Blue Meanie update!

well its with a sad heart that I have to say the blue meanie project , once completed, got moved to the side of the shed and sorta didnt get ridden! I still loooked at it everyday, the build shake down vid I made now has 22k views!... thats unbelieveable for me LOL. so theres been an ongoing intrest in this bike.
So Now the drifters finished im going back to blue meanie for a bit and have modified the seat.... whats happened is the bikes sorta not looking like what I had in mind, everything was great apart from that back rest!, I never designed the bike with a backrest in mind, I always wanted a slick ,low, very different cruiser to ride to the shops, around the neighborhood and family walks etc, it was never intended to be an exercise bike or a daily commuter. it was always intended to be one of those bikes where you ride it and everybody stops and stare's or at least gives a 2nd and 3rd look with a smile to boot!....So the seat mods began!

1... original design and look I was chasing
2... the very fist backrest from the boat still on the flat bar spring that went to the project.
3...the finished project seat .


Next up was to make the new seat backing and anchor bolts,

1... An old plywood hatch cover off the old boat, got about 3 layers of fibreglass over it so it was a nightmare to staple through!
2...Back side of the anchor bolt system, just 2 stainless bolts cut to size and welded onto a stainless flatbar, 2.5X 20mm, works well!
3... turned over, bolts comming through other side,
4... final placement test sitting on the bike!



I made the first seat, its just got 3 layers of the wifes old YOGA and PILATES mat that never gets used...it does now LOL
I was expecting this to be easy as ive made seats before but this was fiddley and brain smashing! it I didnt get it good on one end i'd stuff up the other or vice versa, So I made a 2nd which came out better and cleaner but...... Hmmmmm its working and I like it LOL..... can anyone see the crack in the bikes seat, its off the mrs old exercise bike and it was a bit dirty so I got some stuff out, cleaned it up,,,went for a ride and it cracked! Grrrrr
So...1 is the first attempt
2... is the 2nd shot...I refused to make another, the finished version still looks a bit ruff n ready but its at least cleaner and a bit more balanced out, the first attempt had dags hanging off it and material was all folded under and all.



and there we have it, Ive managed to get the backrest down so far im almost at where I want this thing to look like but as I said I never wanted a back rest but its just too hard to ride without it, youll tire in 1 minute flat! every push on the pedals required you to pull on the bars coz ya kept getting pushed off the seat!



OK so the seats done, but what about that motor I hear ya'll saying....well thats not done n dusted and ive been using my eyeometer in the shed and I can see that the Predator clone motor, (mines a rodisen) has the shaft lining up very close to where the chain comes through on the back wheel! it looks to be a pretty straight line to the centrifugal clutch, this started me on my journey to motorise the blue meanie, The clone motor will fit but the bike needs a couple mods, i'll have to make room under the seat for the motor coz the clone motors are quite wide and it will impede pedling, heel strike on the motor! so it has to be way back under the seat, i'll raise the top tube a bit and im gonna drop the jack shaft down abot 5-6 inches to allow the room! my photo shopping skills got a workout today but youll get my drift,
it'll look cool and only have a top speed of 60-70km..... 35-45 mph, centifugal clutchs are good for this, a smaller 125 4 stroke with gears can hit well over 60mph/ 100km and lets not forget its a pushbike front end so anything over 60km is a real no no!

While rummaging through the shed this morning I found a bunch of old LED strip lights left over from a boat project...like 10 yrs ago.. ( hooray, hoarding wins for once) I always wanted to liven up the bike a bit so i went about putting them on.
First was a tail light of some description, now im not settled on any of this so its all just slammed in there and zippy tied to the frame work. I looped a strip of red , for the rear obviously and just bent it into a looped shape, I then cable tied the bottom and where it loops, the actual loop is just free swinging , these are made of a tuff flexi plastic and were made to get wet, hence they were for a boat. so to bend and be held in shape was a breeze, like I said its all temporary so thats why im using cable tie's, they are done up super tight I should add!



Ok so that went well...yes I know its a bit ruff but........ Next I always wanted to put some lights shining downwards, sorta like them pimped out choppers n cars etc, So I had 2 really nice blue strips, the first went under the top tube, running right down the middle, this shines onto the down tube, crankcase and bottom tube. I also wanted to bring out the dish in the mag wheel so ive run a strip along the chainstay and looped it uo around onto the seat stay, it worked quite well!



Ive used a 7.4V Li Ion battery from the sons remote car! its huge and got tons of grunt, its taped under the seat for now and all the wiring is just twisted together, I really wanted to get this ready for new years eve to ride around the neighborhood, maybe have a beer with some peeps etc.... looks like im heading out shortly for my first visit!
The lights came out 1000 times better than I ever anticipated, Ive truely out done myself with this!
Happy New year everyone, its 8.30pm new years eve in aussie ATM so have a drink on me!
God bless you all and all the best!

OK so now we move on to uprading that back wheel! If anyone can remember from quite a few months back, the blue meanie project, I was always honest and dont hide mistake's, well the rear wheel wasnt made well enough in the centering of the spindle , it go's through the wheel that house's the extended rear BMX axle I made up , its centered well nough for riding as a push bike but sadley any attempt to motorise this wheel will ultimately end in failure or worse! I am building this for the family to ride as well and not just me so the kids will cruise around on this too.... remember its official classification is a moped because of the primary power being pedal's, the motor will actually be auxillary even though 5x more powerful than the rider, if the motor stop's, runs out of gas etc then the bike can easily be pedaled.
so back to the wheel, AS sick and cool as that rear wheel looks it really has to go, the tyre, (while great for me being the builder) is just too dangerous to ride for anyone else, If anything I should source a motorbike tyre in 17 inch, which is what the black wheel is and chuck it on the black wheel.... but that wheel isnt centered... Soooo I really have to rebuild another wheel.... But thats time consuming and it was really fiddley to do.
So after a hunt around I found this!



So the plan here is im gonna buy the 18 x 8.5, this will hold the 240 used motor bike tyre I have in the shed, it came off a harley when the owner bought a new one, the bike shop give it to me. I couldnt put this on the black wheel coz its an inch bigger so I still have that tyre sitting in wait!
The 18 x 10.5 im gonna look at buying mid year for the wifes build! Now she's seen im serious about this bike building caper she now wants in LOL, and yes im gonna throw a 300 on that 10.5 inch rim!
Both these wheels come with 2 sets of bearings, 1 inch and 3/4 so ya get a choice! I have to get a pair of motorbike drop outs to hold the wheel in place and fabricate an entire new back end to attach the HD dropouts!
Still have to get sprockets and a disc too!
But it dosnt stop there.... once that motor is in and that new wheel is spining good it then comes time to look the front end, it just wont be up to the extra weight and a bit more speed so im gonna look at a fat tyre kit for the front or..... some sort of triple clamp, mountain bike hard out fork set or similar!
Really excited about this... the bike looks great as it is but when im done i'll stand there looking at the thing for hrs.... beer in hand too!
The pic below is the 240 motorbike tyre, all stacked away under the junk, im actually dreading getting this out!

I always wanted a headlight so another shelving find is this 15W LED spotty that was the first light on the front of the current boat, used when crabbing the creeks out n around Jacobs well at night, this was great but I swapped it out about 7 yrs ago, it's got a new life now and I plan on adding some cool strip lighting to go with it..
I used two old tv wall mount brackets, extra parts that weren't needed, I couldn't mount the light using the bottom hole so I used a couple galvanised fencing self tapping screws, reason for this is im screwing into the casting holes, theres no thread in the holes and I dont own a self tapping set. It's ruff as guts I know but the finished product will be better.



Also the stem Bolt's were too short to hold the mount as well so I shaved out the threaded end and are slapping an 8mm stainless nut n bolt through it all.




the first mounting attempt had the light protruding too far and pointing upwards... . Not good at all.



So I cut the mount back a bit more, shaved a bit off here n there, managed to get it just right, now I'll spend this week cleaning up this light and make it a bit more presentable and we should be good to go till the new rear wheel arrives in a few weeks, gotta get back to work before anymore spending on fun things .