A Lengthy Insanity

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There’s the filler I didn’t apply.
image.jpg
I did put in 4 mm stainless steel pop rivets.

I need to go fill the holes and then take a break.
 
The bike is completely assembled.
It does not have sissy bar brackets and I didn’t put the headlights on yet. It really needs to have the cables shortened and the paint is going to need a lot of touchup.

It’s 6 PM on the West Coast and I’ve been at this since 6 AM. It’s not over yet folks.

I need to have a shower and eat dinner and unwind, And cogitate on the final hurdle, which is the sissy bar bracket.
 
11:30 PM. The last little bit.

image.jpg
I did ride the bike in the dark. I made the chain too long and I need to take out a couple links. The stem bearings are a little bit loose & the handlebars need adjustment. But it works and I like it.

Handling is definitely improved although it hasn’t changed much, the bike is not as dodgy.

So there’s a few things to do in the morning before I take photographs. But it’s not much. It is essentially done.


And now, it’s Miller time.
 
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The final totals

What did it cost?

About $1035 out of pocket
(Gas & Electricity & tax not included.)
The biggest part of that was $400 for a used mongoose bicycle plus over $300 For the Sturmey Archer kit and spokes.
$65 for rear tire, bars. $40, seat & $40 for cranks/sprockets, $20 cables, $35 tensioner, $20 grips, chains $30, paint $10, all-thread $5, chrome hardware $15, stainless hardware, $5 Duro gumwall tire & tube $30


So what came from what?

From the Mongoose:

The frame, rear hoop, rear innertube, crank bolts and bottom bearings, reflector, steering stem cap & spacers, the disc brake and caliper, and the seat post.

From the Manhattan Green:
Front wheel assembly and inner tube.
Pedals.

From the fake Schwinn:
Brake levers (modified) one becoming the body of the shifter.

From the Centurion:
Crank arms & front sprocket/ hardware

From the 20” girl’s Huffy:
Chrome seat post clamp
Cable dust boots

From an Elektra:
Acorn nuts on front axle.

From the 12” Huffy Sea Star:
Bits of the handlebars

From the 20” aluminum Trek BMX
Alloy Seat post clamp (becomes shifter clamp.)

From the 16” Frozen movie bike:
The Tokyo bell.

Parts bought used:
WCC front fork assembly.
Sissy bar

Parts bought new:
Handlebars
Tires
Grips
Chain
Seat
SturmeyArcher fat 3-speed hub kit
Spokes & nipples
Chain tensioner
Chrome acorn nuts
Seat hardware (all-thread, chrome washers, spacers)
Cables
Seat foam
Glue & paint
Zip ties

Old/recycled bits from my junkyard:
Sissy bar bracket (old trailer tail roller bracket)
HDD Motor (part of) chassis & hardware
Shifter ball (from track ball mouse)
Stick (broken kickstand)
D&D dice valve caps
Shifter spring (flat spring from old wiper)
Paracord
Pop rivets
 
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I got out there at 6:30 am and changed a tire, shortened the chain, and shortened both cables.

I’m done with it. And it’s done with me!.

My hands have not been this tired in a long time. My entire body is toast.

The official photographs are uploaded now and this thread is a done deal. Thank you for everyone who replied here and cheered me on. It probably helped.
91F97A16-9671-4C9F-B77D-C77ADEDC43D7.jpeg


It’s time for a shower and some breakfast, so I am outta here!
C545C984-F52E-46E5-AC8D-58932E157DF8.jpeg
 
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I really Iike the shifter. It doesn’t need detents. Being long allows for accurate positioning.

Low is just all the way back.
D9783E4F-A6EC-4AA3-8258-077270FCE016.jpeg

2nd is aligned with the bar.
5E1D3FEF-02D8-44E5-8155-11D1B060E053.jpeg

High is straight up. Highballin’:
5DDDB8FB-5AE7-4E43-9DA4-6C93CE2DC042.jpeg


I hate the stock Mongoose reflector . This was supposed to be more attractive.
85380647-44E0-4069-A87E-2FD2BB856739.jpeg
And illuminated. With dual lenses.
11ABF715-5306-4D1A-A7F2-79BA0FBA2C8F.jpeg


The kickstand I had extended needed shortening. The bike would barely stand up.

It made it easier to photograph, so I didn’t fix it at the time. I decided that I was going to put a different kickstand completely on it, so for now I just bent it up with a pipe wrench.
9F268D06-29C4-473C-B9E6-7BF01A8DE338.jpeg

It is truly awful.

36B8FAF9-D708-4DB9-90AC-DD052287E4C1.jpeg
 
The Insanity Continues: shifter improvements.

I had formed four different spring steel leaves for my shifter, before I got one successfully bent, which worked and simply did not break while I was forming it.

It was far from ideal, but it provided adequate tension, and with the nearly unlimited leverage of that stick shifter I didn’t have a problem positioning the shifter.

But the spring was chewing up the aluminum. It wasn’t well formed. I hadn’t stripped the paint and polished it. It was just ugly and awkward too.

I had to do it over. I mean look at this mess with that stupid clamp on the handle bar to make it work. I stole it out of my old Shimano shifter.

The spring before:
BFD6F93D-75EA-4D42-8F15-BC75BCBDD4EB.jpeg

I had no more of that wire, so I had to reform it. Fortunately it worked. It’s not perfect, but it is all buffed out now.

The spring after:
C5C21505-B7F2-4E37-935F-8517647D2DA2.jpeg


Next, I drilled out that little sprue mark next to the bolt, and put in a small bolt all the way through the base.
C85E722B-5BC7-4AE1-8481-CF9CE12779B6.jpeg

I tapped it in and I also put another hidden nut inside the base. Those two nuts keep everything together. See the spacers?

The smaller bolt will now carry the spring, and it will cantilever over the larger bolt and be aligned by it.
195CAF3B-7FF7-4E61-B5F4-94A8A60F2E85.jpeg
It’s capped off with this paisley shaped washer that I created. It retains the spring.
EA0AC65F-2CE2-483A-9CF7-BC275F820915.jpeg


You can see this now eliminates the little clamp on the handlebar.

I put two layers of heat shrink tubing on the spring so that it wouldn’t gall the aluminum.

It feels much smoother in operation and there is still enough tension to keep the stick in place. Maybe. I haven’t ridden it yet today.
 

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