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Person_TX

Person_TX

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I have been checking out this board for a while now and there is a lot of great information on it. So I finally decided to register. My brother and I are fixing up an old Schwinn for him right now but I had a question about a different bike I picked up. I found an Electra New Belgium cruiser for sale for a good deal. It is in great condition except for the fact that the person that put it together was a moron! I have found all sorts of things not done right but I have a couple of questions I hope you could help me with.

1. The springer fork does not look like it was put on right. I will try and describe this the best I can.... where you put the wheel on the fork you have the main part that is the fork but you also have the other bars that start on the inside and are not forked shaped but rather loops. Do the bars with the loops go on the inside or outside of the forks? I know that is probably not the right terminology......

2. Secondly the bike is really hard to peddle compared to my other cruisers. When I flip it upside down and spin the back wheel it does not spin for very long and it moves the peddles a little bit while it is turning. I am thinking the rear hub is messed up or needs to be taken down and rebuilt. Any ideas?

By the way here are a couple of pics of my new toy.

Thanks,

Eric

DSC02652.jpg


DSC02653.jpg
 
Welcome!

Nice bike. The struts should be on the outside of the fork legs, so it looks like they are incorrect. As for the rear wheel, it sounds like the axle is too tight. Also the chain could be too tight if the pedals keep moving a little bit. I would move the back wheel up a little bit and see if that solves the problem.
 
Thanks for the info Ratina! I thought the springer fork was on wrong so I switched it around last night.

I will try and mess with the hub tonight and see what happens.

Thanks again,

Eric
 
That's definitely a cool bike-ever drink the beer? Electra bikes are usually pretty decent quality. I'll second the over-tight hub.
 
Thanks guys! I have wanted one of the New Belgium bikes for a while and of course I love the beer too! The other bikes in the garage are a 2007 Electra Hawaii which is my wife's and my 2008 Electra Rat Rod.

The hub was tight so I loosened it and it rides a lot better now. It is not quite as smooth as my other Electra's though. Part of it could be the geometry change they made after 2005 and the New Belgium bike is a 2004. I think this weekend I will pull the cranks off and relube everything. I don't quite trust whoever put that bike together since I had to fix and retighten everything on it practically.

One other thing it is doing is pulling to the left a good amount when I ride with no hands. I am thinking the front tire is not totally straight but it is hard to tell. Any ideas what might be causing that?

Later,

Eric
 
Person_TX said:
One other thing it is doing is pulling to the left a good amount when I ride with no hands. I am thinking the front tire is not totally straight but it is hard to tell. Any ideas what might be causing that?
Click to expand...

I would suspect the fork over the wheel. Or maybe the way the wheel is seated in the fork. For that matter I think if any part of the bike were tweaked it could effect that.
 
personally ive had 2 of those schwinn style springer forks and ran into the same thing, i found usually the lower steer tube bolt that goes through the fork legs is over tightened and bends one of the fork legs. thats were id look first
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I will check the tube bolt and front tire orientation.

CCR - if you really need a Chris Sabo card I probably have one laying around..... :D

Thanks,

Eric
 
Yep it was the tube bolt on the fork. It was too tight so it caused the wheel to be crooked. Thanks for the fixes guys!
 
I have been fiddling with this bike since I got it and I cannot get it to peddle really smooth. It is still hard to peddle compared to my other cruisers and my brothers older Schwinns. Here is what I have done so far:

- Took apart rear hub, regreased, and it now spins great.
- Took apart front hub, regreased, and it also spins great now.
- Took cranks off regreased and they seem to be adjusted perfectly.
- Chain tension seems fine except for one thing.....see below.

The last thing I noticed is that the front chainring is bent which causes the chain to be tight in one spot. It is not bent really badly but it is bent a little. Would this cause the bike to be harder to peddle enough that I would notice it like I am?

This bike is so sweet looking but I just cannot get it riding correctly..... it is driving me crazy..... :?

Thanks,

Eric
 
check out the gear ratio to see if its the same as your other bikes. Add 1 tooth in back to pedal easier. bartleydad
 
Thanks Bartleydad, I will check that out when I get home.
 
Bartleydad,

Thanks for the suggestions! I believe you nailed it on the head. The chainring on both is 44 tooth but the back on my other Electras is 22 and the back on the New Belgium bike is 20.

From everything I read this will make a huge difference. I am glad that is all it is as I have taken this whole bike apart fixing it. I learned so much from it because the guy that put it together originally totally messed it up. When I say everything I pretty much have taken apart this whole bike.

I would also really like to say thank you to everyone. There have been like 4 or 5 things this forum helped me fix and now I could take a 1 speed cruiser down with a blindfold on.

I have always had mountain bikes. I was really big into mountain biking for years and I was pretty good at working on them. I have really come to the conclusion cruisers are entirely different.

Once again thanks for teaching me the ropes. I have already put the info you have provided to good use by helping my brother and his roommate fix up two old Schwinns.

Later,

Eric
 

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