Body Glove Cruiser

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AndyA

AndyA

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For your consideration, a 26" cantilever frame 6-speed with a "Body Glove" head sticker. Appears to be a Huffy repainted as a promotion. Thinking about switching to a single-speed freewheel and BMX-style handlebars.

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First challenge was a frozen aluminum seat post. Post was removed with some effort and a variety of tools, including a hacksaw blade.

bodyglove 3.jpg

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Here's what it looks like with a new seat post, stem, and HB's. At this point, I'm planning to get it put together and road test it and then consider a new paint job (copper tone? yellow? black?).

bodyglove 5.jpg
 
I didn't lay my hands on a SS freewheel, but pushed ahead for a test drive. Threw on a 7-cog freewheel and other required bits. The chain wheel lined up nicely with the fourth cog, which has 18 teeth. The test drive was very successful; it rode nice. The gear ratio was just a tad high for me at 46:18. Maybe I can find a SS freewheel with 19 teeth. Painting may have to wait until spring because the outdoor rattle can season is coming to an end here in north Jersey. The existing paint is pretty banged up, but I'm kinda getting to like the existing color scheme.

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Got some new, skinnier tires (26 X 1.75). These are Kenda tires with Kevlar beads, which required some wrangling to get them on the rims straight. Well, actually, they aren't quite straight, they're a little lumpy. Anybody got a good tip or trick to get them to even up? I tried deflating and riding with low pressure then re-inflating without success. Also ran into an example of Murphy's Law. With the tires being a little skinnier, the kickstand was too long, so I had to switch that out. Always something.

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Use a 50% dish soap & water solution on the bead. Remove the valve core to get high volume air flow and inflate to 75% maximum sidewall pressure. As fast as you can, remove the air chuck and re-install the valve core. Inflate to maximum sidewall pressure and check the bead seating. If all went well, you can now readjust the pressure for your preferred riding pressure.
 
As mentioned earlier, I wanted a little lower gear ratio. The 7-speed hub is a free hub and to keep a straight chain line I was on the 18-tooth cog. I took the cassette apart and found that the smallest cog threaded on to hold the whole thing together. The second cog was separate and the rest were riveted together. So I switched the second cog to the inside, which moved the others one space out. So now the cog in line with the chainwheel has 21 teeth. A test ride showed this to be a nice, relaxed ratio (46 tooth chainwheel / 21= 2.19).

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Professor Thundrrr:
Thank you for advancing my education. As I understand Alan Bonds, a clunker is a vintage (pre-war through 1950's) coaster brake bike mildly modified for off-road use. Mild modifications include stripping off fenders and chain guards and adding clunky tires. The next evolutionary step was the hybrid bike (not to be confused with the term as it is currently used for marketing bikes), which uses the same type of frame but adds derailleurs, drum brakes and other upgrades. To live is to learn.

With this new understanding, I would amplify my response to Brother Bart's question by saying that I'll definitely be just cruisin'. I'm avoiding off road at least until my Achilles tendon heals.
 

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