Avalon (completely assembled) but seatpost needs bending

[buyagain]

This Sunday afternoon July the 26th I finally have completely assembled the Avalon. See photo eye candy or as some call it "bike porn" below.
Also please note the cushions are not velcroed yet. Just knowing that the cushions are just hanging there and could fall off at any moment would be especially evocative to guys like teacherbill and Mark B. Teacher bill rides his bare with no seat cushions, you know. LOL
On a more serious note;
The bike converts well but then how would I know that? This is the only one I've ever done. Enough to say that I just did not run into any serious problems in the conversion. The front fork required 130mm not the prescribed 135mm in the instructions. That 130 mm spacing was easily aquired by borrowing the thinner bearing lockingnut from the leftover original back axle.

The back fork required two 3/4" axle spacers not the 1/2" ones that were in the kit. I found at the hardware store a couple of "one quarter inch galvanized plumbers threaded nipples" (grind the length to 3/4") at the hardware store (drill press required to 3/8th" the hole).

I will post the final picture when I get that proper reclining seat angle taken care of.
Speaking of Bent seat posts, Does anyone have a good idea of where to get this angle put on the seat post? I was thinking maybe the muffler shop would not charge too much to put that bend in there.

Regards
Bob

 

[John Tolhurst]

You need a big ol tree with a convenient fork in it, and a bit of rusty fence post pipe, and get that steel seat post and an bend her up a bit. Then you can get the seat positioned where you really want it and can shift the seat rails back so there's no danger of folding the upper half the seat back, when you give a big kick at a real slow cadence, when you can generate huge torque.

 

[teacherbill]

Bob,
I like Jon's idea of finding a tree and a pipe to do the bending. It is much more exact and if it doesn't work you can bend it a tad more or un-bend it and no cost. And I like the no cost aspect of it all. On the Avalon rebuild, did you use all the original parts for the drive train? I have had a few people make comments about the MONGOOSE and its conversion to a cruzbike. I can get a stock Avalon off the shelf for 120 and the kit from NC so I figure I could put together a commercial cruzbike for less than 600.00 out the door. The extra money could be put aside to save up for a Silvio ......

 

[defjack]

Glad you got it done. How about a ride report? Jack