Pagetuner's kit

[pagetuner]

Please see http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2409862133/ for photo.

It was never very likely but it happened anyway: A Cruzbike kit owner offered his kit for sale used, and I was able to grab it before anyone else did. The kit is definitely an easier solution (although at new prices a fairly expensive one) than cobbling something up. I had spent several days (over a period of weeks) getting started on a homebrew Traylor bike (see http://wrkinprogress.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/second-draft-of-a-front-wheel-drive-bicycle/ ). When the kit arrived, I had it together in just a long day. I still need to play with seat position and seatback rake. I liked to sit up quite straight on my recumbent trike ( http://pagetuner.com/tadpole/ ) so hopefully I will be able to slide the seat and the bottom of the seatback a little further back while still keeping my knees ahead of the steerer. Also maybe get my arms a little straighter.

My Cruzbike kit is basically a Freerider design. Some riders might not want to make the same choice of donor bike I did (Triax PK-7 from Target, $99) since my seat is just about 30 inches off the ground, but I am happy with the look of it. (And the stock kickstand still works, which from what I've read is not a foregone conclusion on a kit bike.) I went out at dusk last night as soon as it had working brakes. I will not claim to have ridden it, but I have rolled on it and actually even cranked a few turns of the pedals. Clearly lots to learn.

The Shimano Nexus 7-speed transmission is not hooked up yet, but I am looking forward to being able to change gears whether rolling or stopped. I left the three front chainwheels on until I know what size of chainwheel is going to be right. I may even put a front derailleur on and get a wider gear range than just the 7 speeds offer.

Just a few kit-building notes from my experience yesterday: (1) I did not need to use the long axle to mount my non-drive wheel. The rear forks could be forced in just close enough to fit the stock Triax front axle, and then tightening the nuts brought the forks in the rest of the way. (2) Don't hesitate to bang on the hump of the seat mount to increase its radius if your donor frame has large-diameter tubes. I put the seat mount on a metal surface, put a block of wood at the parts of the seat mount that needed to be flattened out to a wider radius, and just a few strokes of a hammer on the wood block had the radius perfect. (3) Tightening the steering as much as you would on a diamondframe is not enough for a Cruzbike. I needed to tighten two extra times, because of the amount of force applied when resisting pedal-steer. (4) My new rear brake cable was only just long enough. If you get the Freerider handlebar kit (which I covet for its great shape) you will want to get an extra-long brake cable.

Can never get enough of seeing other people's solutions, so get yours posted.

B.

William R. Kennedy
wrkennedy@gmail.com

 

[mi7d1]

Hey William,

Great looking bike! You got me. When I first looked at it I thought it was a Freerider. "There something a bit different 'bout the frame", I thought. Why did he say it was a kit when the photo is a Freerider? Upon second look I realized it was indeed a kit build up. Beautiful!

 

[Doug Burton]

Most excellent build.

Nice handlebar interpretation, looks like you've got the internal-gear hub tensioning worked-out well also.

If you use a front derailleur, you'll need a tensioning pulley to allow for chain take-up, but you probably have that worked out.

Good on ya!

Best,

Doug

 

[ozcruza]

Very nice looking bike, well done !! Like that Freerider style steering...

 

[pagetuner]

When my Cruzbike Kit looked like this http://flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2459949248/ I was still having some trouble with interference between my knees and the handlebars. The problem was not at the grips but at the base of the handlebars. I tried pedal extenders to set my feet a little wider, and I think I will keep them because they make it easier to get on and off the pedals at a start, but they didn't solve the knee-bumps.

Now I have replaced the extension of the tandem stoker stem that is the mount for my handlebars, and the handlebars are higher and more nearly horizontal, front to back. Please see http://flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2485381322/ . This way they are pretty well out of the way of my knees, just as they would be on a real Freecycle, with its longer and perfectly bent bar. I worried that with the bar up in my sightline more I would lose some of the open feeling of the cockpit, but it's still good.

Also should note that I am loving the 7-speed internal gears. Messing with derailleur shifting at the same time I am learning to avoid parked cars would not be fun.

 

[rearengine]

I'm 5'8" and what worked for me is a wide bar at the base so my knees come up between them. There is nothing in the line of sight , The bacchetta style tweener bars. I find that it puts my hands, and arms in line with my feet on the power stroke. I feel much stronger than when my arms are up high. Just an idea, not for everyone i'm sure.. Take care Bill

 

[pagetuner]

Bill:
I can see your point clearly about having legs, arms, and hands lined up for max power. But when you turn, don't you get interference between the center support of the handlebars and your leg that is on the inside of the turn?

The other thing I would try if I were running your config would be bar ends so that my wrists would be in a more natural position, with the grips vertical in my hands rather than horizontal.

These kits have more degrees of design freedom than a three bedroom home.

Bill

 

[rearengine]

with the moveable B/B my legs go with the peddles, and handlebars, so no problimo there. As for the bar ends, I don't realy know what they are,or how they work. I would like to see some pic of them on a bike.. Thanks for your interest.. Bill

 

[pagetuner]

You can't negotiate with physics

I still like the freerider look better than the sofrider look (not even sure exactly why), but I have switched my conversion away from the freerider configuration. Before and after photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2485381322 (freerider look) and http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2613539732 (reverted to more standard config). Two more photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2613538886 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2613539084 show the parts I used for the freerider look and then the sofrider look, respectively. (My base bike has a threaded headset, so my parts differ in some ways from what others would use.) The highrise handlebar was chromed steel; the new handlebar is aluminum alloy. The total difference in weight is about 2.5 pounds of steel pipe, and in freerider configuration those extra 2.5 pounds were exactly where I didn't want them: high up and well to the front, where they could exascerbate steering errors and wheel flop.

So now I restart the process that so many of you have enjoyed: fine-tuning the placement of the handgrips, stem forward, stem reversed, bar low, bar high, maybe use a North Road bar with splayed ends rather than these straight ones, etc. One side benefit of giving up the freerider config is that the stoker stem used as the mount of the freerider bars had the effect of clamping the front triangle adjustment, so that any adjustment to the front triangle also required loosening and retightening the stoker stem. I am also hoping that the new design will like the bike fit in the station wagon without disassembly, which the freerider config did not.

 

[rearengine]

Can we see a picture of your bike as it is now ? I bet that speed hub works really well.. Bill

 

[pagetuner]

Thanks for asking -- didn't realize I had the permissions wrong on that image. http://flickr.com/photos/farsightful/2613539732/ is the latest look.

The 7-speed internal hub is something I like but not everyone would. It is definitely a heavy addition to a bike, and the combination of the heavy hub and the heavy handlebar setup finally convinced me that the freerider look had to be sacrificed. If you like the idea of being able to change gears at a dead stop at a light, the 7-speed hub may be a best buy: Since the 8-speed hubs came out, the 7-speed hubs got a whole step more affordable.

 

[JonB]

Why did you choose a heavy 7 gear hub when you could get a light one? And speaking of heavy. I consider getting a 4 kilo nuvinci hub.

 

[pagetuner]

heavy internal gears

I don't know of an internal hub with a better combination of function (244% gear range, all spaced 14-17% apart), affordability (less than $100 on ebay) and weight (1.5 kilos) than the 7-speed Shimano Nexus, but I am very interested to hear about alternatives. I have the 7 speed on two bikes, the Cruzbike kit and a frankenstein comfort bike that started as a garage sale Panasonic Mountain Cat.