was a Huntington...

[Allen_Wrench]

My ride is coming together. As I mentioned in a previous post, the lines on the Micargi Huntington had great appeal to me. I was apprehensive about bike quality at first, but this one certainly seems to have a sound frame. All else can be tweaked. I put a springer fork on, and flipped the handlebars over. The fuel tank WILL be painted black (I like black). And I intend to fabricate a sort of "psuedo-tank" for the open space below the top tube and above those swooping rails. It'll be a pair of opening panels that'll give me a place to put the CDI and lighting system controls out of the weather. Being that my chainstay seems out of the way of the chain, I MAY dispense with the "tensioner", but I want to see how much stretch I have to worry about first. And, if there's any money left over, a set of all-white tires would really complete the look, don'tya think?

 

[2door]

Allen,
Very nice bike. Congratulations. I'm a big fan of flipped bars, and black paint. At some point in the future you might think about a lay-back seat post. They really enhance the ride on cruiser frames. Keep a close eye on your front fender mounts for signs of cracks. Enjoy, have fun and ride careful.
Tom

 

[Matheneyr3]

How do the springer forks ride? I really like that look, just a little hesitant to move away from Mb shock forks I'm accustomed to- Used 'em on my cruiser build too. Very nice work!

 

[Allen_Wrench]

@ 2door: I may swap the top one out for a spring steel bracket before long. As it is, I've put rubber gasket/washers with a small bit of give to them on either side where the top fender bracket bolts to the bottom of the head tube. The fender only moves a miniscule distance when the spring fork flexes, but I'm not taking any chances - it's a secure mount, but with room to move a little. And if I see any cracks at all, that's it - I'll drill 'em out and make some spring steel ones.
@ Mathenyr3: I'll let you know when it's running (which at this rate might be after winter's over, no snow where I took the pic but it is still COLD here and I don't want this first ride to be on ice.) I've ridden my wife's old springer Schwinn, and I have a Glendale with shock forks, and have owned others with shock forks. It may just be that I've had bikes with problematic shocks but they always seem to get sticky and jerky after a time, even if I lube them. Springers seem smoother somehow, but I can't tell if the ride is any softer.

 

[Matheneyr3]

Thanks for that! I watch for more pics of your build-

 

[steef]

That's one of those bikes that's so good lookin, that I wouldn't want to ride it cause I would be afraid I'd get some dirt on it. NICE BUILD!

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Thanks, everybody, for all the interest. Though my intent was to put together a daily-driver that sips gas lightly, I just had to make something that looked good too if I could. And I intend for this to be a sweet lookin' bike. But at the heart of it all, it'll be as solid as I can manage to make it. I need reliability, or at least ease of maintenance, as much as anything else.

 

[Salty Gator]

Allen,
Very nice bike. Congratulations. I'm a big fan of flipped bars, and black paint. At some point in the future you might think about a lay-back seat post. They really enhance the ride on cruiser frames. Keep a close eye on your front fender mounts for signs of cracks. Enjoy, have fun and ride careful.
Tom

Tom,
I too am a fan of black bikes....also the laid back seat post....I found a great site to purchase them at....-Seat Posts- Bicycles, Bike parts, Mountain Bikes, BMX, Road Bikes, Haro Bikes, KHS Bikes, Felt Bikes at Niagara Cycle Works

they also have one w/o the brace at half the price but I'd splurge for safety reasons.....

Laters,
Salty

 

[Billy Thunder]

Do you have anything between those steel-clamp motor mounts and the frame?
Last season my motor mount ate right through my Micargi frame and the downtube split in two. I was torquing on the throttle away from a stop when the frame gave out, causing the motor to twist sideways and pull the mount right through the frame. The gas line seperated and spewed fuel all over. Lucky I wasn't cruising at speed when it broke.

 

[Allen_Wrench]

Do you have anything between those steel-clamp motor mounts and the frame?
Last season my motor mount ate right through my Micargi frame and the downtube split in two. I was torquing on the throttle away from a stop when the frame gave out, causing the motor to twist sideways and pull the mount right through the frame. The gas line seperated and spewed fuel all over. Lucky I wasn't cruising at speed when it broke.

The Micargi Huntington had a steel frame, but I don't know which Micargi you have. The Huntington here was totaled in a wreck (and I nearly was myself, but I'm doing much better now). But I will try to answer as best I can:

Initially, I did have a piece of BMX inner tube rubber between the engine mount and the frame as an experiment in vibration reduction. From my point of view it didn't help at all. I took it out and remounted the engine several months before the big accident. I examined what was left of the frame afterward. The areas of the engine mounts were some of the places that were NOT cracked. But I mounted the front engine mount with a large-tube adapter from SBP and the back mount was flat against the seat tube, dead perpendicular, not angled in any way. Having the engine mount less-than-perpendicular may have been your problem.
That, and I don't know how thick your frame was, whether it was aluminum or not, whether you needed an adapter, etc. You'll need to tell me a little more.

 

[Billy Thunder]

My Micargi is a steel framed Rover. Sister bike to the Huntington - same in every way, except a couple inches less stretch. They share the same unusually shaped top bar tube. I would bet money they are made of the same type of steel. The tubeing is quite thin and sounds hard when you tap it with a fingernail.
The motor mount I used was a muffler clamp and the large tube adapter that comes with some of the kits (drilled out to fit the large sized U-bolt of the muffler clamp). I had used a piece of heavy automotive innertube as a vibration damper, and the muffler clamp fit very well with the rubber in there.
The first thing I noticed was a small crack developing where the seat tube meets the bottom crank bracket. I had it welded. Within a week the downtube broke. I suspect the downtube was compromised before the seat tube cracked and the added vibes on the rear motor mout caused the first failure of the seat tube...
A close inspection of the failed area showed the mount had eaten through the rubber, then started on the top side of the downtube, then the rest of the break was clean, like a stress crack (no rubbed area) all the way around the tube right at the motor mount.
I have since had the downtube repaired by a professional welder, so I can't take pictures. The repair consits of welding the frame together, then a steel sleeve was wrapped around the repair and welded to the frame. I will be inspecting all areas of the frame regularly this season!

 

[Allen_Wrench]

My Micargi is a steel framed Rover. Sister bike to the Huntington - same in every way, except a couple inches less stretch. They share the same unusually shaped top bar tube. I would bet money they are made of the same type of steel. The tubeing is quite thin and sounds hard when you tap it with a fingernail.
The motor mount I used was a muffler clamp and the large tube adapter that comes with some of the kits (drilled out to fit the large sized U-bolt of the muffler clamp). I had used a piece of heavy automotive innertube as a vibration damper, and the muffler clamp fit very well with the rubber in there.
The first thing I noticed was a small crack developing where the seat tube meets the bottom crank bracket. I had it welded. Within a week the downtube broke. I suspect the downtube was compromised before the seat tube cracked and the added vibes on the rear motor mout caused the first failure of the seat tube...
A close inspection of the failed area showed the mount had eaten through the rubber, then started on the top side of the downtube, then the rest of the break was clean, like a stress crack (no rubbed area) all the way around the tube right at the motor mount.
I have since had the downtube repaired by a professional welder, so I can't take pictures. The repair consits of welding the frame together, then a steel sleeve was wrapped around the repair and welded to the frame. I will be inspecting all areas of the frame regularly this season!

Do you know roughly how many miles you'd put on it when this happened? Or do you have a good guess? Did you have the rubber in the mount the entire time?
I'm guessing I had 1400 miles or so when I was hit by that truck. I've begun to speculate whether going with a more solid mount early on, and doing all I could to reduce vibration, may have added life to the frame. I'll never know for sure, but there are people here on the forum that seem to say the same thing, and they make a pretty good case for it.

 

[Billy Thunder]

The bike was run for an entire season when the cracks started to show - rode hard and fast. The rubber was inside the mount for the whole time. I would not do it that way again. This season when I put my bikes together, I used a piece of 1.5" copper pipe that I split in half mounted under the front motor mount, basicly providing a solid surface to clamp to, but still giving protection to the hard, thin steel of the bike frame. Under the rear mount, I used a piece of heavy leather, cut from a belt. I tried to tighten everything down well so there will be little room for any movement between the mount and the frame. I will be keeping an eye on the mount with leather in it too.
I will have to run the bike to know how well it works...

A rough estimate of the mileage on the bike before the frame failure would be about 2500+ miles.

 

[Allen_Wrench]

We may be at the wait-and-see point.

I do have one last thing to add: For all that the steel framed Huntington was a real heavyweight, the slightly-lighter old JC Higgins frame I'm using now feels (in a way I can't explain) much more solid somehow. All the steel tubes (except chain and seat stays) are an unexciting 1" diameter round tube stock. And I think the walls are thicker than the Huntington (not sure). But it is lighter somehow, or feels that way. Go figure.

 

[buttafinguz]

I just got the same bike. looks great, but all these stories about cracked frames in depressing.

 

[rustycase]

Gosh, that's an interesting lookin' frame, with the swoop in the top tube...
Bummer that they are on the crack warning list.

I'd run one, if i had one!
Just keep it clean, so u can inspect regularly and see if there is any problem developing.

Good luck
rc


...and hit by a truck???
Whew!

 

[truckd]

Love!! these Huntingtons check mine out on thread titled Ol' Blue pg 8 think you'll like it

 

[flmotorbikes]

"Truckd" Is your profile picture a Huntington

 

[truckd]

Yes the profile pic is a Micargi Huntington Streched Beach Cruiser/Midnight Blue, you can see the bike on the thread titled Ol' Blue pg 8 or 9 highly customized