounds, I've figured out just how tight it needs to be & I've a spare axle nut in the kit just in case. The worst that happens is it'll shed the chain and I need stop, put it back on the sprocket and readjust the axle and it's only happened twice anyway *shrug*
Other than that, the ol' girl has been really good to me - I'll also openly admit to not necessarily always treating her with the respect age should have earned her... while mostly I cruse comfy relishing the quiet smoothness, with the engine mods & aftermarket parts, the shiftkit and a careless madman at the helm... well, suffice to say this bike is a bit of a "sleeper" - lookin' the old comfy cruiser that she is she's earned a few shocked looks when I drop a gear, crank the throttle & she wakes up, kicks up her heels, gets on the pipe & jus' sings - teaching the local mopeds about the age-old mysteries of power to weight. It's funny, she can't seem to let a moped wander in
without a lil learnin', that old dance to be done