Bicycles

[FastDoc]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Assembled a Diamond Back 'City Bike' for Mrs. C's former boss today. It's a Christmas present for his youngest son. Jack is a heck of a nice guy but could cut off his hand with Jello, so I was volunteered.

We are in Chinabike territory with a Diamond Back, though I was pleasantly surprised when I spun the wheels in my hands and the bearings were well adjusted. Then I checked the fork and crank. Ahhh, now I am in familiar territory. Both are so tight that neither turn.

Pulled the headset apart and I figure the assembler must have dropped the bearings in his grease can because there was actually some there. Bottom bearing spindle was a sealed unit and just needed adjusting. It just took a BFH to do it. The assemblers must use an impact wrench to tighten the cup and lockring.

Brakes were a pain to set up. Derailleurs, no picnic, but not as finicky as the brakes. Both, out of the box, were awful.

So, a job that would take me maybe 45 minutes took two hours to get to Cheesy standards, and I even let a few things slide. I will recommend that Jack replace the awful steel crankset for low end alloy crankset with steel rings. Even with steel rings, the new crankset will weigh less than the left crankarm.

BSO's I think don't get enough credit. I think much of their bad reputation is poor (or no) setup rather than not being usable bicycles. For us bicycle types it's easy to get snobby when people are just enjoying their bicycles, same as us :-)

I've set up a few BSO's in the past for friends. Just a little time anbd patience and you're good to go.

[FastDoc]

Originally Posted by wheelbender6

We bought fat tire bikes for each other for Christmas since we got a weekend place near the beach. Walmart bikes so they are pretty heavy. They came out of the boxes in pretty good shape. The front wheel bearings were way too tight on both so I had to find my coning wrenches. The headset on the red one was way loose so I had to adjust it. Otherwise it was easy assembly.

I'm jealous. I'd love to try riding a fat bike. We have snow on the ground here and I've been mostly hiking and riding the mountain bike but a FB would be nice. There is a shop in town that rents them maybe I'll try.

Don't sweat the weight. I doubt it matters compared to the rolling resistance of sand/snow, and few people climb on FB's so the weight probably does not much matter.

[FastDoc]

I have to update you all with some pics of my latest aquisition, a 2004 Trek 5200 United States Postal Service in near new condition.

[Bruce's]

Originally Posted by FastDoc

I have to update you all with some pics of my latest aquisition, a 2004 Trek 5200 United States Postal Service in near new condition.

I think you already did a few pages back in this thread .
Anyways ,the fat bikes with the multispeeds would be miles ahead of mine with the single speeds ,50 lbs is a heavy bike for a single speed .Surprisingly ,even the wallmart tires have been good in the snow and ice ,I have not fallen with it yet or slipped very much at all ,considering the whole bike cost less than one good tire it's pretty impressive .

[FastDoc]

How much was it?

I have NEW pics ;-)

[Bruce's]

I got mine for $150 Canadian .about $5.00 US l.o.l. ,around here a real 4" fat tire alone is about $175 and up .

[FastDoc]

That's worth the price of admission even if it is used only occasionally.

[wheelbender6]

Originally Posted by pistolclass

where are the engines?

No plans to motorize these.
I think a 50cc kit engine wouldn't help much. I would try one of those 212cc industrial engines.

[FastDoc]

Nice. Torque converter is the key.

The weak link is the mounting of the sprocket. That looks different than others I have seen.

[pistolclass]

totally agree Doc. Buddy at work changed from centrifugal clutch to torque convert and he said his go kart is now a beast.

[FastDoc]

How much is the kit by the way? Have you ever installed one?

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Bruce's

I got mine for $150 Canadian .about $5.00 US l.o.l. ,around here a real 4" fat tire alone is about $175 and up .

You did better than I did. Fat Ass Wally was $199US out the door three years ago. Shop around, though, for tires. Occasionally, Vee Rubber runs a sale. My buddy, Weez, got four for $125US and I bought his extras. Those are a lot lighter than the tires that come on the Mongoose. And replace the 4" tubes with 3". Big difference.

Fat Ass Wally and I haven't been out for awhile. Maybe this weekend after everyone leaves.

[Bruce's]

I googled Wally world's U.S. site for fat bikes this morning ,they have quite a selection available ,we were only offered the one model for $300.00 Canadian ,but they stopped selling them last fall which is when I bought mine .Literally the week after ,I was driving down to Toledo for my nephews wedding and was planning on purchasing a fat bike there ,but I knew I got a good deal and then I could bring back something else instead .Anyway ,I am OK with the tires it came with for now ,and if it ever needs tires I will probably pop over the border and buy another bike ,but with gears this time .
I have had very few issues ,the left side crank arm kept losing its nut ,so some red loctite has taken care of that ,I am tall with lower back issues so I swapped out the very low bar with the tallest bmx bar I had in the shed ,it came with a rear mount side stand that literally fell apart on the road on the bikes first ride around the block ,but other than that it's been fine .It snowed a little last night so the pic is from a few minutes ago .

[Weldangrind]

Bruce, I think that's exactly how I'd set one up.

[wheelbender6]

Originally Posted by FastDoc

Are we sure that picture was not taken in Cheese Land

He may well have taken that video at Lambeau Field, Doc.
[img]http://rcdn.mtbr.com/wp-content/uplo...Gallery-5.jpeg[/img]