Bike Builders Unite

[Martiansky]

Tiahaar, (thanks!)
I freewheeled the coaster brake on my Mongoose Beast 2 wheeler bike.....and added hand brakes on it. I will put a picture up of it today.

I intially did have a problem with the freewheel adapter spinning on the trike axle but it was because of the thin block that bolts onto the flat side of the adapter. I made a thicker plate out of square steel stock and it solved the problem. What was odd was that the kit came with a thick plate for the the drum brake and the freewheel adapter plate came with a thin plate.
Pawl failure was the issue with the freewheel......I had a 3 speed freewheel for it and the only gear on it that was almost right was the biggest one.
So, I had the local bike shop build a bigger 3 speed one for me. They did not rebuild on my freewheel body they had one and it was a used one so Im really hoping that is the problem. When I picked it up from them I noticed it didnt seem right, it felt and sounded loose inside when you spun it.

I tried to put on a 6 speed freewheel and it just wont work.
I think Im going to see if they have a 5 speed and try that. I just wont use the smaller cogs on it.

[Martiansky]

...and I really shouldn't have eaten all that chocolate and green tea this late... @@

171/348 I don't think I've ever seen bars that tall before! Awesome!!!

[littlebird]

Thank you Elorrum and BeeWeeDee for your feedback. I appreciate it a lot.

[Martiansky]

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Here's my Beast

[littlebird]

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Here's my Beast

I *love* your bike!

[Martiansky]

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Friend and I modded a bike trailer we made to hook onto my trike.
Going to be changing the paint scheme to green instead of the pink.

[Martiansky]

Thank you, Littlebird!

[Martiansky]

Went to the local bike shop and they changed the 6 speed freewheel I had into a 5 speed.
Got it all put back together and no more slipped pawls!
I also picked up a friction shift lever and I got all 5 gears to work! YAY!
Then I hooked up the pedi-trailer and had a passenger on it while I pedalled around.
WHEW I'm gonna feel that in my legs tomorrow(or the next day)!!
Now Im not so sure about bringing it with, I guess I will have to see. I definately don't think I can tow 2 people around on it, only one.
I will for sure be bringing the little trailer with, though.

[Tiahaar]

Awesome!

[Elliot]

I also picked up a friction shift lever and I got all 5 gears to work! YAY!

So much to catch up on after being out of town since Thursday!

Shifters with detents (clicks) for each gear seem to work only on brand new factory-built bicycles. And I find them patently useless when we mix and match parts to our needs. The old-school smooth-moving levers with adjustable friction are golden (once you learn to use them -- and learning to use them is very much worth a couple minutes of concentration).

[Martiansky]

Elliot,
I had the local bike shop build a 3 speed freewheel for me with larger gears. It did not last long, bad body, pawls stripped out.
See I had a short cage derailleur on the back and it would only work with a 3 speed freewheel. I replaced it with a longer caged one. Then used the freewheel they built.
When I went to the bike shop to get my freewheel repaired I asked them about shifters (I had a 3 speed gear shifter that was indexed for a newer type bike.)
and they suggested a friction shifter so I purchased one from them. Instead of rebuilding the broken freewheel I brought in a new 6 speed freewheel which they took the smallest gear off, shifted everything over and made it into a 5 speed.
I took the freewheel home and put it on, then set the travel on the derailleur and set up the shifter...
Worked like a charm!!

The only thing that isn't so good is I noticed the freewheel has a slight wobble when I pedal....it isn't the freewheel its the freewheel adapter that came with the trike adapter. The link Tiahaar sent is different then the one I have. Im not sure if it will work. I will keep looking online or order that one and see if it'll work. The wobble doesn't seem to hurt anything though.

[Elliot]

I have never seen a multi-speed freewheel that did not wobble a bit. Quite harmless, apparently.

And for general information... it is possible to buy freewheels with as large a sprocket as 34 teeth. You will see them factory installed on mountain bikes. I buy them on eBay for around $30 or less. These have even spacing between all the sprockets -- not a big jump to the largest one, as seen on some mountain bikes.
Note that these have as many as 9 speeds/gears/sprockets, which makes them very wide, and may make them difficult to fit to your application. (And difficult to remove, since an extra long remover may be required.) So look for a lower number of gears, still with 34 teeth on the biggest one.

[maladroit]

I knew I should have measured it...the Beast's stem isn't sized for 1" diameter handlebars. Time to weigh some creative angle grinding versus another $40 expenditure

[Elliot]

I knew I should have measured it...the Beast's stem isn't sized for 1" diameter handlebars. Time to weigh some creative angle grinding versus another $40 expenditure

Whoa! Let me run out in the barn and do some measuring before you open your wallet again.

[TomServo]

First incident with the Beast. Accidently ran over half a glass bottle. Obviously, the larger surface area makes it more prone to flats. This was a good one. Was completely flat 5 blocks later, and the tire easily came off the rim.

Note to self: don't run over glass bottles.

[maladroit]

I knew I should have measured it...the Beast's stem isn't sized for 1" diameter handlebars. Time to weigh some creative angle grinding versus another $40 expenditure

Whoa! Let me run out in the barn and do some measuring before you open your wallet again.

I'm leaning towards the angle grinding, taking off some metal from the edges of the bracket will get enough bite on the handlebars. Any costs I put into this are doubled since I'm building two

[Martiansky]

First incident with the Beast. Accidently ran over half a glass bottle. Obviously, the larger surface area makes it more prone to flats. This was a good one. Was completely flat 5 blocks later, and the tire easily came off the rim.

Note to self: don't run over glass bottles.

Tom....did you have to get a tire and tube or was the tire salvagable?
Just wondering because finding a replacement tube/tire might be a chore and if one or the other go on playa then that = no ride!

[Elliot]

I knew I should have measured it...the Beast's stem isn't sized for 1" diameter handlebars. Time to weigh some creative angle grinding versus another $40 expenditure

Whoa! Let me run out in the barn and do some measuring before you open your wallet again.

I'm leaning towards the angle grinding, taking off some metal from the edges of the bracket will get enough bite on the handlebars. Any costs I put into this are doubled since I'm building two

Maladroit, I scanned thru this thread and failed to find a description of your project. Perhaps I'm barking up an irrelevant tree.

Sheldon Brown's web site shows ten different handlebar size-combinations over the years, but the most common by far is a 22.2 mm (7/8 ") bar with a 25.4 mm (1") "lump" in the middle. Some bars have no lump, mostly BMX bars. There is a simple way to put a lump on a BMX bar. But you are taking about something different, aren't you? Do you have pictures?

[maladroit]

Maladroit, I scanned thru this thread and failed to find a description of your project. Perhaps I'm barking up an irrelevant tree.

Sheldon Brown's web site shows ten different handlebar size-combinations over the years, but the most common by far is a 22.2 mm (7/8 ") bar with a 25.4 mm (1") "lump" in the middle. Some bars have no lump, mostly BMX bars. There is a simple way to put a lump on a BMX bar. But you are taking about something different, aren't you? Do you have pictures?

I'm putting cruiser bars on the Mongoose Beast. The new bars are 7/8" with a 1" lump, as you describe. The Beast's handlebars are 7/8" with no lump. So I have to remove material somewhere to make the cruiser handlebars work.

[Elliot]

*looks at pictures of Mongoose Beast on Google Images*

Ah. You are doing it wrong backward. You are going from a BMX type bar to a "lumpy" bar.

Do not try to grind down the lump. There is no extra thickness. When I put a BMX bar on a regular bike, I cut the lump section out of the old bar and use it as a sleeve.

I would look for a stem for a lumpy bar. Only difficulty is they come in different stem diameters, so you would want to measure yours and match it. But almost all plain adult bicycles will have the lumpy style.

[maladroit]

I wasn't planning to grind the lump I assume it was hydroformed.

I'm going to grind out the stem. It's very bulky with four large bolts, so it should be OK. And if not, then I still have to buy a new stem. Theoretically I only have to get about 1/16th of an inch off either half.

[Elliot]

All right, you have a two-piece aluminum clamp. Given time and caution, it can probably be hogged out. Off ya go!

[TomServo]

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

[Martiansky]

Tom, did you ever swap out your handlebars on your beast?
I left the stock bars but swapped to a more comfy seat.

[TomServo]

yes, I got the super wide cruiser bars and a memory foam cruiser seat. I also got a flat, running over a broken bottle, so will test it all out after I patch the tube.

[Martiansky]

Did your tire get wrecked or will it be ok?
I bet trying to find spare tires/tubes will be a chore!
Hoping your patch holds!

[FIGJAM]

Seems you could use a motorcycle tire in a pinch.

[TomServo]

Tires fine. The shop near my place happens to have the right tubes..$16 I think..but I've never had a patch fail on me.

[Martiansky]

Today I finally got around to painting the bike trailer and wheels.
Still thinking about adding some mesh to the floor of it though.

On another note....
I noticed that the seatpost on my trike is bent a bit...
The seatpost tube has a pretty good angle towards the back of the trike and the seatpost Im using is pretty long, so they both add to the problem(that and um, WEIGHT will do that!)
So, I ordered another seatpost and will have to rig a brace of some sort to keep that one from bending, too.

[unjonharley]

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