coed cruiser: resurrected and finished!? 11/19/11

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mikek

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Haven't built any bikes so far this year. But...out of the blue my 19 year old daughter asked me if we could build a bike for her to use on campus. How could I refuse! After some initial planning and ordering some components, the project began today!
Had this old cantilever frame sitting in the shop ( Huffy? No head badge came with it)
Julliesbikeproject002.jpg


Mini- ape hangers, girl's Troxel seat, and old fork
Julliesbikeproject004.jpg


Rear wheel: 24 X 3, Kenda Kraze, coaster brake
Julliesbikeproject003.jpg


Crank, sprocket, and pedals ( she wants to be able to ride it in flip-flops and bare feet. I hope she is not going to classes barefoot!)
Julliesbikeproject012.jpg


More parts will come as we progress.
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Day one: We embark on fitting the 24 X 3 rear wheel into the frame! Flame on!
Julliesbikeproject006.jpg


Bending out the rear triangle.
Julliesbikeproject008.jpg


Hammering in a 3-inch pipe spacer...
Julliesbikeproject010.jpg


Spacers in place and bending rear triangle back..
Julliesbikeproject011.jpg
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Continuing the rear wheel fitting. Had to crimp the stays a bit to make the tire fit...See if you can tell which set of hands belong to the 19 year old and which belong to the the 53 year old!
Julliesbikeproject005.jpg

More crimping..
Julliesbikeproject013.jpg


Checking the frame alignment with the "string test"
Julliesbikeproject017.jpg


right side..
Julliesbikeproject016.jpg

left side..
Julliesbikeproject015.jpg

Only off by a millimeter, not bad for garage hackers!

Bending the frame to accomodate the 24 X 3 wheel/tire was more difficult than I imagined. We did manage to make it fit, but it took quite a bit of tweaking. So, Here is a first mock up.
Julliesbikeproject018.jpg


The font tire is a 26 X 2 Bontrager with a tread that is suprisingly similar to the Kenda rear tire.

So, today my daughter got to play with the MAPP gas torch and the vise grips! She will be doing the frame prep/painting. We plan on building a "tank" and some type of rear rack.
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Yes sir! A big lock will definitely be an accesory. We are thinking about putting some kind of rack on the back. I saw some racks at the handbuilt bicycle show last year that had a recess in the top for storing a lock and may try to do that.
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

maybee u could build a "hide a lock " space in ur tank somehow....?maybe an old metal lunch pail mounted somewhere 2 hold a lock !! what color ya thinkin ? brite yellow ? mike
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Color scheme is undecided. My daughter first wanted to do a metallic green with black accents. Now she's leaning toward black with pinstripes. I'm giving her creative control!
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Disassembled and cleaned the Person's seat today. The outer seat pan ( on the right in the photo) had pretty heavy surface rust and pitting. I guess moisture had gotten into the seat padding.
Julliesbikeproject026.jpg


I used a wire wheel to clean up the parts and also hit the seat pan with some phosporic acid. Anyone have advice on which primer to use for the heavily pitted stuff?
 
Coed cruiser: update and need advice

I wasn't happy with the tire clearance omn the rear tire so I made some drop out extensions and moved the tire bacl 1.5 inches. This improved the clearance. They are just bolted in place for now. Plan to weld them in this weekend.
IMG00052-20100713-1914.jpg


When I mounted the crank to see if the chain was OK I found out the chain is hitting the rear tire. This is despite adding 2 washers to the crank to try to move it away from the bottom bracket. I know others have encountered this problem before. I did find an offset rear sprocket from the chain gang lowriders site (expensive!) Hope it solves the problem. Any other fixes for this?
IMG00053-20100713-1915.jpg
 
Re: co-ed cruiser

Hooch said:
I have grown to hate those tires lol been there done that way too many times, I have built a dozen bikes with them and its never been easy
Click to expand...
Thanks Hooch! I'll keep on tweaking it! :lol: Hopefully the recessed rear sprocket will work.
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: updates 7/18

Made some progress this weekend. Solved the chain clearance problem by using an offset rear sprocket that I got from choppersus.com. Also welded the new rear dropouts to the old dropouts to move the rear tire back a bit. First a picture of the dropouts.
Julliesbikeproject027.jpg


Here is the offset rear sprocket. It moves the sprocket about a half inch closer tto the frame. I did have to widen out the stays a little more an added a extra nut to the axle on each side.
Julliesbikeproject028.jpg


And, Presto! No more chain rub!
Julliesbikeproject029.jpg


Also got the seat parts primed.
Julliesbikeproject030.jpg


Next will be the tedious frame and fork sanding, sanding, sanding............. :roll:
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: update 7/25. "A Tale of Two Crown Races"

Now to get on my soap box. Decided to replace the crown race and headset bearings. The old crown race was worn. I ordered a new 1 inch headset from choppersus.com. So... the old crown race seen on the right of the picture looks machined, is fairly heavy, and looks like it would last fifty years, which it probably did! The new crown race, on the left, looks like it was stamped out of a cheap piece of steel and looks like it might last a year or two! AND it is too big! Oh, I can make it fit with a coke can shim, but it bothers me that it is such poor quality.
Julliesbikeproject032.jpg

Another angle..
Julliesbikeproject031.jpg


So, where does one get a higher quality head set for a cruiser bike? It is sad to compare the old one with the replacement and see what quality stuff we used to make. :cry:
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: update 8/3

Had to work this past weekend so only a little progress. Welded in some brackets/supports that will be used to hold a wooden "tank" in place.
Julliesbikeproject036.jpg


Started welding together a seat post. Wanted to move the seat back a bit to get that "crank forward" geometry.
Julliesbikeproject037.jpg


I did spend a lot of my free time looking at all the finished build off bikes. I could look at them for hours! CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE BUILD OFF CONTESTANTS! :D
'
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: update 8/22 and seat post question!

Project slowed a bit because of work :x ! Perhaps we should call it coed crawler!

Anyway, I did manage to get the frame and fork primed and made the "tank".
Julliesbikeproject038.jpg


Also, welded a brace on the laid back seat post.
Julliesbikeproject039.jpg


So here's the question. I measured the outside diameter of the seat tube as 1 inch, and the inside diameter as 7/8". I made the seat post from a piece of a 7/8" handlebar, but it doesn't fit into the seat tube. I have a 13/16" seat post laying around and tried it but it is too loose. I have been sanding my laid back seat post to try to get it to fit,but as yet it is still too snug. Am I doing something wrong? Do I just keep sanding or start over? Help!
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: update 8/22 and seat post question!

I had a similar problem. I could get the seat post 3 inches into the tube but then it jammed up. Turned out the seat tube had a slight bend in it. Could not tell until I held a straight edge on it. A couple of wacks with a mallet fixed it.
Also if the frame is a cheap import their 7/8ths might be a little different than the handlebar manufactures's 7/8ths.
 
Re: co-ed cruiser: update 8/22 and seat post question!

I had that problem with my sons bike. I used a wheel cylinder hone to clean the rust and burs out of the frame.
 

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