Bike Builders Unite

[Canoe]

The Beast may be the bike to have this year. Already tested mine out through a foot of water and soggy fields.

Seen the Fat Bike tourers? They'll float their bike down short stretches of river using the tires...
With the extra fat of the Beast 4" (way more volume than my 3.7 and 3.8 Surleys), each wheel may perform as a life vest!

[TomServo]

The Beast may be the bike to have this year. Already tested mine out through a foot of water and soggy fields.

Have you made a test run in wet cement

No, but of similar consistency. My son tried to ride through "still submerged" playa at the spring cleanup several years ago..had to be pulled out by a DPW truck. Got his playa name, "MudBoy" that year. It certainly won't be THAT bad, during the event..knock on wood..but, I feel pretty confident it could make it...at least further than MudBoy did.

[Canoe]

The Beast may be the bike to have this year. Already tested mine out through a foot of water and soggy fields.

search tags: ($199 bicycle, Mongoose Beast 4" Tire Cruiser Fat Bike)

Beasts spotted in Reno.
OP didn't say which location.
Posted Aug 9th, 2013. Said there were 36 in total.

Red Beasts c.jpg

Green Beasts c.jpg

Blue Beasts c.jpg

[unjonharley]

Still have to make a tow package for the Rebike.. So I can electro-"cute" it with the pusher trailer.. The trailer works fine pushing the Retrike..

[TomServo]

[media]

[Elliot]

I sure hope that saddle can be raised a good amount, so people don't have to ride with their legs doubled up like that. Correct riding position -- and your legs will thank you -- allows the knees to be fully extended.
But yeah, love those tires!

[TomServo]

It does adjust a bit higher than he had it..

[TomServo]

Patched the inner tube...then I held up the wide ass cruiser bars. Don't know if this is going to work. Think I should have gone with the ape hangers

[maladroit]

This is what I ended up doing with the Beast, minus some more decorations, kickstand foot, and lighting.

The cockpit feels just a little short without a drop-back saddle post, but it's totally comfortable and rideable in an upright pose. I think those are 10" rise bars, they happen to be the right rise for me at 6'3", but most people would want to consider 7" or less, then adjust the stem up. The cruiser grips are comfy.

[TomServo]

Here's my dilemma...


Anyone have some ape hangers they wanna trade? May just stick with the narrow stock handle bars. At this point in the game, not much more I can do for it. Still, love the way it rides.

[Martiansky]

Maybe cut and weld some taller bars if possible?

[TomServo]

If I could bend the ends a bit further down, and adjust it forward, it would be just fine. Riding isn't bad...actually have arm rests, just taking off is awkward..as are tight turns

[Martiansky]

I keep looking at your photo, Tom and I can't come up with anything, sorry.

I looked at bars online also and the shape and angles on some of them were just odd.
Glad I stuck with the stock bars.

[Tiahaar]

pssst...just now saw that the beastly red ones are 30 less (must be overstocked) with free shipping to home from the wallymarty. I changed in 22t cogs (18t stock) on my camp's fleet, it really helps, and its not like these are supposed to be speed demons anyways.

p.s. I had to loosen the headset, front wheel, and bottom bracket bearings on all of them too. Rear wheel bearings were fine and all bearings had grease though I added more just because. chain length was long enough to go from the 18t to the 22t cog without adding links, win! also, online forums are saying 30psi blows the tires off the rims, 15 psi seems good, though I had to deflate and center a couple of the tires too. really solid bikes for the price IMHO.

[Elliot]

pssst...just now saw that the beastly red ones are 30 less (must be overstocked) with free shipping to home from the wallymarty. I changed in 22t cogs (18t stock) on my camp's fleet, it really helps, and its not like these are supposed to be speed demons anyways.

p.s. I had to loosen the headset, front wheel, and bottom bracket bearings on all of them too. Rear wheel bearings were fine and all bearings had grease though I added more just because. chain length was long enough to go from the 18t to the 22t cog without adding links, win! also, online forums are saying 30psi blows the tires off the rims, 15 psi seems good, though I had to deflate and center a couple of the tires too. really solid bikes for the price IMHO.

You bring up an excellent point. Department store bicycles are not really ready to use when you buy them! I find grotesque assembly errors in week-old Reno-bought bikes. I don't know what advice to give if you are not a bicycle mechanic (and most folks are of course not), except to be aware of this and not hesitate to ask someone knowledgeable to look it over.

[Canoe]

... online forums are saying 30psi blows the tires off the rims, 15 psi seems good, though I had to deflate and center a couple of the tires too. really solid bikes for the price IMHO.

You got one of the nice ones! Fork welds all good?
I can't imagine anyone running those over 20 psi. I'm running mine at 10, and that's rolling great on pavement and bike paths. Tried it at 3 and 5 on grass. Quite the roll.

[TomServo]

One of our campers may have a pair of ape hangers I can borrow. Am bringing both the cruiser bars and the stock bars. I will make my choice on the playa.

I have seen, on other forums, that the Beasts are poorly packaged and often delivered with damaged parts. Mine was poorly packaged, but came damage free. It is a solid ride, for sure.

[Martiansky]

Already thinking about some kind of electric assist for the trike for the next burn.
I saw many trikes around with electric motors cruising about.
I just wonder how they have to be registered and how long the batteries will last before needing to be recharged?
Then I could justify bringing the pedicab with if I didnt have to be the motor to pull it!

[Canoe]

Trikes are three wheels, so they're considered a bicycle. You can make it an e-bike and no registration: keep the pedals (required to be bike), motor can't be above a certain wattage.
An electric bicycle is defined as a two- or three-wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals with an electric motor producing up to 1 gross brake horsepower and up to 750 watts final output, and with a maximum speed of up to 20 miles per hour on flat ground with a 170 pound rider when powered only by that engine.

For the assist, remember the 5 mph speed limit. The gearing, etc., can be optimized to be most efficient for that. I've got a 10ah LiFePO 48 VDC pack for $800, but given the 5 mph limit at BRC and the stability of a trike, I'm liking the $100 115ah marine deep-cycle battery from Costco. And a pair of them in series can give you 24 VDC depleting down to 12 VDC when you have to recharge. Many options.

[unjonharley]

Bah, The pusher run off a 230 watt 24 volt.. 7 inch drive wheel pushing in playa dust
Did more than expected.. Slapped it together for the theme (cargo cult) so it looked like a pile of scrape..

To power a trike, I am going to a chain drive to the free wheel side to power..
Use a "large" washer for a center of the sprocket.. Fit it to the wheel.. Then have a sprocket from a gear shiffter cluster tacked onto the washer = one custom sprocket.

Motor from a crag's list scooter..Mon's sell these scooters after the kid break his arm

[maladroit]

The Beasts worked great this year. They weren't exactly common, but still fairly easy to spot...setups ranged from stock off the shelf to significant mods. Very few other fat bikes out there, for obvious reasons. Lots of people wanted to try them out.

Compared to a mountain bike...the Beast usually felt like floating over the playa. Very smooth except when confronted with the worst ruts near the end of the week. Soft dust patches on open playa could be ignored (or more usually, aimed for ), or at most conquered with a slight increase in pedal pressure. The 3:00 dust bowl was easy to navigate...the Beasts actually swam through leaving a visible bow wave and stern wake through 2" deep dust. Also on open playa near 3:00, lots of crumbly-brownie-like mounds...Beast crunched through/over them with little difficulty. For me, ground conditions required an unexpected stop only one time.

They were definitely heavy and top speed was not very high, but with cruiser bars and saddles, were an excellent comfortable all-day exploring setup. Pedaling into strong winds was challenging if "slow and steady" wasn't fast enough. On the flat playa, the coaster brake was more than adequate and never felt dangerous or unreliable in the Esplanade traffic.

[Canoe]

The Beasts ... Pedaling into strong winds was challenging if "slow and steady" wasn't fast enough. ...

Is yours stock gearing, or did you go to a higher rear, like a 22t or 23t?

[Martiansky]

@ Canoe
If my air pressure gauge is correct, the front tire of the Beast is at 14 psi and the rear is at 8 psi.
I only had one problem with deep dust and that was because I didn't have enough speed to float through it.
I changed the rear gear from the stock 18T to a 22T, worked great.
BTW I rode a street right after the water truck went by and the tires collected a thin layer of mud and then it dried and flew right off as I kept pedalling!
Self cleaning tires!

The only thing that was a little bit of a downside to it was the top bar was a little high to get my leg over.
Since the frame is steel I guess it'd be possible to cut it and weld it lower.

I think I will change out the bars to a little taller ones though.

[Simon of the Playa]

.

[Martiansky]

[maladroit]

I kept the 18t sprocket and didn't have any problems pedaling through playa terrain. Aside from the previously mentioned headwind...

[Martiansky]

What's better a rear wheel drive or front wheel drive electric motor for a trike?
And say a couple on auction site but they said 36V or 48V.
That's 3 or 4 batteries right? Dang that'd be heavy!!

[Canoe]

What's better a rear wheel drive or front wheel drive electric motor for a trike? And say a couple on auction site but they said 36V or 48V. That's 3 or 4 batteries right? Dang that'd be heavy!!

That's like a, or is a, purpose-built hub-motor. So they're thinking battery packs, not a marine deep cycle battery. The lithium packs for 10ah to 15ah can run you $600 to $1200 (and are built with higher voltages in the packs so they're power efficient -for their purpose). As you're: one - a trike, and two - burning man at 5 mph, there are a lot more options. You're not worried about needing to spend big dollars to have a light battery pack, so carrying a ~$100 12 VDC 115ah battery around can make a lot more sense, and you have many options for charging, and for driving other accessories. And you can chain drive a rear trike wheel for an easier setup. Opens up a large world for low cost motors and speed controllers, that will work with a 12 VDC battery, instead of needing a lithium pack.

If you want to run up to 20 to 30 mph in the default world, that changes things a bit, but not too drastically. Huge options due to trike.

Explore what others have done. No need to re-invent the wheel (so to speak).

[Elorrum]

Martiansky, I have a 300W 24V motor on a two wheel bike, and it works great. It drives the chain, and the kit came with a freewheeling front chain wheel that works like the back chain wheel on a tandem bike, the motor can drive the chain without the rider pedaling, or can assist the pedaling. A front hub motor would also work, and perhaps give a sort of AWD (front and back on one side) advantage? Looking at my trike, there's all sorts of space to mount the motor. On the two wheel bike, it's a rather tight fit, and I need to have a tire with a low tread. My concern (and I wonder if anyone has experience to share here) is how the motors last after being on playa. I would have like a motor this year, but I think my investment for 2014 is to make ME into a better motor.
http://www.cyclone-usa.com/installation.php

[unjonharley]

This (13) I ran a 24 volt with two 30 lb batteries in a pusher trailer..

Think I went a little heavy on the batteries..

I have a 36 volt ( Zappy ) stand up scooter.. It carries six ten amp hour jell batteries.. Heavy duty frame and front hub motor.. The whole things is 72 lbs. Did not work well on the playa.. The rear wheels are only 5 inch where all the weight is..

Now I want to go 24 volt chain drive to the rear and assist peddle.

Going to try two 12 volt =24 jell cells.. Set up so I can plug them in the bike or the charger.. Have two sets.. One charging and one working.