Trek Cruiser "JB Wild"

Bike Wall
BOXKARS
Advertise with us
Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Re: Trek Cruiser from CL

MplsCoaster said:
Like the way you mounted the chain guard. Installed it gives a stylish look. 8)
The 20" looks really great too! Can't wait to see it loaded.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. The little guy is actually a 16". It's the first bike I ever stayed up on without training wheels(though my initial ride did end with me riding it directly into the side if my grandfather's barn at full speed.)

Trying to come up with a name for this build. With the mixture of Huffy and Trek I'm thinking along the lines of "The Truffy."
 
Re: Trek Cruiser from CL

I haven't check this build for awhile and it looks like you are having fun. The JB. welded tank insert is awesome. A painted "lay back" or bent type seat post might give you more room. After looking at your Trek, I think I need another to "modify". Thanks for posting. Gary
 
Re: Trek Cruiser from CL

Broke down and bought the puller tool to remove the cranks from Amazon.com only to realize I now need the special tool to open up the bottom bracket... DUH!! Got everything primed and the fake tank painted up today.

IMG_0825.jpg


Hopefully I'll be able to get it taped off and flat blacked out before the end of the week. I've decided to scrap the idea of a springer for this build because it already rides so light and smooth. I'll be looking instead for a pair of truss rods.

On a side note... I've noticed over and over people changing the names of their threads as they go. How do you get that done? I can't seem to figure that one out.
 
Re: Trek Cruiser from CL

Go to your first post and click on the 'Edit' (upper right hand corner of the post window); you should be able to edit your post as well as the topic name. Dont forget to click on Submit when done, as in a regular post.
 
Re: Trek Cruiser from CL

gcrank1 said:
Go to your first post and click on the 'Edit' (upper right hand corner of the post window); you should be able to edit your post as well as the topic name. Dont forget to click on Submit when done, as in a regular post.
Click to expand...
Thanks.... seems so obvious now. No real progress to speak of, but I do have a couple leads a set of truss rods for it.
 
Got tired of waiting so I sprayed the flat black today after work. I used the green tape to avoid lifting and it worked really well.... but now I've got the ugly tape residue all over the gloss cleared fake tank.... I can't actually tell if its tape residue or if the tape screwed up the clear... but its kinda infuriating...

photo-5.jpg


Any ideas of what to try to clean it up with? Tried a little simple green and windex with no results.
 
Got the fake tank cleaned of tape residue with some rubbing compound and a little elbow grease. My truss rods are on the way and I still need to get the bottom bracket out and re-greased... But I couldn't resist the urge to put her together.

photo-6.jpg


Decided to spray the sprocket silver instead of the boring black. Can't decide what kind of pedals I want to go with yet.
 
Some rubber block or bow peddles, black or maybe even red, with the contrast in rubber to chrome or cad would play nicely with the rest of your bike. A saddle with some red piping and (Schwinn?, at Walmart?) black grips with red bands would add to it.
I think you are going to need a bigger front or way smaller rear, sprocket?
 
gcrank1 said:
Some rubber block or bow peddles, black or maybe even red, with the contrast in rubber to chrome or cad would play nicely with the rest of your bike. A saddle with some red piping and (Schwinn?, at Walmart?) black grips with red bands would add to it.
I think you are going to need a bigger front or way smaller rear, sprocket?
Click to expand...

I don't really like how the the little bitty sprocket looks... but it works great with the 3 speed rear hub. I'd hate to switch it out and screw up the gearing.
 
Got my new Truss Rods in the mail today (Big Thanks to member ohdeebee.) The support was too small to fit around top of my fork tube but after an hours worth of hacking and grinding with a unibit and dremel she slid right on. The next thing I encountered was the need for a couple compound bends to get the truss ends to sit flat against the forks... a couple pairs of channel lock pliers did the job :wink: .
Beautiful bends:
photo-8.jpg

Rods installed!
photo-7.jpg


You can't really tell from the photo but the chrome is pretty rough. I'm trying to decide if I want to scuff them to bare metal and clear coat, paint them red, or paint them the pretty silver to match the sprocket. Thoughts?

As an aside... while I was spending hours in the garage getting them to fit, my girlfriend came out and asked me just what in the world they do for a bike. The best I could manage was "well they make it look cooler...duh." Thats really about it right?
 
On a smaller tubed front fork the tubes actually flex and provide some shock action. The truss rods beefed that assembly up to take some of the load; imagine hitting a good sized bump, the fork legs flexing upward and the truss rods flexing and returning the fork legs to their position. And they look way cool.........
On a beefy fork like yours there wont be much, or any, flex to speak of, so cool is all you get :wink: , but you can dazzle her with the explanation until her eyes glaze over..........
 
MplsCoaster said:
That's a good looking bike! Your details and setup gave it class and attitude. Nice Job!
Now I need to get going on mine...
Click to expand...
I don't know... I kinda like yours like it is. Sort of a hot rod fixie hybrid? Might look really cool just bare aluminum.


gcrank1 said:
On a smaller tubed front fork the tubes actually flex and provide some shock action. The truss rods beefed that assembly up to take some of the load; imagine hitting a good sized bump, the fork legs flexing upward and the truss rods flexing and returning the fork legs to their position. And they look way cool.........
On a beefy fork like yours there wont be much, or any, flex to speak of, so cool is all you get :wink: , but you can dazzle her with the explanation until her eyes glaze over..........
Click to expand...
You're right about the eyes glazing over.... That happens very quickly when I try and talk about anything bike related other than the JC Higgins I'm fixing up for her....
 
Picked up some pedals today went with the bow style from Electra. Nice and heavy and seemed to be of solid quality in the LBS. Get them home and of course they were over-tightened and without grease.... Quickly tore into them re-greased'em up to spec.

photo-9.jpg


Also decided it'd be safer to replace the nuclear radioactive reflectors they included with some color matched ones....

photo-10.jpg


Very happy with them.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top